How can I remove the skin from peanuts?

Question

I will be making Ban ban ji chicken for tonight's dinner, and have picked up some shelled peanuts. The peanuts are still in their skins, and I was wondering: what is the best way to remove the skins from peanuts?

Asked by buruzaemon

Answer

Take a clean kitchen towel (not a terry towel, a dish towel), place the peanuts on it, fold it up, then rub the peanuts vigorously through the towel. The friction should remove the skins. You can then pass the whole lot through a colander to winnow out the skins.

Answered by ElendilTheTall

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Does salt-seasoned pasta and starchy water in my sauce have to yield a salty sauce?

Question

When cooking pasta, there are a couple of techniques that I like to follow--individually they yield great results, but when combined they interfere with one another to produce an inferior product.

1. Salting the pasta water. I've learned this trick some time ago and it has been critical to producing the best-tasting pasta. I really want the pasta to be the point of the dish, with the sauce an accompaniment, and the getting salt in the water from the start is the way I get the best flavor in my pasta. In fact, I find that salting the water quite generously works very well as long as I am fulling draining the pasta after boiling.
2. Adding starchy pasta water to my sauce. The starchy water really brings everything together. You could say it thickens it, but not like a roux, as some have speculated--rather, the starch emulsifies the fats into the sauce (consider if I have, say, tomato sauce, cheese, and olive oil) and it also adds a rich mouthfeel. I've really had great success adding some of the starchy pasta water to the sauce and don't want to give that up.

The problem is that when I've salted the pasta water, it means adding it to my sauce brings along all that salt--to the point where it can be unpalatable.

So to my question: Are these two techniques mutually exclusive? Or is there a way to get the salt into the pasta without getting it into the sauce?

To prime the pump, I've considered a couple of options:

1. Brine the pasta prior to boiling
2. Start the pasta in boiling salt-water, then move to fresh water (use the latter in the sauce)
3. Start the pasta in fresh water, then move to salt water (use the former in the sauce)
4. Boil a whole bunch of pasta (say, ditalini, for the large surface area) without salt for an extra-starchy water. Jar it, and use it in future sauces.
5. Forget the starchy water, and just use, say, cornstarch.

Asked by Ray

Answer

Since cooking the pasta in salted water is essential, and switching to fresh water or whatever is a PITA, I'd just use less water and thicken with something else.

The standard ratio for salting pasta water is 1:10:100 - 1 litre of water for 10g salt and 100g pasta - perhaps you're over-salting the water?

Answered by ElendilTheTall

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Why do English recipes of “sauce marchand de vin” call for Worcestershire sauce?

Question

The “sauce marchand de vin” is a French red wine thick sauce typically served with meat. Its recipe in my French cookbooks call for two main ingredients: red wine and brown stock. It also uses shallots, butter, flour and black pepper, but I understand the two ingredients cited previously are the main ones.

However, many recipes I can find online (here and there, for example) on English-speaking websites add Worcestershire sauce. Not all of them do, but I still wonder: what purpose does this extra Worcestershire sauce add? I'm not too familiar with it, but if I understand it might bring some spiciness (already somewhat covered by black pepper).

So, what do you think it brings to the recipe and overall taste?

Asked by F'x

Answer

Worcestershire Sauce is added where the recipe wants a fast way to develop or add savoury richness, umami.

It's often used where umami would develop over time with slow careful cooking (and heavy bottomed pans). Adding this extra ingredient is a good cheat where you just want that kick without the wait.

Answered by vwiggins

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Why does sauce go watery after freezing?

Question

If I freeze a sauce, particularly something with mince in it, when defrosted it produces excess water.

The sauce before frozen is nicely thickened.

I think it might be because the proteins in the meat are damaged in some way by the ice crystals so that they are unable to retain as much water.

EDIT The sauce I'm referring to is bolonaise and the only thickening agent I used is a bit of tomatoe puree.

Asked by rgvcorley

Answer

Sauces separate when frozen for several reasons.

• If it contains vegetables, the plant cells rupture when the water in them freezes. This means the sauce gets watery and the taste changes as the contents of the cells escape.
• With emulsions, the oil/fat microdroplets clump together when they freeze. When you thaw the sauce, the emulsion is wrecked, giving a runny consistency. You can defeat this by re-emulsifying as you thaw the sauce. See How can I prevent bacon mayonnaise from splitting when above fridge temperature?
• Due to colligative properties, areas of less concentrated solution will freeze first, and more concentrated solution freeze last. As the solution gradually freezes, this has the effect of concentrating dissolved thickening agents in the last regions to freeze. When the solution thaws, the thickener isn't as evenly mixed.

Answered by BobMcGee

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Why did my sauce get lumpy after being frozen?

Question

Two months ago, I made a fish sauce (roux + milk + fish stock + lemon juice + cheese + mushrooms). I made way too much, so I decided to put a good amount (0.5 l / about 2 cups) in the freezer.

I wanted to use it this week, so I got it out of the freezer, and I put it in a sauce pan on a low heat, when it was still frozen. However, the result after it was fully heated, was not so good: it contained lumps (but not roux-lumps) so not at all the desired consistency.

Why/how did the lumps got there? Was it because I didn't properly defrost the sauce? Or was it a consequence of the freezing itself? What can I do to avoid this the next time?

There were no lumps when I made it.

Asked by Mien

Answer

Assuming your roux is flour based, the original recipe mixture was able to be a sauce because the proteins in the flour formed gluten and created that lovely thickness we enjoy (your seasonings sound like a nice combo). The water from the other ingredients are trapped in the gluten. Unfortunately, when you freeze it, the water molecules form sharp shapes like knives and cut your gluten strands. This isn't a noticeble problem until your defrost it.

It doesn't matter how quickly or slowing you defrost. The damage was done when it was frozen.

To work around this issue, you have to freeze it faster! Professional establishments can super freeze things super fast. Freezing faster will make smaller knife-shaped ice crystals and that reduces the damage.

TIPS:

• freeze in smaller portions and shallower depth on a pre-frozen metal cookie sheet.

• Defrost and strain the sauce. Make a new roux and add the defrosted & strained sauce. The flavor comes from the frozen sauce and the new roux recreates the gluten.

Answered by MADCookie

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How can I fix a hollandaise sauce after it has split?

Question

I made a hollandaise sauce on the weekend and it split so I threw it out and started again but I was wondering if there is anything you can do to save it once it splits?

Asked by lomaxx

Answer

You can rescue it by starting the process again, with an egg yolk in a bowl over a bain-marie which you whisk until it starts to thicken a little. then incorporate a little warm melted butter into the egg yolk. Once this is incorporated you can slowly start to add the split hollandaise and this should then incorporate into the new base, unsplit.

There is a video here

Answered by Sam Holder

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Keeping A Sauce From Separating

Question

Last fall I tried my hand at making a homemade hot sauce. Essentially: roast peppers, blend with vinegar, garlic, salt and other spices, put in jar for three weeks, strain and you have hot sauce.

The sauce was great, but after about a week of sitting in a jar in my fridge it separated and became rather unsightly. Of course, after shaking it up it returned to normal. Is there a way to keep a sauce like this from separating?

Thanks!

Asked by Vecta

Answer

Whenever you see a sauce separate, it's because you have an Emulsion, which is two or more immiscible liquids. In cooking, these liquids are typically water and fat.

To stabilize an emulsion, you use an emulsifier. The most common food emulsifier is lecithin, and the most common natural source of lecithin is egg yolk. If you don't want the taste of egg or your food is not going to be cooked (i.e. a vinaigrette), then it you can actually go out and buy pure lecithin (soy lecithin is common to find).

As the wikipedia entry mentions, there are other natural emulsifiers such as honey and mustard, and often when you see recipes calling for mustard when it seems to be a strange ingredient to add (such as cheese sauce), the reason is to help stabilize the emulsion.

Additionally, the most common emulsifier used in packaged or processed foods is sodium stearoyl lactylate. It sounds scarier than it is; you can buy it in the store just like lecithin.

Answered by Aaronut

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Are chilies in olive oil dangerous?

Question

In Portugal, chilies in olive oil are a very typical form of spicy sauce, in both commercial and artisan forms. Different types, amounts, and mixes of chillies result in different flavours and it can be very nice.

However, I worry about botulism. I have googled for this and find many warnings against preserving garlic or other spices in oil, but nothing related to chilies in particular.

Are chilies different?

Or are the commercial chili olive oils prepared in a way that makes them safe? Any way to achieve the same at home or should I just stick to the industrially prepared products?

Asked by luispedro

Answer

There's nothing magical about garlic that causes it to be especially prone to botulism - it's just commonly found as an example because it's commonly used to prepare flavoured oils.

All low-acid foods must be acidified or pressure-canned before long-term storage. Storage in oil creates an anaerobic environment which further promotes botulism, and room-temperature storage is even more risky.

Chili peppers are low acid, like all peppers, so yes, they're a risk.

Answered by Aaronut

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Are substitutions for vodka allowed when making a vodka cream sauce

Question

If I am making a vodka cream sauce and I realize that there is no vodka (or not enough) to make the recipe, what would an acceptable substitute be?

Asked by FrustratedWithFormsDesigner

Answer

The purpose of vodka in a cream sauce is to enhance the flavor by allowing spices that are not soluble in water to dissolve into the ethanol contained in the vodka. A suitable substitute would be any mild flavored strong alcohol.

Answered by Derrick Boudwin

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What is the thickening power of different types of roux?

Question

I often take the easy way out and work with white roux, usually mixing it 1:10 for a sauce, and using the warm liquid into hot roux method. Tonight I needed a more toasted taste. I was afraid to try dark roux outright, and went for brown roux. "The professional chef" gives a bechamel recipe with 1:10 (white roux to milk) and an espagnole recipe at 1:8.5 (white roux to stock), so I thought I'd be on the safe side with 1:7.2 (brown roux to stock). The result was much thinner than I expected, I had to emergency-bind it with arrowroot.

So, I would like to know, what is the correct ratio for roux? Let's assume that I am thickening the same liquid (e.g. beef stock), and I know how thick a 1:10 mix of white roux and liquid gets. What ratio of blonde, brown and dark roux to liquid creates the same viscosity as 1:10 white roux?

Asked by rumtscho

Answer

My understanding is that the ratio shifts from 10:1 (liquid to roux) for a pale roux, up to about 5:1 for a nutty brown roux, with a somewhat linear relationship between the two extremes. A dark brown roux has very little thickening power, mostly they are used for flavor more than actual work-a-day thickening.

The problem may not so much in the roux ratios, but in other ingredient variations. For instance, if you are using a traditional 3:2 flour:fat roux, and your fat is butter, make sure you are using clarified butter, or that you are allowing most of the water to cook out of the butter before adding the flour - excess water in the roux will break down some of the starches and reduce the thickening strength.

Finally, there will be some variation no matter what - you can always make a little extra roux in a second pan to integrate if necessary.

Answered by Sam Ley

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How is white pizza sauce made?

Question

As far as I know, the only difference between white pizza and red pizza is the sauce.

I know that the white sauce is dairy-based, but what is it exactly? What are the main ingredients, is it thickened somehow? Is there something special to pay attention to when making white sauce? How thick should it be exactly? Should it contain herbs or not? Oil? How does it combine with the cheese, is the cheese supposed to melt "into" it?

Asked by rumtscho

Answer

White pizza sauce isn't nearly as defined as red sauce. It's largely whatever you want it to be.

It's literally any sauce you top a pizza with that is white. It is often dairy based (cream or cheese added), but it could also be a thin parsnip puree. It may contain herbs, it may contain butter, its up to you. Again, thickness is up to you and whatever works for your dish.

Answered by rfusca

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What is the proper way to use corn starch to thicken sauces?

Question

How do you mix corn starch slurry and how do you use it?

• Do you add the corn starch to the water, or do you add water to the corn starch?
• Generally what proportions do you need, what is the ratio of water to cornstarch?
• Do you need to use more slurry to thicken more liquid; if so, what is the quantity per volume?

Asked by milesmeow

Answer

I usually start small, with maybe a teaspoon of starch and a tablespoon of water. I guess that's roughly 2/1 water to starch by volume.

You do need more starch slurry for more liquid, but I advocate for going cautiously and starting with a single "dose" and then seeing if it's enough.

Answered by bikeboy389

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What are the hallmarks of a traditional alfredo sauce?

Question

There are many recipes for alfredo sauce, using ingredients from pesto and soy milk to low-fat milk and cream cheese. What is the gold standard for alfredo? What properties indicate a traditional Italian-style alfredo sauce? What type of pasta is it traditionally paired with?

Asked by KatieK

Answer

According to Cooking The Roman Way by David Downie, Fettucine Alfredo is a traditional Roman recipe called "pasta del cornuti" (cuckold's pasta). What either Alfredo Di Lelio III, or Mario Mozzetti, depending on whom you believe, invented in 1914, was the dramatic tableside preparation of Fettuccine Alfredo, which is what made the dish a hit with visiting Americans in the 20's and 30's.

The tableside preparation is really what makes Fettuccine Alfredo what it is: the hot pasta is tossed with the butter and cheese in front of the diner, and then served to them immediately.

Again, according to Downie, the only ingredients of Fettuccine Alfredo are egg fettuccine, lots of butter, lots of Parmegiano-Reggiano, and (if necessary) a little salt.

Recipes which add cream or milk are Americanized recipes designed to allow restaurants to hold orders of Alfredo for a long time under heat lamps (and turn it into a gooey pasty mess). Italians, from my experience visiting Italy, rarely put cream or milk on pasta (a real Italian could speak up here).

Downie has a fun 3-page digression about the ongoing lawsuits between the Roman families who claim to own the name. It's worth a read.

Alan Davidson, predictably, says nothing about Fettuccine Alfredo. The Glorious Pasta of Italy likewise does not cover the dish.

Wikipedia supports Downie's story, except only attributing Di Lelio, and adding the tidbit that Di Lelio apparently called it "Fettuccine al burro" (fettuccine with butter), and the Alfredo name was appended later when it was copied in the USA. Wikipedia also says butter and cheese only, on fettuccine pasta.

So, to answer your question and the questions asked in the comments:

1. Fettuccine Alfredo is an Italian dish, if more popular in the USA than in Italy.
2. It is a variation of a traditional Italian dish.
3. In its traditional form, it has only egg pasta, butter, and cheese.
4. The pasta for Alfredo is egg fettuccine.

Answered by FuzzyChef

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How can I marinate meatballs without making them “mushy”?

Question

I like to marinate my meatballs in a sauce on the stove for several hours, but they always seem to be "mushy" after cooking for so long. Is there a way to marinate the meatballs without having them cook?

Will the meatballs marinate while sitting in the cold sauce just as well as in the hot sauce?

Asked by John

Answer

I would crispen the outside a bit by frying or baking them first. To improve the outer crust, you might dust with flour and corn starch before frying. Typically I have not previously had problems with meat balls in sauce becoming mushy using minimally breaded mix, spices, and lean -ish (90%) ground meat. Here are some additional points to consider;

• If you use bread in your meatball mix, you might tilt the ratio more in favor of the meat
• If you are not using egg or some other binder, you might try doing so to create a tighter bond inside the ball
• If you are cooking the sauce at too high a heat (I normally have mine set as low as possible when doing a long cook) it may come to a simmer, making the sauce likelier to disrupt the meatballs. Maintain a lower heat or use a heavier pot
• If you are using ground meat, there is more room for the sauce to creep in. Make sure that they are packed sufficiently tightly when rolling them

Short of leaving the sauce and meat overnight, flavors will transfer more quickly in warmer temperatures. I am having trouble locating definitive resources to back this claim up, so I am speaking mainly from experience. However, one caveat exists particular to collagen and connective tissues in meat; here it is explaining why stews and other foods taste better the next day. Mixing water and strong acids is an exothermic process (gives off heat, does not benefit from warmth). However, this process is about mixing strong acids and fats. I would also mention that you are supposed to store tomatoes at room temp as the cold does not preserve their flavor and inhibits ripening, though I'm not sure this is relevant.

Answered by mfg

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Can I make a béchamel sauce with coconut cream?

Question

I want to make a béchamel sauce with coconut cream instead of milk. Does anybody have a guess whether this will work?

Asked by Andrey

Answer

First, you don't specify if you mean cream of coconut, or coconut milk. I think coconut milk would be the thing to try here, as it has less fat.

Second, if it works, it won't be bechamel any more. But this is a technical detail: if it is tasty to you, you should be able to use it as a substitution practically everywhere.

Third, does it work? I haven't tried it, but I would strongly assume that it will. Coconut milk has more fat than normal milk, but this isn't a terrible problem for roux-based sauces. Indeed, I have read recipes (in reliable cookbooks) which direct the cook to add melted butter to the roux before or after adding the liquid. Which means that the fat ratio in the sauce isn't too exact; it is the ratio of flour to water which you have to keep straight.

The one thing to pay attention to is that coconut fat melts around 34-35°C. So your coconut roux sauce will exhibit noticeable difference in thickness depending on the temperature. As long as you serve it warm, it will be a similar thickness to bechamel. If you let it go cold, it will probably thicken quite a bit. If you plan to serve it cold, adjust the flour amount accordingly.

Answered by rumtscho

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What is the difference between pizza sauce and spaghetti sauce?

Question

Pizza sauce and spaghetti sauce are both tomato-based, have roughly the same seasoning (Italian) and look a like. However, I (and a friendly user here) think there is a difference between the two. So what is it? Or isn't there one and you can interchange the two without a weird feeling or taste?

Asked by Mien

Answer

Red pizza sauce is often (but not always) two things:

1. Thicker. Thinner sauce will tend to run in the oven and also steam the pizza crust as it cooks. Depending on the crust, the heat of the oven, the toppings above sauce, and how watery it is, this may not be needed. If you've just got some crushed tomatoes and a few bits of cheese in a super hot oven - the sauce should be fine without reducing beforehand. If you've loaded up a bucket of sauce and a pound of cheese, precook and reduce the sauce.

2. It's often simpler. Many pasta dishes like spaghetti highlight the sauce and hours of simmering happen for the sauce to bring it to perfection. They're all about the sauce. Pizza is really about the crust and what highlights it. Many of the best pizzas are simply topped. Crushed san marzano tomatoes (sometimes) reduced with a hint of salt is often all I do, and franky, it's enough. I'm not talking about the jarred varieties here, but what you might cook at home. Jars in the store, the main difference is just how thick it is.

Answered by rfusca

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Can you estimate how long it takes to reduce a liquid?

Question

In a lot of recipes, there is a step that includes reducing your liquid. In most sauces, this isn't a problem, since you just need to thicken it and that's something you can see and doesn't take a long time.

However, last week I was making a base for a sauce, that included water, vinegar and white wine. The recipe asked me to reduce it till it was about 1/3 of the original amount. I didn't think it would take as long as it did and as a result, everything was ready except the sauce.

Is there a way to calculate how fast something reduces? I can understand it would depend on the ingredients, on the surface area and on the temperature, but assume that I know these variables.

Asked by Mien

Answer

If you're boiling something rapidly, and it's not in a terribly deep, narrow pot, then essentially all of the heat output of the burner is going into turning water into steam. The latent heat of vaporization of water is 2260 kJ/kg, so if you want to reduce something by a volume V, and your stove has power P, the time required is:

t = V * (1 g/mL) * (2260 J/g) / P

If V happens to be in mL, and P is in W (J/s):

t (s) = V / P * 2260

This would be modified slightly if you're using a really tall, skinny pot, since the convection within the pot, from the bottom to the top of the liquid, would be less efficient, with more heat transferred to the sides of the pot and out into the air, but I doubt you're actually going to try to reduce something like that. The P here is the effective power; for example, a gas burner wastes a lot of heat out the sides, so the advertised power will be higher. See TFD's answer for approximate efficiencies.

If you don't know the power of your stove, in all honesty, the easiest way to measure it would probably be to just see how long it takes to boil away a given volume of water, and work backwards. To get an accurate result, you should not boil a pot dry - once the water is a thin enough layer, the heat transfer might start working differently, with the pot itself heating up more, and water splattering. So you could, for example, put in a liter of water, boil away at the stove setting you intend to measure until it's substantially reduced in volume, record the time, then pour it out to measure how much you boiled away. At this point, knowing the power output might be overkill, though; you can really just measure the time per volume reduction, and use that, unless you care about the power for other reasons.

Trying to deduce the power of the stove from, say, the temperature of an empty pot or of the burner without a pot on it (assuming it's electric) would be difficult; you'd have to deal with the heat transfer between metal and air, and the convection in the air.

Dependence on ingredients shouldn't be significant - you're still just boiling water, unless there's a substantial amount of alcohol, in which case the latent heat of vaporization will be different. Pure alcohol has a latent heat of vaporization of 841 kJ/kg; I haven't found a good table for mixtures.

For solutions, as I noted in the comments, the latent heat of vaporization should be that of water, plus/minus the heat of solution of the solutes (I forget which direction that's measured in). The most common solutes are probably salt and sugar, which have heats of solution of 70 and 16 J/g, respectively. (I found this table, and converted.) The next most common thing I could think of that might be present in substantial concentrations is citric acid; this paper reports a heat of solution of -57 J/g. In all these cases it's small compared to the latent heat of vaporization of water, so pretending the liquid is water should be a good approximation. It's possible that things change if you're reducing really far: heat of solution does depend on concentration. That is, things are different thermodynamically (statistical mechanically?) in a nearly-saturated sugar syrup than in slightly sweet water.

Answered by Jefromi

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What causes curdling and how can you prevent it?

Question

Some sauces are more at risk to curdle than others. What exactly (ingredients, techniques, temperature...) causes this curdling? What can you do to have the curdling risk at minimum?

I'm not asking for ways to fix this, that's already asked here.

Asked by Mien

Answer

In most cases curdling occurs because proteins in the sauce are denatured and bind up with each other forming clumps.

In cooking proteins are denatured by excessive heat, acid, salt, or enzymes.

Heat and acid are the usual culprits for me. For example, when making a hollandaise sauce- the egg yolks are slowly cooked to allow them to set. In most recipes the lemon juice is added later. If the sauce is heated to abruptly or to high then the egg proteins will curdle.

To prevent curdling you have a few options-

• Don't expose the sauce to as much heat.
  Be careful to not overcook egg rich sauces. If possible add the protein rich ingredient later in the process- for example adding yogurt to a sauce just before serving.
• Heat the sauce gently.
  Heating too fast will also make proteins denature. Many sauces are cooked in a double boiler- not to keep the sauce from overheating but to ensure that it heats gently.
• Don't expose the proteins to too much salt or acid.
  Dropping a couple tablespoons of lemon juice into warm milk is a recipe for paneer not sauce.
• Take out some insurance.
  Proteins bind with each other after denaturing when there are a large quantity of similar molecules all together. One solution then is to introduce a lot of dissimilar molecules that will interfere with the protein's ability to bind to itself. Common candidates for this are starch or fat.

It is difficult (but not impossible) to curdle the milk protein in cream based sauces with just heat because the high concentration of milk fat gets in the way. This is why reduction sauces can add cream to a very hot liquid and let it reduce. However, adding acid and heat can still be enough to curdle so be careful if your reduction sauce is very acidic.

Many otherwise fragile sauce recipes will call for a little bit of corn starch as an insurance policy. In the related question that you posted- yogurt sauces are particularly susceptible to this because low-fat yogurt is very high in protein and low in fat, and starch.

Answered by Sobachatina

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Thick Chocolate Sauce

Question

Is it possible to do something with chocolate so that it does not get hard anymore so that its consistency gets something like the caramel in a mars/snickers bar? What precisley would I have to do to achieve that?

Asked by Flo

Answer

Perhaps a thick ganache might meet your demands. It wouldn't be as sticky as caramel though. But take a look at this question. It mentions adding some honey and butter to the standard ingredients, cream and chocolate.

If you have questions on how to make ganache, watch this video or one of the many others available on the internet. Simply said, heat up heavy cream and pour it over chopped bittersweet chocolate. Stir till all the chocolate is melted and you have a nice, smooth consistency. For your purpose, use at maximum the same amount of cream as chocolate. Add some more chocolate if it's too runny. But know that the ganache will become harder/thicker when cooled.

Answered by Mien

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What type of sauce is appropriate for a dry-aged prime steak?

Question

Yesterday I purchased some dry aged prime strip steaks from my beloved Wegmans. This will be the first time I will have the opportunity to eat (as far as I know) and cook prime beef. With that in mind how should I sauce my beautiful meat?

Typically I cook my steaks sous vide to 130 degrees and then salt and pepper with a cast iron sear. If I'm going to make a pan sauce I finish in my enamelled cast iron, deglaze with a dry red, some shallots, add some heavily reduced beef stock, and then finish with a pad of butter and demi glace.

This results in a very rich sauce which is delightful in its own right. I'm concerned that I might be make a sauce that covers up this glorious beef.

Does anyone have any recommendations for my first time?

Things I'm particularly concerned with are:

• What wine to use in the sauce - is high-end/vintage wine important, and what varieties might be best?
• Should I seek out something a little more upscale than reduced Swanson beef broth?
• Is this cut generally served sauced or unsauced?

Answer

This sounds yummy!

I'd recommend cooking sous vide (SV) as you suggest (130 F for 1-3 hrs). I tend not to season in the SV bag at all because salt & spices often turn out oddly; for example, raw herbs/onion/garlic are far stronger and taste "uncooked". Figuring out how to spice SV takes a fair amount of experimentation and is best done with dried & powdered herbs/spices instead of fresh ones.

VERY IMPORTANT:

• Before cooking SV trim excess fat from the steak
• After cooking take the meat from the SV bag and DRY it thoroughly before searing!
• If you're planning to use bag juices, first bring them to a full boil in another pot and skim off the scum (myoglobin "blood"), then use whatever is left as your meat juice.

To sear, pre-heat the cast iron sear to a very high temperature (~500) and use a high-temperature oil like peanut.

The sear should be at VERY high heat for only 30 seconds or so per side - if you leave it on much longer you'll lose the beautiful 130 degree edge-to-edge miracle that should be your reward.

Using butter for the sear is not a good idea as either the butter will be destroyed by the properly high heat OR the steak will be destroyed by keeping the cast iron's heat low enough for the butter. Rather, use compound butter as a topper for presentation.

As for using a torch, I've used a brulee torch a few times and the heat & coverage is insufficient to sear a steak well with my limited experience. You can sign your name on the steak with it, but getting a good, even edge-to-edge Maillard crust is very tough. Using a MAPP torch is quite a bit better; MAPP gas is flavorless, it's hotter than propane or butane, and MAPP torches tend to fan out broader flames, but I still don't think they create as dense or flavorful a crust as a pan-sear. Moreover ANY torch runs a likelihood of flat-out burning areas of the meat, and that's especially true for a first-timer!

Let's talk about salt before going any further. I've always salted meat before grilling. But SV is a completely different ballgame. Salting before SV doesn't add much flavor for you on short cooks and hurts badly on longer ones (cures the meat). There are online arguments about this, but I prefer salting only after SV and preferably after searing. Taste tests support this post-SV salting approach - check out http://www.cookingissues.com/2011/10/12/to-salt-or-not-to-salt-%E2%80%93that%E2%80%99s-the-searing-question/ for a great take on the subject.

If you keep the searing time appropriately short you won't have to rest the meat before serving. The meat is still incredibly juicy and doesn't need time to reabsorb fluids.

As for what to do with a sauce, I'd go for the butter instead and incorporate a steak-friendly sauce into a side dish.

A quality hunk of well-marbled dry-aged beef should sing with this preparation and I'd put it center-stage to sing solo, with the side dish's sauce grooving nearby ready to join in on the chorus.

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