"So, should you smoke your food before or after you cook it? Smoking prior to low-and-slow sous vide cooking has the advantage of allowing the flavor and color to continue to develop. The components of smoke react with the components of food in a way that is a lot like the Maillard reaction (the reaction between amino acids and sugars found in all protein-rich foods, in which molecules keep reacting to one another in ever more complex ways, helping to develop rich aromas and deep, brown color). Once these reactions have begun, they’ll continue to evolve as the cooking continues inside a sealed sous vide bag. This means that the patina of smoke will darken, the rind will become chewier, and the smoky flavor will mellow.
If you want a more vibrant, traditional pit-smoked flavor, then we recommend smoking after the sous vide cooking step. Some barbecue pundits claim that you cannot get proper smoked flavor after the food has been cooked. But this is demonstrably false—try it and see. In fact, try both ways of combining sous vide with smoking to discover which you like more. Whatever your preference, once you’ve experienced the remarkable texture and consistency of sous vide food—combined with the convenience of only having to tend to a smoker for a few hours—we predict you’ll convert readily."
Along the captain obvious lines, on weekends I make huge batches of stews, soups, braises, and casseroles. Then we portion it out into square Ziplock containers and label/date it. We have a 24 cu ft freezer in our basement that holds all our leftovers. On week nights, we rummage through the stacks and decide what we are in the mood for, (Mexican, Italian, comfort food,etc), pull the container, loosen the top and let it spin in the microwave. If you use small enough containers, you can even eat out of them.
This process does not work well with meat that has been grilled or baked. The microwave turns it into inedible rubber. But that is where sous vide fills that gap. So we can now cook a bunch of steaks, chicken, or fish, and then portion it out in vacuum bags and then reheat in a water bath. Sometimes we will sear it ,sometimes not. But we still save time during the week by eating out of the freezer.
Above all, you can save money by buying stuff on sale, cook it, portion it, and eat it later. Sometimes much later...as in last friday's dinner -chicken soup from 12/2009. You just have to do a better job of rotating the stock.
