Pre Searing and Freezing Safety

Thinking through a workflow:

Receive meat shipment on a Monday for the week. Pre-Sear all meat, allow to cool slightly and vac seal. Freeze meat until ready to SV.

I know a lot of people bag and freeze their meat ahead of time. Is it possible to do with a presear? I also understand some people freeze THEN presear, to minimize the amount of interior cooking. The goal is to minimize the number of bags and times the product is vacuum packed.

Any thoughts? Safe to sear seal and freeze?

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lfmichaud

There shouldn't be much difference between sear/freeze/cook and freeze/sear/cook especially for thicker pieces of meat. Just don't over do it and do a second sear after the sous vide cooking. (That should be when you season it)

Brendan_Lee_56950

Consider this:

Receive meat: trim and portion
Move to freezer on a wire rack for 45-50 minutes (or more depending on the size) the goal is to have it partially frozen
Presear partially frozen meat
Place in bags, chill, seal
Freeze or cook-chill-freeze
Retherm on day of consumption, season heavily, sear again.
Profit.

mike.minasian

Boom! Thanks guys. @Brendon, that was the essence of what I was planning, but was unsure if there was any issue with doing steps 3-5 like that. As in - does the meat somehow become "partially cooked" and therefore an issue to freeze for awhile and then recook. This sounds like a plan to me!

Brendan_Lee_56950

I personally prefer to cook-chill before freezing because I can take care of all the tenderizing ahead of time. In fact, I usually will sear then cook whole cuts and then portion after chilling and then packaging to freeze. It makes it really easy to do a quick weeknight meal and still have a superbly tender cut (usually pork in my house).