I’m a sucker for sales at the grocery store, and even moreso when it’s at the meat counter. Remember that time I got a bunch of Prime NY Strips just to save a few bucks? Well it happened again, but this time with Buffalo! So I picked up a few Buffalo NY Strips from Whole Foods and got excited about the sous vide prospects.
Taking a page out of the Food Lab’s playbook I laid out the steaks the night before and salted them heavily before placing them in the fridge to chill overnight. The next morning they were noticeably darker and most delicious looking.
Just after lunch the bagged steaks made their way to the waiting water bath, set at 132.8°F (converted from 56°C) and left there for 4.5 hours. During that time they were getting all tasty and tender and gray. So to combat that grayness I turned to the trusty cast iron skillet, cranked up to “Screaming Hot” and coated with a bit of oil. The trick here is to get the gray steaks as dry as possible before putting the fsear of god in them. A minute per side is all it takes to finish these off.
I eagerly sliced into mine to see what it might look like, but truth be told, there was no doubt. Perfectly medium-rare, end-to-end.
The difference we noticed with the Buffalo is it’s quite a bit leaner than Beef, so the steak was a little less juicy than a “normal” steak, but no less tender. As for next time, I’d do it exactly the same way. Maybe served with a compound butter on top to make up for the missing fat in the meat.
