Reverse Sear vs Sous Vide? | TESTED 

Everyone should watch this video twice, but on the second round, imagine Chris gently shaking an invisible baby every time he moves hands up and down while explaining.

Sir, I am going to buy your thermometer just so you keep making more videos. Your content is fucking badass, your presentation is amazing, your articulation and writing it top-notch professional without any cringe at all. Absolutely loving your videos. I have been cooking dinner 6 nights a week at home for 15 years, im no professional chef, but I consider myself an amazing home cook. I really love this level of high meta, science discussion based content. Bravo!

I love that you've done a triangle test which so few food channels or food blogs even seem to know, touch on, or understand.

The one benefit of sous-vide for everyday cooking is that I also use the sous vide for defrosting. I pull the steak out of the freezer and season it frozen, and then lob it in the sous-vide for an 1-1.5hrs, and after that, it's ready to go. It's really very little work since all that time is totally unattended. I don't think I could do that with a reverse sear, or temperature oven. Great video and thanks for the triangle test... I like that.

Amazing video, I'm very impressed with this channel so far. == for commenters == I think everyone should at least try sous vide, and it's important to demystify the cost and complexity. The only specialty equipment you need is the temperature control stick thing (the sous vide device). You do not need a special tub, or vacuum sealer. A soup pot, and freezer plastic bag is perfect. The device does not need to be smart. No wifi, bluetooth, or phone app. $50 or less is great. Attach the sous vide to your pot, set the temp, put the food in the bag, close the bag almost all the way, and submerge the bag leaving the top in the air. The water will push out all the air, and you'll get a seal that is more than good enough. Seal the bag the rest of the way, clip it to the pot, use a mug to weigh down the food if needed. That's it! And you can make some really fun stuff with it. I make custard in my sous vide for creme brulee and it is literally perfect every time. Silky smooth, not a microgram of curdled egg.

Another fantastic video. I do wish you'd weighed the steaks post-sear as well; I have a hunch that a lot of the "extra juices" retained by the sous vibe steak would get seared off anyway, since the oven-cooked steak would have had a lot of the outer moisture cooked out beforehand.

So great to see you on RU-vid again and producing great products.

I think I'll switch to reverse sear. Less plastic, and I'm a home cook so I'm only doing a few steaks at a time. As far as weight loss goes, I'm not sure losing water to evaporation is a disadvantage. Dry aged steaks lose a lot of weight to evaporation and that seems to intensify the flavour. It seems to me that losing fat during cooking is more likely to lead to a steak that seems dry. I'm (somewhat) patiently waiting for my thermometer.😁

The real benefit of sous vide cooking is being able to infuse flavors into the food you are cooking. The juices are essentially cooking the food, so if you put lots of seasonings in the bag with them, those seasonings will be better absorbed into the food. That, on top of the set it and forget it method, it's much easier to cook food without worrying about over-cooking them. I love sous vide cooking and it's really a game changer for the at-home "chef" who may not be that great at cooking.

REALLY like the concept of the triangle test. I must admit I had never heard of such a thing, but what a great idea instead of just try steak A and then steak B. I've just started watching your videos and I will definitely continue to. Also the slo-mo of the sear was very excellent

Chris - you are awesome. Glad you’re making these videos and glad you’re creating new cooking devices!

Dude I really appreciate your channel! Discovered it yesterday and now I am addicted watching your videos. I love how you put sciece into cooking and that way making it more based on numbers and physics instead of human perception. Especially the triangle test. Love it how you bring scientifical methods into cooking.

I usually reverse sear (mild smoking wood) on my grill that imparts additional flavor. I do enjoy the sous vide for set and forget. Great video.

Super high quality content. Thank you, Chris!!

Between reverse sear in oven and sous vide, I always choose the water bath. However, the reverse sear advantage comes when you use a charcoal grill. The smoke flavor imparted really makes the difference!

I totally agree, Sous vide is all about the setting you use it in. Also for tough cuts sous vide will tender just about any cut if you give it time.

Awesome video, thank you very much! I love the style of it, the clarity and how understandable it is. Top content, Sir.

I've done this blind test as well at home with 10 family members and friends. I didn't do the triangle test, but did get similar results. 2 steaks, 1 sous vide then seared over charcoal, and the other cooked over charcoal indirect and then seared. No one was able to tell the difference taste wise, 2 people thought the sous vide one was a very little bit more tender, and 4 people said the sous vide was a very little bit more juicy. The rest could detect zero difference and thought I had given them 2 of the same. All agreed both were about perfect, and the differences were so negligible, it didn't matter. For me, it comes down to which method of cooking I want to use. If I am busy with other things....sous vide. If I want to sit and enjoy my outdoor cooking area...it's the Weber kettle

I can watch every second with attention! The explanation is impeccable.

Great video. Your are indeed very thorough. It would be very cool to see a similar video with triangle test on pre-seasoning, which I personally have experiences to do a great difference.

Fantastic video and production.

One advantage for sous vide when cooking a big feast for a crowd is freeing up the oven. If I'm trying to reverse sear a big roast, then I'm dedicating my oven to cook at a low temperature for hours. If I use a sous vide, though, my oven is free for roasting vegetables or making a casserole, and the roast is only going in for 5-10 minutes at a really high temp at the very end to get it browned off. It can also make timing easier to have all the dishes ready at the same time. Normally a big roast has a really long cook time with a pretty huge variance if you are aiming for a specific internal temp. Sous vide not only makes it more consistent, but also really broadens the window for when it's ready.

Thank you for a wonderfully informative video!

I actually started cooking steaks using the sous vide method. At this point I moved on to use the reverse sear. As I use a pan to achieve the crust, I find that with a pan you achieve a faster crust with a reverse seared steak. I also got sick and tired of vacuum sealing and preparing an water bath after a while.

I would really appreciate it if you could do an analysis and review of the Joule sous vide and the Joule Turbo sous vide. Your videos are excellent. The objective analysis and control of variables are top notch. Keep them coming.

I like that with the Anova Precision Oven, the probe and program allow me to delta-T sous vide steaks without bags or the risk of overcooking since the oven will drop to a holding temp automatically once the desired internal temperature (set a little lower to allow for any carry-over and then searing) is reached. I've ordered your Double Barrel Bundle and am counting it arrives.

Great video covering too cooking methods I love. One thing to consider with flavour on the sous vide front is that you can add flavours to the bag, ie the chefsteps holiday oil

Sous Vide really makes sense in a resto setting. High throughput when firing and the Sous Vide can be done during off hours and held in the frige until fired. But for a weekend meal, I prefer the variability I get with the edge vs center cooking time. I like to see a nice bit of sear AND a nice level of rare to almost medium rare at most. The bigger the cut, the more a multiplle read sensor makes sense. And the possibility of accomodating meat preference of multiple diners with one roast.

Keep them coming Chris. Absolute legend.

Another excellent cooking video! I've been doing sous vide for steaks for about 4 years now. Recently i saw your video on ripping hot pan vs flipping steaks. I gave flipping a try and my whole family of steak lovers preferred it over sous vide. So thank you. I hope you do a video on prime rib. Now, is th

5:42 when your editor leaves you hangin'

As a person who knows the basics of cooking but sometimes finds that my meat cooking can be hit and miss (dry chicken breasts for instance) on occasion. This tool is such a godsend as the results are so consistent.

Great Video ! Keep up the good work.

Back here watching this again to add to your latest vid. Thx for doing this and sharing. 👍👍👍👍👍

You got my like, you got my sub. Please continue producing this excellent technical cooknig content.

Best comparison video I've seen on this topic. I prefer the reverse sear because I use my smoker instead of the oven. The added flavor is hard to beat.

Well done vid! I am new to your channel and was surprised to see you only have 5k+ subscribers. I bet you’ll have 100k if you keep producing content like this on a fairly regular basis.

3.6% is of the total weight of the steak (which will vary depending on the size of steak), not the amount more/less juice that was retained/lost. Relative to each other, regardless of steak size (assuming equal results across bigger/smaller steaks) reverse sear loses 60% more juice than the sous vide. I think that's more notable than the total weight loss/retained indicates.

solid info.. good luck with your channel

josh so clearly had no idea what to do with being on camera and i am here for it

Ahh so excited for what's coming!! This brings me back to obsessing over the Chefsteps "Wall of Fire" film years ago :D Could the sous vide steak have achieved a better sear if left for longer or even finished differently? Is it essential for the experiment that the searing time is the same? Thanks for making such amazing content!!

Thanks for these videos, I love your technique and precision with all the testing. Seems I'm also a fan of everything you did before, love fat duck, modernist cuisine, although I must admit I'm still using an anova rather than a joule. Have ordered my predictive thermometer though! Hope you carry on making these videos even with the success of your products.

Great vid. Thank you. Would love to see you do a comp of reverse sear Vs. cold sear. Advantages of latter being a lot less smoke and oil splatter which makes it more condo friendly.

Your channel, besides being informative, is rather soothing :)

Incredible video. I was fully expecting this video to all be a setup to say the Sous vide is better given the fact that he makes a sous vide cooker. Fantastic work all around

This dude is going to have a million subs in no time. Incredible content. Every video a winner.

Have you tried a steam oven with reverse sear? It offers two additional cooking options conventional ovens do not: 1) retain the moisture in the oven released by the meat or 2) add steam during cooking. Each option likely results in more moisture retention than either sous vide or reverse sear in a conventional oven. I like your thermometer...temperature control with reverse sear is key. Nice presentation.

I have psoriasis so I know a thing or two about Crusts! I’d go with the reverse sear just because smelling the roasting/searing beef is nice and gets the appetite going. Plus I’ll likely have the oven on already for something to go with it as a side.

Brilliant video. Very informative and will have better idea how to cook my steaks. Just couple of things missed though. Would have suggested measuring weights after searing as reverse sear would likely lose less whilst searing as it's surface is already dryer. Additionally, would expect that for the same reason sous vide stake to taste better grilled as it likely will have more juices dripping and creating additional flavors. Cooking them together over the coals likely helped reverse sear steak.

This channel is gold. Wish your termometer was a bit more budget friendly, though (with shipping to my native Denmark it's 274 USD).

I struggled with over cooking my steak I prefer medium rare ,sous vide solves the problem each steak is perfectly done, but the real improvement is the tenderness that sous vide adds select becomes choice,choice becomes prime ,in tenderness from sous vide ,the texture is just as important as taste or juiciness,all three are influenced by sous vide ,if it’s not got a lot of bark sear it longer

I done the reverse sear by crank up the heat to 450 a few minute and put in the steak, and decrease temp gradually every few minute until it around 200 and leave there for 5 minutes. Quick and easy

Great video. I have used both methods cooking steaks. However, I use my charcoal grill to reverse sear rather than the oven, and I have to give the edge to that method over sous vide. The lump charcoal gives the steaks a bit of smokiness that tastes fantastic.

I love this " science behind foods " content/info.. I would love to learn the chemistry of chemicals on burger or fried chicken or etc..

I have become a fan of a reverse seared steak over the last several years. That's due to using a Weber kettle with the Slow n Sear. This allows me to add a chunk of Pecan wood to the coals and bring the steak temperature up slowly at about 220°F untill an internal temperature of about 120°F is reached. I also should mention that I dry brine the steak with Kosher salt several hours before placing it on the indirect side of the heat. This gives me a wood fired flavor to my steak.

This channel will blow up at some point. Mark my words.

Best and fastest cooked steak I have ever had was following a recipe from Alton Brown and cooked completely in the oven. Steaks were between 1.5 - 2 inch thick ribeyes. Put cast iron pan in oven and pre-heat oven to 500 degrees with pan in the oven. While this is taking place, let steaks rest at room temp and season. When oven and pan hit 500 degrees, baste steak with an oil with a high flashpoint place in pan and cook for 2 min. Pull pan, flip and cook 2 min on other side. Steaks came out perfectly cooked med rare all the way through with a great crust. Didn't even need a knife to cut them. So much easier than all this other stuff.

Great video Chris! When reverse searing have you experimented with convection fan on vs off, and different temp/time combinations? My gut says that lower oven temp + convection fan could reduce the overcooked zone. But these things are often unintuitive!

I have decided for myselfcSteak tastes better when it has enough time to develop crust. SousVide cooks it to close to doneness to be able to develop crust. Grill / Charcoal does great job, and u can put it on top of some bush in between for extra layer of flavor

Can't wait for my CI thermometers or to see what you do next!

One great advantage of sous vide (that has time on its side) is that you can cook straight from frozen really easily. I, personally, don’t really notice a difference in quality, but admittedly I’ve never tested it. Could be another cool triangle taste test experiment idea for a video! I’ve never heard of that strategy before, I really like it.

Whatever your future videos consist of I hope they include more Josh.

Great! Please stay unbiased and make awesome content!

The material for the sous-vide water bath should be lexan plastic cambro bin. The reason for this is you want the cooking water temperature to be precise on the dot. A conducting material like metal will affect the precise temp setting on the immersion circulator.

Love to see your making video content again. Maybe show the thermometer can be used to help calibrate equipment testing places in your freezer for making ice cream… maybe in a pacojet and ninja ice cream makers

Hi Chris, I really hope you'll see this comment, as I have an interesting question. Coming from an engineering/logical/mathematical point of view, I think it aligns well with your methods, and you could even make a video exploring the answers. After searing, the steak’s temperature typically rises by roughly 15°C (at least 10°C). Given that this is true, why do you and others typically set the target temperature to between 53°C and 57°C? When removed from the bath, even if the temperature drops a few degrees while prepping other things, the steak will be still around 50°C to 54°C (few °C drop). After searing for a few minutes, it could easily reach 58°C to 60°C. Wouldn't it then rest and potentially rise to an overcooked 70°C, given a typical increase of 12°C to 15°C? I've tried setting mine to 48°C. It reaches 48°C, drops a few degrees, then after searing, it reaches around 54°C. After resting, it still ends up around 60°C core temperature (even if I don't let it rest longer). I think my 48°C was still a bit high-conservatively, I could have set it as low as 45°C. With the extra 5°C-7°C from searing, then another 10°C - wouldn’t that suffice? Secondly, is there a difference in texture and juiciness if the core temperature is reached too quickly? For instance, if I set the sous vide to 55°C and remove the steak after 40-50 minutes at around 48°C (or 52°C-it doesn’t really matter for this question), versus setting it to 48°C, which is much slower, and removing it after 90-120 minutes at 48°C? (lower bath temp longer sous vide/cooking). 3rd and last question: is there a difference between shorter and longer resting time? (given the finish temp can be closer to 60°C eg sear to 50°C and wait until it reaches 60°C or sear it to 55°C-58°C and let it rest only a few minutes? I would really appreciate your thoughts on this, and it might be an area worth exploring in future videos. I haven’t seen anyone setting the goal temperature to around 40°C, and I can't see a logical reason for this unless the aim is to speed things up by removing the meat at around 45°C or 48°C and the bath temp would be still 55°C-57°C. However, if that were the case, it seems it would be mentioned in recipes, but no one seems to address this. Cheers!

Honestly from experience you can get the perfect sear with both methods. The reverse sear with a probe thermometer you can’t overcook it if it’s low heat and you pull it when it hits temperature. I’m struggling to pick the better method unless maybe if I did a side by side. Typically I prefer to sous vide steaks, but with the geometry of the tomahawk I usually just reverse sear it.

it'll be cool if you could do a comparison on which slow cooking method gets the best yield for meat when either sous vide or braised.

For me the biggest difference is that the vacuum seal for sous vide allows the seasoning to penetrate the internal fibers of the steak more than it does with reverse searing.

Great video and great detail as well. Just stumbled across your site due to the ninja cremini. Signed up. I have followed heston since working at Cliveden House just down the road from the fat duck. Also followed Nathan at Modernost cuisine and chef steps. So looks like I have been following you as well. One experiment I would like tried actually comes from Hestons at home cook book for toffee popcorn. Is it possible to make without burning the popcorn. I have not been able to and lots of people online have not either.

Have you done a deep dive into the toxicity of cooking in plastic? I would guess you've looked into this issue. I'd sure love to see you address this topic and explain why you aren't concerned.

Hey Josh! Just found your channel and have quite enjoyed it! Love the "science"! I actually tried the temping today and the results were obvious to my family immediately! Made a big difference for us. well done, Harry!

I've been using the reverse sear to solid results (with sear in a stovetop pan). I do have to fuss with it to take it in and out a few times to use an instant read thermometer. I should probably look into a leave in probe to save some hassle on that end.

Great informative video, I would love you to make video about chicken though

Great videos, Chris! I recently discovered them and was an immediate subscriber after watching the first one. While I love the ease of preparing steaks sous vide and have the equipment to do it, I generally reverse sear because the fat seems to render into the meat much better than with sous vide--especially with a fattier cut like ribeye. Here's why I think that happens and would like to know your thoughts: Since beef fat renders at 130-140 degrees, if you have a sous vide set at a medium rare temp like 128, you never get to the rendering temp. Meanwhile, a reverse sear steak is reaching temp in a 225 degree oven, and since fat is superior conductor of heat, the fat parts of the steak are hitting rendering temp even though the steak, overall, isn't overcooking. Does this make sense?

Hi Chris, really like your videos. Do you ever use "texas crutch" technique in an actual cousin? Does it compite with this two? Isn't kinda like a mix of both? Regards!

Correction: Not everyone has an oven. Far too many small apartments have stovetops and no oven. That being said, one advantage that sous vide has is its time invariability. I'm terrible at getting things done on time (for a multitude of reasons, but my favourite "it's not my fault" excuse is having a tiny kitchen with almost no working space at all), which means that if I'm using something like reverse sear, I risk ending up with either a cold steak or an overcooked steak, because I can't be sure to get the rest of the meal done in time with the steak itself. With sous vide, being thirty minutes behind doesn't matter one iota, because the last thing I do is finish the steak.

I've largely given up on SV. Reverse sear is quicker and I can't tell a difference in tenderness. Less hassle too since you don't have to deal with getting the vac sealer and water bath out. Plus if you do the initial cook in a smoker, you get an extra flavor profile. The only downside is it's easier to overcook if you get distracted - which I suppose is where a continuous temp monitor comes into play.

Terrific and fair assessment I'd say. I'm still lazier than either though and just heat my grill to 450, sear both sides for 30 seconds and then let it sit on the top shelf and smoke in the delicious charcoal aroma. ;)

One thing that you can try with a sous vide steak is to place it into the refrigerator for a while on a rack. It will dry out in that environment. Of course it just adds even more time to your cook.

Best video about sous Vide, how did you get your sous vide to loose only 6%, it seems my steaks loose more? do you drop it with the water temp cold or preheated first?

"proto-sear" a nice term for what I go for. I really don't care so much about "juiciness." if I want some juice I'll serve some OJ with the meal. what I want is a "better" or "best" steak. so you can't tell the difference in taste? great, that's a good to know. I can definitely tell the difference in appearance. appearance is huge as to the pleasure of eating even though technically the taste is the same. the reverse sear is the easy winner here. no special equipment (just timing and temperature care) and better appearance makes that technique a no-brainer for me. great vid, I'm really tempted to try that thermometer 👨‍🍳😋

A word about a great Sous Vide advantage: say you are hosting 4 or 5 friends and you want to serve a steak for each - well, you have them in your souv vide bath, and everybody wants more time to drink and talk. Well, leave the steaks in for another hour and booze it up. THEN put your steak in a pan or on the charcoal or a cast iron skillet and give it a sear. VERY CONVENIENT.

Trivia: Kenji Lopez-Alt invented (independently from the other potential inventor) the reverse-sear to mimic sous vide cooking when at home during a time when sous vide machines were really only available for restaurants.

Brilliant! 👍🏻 this clears up so much, thank you. Can I ask what temperature oven you used for the reverse sear?

haven't watched the video yet, but i'm going to go with reverse sear from my experience (unless my sister sous vided the steak wrrong) - but the texture was like a pot roast

Chuck roast cut into steaks bagged in portions sous vide over night and frozen for when I wanna enjoy them cannot be achieved with reverse searing method so I'll stick with sous vide, would be interesting also to find out which one is more energy efficient. Also would anovo precision oven be considered sous vide or reverse sear? 🤔

I may have missed it, but for the reverse seared steak did you use the Combustion thermometer and did you use it to control the surface temp (and what temp) in this example?

We are a family of 6 so when we make meat it is a lot and so sous-vide is really convenient. The only downside is that searing is done at the end and so I cannot make a sauce from that searing process but a cafe de paris butter works fine.

Hello Chris ! Thanks for the informative videos from you. I would have a question. What do you think of the new mini ovens from Chefsteps or Anova? From Anova I hope that it works like a small Rational combi oven. Am I wrong?

Reve-arse is now stuck in my head, thank you

Please continue your RU-vid career, It will take off. Your scientific background brings a great perspective to the online community!

I like Sous Vide for its foolproofness. However using it with high fat/tissue content steaks like an entrecôte and a bit to long messes it up by falling appart due to melted fat. So I use it only on more solid steaks like rump steak or filet mignon.

Chris, great video again! Have you tried doing a Sous Vide steak using the Anova Precision Oven? This machine allows you not to use a plastic bag, which works great with meat cuts with pointy bones such as tomahawk steaks and ribs, which can puncture the bag. Another question how about searing the steaks after Sous Vide using a hot cast iron pan or a plumber's butane torch? Saves time heating a gas grill or lighting charcoal and could be more precise.

Dry brine with 0.6% kosher salt for 24 to 72 hrs. Freeze it. Sear it while frozen. Keep it frozen and vacuum bag it. Thaw it @ 35F. Place it in a 129F SV bath for 4 or more hrs. Serve

Between Chris and Kenji, we can’t mess up.

"Why am I not doind the test?" is a question I frequently ask myself. I also ask, "What does 'doind' mean?" But then I eat a steak -- sous vide or reverse seared -- and I stop asking questions.

What is the best pan for steak and/or best methods to cook stake in an apartment with a small balconyh

Great video. One correction: @7:07 the difference between the two is nearly 60%. The RS lost 59% more juice than the SV , no?

As a scientifically oriented carnivore diet adherent, this channel feels like it was made for me. Thank you!