Sous Vide Ribeyes, Charred Over the Fire

Name: Sous Vide Ribeyes, Charred Over the Fire
Yield: 4 steaks
Ingredients: 4 ribeye steaks, Costco ribeyes, or slice your own from a whole ribeye roast for a crowd; kosher salt, to taste; black pepper, to taste; 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced, 1 per steak; 2 sprigs fresh rosemary, ½ sprig per steak; 8 pats of butter, 2 per steak; 4 gallon zip-top bags, 1 per steak

Ribeyes bagged with garlic, rosemary and butter, held at 129°F until they're medium-rare edge to edge, then charred hard over a campfire for under a minute a side.

Cook: 2–6 hr at 129°F, then 1–2 min over the fire
Serves: 4 steaks

Jump to the recipe

John in a face shield and leather gloves, leaning over a big campfire and turning steaks on a grate with long tongs, stacked rounds of firewood behind him

Sous vide does the hard part. The steaks sit in a 129°F bath for a couple of hours and come out medium-rare from edge to edge, with no gray band and no guessing.

The fire does the rest. All it has to do is char the outside, so it’s very high heat for a very short time: under a minute a side. It’s best over an open campfire, but almost as good on a hot grill or in a cast-iron pan on the stove.

We buy ribeyes at Costco. For a crowd, a whole ribeye roast cut into steaks yourself is cheaper.

A whole boneless ribeye roast on a cutting board with a long slicing knife on top — For a crowd, start with a whole ribeye roast.

Three sheet pans of raw ribeye steaks seasoned with pepper and garlic, a sous vide circulator in a water bath beside the stove — Seasoned and coming up to room temperature.

The same three trays of steaks with a pat of butter on each one — Butter on.

Close-up of marbled ribeyes topped with pats of butter and sprigs of rosemary — Rosemary, half a sprig each.

A clear plastic bin full of gallon zip-top bags of steak in water, with a white sous vide circulator clipped to the side — One steak per bag, air burped out, into the bath at 129°F.

A roasting pan of charred ribeyes with grill marks, one still topped with melting butter — Off the fire.

A paper plate with a charred ribeye, Caesar salad and rice, campfire burning behind it — Dinner by the fire.

Make it

Makes 4 steaks

Ingredients

The steaks

4 ribeye steaks, Costco ribeyes, or slice your own from a whole ribeye roast for a crowd

Seasoning

kosher salt, to taste
black pepper, to taste
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced, 1 per steak

In the bag

2 sprigs fresh rosemary, ½ sprig per steak
8 pats of butter, 2 per steak
4 gallon zip-top bags, 1 per steak

Set your sous vide circulator to 129°F.
Lay out the steaks and let them come up to room temperature.
Pat them dry with paper towels.
Season both sides with salt, pepper and sliced fresh garlic, and rub it in.
Put one steak in each gallon bag with half a sprig of rosemary and two pats of butter.
Burp the bags: lower each one into the water until it's almost completely submerged, let the water push the air out, then finish sealing it.
Cook at 129°F for at least 2 hours and no more than 6.
Get the fire, grill or cast-iron pan as hot as it'll go. The steak is already cooked; all you're after now is char and a crisp crust.
Take the steaks out of the bags and char them over very high heat, 45 seconds to a minute per side over an open fire. Don't go longer.

Good to know

At 129°F the steak comes out medium-rare edge to edge, so the sear only has to handle the outside.
Go past 6 hours and the meat keeps getting more tender. Delicious, but it feels less and less like a steak.
Grade matters less here. We usually say buy the best meat you can, but sous vide makes up for a lower grade.
Feeding a crowd? Buying a whole ribeye roast and cutting your own steaks saves a bit.
Best charred over an open campfire, but almost as good on a hot grill or finished in a cast-iron pan on the stove.
Butter in the bag or butter at the end: some sous vide people we follow ran blind taste tests and found finishing with butter on the grill or in the pan, instead of in the bag, tastes meatier. We still put it in the bag.