This Portland-Made Cast Iron Griddle is Perfect For Searing-Off Sous Vide Meats

Like a lot of men, I've spent too much time thinking about how to make the perfect steak. Whether it's social conditioning or brute animal instinct, I'm a dispassionate and inconsistent cook who, for some reason, works diligently and carefully whenever I'm dealing with a slab of meat.

So the it’s really not an exaggeration to say that the Anova sous vide cooker changed my life.

Yes, the Anova is mostly good at meat—I made a pumpkin cheesecake using my Anova for Thanksgiving, which was a disaster in every way—but my God is it good at meat. I’ve made a slow-rooked pork shoulder with a little liquid smoke that could stand up to most barbecue in this town and I’ve suddenly become one of those obnoxious people who thinks buying steak at restaurants is silly because I can do it just as well at home. Because I can.

Earlier this year, we conducted a blind-taste of rib-eyes to determine the best available in the city. Give me a thick-cut Painted Hills rib-eye and a Ziploc bag and in one hours time I will give you a perfectly prepared steak.

There was but one kink in the pipeline: The right method of searing off the steak.

Sous-vide cookers work by slowly cooking meat in a vacuum-sealed bag so that they remain super juicy and cook evenly to the desired doneness. But then you have to pop that steak onto a grill or into a super-hot cast iron pan to seal the juices in and make it take the familiar form remebered by cavemen without Anovas.
I’ve tried a lot of methods, including several cast iron pans and my grill. Finally, I have the answer I was looking for, and it came from Finex, a Portland-based company just a few blocks from our office.

The Finex 15″ Lean grill pan ($99) is exactly what I needed. It goes on the stove inside, so I don't have to go outside on a cold, rainy day and futz with a charcoal chimney. It's a large rectangle so I can fit three or four steaks on it at once, meaning no one has to wait for dinner. And, most importantly, it has grill-width ridges that give the meat the familiar look of a grill steak.

This is a heavy, heavy pan—"heirloom quality" is what Finex calls it, and it seems fair given the heft and careful design. It's pre-seasoned, as almost all cast iron is these days. (I am so old I remember going into my backyard to build a fire so I could season a new dutch oven before a big campout!)

Steak for tacos made with the Anova and the Finex cast-iron pan. (Martin Cizmar)

The thing Finex is proudest of is the “innovative domed fat draining base,” which is intended to let the fat collect for disposal. This has not really made a difference with my steaks, but depending on the cut and recipe you’re using, I imagine it could also be useful in collection jus.
This pan is not cheap. But it doesn’t feel cheap, either. It’s handmade in Portland, and might make the ideal gift for your home’s resident meat master since it’s the perfect tool for finishing off a sous vide steak.

Shop cast iron at Finex

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This Portland-Made Cast Iron Griddle is Perfect For Searing-Off Sous Vide Meats

This Portland's Finex has made an heirloom cast iron pan that perfectly mimics a grill.