Review of Chef Steps Sous-Vide-Faux-Age-Beef (The Modernist Strategy to Dry Age Beef)

I've been Faux Aging steak using Fish Sauce for many years now. I first read about it in the Food & Magazine and came across it several times in the E-Gullet forums. I've written about it too, titled Crazy-Sous-Vide Meat Aging, Faux Aging-Contrasting Fish Sauce & Salt and Red-boat vs. Red-Boat.  To my knowledge, I am the originalist who came up with the idea to use Red-Boat-Fish-Salt. This is not my first rodeo when it comes to Faux-Aging proteins. I've done hundreds of proteins this way.  

As with many of my posts, I write about the topic first then start cooking. I don't want to be biased in my post, and I want to be fair. I want to explain what I am doing or what I plan to attempt before starting the actual cooking and judging.

Chef steps have a special paid subscription called Studio Pass, and I believe this is where this method originated from. They call it "Steak from the Future: The Modernist Strategy to Dry Age Beef." 

Their Faux Age Recipe is as follows. 2- 400 grams steaks (NY-Strips), 50-grams of Blue Cheese, 15-grams of Liquid Shio Koji, and 15-grams of Fish Sauce. I used their links on their site and purchased the products they used. Again I want to be fair. They were not specific as to what Blue Cheese they used. I  am a Blue Cheese aficionado, and I just love this stuff. I decided on the Stilton Blue Cheese because it's the king of Blue Cheese. That being said, Stilton is a powerful Blue Cheese, and I want to introduce several more variables; and one was trying a different Blue Cheese. I decided to use Gorgonzola because it is on the opposite spectrum and is a very mild Blue Cheese. In their recipe, they only marinate for 24-Hours. I know from personal experience that 24-Hours is not adequate when using Fish-Sauce, but I wanted to stay true to their recipe. I decided to introduce a 48-Hour Version and a 72-Hour version. What does this all mean? I am making 6-Steaks using two Blue Cheeses and 3 Times. I am also using my favorite Fish Sauce from Red-Boat called "The Phamily Reserve 50N on one steak using my standard 72-Hour window. 

So why these unique ingredients? Blue Cheese gives the protein that funkiness is associated with Dry-Aged beef, which I just love. Before Covid hit, my wife and I would go to the Metropolitan Grill in Seattle 1-2 times a year. I also purchased Dry-Aged Beef online too. So yea, I am accustomed to the funk, and I just love it!!! When we were in Vegas, I ate quite a bit of steak. We ate 28, 45, 60-day aged steaks. My preference is 28-45 day ones. 

How about that, Koji? You can google more about Koji to get more details, or by this excellent book, I have called Koji Alchemy by Rich Shih and Jeremey Umansky. Koji contains enzymes that help break down proteins, decompose starches, and contributes to tenderization. 

Chefsteps did not share why they use Fish Sauce but I will give you my ¢.17 (if they did, I missed it). This is a shortened synopsis from one of my previous posts, which are linked above. Fish Sauce/Salt will create/simulate a tender piece of meat or, more accurately, simulate a dry-aged steak with robust beefiness. "Why." I will try to give you my non-Scientific reason why this works. It's all about the Glutamates (natural MSG), which are savory compounds, and your tongue loves them. They make all cooked protein taste good. 

Fish sauce and Worcestershire sauce contain anchovies (more in fish sauce) and a nucleotide compound. Nucleotides plus glutamates mean over the top awesome beefy goodness. 

So whether it's Soy, Worcestershire, or fish sauce, the glutamate component plus the nucleotide found in anchovies will amp up the beef taste and give it that UMAI explosion of flavor. The salt in these ingredients will also help denature the protein making it more tender. 

Do you ever wonder why recipes like stews, chili, or beef stir-frys include these types of sauces? It's an ingredient called for in a recipe with no explanation, but if you want to amp up the flavor, they're a must. There are many more recipes that use Anchovies. I make Pasta Puttanesca at least 3 x a year and is a family favorite. Anchovies transform this dish into something magical, and without them, it would be Blah. 

Let me get this question out of the way before proceeding. Does it taste Fishy? When it comes out of the bag, it smells clean and very beefy. 

Let's review Chefsteps Recipe a little. 2- 400 (NY-Strips) grams steaks, 50-grams of Blue Cheese, 15-grams of Liquid Shio Koji, and 15-grams of Fish Sauce. Chefsteps added the  Caveat- The marinade above is designed for two 400-gram steaks, and the marinade makes 80 grams (40 Grams each). "To swap in a different steak cut, simply weigh your steaks and scale the ingredients, so you can create a marinade that's 10 percent of the weight of your steaks". 

All you would need to do is measure out 10% of the weight of the steaks. So if you had a 500-gram steak, you would need to multiply 500 x 10% (.10) = 50 grams. 50-grams of sauce is needed. My middle name is specificity, so I needed more precision. I made some calculations and came up with a better method to compute the amounts needed. Based on the recipe above, I computed, you will need 6.25% Blue Cheese, 1.875% of Koji, and 1.875% of Fish-Sauce for the protein weight. These percentages allow you to make the sauce just for one steak or many. I.e., One steak that weighs 639 grams would need 639 x 6.25% (.0625) = 39.94-grams of Blue Cheese. Do the same for the rest of the ingredients. Let's take it a step further. What would you do if you had 10 steaks? All you would need to do is weigh all the steaks. I.E 10-steaks weighed 3936 grams. 3936 x 6.25%= 246 gram (Blue Cheese), 3936 x 1.875= 73.8 gram (Koji), and 3936 x 1.875=73.8 gram of Fish Sauce. Now add up all the ingredients by weight. 246+73.8+73.8 = 393.6 grams total weight. This is where the 10% comes in!!! Now you have a big batch of sauce. Weigh each steak and calculate the 10%. Each steak will have the exact amounted needed. I.e., One steak weighs 440 grams x 10%= 44-grams of marinade needed. 

 3-Steaks with Stilton Blue Cheese, 3-Steaks with Gorgonzola Blue Cheese. All steaks weighed, and marinade applied with precision. Steaks were all within 1/4" of each and weighed between 379-438 Grams. I am using 3-Times- 24-Hours, 48-Hours, and 72-Hours for all 6-Steaks. Chefsteps uses 24-Hours, but it has been my experience that Fish-Sauce takes much longer to penetrate. When using Fish-Sauce or Fish Salt 48-Hours is minimum, and 72-Hour is the sweet spot. If you were to open the bag after the 72-hours, you would get no smell of Fish-Sauce but a clean Beefy Smell. I added one more steak using my favorite Fish-Sauce at 2% for 72-Hours. A total of 7 Steaks will be used. 

Chefsteps suggested a processing time of 1-2 hours for the steaks, but it's been my experience that this time frame is inadequate to make them tender. One hour would barely allow them to equalize, meaning bath and protein are at the same temp. I will process the steaks for 4 hours at 128f. Steaks will receive a 5-8 minute rest on the counter. Although Chefsteps said to salt them lightly, my experience and personal preferences tell me this is necessary. Blue Cheese and Fish Sauce are very salty, and my previous projects never needed additional salt. Of course, I'll stress this is my preference. I will only use Freshly Ground Black Pepper. I will sear the steaks in a 500f degree skillet—no reason to go any hotter because Koji speeds up the Maillard reaction. The total time in the skillet will be 90-Secs-45-secs per-side.

 

As you can see, I used a gram scale to weigh everything. Since I was using very few quantities, a whisk was all that I needed to combine everything into a smooth paste. The Gorgonzola was a little harder to mix with a whisk, but it came together after a few minutes. Having the cheeses at room temp helped a bit. All vac sealed. The bags were massaged to make sure I got an even coating. Click photos to make them bigger.

At this point in the post, I have not cooked anything. Opinions and results will follow. There will be a few of us taste-testing the steaks. These steaks will not be part of any dinner but will be sliced and judged. 

After the steaks came out of the bath, they were set on the counter for 5-8 Minutes. Chefsteps said to scrape off Marinade, but I found this challenging and, most likely, not the best method. I rinsed them under cold water, which was super easy.  Steaks were dried very, very well, and only pepper was used for seasoning.  

Steaks Seared at 500f at 45-secs per side. 

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Prepared just like the 24-hour version.

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Prepared just like the 24-hour version.

Let's briefly review what I did. A little synopsis should help with replication. Weigh all your steaks together. For example, I had three steaks that weighed in at 438g + 399g + 433g = 1270 grams.

I then multiplied the Blue Cheese- 6.25%, Koji 1.8475%, and the Fish Sauce 1.845% by 1270 grams and added up these numbers. 

1270 X 6.25 = 79.375 grams

1270 X 1.875= 23.81 grams

1270 X 1.875= 23.81 grams

79.375 + 23.81 + 23.81 = 127 grams of Marinade. 

 

Each steak will get 10% of the marinade. 

6.25% + 1.875% + 1.875% = 10%

438g  Steak will get 43.8 grams of Marinade. etc.

Here are my final thoughts about this Faux Age method. The 24-Hour version produced something that all five of us disliked. Note- Only one out of the five dislikes Blue-Cheese, and I love the stuff. Don't waste your time with the 24-Hour version unless you are curious. Try different Blue-Cheeses but know the more pungent the Blue-Cheese, the stronger the funk. Our perception was that the additional 48-Hours allowed for better diffusion of the Blue Cheese and fish Sauce, which mellowed out the funk. 

Let's talk about the 72-Hour version, which was our favorite. Using the Dry-Aging Times to represent each steak might help you understand my analysis and conclusions. 

The Fish-Sauce version didn't have much funk but had a great beefy taste, so I would equate that with a 28-day Aged steak. 

The Gorgonzola one was like eating a 45-Day Aged steak. Lots of funk and good beef flavor.

 

The Stilton Blue Cheese one was like eating a 60-75 Dry-Aged Steak. Plenty of Funk with a slight increase in Beef Flavor. 

The future plan is to try different Blue-Cheeses and percentages. 

PART TWO HERE-FAUX-FUNK-AGED STEAK