Will It Keep?

You blokes need to disregard everything I say.

I have vac packed lamb in the fridge that I'm planning to cook soon. Been there 4 months.

in 2021, took a vac packed steak out after 6 months. Cooked and ate that.

Posted that on the Brethren to make a point

No probs.

Of course if you're serving it to your Granny, well nope. It's not that it's gonna kill her, but you want to serve something nicer for her. You can be sure your Granny has had to eat worse.

But if you are looking at a few days here and there.. whether it's safe or not?

It's fine.

As I mentioned... disregard everything I say!:crazy:

Cheers!

Bill

Seen on a a kitchen sign years ago

"Almost everyone who has eaten my food has gone on to live a healthy normal life"

Why not just cook early ... freeze .... reheat ... if necessary ...

Leftovers

Mike Twangzer said:

Why not just cook early ... freeze .... reheat ... if necessary ...

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Feels too much like serving leftovers to me. The smell of the grill, the smell of the cook, the smell of the meat - all add to the guest's experience. Snipping open a sous vide bag and dumping it out doesn't quite live up to the same experience, even though the food may be just as good. Although you don't have to be sweaty or smoky in front of your guest.

SmokeOCD said:

Feels too much like serving leftovers to me. The smell of the grill, the smell of the cook, the smell of the meat - all add to the guest's experience. Snipping open a sous vide bag and dumping it out doesn't quite live up to the same experience, even though the food may be just as good. Although you don't have to be sweaty or smoky in front of your guest.

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Throw something else on the smoker to be sizzling away when they show up, and you are serving food you aren't still stressing over .

TravelingJ said:

Throw something else on the smoker to be sizzling away when they show up, and you are serving food you aren't still stressing over .

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This ^^

I serve guests "leftover" brisket and pulled pork more often than I do fresh. I cook the day or two before, at my leisure, slice/pull then vacuum seal. I'll reheat with sous vide the day of my event, and I can hold it for hours until I need to serve it with no degradation in quality. I get no complaints from guests, and it probably results in consistently better (or at least more timely) barbecue because I don't have a timeline bearing down on me influencing when I need to finish the meat.

Other times, I'll start my cook way ahead of time and hold in my Alto Shaam warmer for as many hours as I need to hit my serving time. The drawback method is I may be tired when it comes time to host, as I probably got up early or had a late night. I got up at 4:30 AM the other morning to fire up my stick burner so that we could eat by 5 PM. I was tired. If I needed to eat at noon, I'd probably have started my cook the day before and finished that night, and hold for 8-10 hours.

Well, what’d you do and how’d it turn out?

Works for me.