Weekly Sous Vide Cooking Strategies

John_19944

Hi Everyone,

Each Monday me and my girlfriend travel to an awesome butchers and grab the different proteins we need for the week.

Do you believe I should be throwing all that protein into the SV bath, pasteurising, chilling and then refrigerating?

Or would vacuum packing and cooking from fresh during the week be a better approach. I would of course ensure that the shelf life is good for those 5-6 days.

When it comes to eating like this on a weekly basis, does pasteurisation only make sense for those meats which require long cooking times such as 72 hour ribs?

What we're trying to do is to try not to freeze protiens and cook from fresh whenever possible to improve texture, flavour etc.

Any thoughts on this topic would be most appreciated.

Kind regards,

John

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Comments

Brendan_Lee_56950

I do this pretty much weekly. I usually break everything down sunday, package according to each meal, and then cook on the day of. I cryovac everything so i feel safe that they will stand up to the 3-4 days in the fridge before cooking and still maintain quality. Depending on the protein, I will start something before I go to bed and take it out and chill in an ice bath in the fridge before I go to work and retherm when I get home (or my wife will depending on who's home first).

I don't usually bother with pasteurization since i'm cooking day of normally and I feel confident in my source of product.

Matthew_Snyder_68770

This is my biggest argument for investing the money for SV at home. My commute pretty much rules out any weeknight cooking, which totally and completely sucks. But if I can spend the time prepping four or five meals on Sunday, get them packaged and cooked off, and chilled for storage, then day-of is just a matter of the wife turning the circulator on when she gets home to re-therm. (I prefer the approach of cook first, then re-heat, because it seems more practical if you want to use a longer cooking time, like your overnight example Brendan).
This is also an example of where I think the new era of budget-friendly circulators is going to have a big impact on home cooking. Certainly hope for it to have an impact on my cooking!

Brendan_Lee_56950

yup, it's pretty awesome, i don't have to fret over the doneness of a piece of meat and even better my wife can prep a significant portion of the meal if she's home first despite the fact that she doesn't cook.

I will add though, I definitely pre-cook and chill veggies that I am doing SV. This way they can be just reheated with the protein the day of.

Matthew_Snyder_68770

Yeah, that's a huge consideration for me. My wife and I have been together almost ten years, and I might be able to count the number of meals she's cooked in that time on one hand. That's not a complaint, by any means, just a recognition that her involvement in kitchen matters requires a fairly easy-to-follow set of instructions. "Turn this thing on, put these two bags in the water when the thing beeps, walk away" is about as straightforward as it gets.