i cut and bagged the chicken with the sauce, and it's abundantly clear why it needs to be solid. it's not so much that the liquid gets sucked out when you vacuum the bag; it's that tiny little amounts of liquid leak up and you end up with a less-than-stellar seal, which also takes two times longer for the machine to finish, and as a result, you have to stop often to let the sealer cool down. this rates fairly high on the PITA-meter. i'm either going to have to restrict myself to sauces that easily freeze, or invest in a heavier-duty sealer. since one of the main points of the exercise is to conserve funds, we'll start with the sauce thing. i read on some website that you can put a paper towel in the bag to keep liquids from affecting the seal, but the idea of cooking, freezing, and nuking with a soggy piece of paper towel just ain't doing it for me. yuck.
all of which reveals a new bistro MD mystery: the sauce bag. they often package sauces separately, like the orange sauce for the shrimp, or the cranberry sauce that comes with the pork cutlet. it's clearly not pre-frozen, and definitely vacuum-packed. i can only assume that the commercial-grade vacuum sealer system they use is light-years ahead of my dinky $50 one from target. now that i've thought about it, it's not much of a mystery, is it?
back to the task at hand: i also couldn't decide if i should sous vide the veggies or not, since i used an asian mix of fresh, pre-prepped veggies from the good people at Dorothy Lane Market. i cleverly decided to cook ONE bag and just freeze the rest, so we can compare the results. even smarter - i marked the bag i cooked so i know which one it is. :)
ironically enough, bagging was the trickiest part of the whole operation. i used a BIG copper roasting pan almost full of water, and i put it on my smallest, lamest front burner with a candy thermometer. set the temp 2/3 of the way beween low and medium, and watched as, well, very little happened. i'm not sure what kind of magic i expected, since i've put water on the stove before, so i have a pretty good idea of how that part works. after 20 minutes i turned the heat up to medium. when the meat and veggie bags were ready, the temperature was about 130 degrees. once they were in and temp was climbing back up again, i let it get to about 145 and turned the heat back down to midways between low and medium. the water temp stabilized at almost exactly 146. i checked on it every 20 minutes or so, but it didn't move more than a degree.
according to the chart, at 146 degrees, a piece of chicken that's apprx. 40 mm thick needs 1 hr and 20 minutes or so to be fully cooked. since i had the false start, and have repeatedly read that you can't overcook when you sous vide (although i don't know that i really believe that) i left it in the water for about an hour and a half, took everything out and dried it, and put the bags in the freezer. this morning they were good and frozen, even that pesky sauce. (hm? will ask mr. science how that could be.)
my verdict on time and hassle: actually maintaining the water temperature was surprisingly easy, with the bulk of the effort spent on getting the food measured and bagged with a proper seal, and waiting for the sealer to cool down. this was complicated by the fact that i ran out of pre-made bags and started using the rolls, which require more sealing. when i'm doing these a dozen at a time, i'm going to use the more expensive, pre-made bags. they're about $10 for a box of 32 (adding $0.32 to the cost of each meal - still MILES cheaper than bistro's $11 per meal.) i'm also going to do what i can to find sauces that freeze easily. we'll have to wait and see if my cheapo sealer can stand up to the volume. i might check on ebay to spirit up a better one.
so, szechuan chicken and vegetables for lunch today. i'll report back in the afternoon with the results.my next effort will be with a stuffed chicken breast. that might also be a way to keep non-freezing sauces contained during sealing. (ah-HA!) i'm torn between that, and something beefy. what do you think?
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