Vacuum sealing SV seasonings, herbs, etc

Hey Team CS, I got me a vacuum sealer toy and wonder: can I seal up portions of meat/fish with garlic and oil and rosemary &tc. and then freeze them? Or will that wreck something?

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Brandon_Byrd_40557

Herbs are more potent in a bag, so use less than you normally would. Extended storage will allow more time for flavor exchange, so your protein may become more herbaceous than you intended. I don't personally put garlic in the bag because it doesn't cook out -- plants don't soften until 83-85C which is way hotter than you cook protein. But if you like raw garlic texture or plan to cook it later, then it's fine. Many flavor compounds in garlic also change over time, so I'm unsure how extended frozen storage would impact its flavor. It might become overly pungent; it might lose its pungency; it might be just fine. Give it a try and see if you like the results. If you are going to use garlic in the bag and store it for extended periods, be sure to freeze it immediately to avoid giving botulism spores a chance to get going. If you freeze shortly after packaging and cook from frozen, there's minimal risk.

wolfiegirl

I do it all the time! For example, I buy bulk packs of chicken thighs. Into a large bowl they go then I season them with my favorite dry herbs and olive oil and toss. As to garlic, for sous vide I prefer to use granulated garlic. It's just as potent (perhaps even more-so) than fresh in this application and no worries about uncooked/undercooked cloves. If I am going to add salt, I am VERY light handed because unless you give the salt time to be absorbed into the meat (8 to 24 hours prior to freezing is a good amount of time) it can draw the juices out and turn good protein into shoe leather. Instead I reserve the addition of salt for serving time. Once they're seasoned, they are portioned into however I need them to be, vac seal and stow them into the deep freeze. Easy peasy.

Handy hint.....I write (a sharpie works fine) on the top edge of the bag what's in the bag and at what temp to sv. I say this because once frozen, it can be challenging to know what's in the vac bag....wait! Is this a parcel of chicken thighs or chicken breast meat?! I can't tell!! Makes a HUGE difference in the temp you will want to sv them!

As to beef, I ALWAYS treat the steaks/roast/whatever with fish sauce prior to freezing. For steaks, once they've been fish sauced and been hanging out for 3 or 4 days in the fridge, I will also pre-sear them, THEN into the vac bag, seal and freeze. Again, I write what's exactly in the vac bag (i.e. - rib eye/fish sauce/preseared sv 133°). NOW it's a matter of dropping the frozen parcel into the waterbath and, when done, remove and dry the already pre-seared steak, give it a quick post sear and dinner is served!!