When my butcher retired I went into a funk for weeks! As soon as we heard the news, we ordered as much pork, beef, lamb, and veal as would fit in our freezer.
The other day I was taking inventory and saw that I had a couple of Flat Iron steaks in 2-pound packages. In the past I’ve only used the Flat Iron, also called boneless chuck top blade steak, when making Jacque Pépin’s beef stew. The cut has a wonderful flavor, and braising in the oven for a couple of hours creates a fantastic texture.
But to be honest, other than the stew I’m just not a fan of the Flat Iron. It’s too tough for me, sort of like flank steak. So I thought I’d give sous vide a try and came up with this simple preparation, low on effort but high on flavor, thanks in part to the complex spice blend and a delicious barbeque sauce.
I was hoping for the final outcome to be rosy-red medium-rare, with the texture of an almost-falls-apart slow braise. After 30 hours in the water oven: mission accomplished!
Serves 4 to 6
- Preheat the water bath to 131ºF (55°C).
- Rinse the meat and pat dry with paper towels. Sprinkle with Ras El Hanout or a combination of spices of your choice. Brush with barbeque sauce and dust with salt and pepper. Place each steak in a gallon-size food bag and vacuum seal.
- Cook for at least 30 hours and up to 36 hours.
- Slice on the bias and serve with additional barbeque sauce if desired, or use to make sandwiches. Delicious, pink, and tender!
I just served an embarrassing tough flank steak that I had cooked for 36 hours at 55C in my Sous Vide Supreme. I have no idea what went wrong, I have succeeded in most other things I cooked, but they were all “better” cuts that were tender to start with and cooked a short time.
Any suggestions anyone?
Leif
Ouch! This is a tough one to troubleshoot. But first, the Flat Iron is from the shoulder while flank steak is from the abdominal area, so the latter arguably is tougher to start with. Of course the quality of the meat (separate from the issue of the cut) is important, too. To be honest, none of us has tried flank steak in the SVS, although you’re right in the ballpark on time and temp based on other websites. One of our commenters, Adam Fields, reports good results cooking skirt or flank steak at 134°F/57°C for 24 to 30 hours.
Any interest in conducting an experiment, getting small pieces of flank and Flat Iron from your butcher and cooking them at the same time and temp, side by side? We’d love you to report your results here. If you can’t find Flat Iron locally, you could try cooking flank steak around 36 hours and see if it improves it. Or you could do two small pieces of flank, bag them separately, cook one 30 hours and the other 36 hours, and then do a taste/tenderness test. Let us know your thoughts.
For us, part of the fun of sous vide cooking is the experimentation. However, we always make sure we’re among tolerant (or at least good-natured) friends when we serve a new sous vide recipe! Sorry you had a bad experience!
Flat Iron Steak is my absolute favorite steak to cook Sous Vide. I go for 72 hours at 130°F. I tried it at 24/48/72 hours, and I was able to appreciate the difference at each step. After 24 hours it was fine, after 48 hours it was good, after 72 hours it was religion.
Mmmm. I think an experiment is definitely in order! Maybe we’ll tackle cooking skirt, flank, and Flat Iron in the same bath, testing them at various times.
I did the same with short ribs with pretty much the same result. 72 hour short ribs are amazing.
Sounds like 72 hours is the ticket but I wonder what would it be like at say 131 to 140 degrees?
Hi Bob. At 72 hours I think you’d see and taste the difference between 131° and 140° primarily in color and consistency. You’re moving from rare into medium.
Thank you Suzette for your reply; I just found it after returning from a two week vacation.
I will try your suggestions as well as I can, but I live in Provence and here the cuts are quite different, but I will get several different “tough” cuts and try them out.
Regards,
Leif
I did flat iron steaks for 48 and 72 hours at 131 degrees and I agree that 72 hours produced amazing results.
Tonight I plan to sous vide flat iron steaks so that I can make steak saltimbocca for a Memorial Day party. Should be fun!
I’ve been cooking Sous Vide for over five years and have used it in over 100 recipes to amazing effect. Flat Iron steak is really a bad fit. I buy really good marbled Flat iron and heat up the Green Egg to about 600 degrees. Olive oil, salt and pepper…that’s it. One minute a side. Great crust and fork-tender.