Beef Can I do this with Steaks?

[Don C]

When I cook things on the Traeger, I usually cook extra to have leftovers.

One exception has been good cuts of steaks.
I cook just enough for 1 meal because I have always thought that steaks were too good to reheat & eat later.
I am now rethinking that.

Is it possible / recommended that using the Reverse Sear method I could cook steaks (to be eaten later) only through a 45 minute smoke session.
Then put those steaks in a Ziplock bag & refrigerate them for X days to be cooked & seared later when ready to eat them?

Or, should I smoke them for 45 minutes & also partially cook them for X minutes before putting them in Ziplock bags & refrigerating them?

Or, is this a bad idea?

Can leftover steaks still be as good as steaks that are cooked & eaten immediately?

I do not have a Sous Vide.

 

[caplanner]

When I cook things on the Traeger, I usually cook extra to have leftovers.

One exception has been good cuts of steaks.
I cook just enough for 1 meal because I have always thought that steaks were too good to reheat & eat later.
I am now rethinking that.

Is it possible / recommended that using the Reverse Sear method I could cook steaks (to be eaten later) only through a 45 minute smoke session.
Then put those steaks in a Ziplock bag & refrigerate them for X days to be cooked & seared later when ready to eat them?

Or, should I smoke them for 45 minutes & also partially cook them for X minutes before putting them in Ziplock bags & refrigerating them?

Or, is this a bad idea?

Can leftover steaks still be as good as steaks that are cooked & eaten immediately?

I do not have a Sous Vide.

I'll defer to those with more experience than me but I like leftover steak on salads, on bruschetta and sandwiches. We usually get larger ribeye and sometime t-bone and porterhouse steaks so we have leftovers. I like the steaks at medium rare so we can reheat them without over cooking them. We put leftovers in a ziplock bag with any juice and keep them in the refrigerator and have them again later in the week.

We've had our IW650 for a little over a month and have cooked and reverse seared ribeyes once on it. Cooked them for about 90 minutes at low temp with super smoke and then reverse seared for a couple of minutes at 500 degrees.

I would think you could go through the whole process and take them off at rare temp and then later reheat them quickly at a high temp so they don't over cook.

YMMV but even like a well cooked and seasoned steak cold or close to room temp next to a well cooked baked potato.

 

[RayClem]

Whether I get a steak at a restaurant, cook it sous vide in the kitchen, or on the Traeger, I like getting thick steaks. That means I always have leftovers. A 16-20 ounce steak is sufficient for four servings for my wife and I. I will usually cook two or three steaks at a time, eat half of one steak and then freeze the rest in vacuum sealed bags to retain quality. If you do not have a vacuum sealer, you can use Zip Lock freezer bags with most of the air removed.

The problem with most methods of reheating steak is that you overcook the steak, especially if you like your steaks medium rare. There is one reheating method that never overcooks steaks; that is sous vide.

Set the sous vide temperature to 130-135F, seal the steak in a plastic bag, and allow the steak to heat for an hour. It will still be the same level of doneness that it was when you put it in the bag. If your steak comes straight out of the freezer, just allow it to stay in the sous vide circulator for an extra hour to defrost.

This method also works great with leftover chicken, pork chops, pulled pork, etc. It works for vegetables as well.

The only things I have found sous vide does not reheat well is hotdogs, fish, pizza and bread.

A sous vide circulator is a great investment for anyone who likes smoked meats and vegetables.

We are starting to get freezing temperatures here in Northern Illinois, so I won't be cooking quite as often as I did during warmer months. I have filled my garage freezer with enough smoked meat to last through most of winter. When weather is expected to be unseasonably warm, I will defrost meat currently in my basement chest freezer and smoke it. I will still plan to do some cooks for special occasions like Thanksgiving turkey and Christmas ham barring blizzard conditions, but most of the time I will be raiding the freezer and tossing the bag into my sous vide circulator.

 

[Don C]

I have decided that only partially cooking anything & completing the cooking days later is just not a good idea. The bacteria therein would not be killed by only partially cooking it.

Will try totally cooking a couple of steaks & see if they still taste as good when reheated days later.

Sometimes my wife eats only 1/2 of her steak & we reheat the other 1/2 the next day & make steak sandwiches.

Not sure though that a reheated whole steak can be as good as a freshly cooked steak.

Time will tell.

 

[RayClem]

I have decided that only partially cooking anything & completing the cooking days later is just not a good idea. The bacteria therein would not be killed by only partially cooking it.

I completely agree. If you fully cook your steak to your desired temperature using your method of choice, you can then reheat it using sous vide as long as the sous vide temperature does not exceed the original doneness temperature.

If you cook your steaks by searing (rather than reverse searing), you can cook all the steaks to rare or medium rare. Then you can use sous vide when reheating the steaks to increase the doneness level for those who prefer their steaks more done.

Technically, all steaks need to be cooked to a minimum internal temperature of 140F to insure that pathogens are killed, but those who prefer their steak at medium-rare or rarer, might not be happy with 140F. Thus, you have to pick which aspect is most important to you.

 

[drich]

When I cook things on the Traeger, I usually cook extra to have leftovers.

One exception has been good cuts of steaks.
I cook just enough for 1 meal because I have always thought that steaks were too good to reheat & eat later.
I am now rethinking that.

Is it possible / recommended that using the Reverse Sear method I could cook steaks (to be eaten later) only through a 45 minute smoke session.
Then put those steaks in a Ziplock bag & refrigerate them for X days to be cooked & seared later when ready to eat them?

Or, should I smoke them for 45 minutes & also partially cook them for X minutes before putting them in Ziplock bags & refrigerating them?

Or, is this a bad idea?

Can leftover steaks still be as good as steaks that are cooked & eaten immediately?

I do not have a Sous Vide.

We get our steaks mostly from Costco so there are usually 3-4 in a package. There are only 2 of so we super smoke all of them for 1 hour at 180 degrees, then sear them at 450 until they are medium (usually 12-15 minutes). We place the uneaten ones in freezer ziplock bag for later. We agree that reheating later is not a good idea. We thaw them a slice them for French dip sandwiches or another option is to chop them up and add them to baked potatoes. Either way they are very good, the smoke flavor seems to be more intense.