[wooster]

Well, in the case of sous vide it would be in a sealed bag, under pressure, cooked longer. I would hypothesize that the increased pressure would help with brine solution penetration of the meat. The sealed bag prevents moisture loss to the environment. The lengthened cooking time would mean more time for the brine solution to effect the contracting muscle filaments, and more time for the solution to be pulled into the muscle cells.

This isn't what we want. We want the salt to effect the outside of the steak the most, the portion that will be exposed to high heat when searing, because that's where the most water loss will come from.

With a slow cook in a combi oven, the characteristics would be still different.

[tptacek]

Steaks aren't typically cooked under vacuum pressure. Dave Arnold uses Ziplocs for steak.

[wooster]

Not when he's going to re-therm. Also, from the post I linked above:

  A rib-eye was salted, seared, placed in a vacuum bag, 
  and cooked at 55 C for 1.5 hours, chilled, stored for 
  two days, rethermed at 52C for one hour, seared, and 
  served