Chapter 179

Actually, you can further enhance the Maillard reaction by searing the surface of the sous-vide steak afterward, but…

Today, I feel like enjoying a pure sous-vide steak, something I haven’t had in a while.

Moreover, while searing sous-vide meat might seem like a superior cooking method that preserves the benefits of sous-vide while also capturing the Maillard reaction from direct heat, it’s not always necessarily better.

The sous-vide method is fundamentally about preserving the meat’s moisture as much as possible.

Because of this, the surface retains a lot of moisture, which acts as a buffer when searing on direct heat or a griddle, preventing proper heat transfer and thus hindering the Maillard reaction.

To properly sear sous-vide meat, you need to remove all surface moisture and then quickly sear it at high heat to achieve the Maillard reaction.

However, doing so weakens the two main advantages of sous-vide: the meat’s rich moisture and uniform cooking throughout.

Of course, the ability to achieve the Maillard reaction, which you can’t get with sous-vide alone, is very appealing, but…

I think it’s also a valid approach to boldly give up the flavor from the Maillard reaction and enjoy the steak as it is without further intervention.

So, without touching the sous-vide steak any further, I took it as it was and carried it out to the Adventurer Guild’s hall.

—

*Clatter*

“Here, eat to your heart’s content.”

Kurt placed the steak, said to be made with an artifact, on the table.

However, even though the food was served, Arisa could only stare at it with wide, round eyes.

“Is this… a steak?”

“Yes. It’s a special dish made with an artifact I found in the ruins today.”

“B-but this doesn’t look like a steak at all!”

As Arisa said, the steak Kurt brought looked completely different from a typical steak.

It wasn’t the steak she knew, nor was it just raw meat—it was a bizarrely shaped meat dish…

Arisa, seeing this unfamiliar form of steak, cautiously asked Kurt.

But in response to her question, Kurt simply smiled and said that was exactly what he intended.

‘What… what is this…? Is this really a steak…? Gasp! Could it be!?’

“Is this that traditional Lizardman dish, the steak dripping with blood?!”

Last time, when she first met him, he served her fried potatoes and a milkshake, so she thought he was quite good at cooking for a Lizardman…

But in the end, he’s still just a Lizardman after all!

Thinking this, Arisa looked at Kurt with trembling eyes, but he, as if offended by her gaze, straightened his expression and dismissed her imagination.

“No, it’s not.”

“R-really?”

‘It… it seems like it though…’

Arisa pretended to understand Kurt’s words, but the more she looked at the steak he made, the more bizarre it seemed.

“Just try eating it first.”

“…O-okay.”

Arisa wasn’t particularly hungry looking at the strange steak, but she couldn’t refuse the food Kurt had prepared, so she carefully picked up her fork and knife and began cutting the steak.

—

Honestly, Arisa, being naturally introverted and unable to refuse, accepted the meal with gratitude since Kurt had personally prepared it.

However, she wasn’t particularly looking forward to it.

Being a Dark Elf, Arisa culturally avoided meat and didn’t particularly like it.

It wasn’t that she disliked the taste or smell of meat, but she couldn’t bring herself to enjoy it mentally.

After all, while it’s not widely known among other races, considering how Elves become Dark Elves, it’s understandable that Dark Elves have an even stronger aversion to meat than Elves.

Of course, Arisa wasn’t a first-generation Dark Elf, so she didn’t have as strong a rejection as her ancestors, but she still didn’t like it much.

And second, there was the appearance of the so-called sous-vide steak.

If it were at least a familiar steak, she might not like it but wouldn’t dislike it either, so she could eat it without much resistance…

But this steak, neither grilled nor raw, with its strange mix of pink and brown, lacked the usual dark brown sear marks from a pan or grill.

It was as if it hadn’t been cooked on a pan or grill at all.

Wait, was this even really grilled?

The lack of sear marks aside, what was this glossy, dripping juice all over the surface?

It was as if someone had collected the meat’s juices and poured a ladleful over the steak.

And most importantly, the biggest psychological discomfort that made her hesitate.

With a normal steak, no matter how carefully the chef cooks it, some parts will receive more heat than others, and even with precise butchering, there will be slight differences in thickness or curvature, leading to uneven cooking.

Thus, no matter how you cook it, a steak will always have parts that are more or less cooked.

But this meat… it was as if every side…

Not just the top and bottom…

But even the sides, every direction had been cooked with the same level of heat, making the meat’s color completely uniform.

When Arisa first realized this, she almost got goosebumps.

What kind of technique could have been used to cook meat like this?

But she couldn’t just keep staring at the meat without eating it.

Suppressing her discomfort, Arisa picked up her fork and knife with trembling hands and slowly cut into the meat.

‘Ugh… weird meat…’

*Slice*

*Slice*

‘Ugh… ugh… huh?’

As she forced herself to maintain her expression while cutting the meat, Arisa noticed something and expressed her doubt.

‘Why is the meat… so tender?’

It was a tenderness that made her question whether she was really cutting meat.

This was the hidden third advantage of the sous-vide method—not just cooking the meat moistly and uniformly, but also making it incredibly tender.

Sous-vide cooks meat at a relatively low temperature of 60 degrees for a long time, allowing heat to evenly penetrate every surface and the interior.

At 60 degrees, sous-vide maintains the optimal temperature for protein denaturation.

Proteins begin to denature at temperatures above 40 degrees, and collagen starts to coagulate at 55 degrees.

Above 60 degrees, the coagulated collagen undergoes further denaturation, turning into gelatin, which restores the meat’s tenderness.

This much is a chemical reaction that occurs in normal meat cooking.

However, above 66 degrees, actin, another protein, begins to change, causing the meat to contract and toughen.

This is the chemical process that occurs in normal steak cooking.

But sous-vide steak…

By staying within the narrow safety zone between 60 and 65 degrees, it allows collagen to gelatinize while preventing actin from denaturing, keeping the meat at its most tender.

This is why sous-vide steak is inevitably tender.

A tenderness that’s structurally impossible to achieve with normal steak.

The tender sous-vide steak melted away as Arisa cut into it.

Seeing the tenderly cut meat, Arisa realized something else and couldn’t help but be slightly shocked.

Looking at the cross-section of the cut meat, she saw that even the inside was the same color as the surface.

“How on earth did you cook the meat like this…?”

While it was somewhat understandable that Kurt, being a master, could use extraordinary senses to cook every surface evenly…

But to have the inside cooked to the same level…

This isn’t something a chef’s physical skill alone can achieve.

At this point, it’s so unbelievable that instead of feeling repulsed, it feels more fascinating.

*Gulp*

Now, instead of feeling repulsed by the steak’s strange appearance, Arisa felt a sense of anticipation and carefully placed the cut sous-vide steak into her mouth.

*Haaah*