sous-vide-spring-contest

Brine, cook then freeze? Or brine, freeze then cook?


Asked by ernieve on Sunday, May 16
I've got some pork country style ribs that I bought and want to vacuum pack only once. Which method should work better with SV? <br />- freeze them uncooked after brining and seasoning them <br />- or brine, season, then cook before freezing <br /> <br />Thanks, <br />Ernie

3 Answers to This Question

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A lot of this would depend on how you want to use them when you reheat them. If you're hoping to just pull them out of the freezer, defrost them and eat them quickly then it can be best to cook them using sous vide ahead of time. <br /> <br />However, if you don't mind cooking them sous vide later then just freezing them first should work very well. I've cooked frozen steaks by putting them directly into the sous vide water (instead of defrosting them first) and it worked great. I added a little time, 30 or 45 minutes, to the cooking time to account for them being frozen but it was a really simple way to have meals ready to go.
Answered by Jason Logsdon on Tuesday, May 18
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At the molecular level, freezing creates water crystals that penetrate cell walls. Depending on the cut of meat this might result in serious tenderizing or serious drying of the texture. I suggest trying the particular cut of meat each way and seeing which way works best for you...
Answered by Leigh Jones on Tuesday, June 18
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Ernie <br />We brine, freeze and then cook later - particularly with pork cutlets and tasmanian salmon <br /> <br />There are taste and presentation advantages <br /> <br />The brining process is well described by Doug Baldwyn and chadzilla on the internet and there is also good info at <a href="http://www.cooksillustrated.com/images/document/howto/ND01_ISBriningbasics.pdf">http://www.cooksillustrated.com/images/document/howto/ND01_ISBriningbasics.pdf</a>
Answered by thenco on Friday, September 24
You can also find a lot of sous vide information, as well as over 100 recipes, in our book Beginning Sous Vide which you can get at Amazon.com or as a pdf download.

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