Foodsaver and reheating

[beerguy]

sounds good to me

[SpammyQ]

Originally Posted by beerguy

I read somewhere (maybe my manual, maybe here) that you DON"T reheat the vac seal bags in BOILING water, but very hot water, say 190-200. The boiling water may make the bag leak or melt.

Anybody else remember this?

I HAVE had bags burst on me from not paying attention the the heat. I find a gentle simmer works best, 20-30 minutes. I also take out what I'm cooking and stick in the fridge to thaw a day before.

This method works great for camping trips.

[PigBoy]

I wouldn't bother freezing if you are using that soon. Meat sealed will keep a long time in refrigeration after vacuuming it. Also, you can use your smoker to reheat larger amounts if you don't get it too hot.

[River City Smokehouse]

It is important to make sure that your meat is cooled down before sealing. Refrigerate and bring the meat temps down to below 45*F within 2 hours to be safe. Seal the meats and put back into the refigeration ASAP. Be sure not to over fill bags of meat. Remember that the thicker the mass, the longer it will take to cool. After sealing yourm bags you could submerge them in a ice bath for a quicker cooling down.

[Keri C]

I always reheat BBQ using the "boilin' bag" method. I learned a long time ago to only simmer though. I've been reheating this way for some years now, and only twice have I had a bag pop on me. Both times were when I had allowed the water to go to a full boil instead of a light simmer. Now I put my package in the water when I first put the pot on the stove, allowing the meat temp to rise along with the water. I do this for the pulled pork at our October Senior-Q when we feed 150 seniors. We cook everything else onsite, but I do the pork ahead of time and do the "boilin' bag" thing in the DPP's onboard turkey fryer. I TRY to let it thaw first, but have frequently taken something out of the freezer and gone straight to the pot with it. The flatter the package, the better this works from the frozen state. A whole brisket flat will go from frozen to hot and edible in about 30 minutes, for example, while ribs will heat faster than that.

When I'm cooking up a big batch for the freezer or for other people, I always do the ice bath to chill quickly. I let the meat cool just a bit, package it up with a bit of sauce/juice, vac it, and throw the vacuumed packages down into an ice-water slurry in an ice chest. It chills them down much quicker than setting them into the fridge or even the freezer, as the warm meat will heat up the refrigerator before it cools the meat. After at least a few hours in the ice/water (adding ice occasionally as it melts - I usually go through 3 bags of ice in this process), I dry the packages, and it's off to the freezer or the refrigerator. This is the fastest chill-down method I've found short of a nitrogen blast...

Keri C

[Divemaster]

Originally Posted by SpammyQ

I HAVE had bags burst on me from not paying attention the the heat. I find a gentle simmer works best, 20-30 minutes. I also take out what I'm cooking and stick in the fridge to thaw a day before.

This method works great for camping trips.

I had that problem too and determined that it was the fact that the bag was resting on the bottom of the pot. I think what was happening is that with so little water (if any) between the pot and the bag that the bag was actually melting. I've found that putting a small bar towel or even just a wash cloth under the bag kept this from happening. I've gotten to the point where I use the turkey frier and keep the basket in the pot to raise it up about half an inch.

Originally Posted by Keri C

When I'm cooking up a big batch for the freezer or for other people, I always do the ice bath to chill quickly. I let the meat cool just a bit, package it up with a bit of sauce/juice, vac it, and throw the vacuumed packages down into an ice-water slurry in an ice chest. It chills them down much quicker than setting them into the fridge or even the freezer, as the warm meat will heat up the refrigerator before it cools the meat. After at least a few hours in the ice/water (adding ice occasionally as it melts - I usually go through 3 bags of ice in this process), I dry the packages, and it's off to the freezer or the refrigerator. This is the fastest chill-down method I've found short of a nitrogen blast...

Keri C

I like that idea! I may go with that on my next big cook in a couple of weeks!