Red-Boat Vs Red-Boat "Steak Faux Aging Experiment"

This is overdue!!! Contestants take your positions and hold on for a Fauxtastic Ride. If you've been following my posts, you know I love to Faux Age steaks with Red-Boats Fish Sauce and Fish Salt, so this new post shouldn't surprise you. I've already concluded that my family likes the Fish Salt version of Faux Aged steaks over the Sauce version, but this could change. In the linked versions above I used 3% but now have determined that I prefer 1.75%-2.25%. Also, I will be contrasting three more versions of Red-Boat sauces. 

First, a little about RED-BOAT: this is taken from their Web-Site. 

After moving to the United States, Cuong Pham was hungry to recreate the tastes and smells of his childhood in Saigon. But not even the vibrant Asian markets of San Francisco offered the intensely fragrant nước mắm nhi that Cuong remembered from Vietnam. So in 2006, Cuong decided that if he couldn't find it, he would make it — and started Red Boat Fish Sauce. Returning to Vietnam, Cuong expanded a small, family-run facility on the tropical island of Phu Quoc. With its clear waters and traditional fishing communities, Phu Quoc has long been renowned for producing the world's most excellent fish sauces. Cuong got to work, partnering with expert fishermen and breathing new life into his family's centuries-old fermentation tradition.

Today, the Red Boat brand is stronger than ever. In an era where transparency, traceability, and sustainability reign supreme, Red Boat is just as committed to quality ingredients and its time-honored fermentation tradition as the day it was founded. That means no additives, no preservatives, and no flavor enhancers. Just the purest fish sauce on earth.

The Red Boat Process

 Fish sauce, or nước mắm nhi, is the juice extracted from fish—traditionally anchovies—through a process of prolonged salting and fermentation. From Asia to Ancient Rome, fish sauce has been a prized source of umami in the kitchen for centuries — and for over 200 years, the black anchovies and clear waters of Vietnam's Phu Quoc island have produced some of the finest fish sauce in the world.

To ensure the richest flavor possible, Red Boat works with expert fishermen to sustainably catch only the finest anchovies. Once caught, the fish are salted immediately before being transported to our facility. There, they're slow-aged in traditional wooden barrels for over a year — free of chemicals. Throughout the entire fermentation process, we monitor the barrels closely, selecting only

those that meet Red Boat's standards of quality for export. Once approved, barrels are carefully drained from the base, filtered, and bottled. Unlike most manufacturers, our premium fish sauce is 100% first-press, with no added water, MSG, extracts, or preservatives: Just wild-caught black anchovies and sea salt. It's what makes Red Boat Fish Sauce the purest in the world.

Made from wild-caught black anchovy and sea salt, single-press Red Boat 40°N is barrel-aged using a centuries-old fermentation tradition. No preservatives or MSG. Just unsurpassed quality and flavor.

Red Boat Salt is hand-harvested from our traditional fermentation process and perfect for adding the ultimate umami to any dish.

Chef's Cuvee is our highest quality fish sauce. This sauce is double barrel-aged in Kentucky bourbon barrels for extraordinary color and flavor. One of the most complex forms of umami available.

The Phamily Reserve 50N Hardwood Smoked is a collaboration between Red Boat and Blis Gourmet. At 50N, this is the highest grade fish sauce in our lineup. After our initial fermentation process to create the fish sauce, it then gets aged in barrels that previously held bourbon and maple syrup, and then it gets smoked in a combination of mesquite, hickory, and cherry wood. The end result is a sublte sweetness and smokiness not found in other fish sauces! No preservatives. No MSG. Just anchovies and sea salt for unsurpassed quality and flavor.

The Phamily Reserve 50N is a collaboration between Red Boat and Blis Gourmet. At 50N, this is the highest grade fish sauce in our lineup. After our initial fermentation process to create the fish sauce, it then gets aged in barrels that previously held bourbon and maple syrup. The result is a subtle sweetness not found in other fish sauces!. No preservatives. No MSG. Just anchovies and sea salt for unsurpassed quality and flavor.

It begins here........

Modus-Operandi 

Four steaks will be treated with 2% of the Red-Boat Fish Sauce, and one steak will be treated with 1% of the Red-Boat Fish Salt. 

Everything was precisely measured using a gram scale.

All Vac sealed and will be refrigerated for 72 hours. The steaks will be flipped every day.


NO RINSING NO RINSING NO RINSING 

The steaks were Sv'd using my 2 Stage cooking techniques, aka Warm-Aging. Initially, SV'd at 113℉ for 2 hours then finished at 128℉ for 2.5 hrs. 
Depending on your schedule, you will have to decide if you will serve right away. I have a crazy life, so I shocked and refrigerated for a few days. What did I do? I rethermed (we don't want to serve a cold steak), removed from vac bag, dried thoroughly, applied a schmear of mayo and pepper. 

I keep getting this question asked over and over again. So in case, you missed it......
Do not add any additional salt!!!!

NOTE: If these steaks were thin, the heat of the sear would have heated the center adequately, and a retherm would have been unnecessary. 

Coated with a schmear of mayo and peppercorns. I used these peppercorns because I had them. There is nothing unique about them. I've done a side by side tests with other peppercorns, and I found them to be good but no different than tellicherry peppercorns, 

REVIEW AT BOTTOM 

 

Before I start the review, I wanted to let you know that every steak was eaten, and we loved every one of them!!! Amazing!!!


Each steak had nuances that could only be distinguished by contrasting them side by side. Some will ask if we had any controlled samples meaning just salt and unsalted versions, and the answer is yes. They were so dull they're not worth mentioning. The nekkid one was the worse!!!! Oy Vey!!! I will never eat another steak that's not first dry-brined.

 The methodology was simple. I was the only one who knew which steak was which. Every one received multiple samples from each steak, and they gave me their opinions. I asked everyone to provide me with an unadulterated comment and not to hold back. Even if their comments seemed crazy, I wanted to hear their thoughts. 

Some of their thoughts echoed mine, and some surprised me too. Some of my guests have better palates than me and gleaned attributes that took me by surprise.  I, of course, had presuppositions going into this taste test, and my guests had the benefit of not knowing which steak was which.

Steak #1- Treated with 1% fish salt and like the other steaks was delicious. Fish salt is my SOP, so this did not surprise me. I once compared Fish salt, Fish Sauce, and just plain salt, and the Fish Salt won out..... LINK. 

Out of the vac bag, it smelled mildly beefy and had a clean smell. Not a massive difference in aroma compared to a regular salted steak. A family favorite, of course. The taste was interesting. The steak had a UMAI burst of flavor and only a slight increase in beef taste compared to the other ones. It seemed slightly saltier too. When I say saltier, I don't mean negatively, either. 

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Steak #2-Treated with 2% Fish Sauce and like the other steaks was delicious. 

My initial thoughts when the protein came out of the vac bag was the WOW....heavy beef smell. Not bad mind you but very intense. The taste was beefy too. Not off-putting at all but most definitely beefy. The scent was beefier than the taste. Still a good steak. We all preferred #1though. 

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Steak #3- Treated with 2% Fish Sauce and like the other steaks were delicious. 

Everything about this steak was mild, subtle, and absolutely delicious. More intense than #1 but very mild compared to #2.  It's like driving two cars on the same road.... one's a luxury car that glides along the freeway, and the other is liken to a pickup truck. If you plan on experimenting with Fish Sauce, I will try this one first.

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Steak #4- Treated with 2% Fish Sauce and like the other steaks were delicious. 

My initial thoughts when it came out of the vac bag was similar to #2 but less intense. I would characterize the aroma as pleasant. 

This one and #5 stood out as being unique. My guests couldn't put their finger on it but detected hints of alcohol and smoke. We have all drank bourbon barrel beer, and most of us equated this to that. It was delicious. One person remarked that it was very smooth tasting with a hint of sweetness and twang. Whatever twang means in culinary terms. The person could not explain to me what he meant by twang to my satisfaction. Maybe a hint of nuttiness too. I think he meant the alcohol gave it the twang—damn good steak. 
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Steak #5- The only difference between this fish sauce and #4 is the smoke. Other than that, they are identical. 

My initial thoughts when it came out of the vac bag was similar to #2 but less intense. I would characterize the aroma as pleasant. 

This steak had that twang of bourbon, but that's where #4 and #5 parted ways. This was one of the favorites out of the five steaks. This steak tasted like Dry-Aged beef. I am not kidding, either. It tasted like it had been aged about 45 days. People remarked that it had aspects generally associated with dry-aged beef meaning that funk of blue cheese & a hint of nuttiness. 

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In summary, all the steaks were excellent and eaten in their entirety. 

The least favorite was #2.  

Steak #1, #4 and #5 were the favorites. 

And Steak #3 was good but not as good as #1,#4, and #5. 

Having to choose between steak #4 and #5 depends on your palate, but I would have to say that #5 was the clear winner!