re: Dry Heat or Sous Vide: The Reverse Sear Saga (now with concise title)

I'm not gonna get involved with the monkey poo slinging, but want to offer my humble objective opinion.

Both of the methods are essentially a reverse sear. You bring the steak up in a controlled environment, then blast it with high heat. Steaks are easily cooked either way, so I can't argue sides on this one. As far as the sous vide steaks coming out moist, some paper towels wrapped around it for a few minutes and changed when soaked before they hit high heat solve this problem. Another thing you could do is to pat it dry, then put it into the fridge on a wire rack. "Wait...won't that cool it down?" Yes, which isn't a bad thing, and the fridge is a natural deyidrator. When it does hit high heat, you'll have more searing time before the inside can get past your target temp. In all, I think arguing either method with steaks is a draw.

There are attributes to each way of cooking. I personally cook duck confit and short ribs exclusively sous vide. Tom Colicchio has said sous vide lends nothing to salmon. He knows infinitely more about food and cooking than I do, but I personally love sous vide salmon. It certainly is a different result, but delicious not only in my opinion, but the people I've made it for as well. I had some duck breasts which were rather thin. Had I cooked them traditionally skin side down, in order to crisp it up, the inside would have been way overcooked. I'd rather crisp the skin up in a skillet, but I opted to cook them medium rare sous vide, then hit the skins with my blowtorch. Problem solved. A perfect medium rare breast with crispy skin. My point is that there's a time and place when sous vide is superior to traditional methods, and vice versa.

Again, like I mentioned in my post on page 1, 99% of the people who turn their nose up on, scoff at, or make fun of sous vide, haven't cooked with it. There are many things that I would rather cook traditionally, but sous vide can be your best friend at times.

And now, back to watching the monkey poo fly.