Questions about storage of certain foods..

Hey guys,

I'm planning to open a food truck and i'll be serving a porchetta sandwich and a burger as well.

My goal is to keep the burger meat as fresh as possible without having to freeze it, but if i do freeze it, what is the best way to do it? would it be better to freeze the chunks of meat, then defrost and grind them instead of freezing the burger inside a vaccum bag already prepared? Does it really make any difference?

And also about the porchetta sandwich: i'll prepare some crackling to go with it, but i'm doing it separately from the meat. I was thinking on pressure cooking the skins and cripsping them in a very low temp oven. After i do this, what is the best way to keep it crisp?

Thanks a lot!

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Brandon_Byrd_40557

For the burger meat, I'd grind, form patties, freeze patties, then vacuum seal. If you pull a vacuum on an unfrozen burger it'll mash it down and ruin the texture. As for the cracklins, I'd keep them in an airtight container along with some silica gel packs.

lelferreira

I agree with you @brandon Byrd, but my main concern is on defrosting, the best way to keep the colour, quality of the meat. would the chunks be better than the brger already ground or it doesn't make any difference at all??

Brandon_Byrd_40557

I haven't done a direct comparison, but I regularly grind, portion, and freeze meat and the color/quality doesn't really suffer during storage. If you pull a hard vacuum on it you should be fine either way since oxidation is what's primarily responsible for color and flavor change.

lelferreira

maybe the way you defrost it will play a more important part on this process than the storage of the food itself?

Brendan_Lee_56950

Are you planning on cooking the burgers in the water bath? I freeze my burgers after grinding and forming pretty regularly so that I can get a great crust on them before throwing them in the bath to cook through and I notice no impact on flavor/color/texture. The quicker you freeze them the better though.

Jack_Mayer_85396

@Brendan, are you pre-searing the patties after freezing and then chilling and bagging? Then you drop the frozen/pre-seared patties in the bath? Do you do any kind of post-sear? Thanks!

lelferreira

@Brendanm, i will not cook it sous vide. i 'd defrost than cook it on the char-broiler. My concern is that when youdefrost it, the ice around it melts "washing the meat". does it make any sense to you?

lelferreira

my english is not that good... sorry... hehehe

Brendan_Lee_56950

@jack I sear from frozen (really the only reason I freeze them at all) and then bag them in ziploc and cook, then a quick sear before serving.

@duda if you aren't planning on cooking them sous vide I probably wouldn't freeze them, i think it would add a lot of time for the defrost to your workflow and enter more margin for error. If i were doing it I think i'd probably grind all your meat for the day and store in a covered tub in the cooler and keep 8-10 patties pressed at all times for service so whoever if working with you can replenish them as the orders go out. I think you could freeze the unground cubed meat since it would make it easier to grind but i wouldn't freeze the patties once formed.

lelferreira

@Brendan Lee‌ definitely... That's what i was thinking... Freeze unground chunks of meat instead of the burger itself... Thats just a backup... I'm planning to never freeze them actually, but if i did eventually i'd like to discuss with you if i was right about the methods

Jack_Mayer_85396

@B_Lee - gracias amigo!