For a Xmas dinner party I cooked three rib roosts (2-ribs each) in individual bags. I only used 2 of the roasts and froze the 3rd. I want to defrost, reheat & sear without cooking the roast further. Any techniques/tips on the best way to accomplish this??
Hi @BrentskiL,
I’m assuming that you froze it in the same bag you cooked it in, so it can go straight back in the bath.
Up until recently I would have said just take the frozen roast throw it back into a sous vide bath long enough to have it reach temperature equilibrium, then take it out and sear per usual, but recently I’ve heard that letting it thaw in the refrigerator prior to throwing it back into the sous vide bath yields a better end result when reheating frozen items.
Bottom line in “back in the bath at the temp you cooked it at originally - or a degree or two lower - then sear as usual”.
Best of luck.
Thanks for the info… any time suggestions?
Brent, Mirozen is correct. For optimum quality you want to freeze food as quickly as possible and thaw it as slowly as possible.
Being a seasoned SV cook you already know times are critically dependant on meat thickness. For your roast will find that information at Baldwin’s Table 2.2 or 2.3.
May I chime in on the same post? I used my SV for the very first time on a buffalo roast. I figured the time needed would be closest (in the Quick Guide) to a beef brisket. Not realizing how long it would take when I began this, I went ahead with my plans and cooked it at 135 for 36 hours - which meant I got up at 1:00 a.m. to remove the roast. I let it cool to room temp in bag and would like to reheat it for a meal around noon. Do I just put it all back in the water at 135? If so, for about how long (from room temp)???
I’m sure someone else can provide more specific information than I can but I would have just left it in the extra time. Shouldn’t have hurt anything. I’d be very concerned with leaving it out at room temperature. I don’t think I would consider it safe to eat.
For future reference, you’re definitely better off leaving it in to cook rather than taking it out to cool at room temperature. Not sure what cut of buffalo you had, size of piece, wild or farmed, water buffalo or bison. All these things make a difference. But an extra 6 - 8 hours cooking something solid at low temperature is going to increase tenderness. Whereas a slow cool at ambient temperatures is going to leave your meat sitting in the danger zone for hours on end. 4 hours in the danger zone is the maximum safe time.
The reason why people are always talking about shock chilling or ice bath chilling sous vide product is to get it cooled and out of the danger zone as quickly as possible for food safety.
Reheating, in this instance, is certainly not recommended. If chilled and stored correctly, re-therming would take place at the cooking temperature (or a little above) for a duration that is dictated by the size of the piece of meat.
Thanks, Ember - I appreciate your input. [Just FYI - it was a 100% Great Plains Grass-Fed Buffalo 3-lb chuck roast from Wild Idea Buffalo.] I knew chuck roasts are not usually very tender, so I was keen to use the sous vide to cook it. Turned out, that it was not so great. It was cooked to about the right level, but was still too “sinewy” to eat much of it.
I will take your advice to heart in the future! Thanks again!
Have been eating quite a bit of water buffalo lately myself. Feedlot finished beef seems really fatty after that.
48 hours seems to be a favourite time for SV chuck on domestic beef. For wild, I’d think you could probably add at least half that again without any issue.
For something that’s quite full of ‘muscle fascia’ and silverskin, you might need to break it down to remove these and then tie or meat glue it back together.