# Can I season the meat before freezing? **URL:** \ **Category:** First Cook Essentials\ **Created:** [November 28, 2018, 9:51pm UTC](https://community.anovaculinary.com/t/can-i-season-the-meat-before-freezing/17922 "2018-11-28T21:51:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RickD1245](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@RickD1245](https://community.anovaculinary.com/u/RickD1245)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2018, 9:51pm UTC](https://community.anovaculinary.com/t/can-i-season-the-meat-before-freezing/17922/1 "2018-11-28T21:51:53Z")
Just received my APC and will be doing steaks tomorrow night. My wife and I buy a lot of meat in quantity at CostCo and then vacuum pack it ourselves at home. We do not use salt for dietary reasons so we use Mrs Dash and other salt free seasonings regularly. If we bought a whole pork loin, or beef tenderloin, etc and then cut our portions at home is there any reason that we couldn’t season the mean before sealing in the bags and freezing so that we could then just defrost and place in the sous vide? Follow up question; could we just place the frozen meat packet in the sous vide to defrost before cooking? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Ember](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.anovaculinary.com/ember/32/729_2.png) [@Ember](https://community.anovaculinary.com/u/Ember)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2018, 1:40am UTC](https://community.anovaculinary.com/t/can-i-season-the-meat-before-freezing/17922/2 "2018-11-29T01:40:20Z")
Short answer. Yes and yes. Long answer. You can pre-season, if you choose. I don’t season pre-cook so I don’t season pre-freeze. I like to use the cooking juices (essentially essence of whatever you cook) for reduction sauces plus I don’t find much flavour benefit from it. I only season pre-sear. Part 2. Depending on what you are cooking you may need to add extra time for the product to defrost in the bath. An easy way to work it out is for short cooks (under 4 hours) add half of the cooking time extra. For longer cooking cycles you really don’t need to adjust. ---
**Author:** ![RickD1245](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@RickD1245](https://community.anovaculinary.com/u/RickD1245)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2018, 2:05am UTC](https://community.anovaculinary.com/t/can-i-season-the-meat-before-freezing/17922/3 "2018-11-29T02:05:54Z")
Great. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![chatnoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@chatnoir](https://community.anovaculinary.com/u/chatnoir)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2018, 2:39pm UTC](https://community.anovaculinary.com/t/can-i-season-the-meat-before-freezing/17922/4 "2018-11-29T14:39:10Z")
Rick, there’s one reason i would advise not seasoning with Mrs. Dash when freezing portioned meat. Those seasoning mixes contain a substantial amount of dehydrated garlic which when frozen over time develops an unpleasant dominance in the seasoning’s flavour profile, and it increases. Even if you enjoy a lot of garlic, unfortunately it’s an unpleasant aberration of the flavour. As Ember points out, there isn’t much if any benefit to seasoning before freezing. Frozen meat can be SV cooked from the frozen state and many Anova users do it for the convenience. As an alternative, you might find it beneficial to SV cook your portioned meat, ice-bath chill and then freeze. Reheating is done at or below the original cooking temperature to maintain your precise degree of doneness. ---
**Author:** ![fischersd](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.anovaculinary.com/fischersd/32/5594_2.png) [@fischersd](https://community.anovaculinary.com/u/fischersd)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2018, 5:16pm UTC](https://community.anovaculinary.com/t/can-i-season-the-meat-before-freezing/17922/5 "2018-11-29T17:16:59Z")
The one “gotcha” I’ve found when going from freezer to Sous Vide bath is that, in a frozen state there isn’t any give to the meat, so if you’re using Sous Vide racking to maximize your items in your bath, it won’t hold the meat securely until the outside 1/4" is thawed. (You’re likely just as well off to thaw the item in a sinkful of water, then transfer to your Sous Vide - the one benefit to doing your thaw in a heated bath is that it will be quicker than using tap water - really depends if you’re short on time or not). ---
**Author:** ![chatnoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@chatnoir](https://community.anovaculinary.com/u/chatnoir)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2018, 5:51pm UTC](https://community.anovaculinary.com/t/can-i-season-the-meat-before-freezing/17922/6 "2018-11-29T17:51:42Z")
Excellent point. There’s always a choice. The old rib-rack i sometimes use has some flex to it and it allows me to set it on it’s side so meat won’t slide or float out during cooking…