How To Save Money On Your Meals with Sous Vide | The Tool Shed

How To Save Money On Your Meals with Sous Vide

If you think sous vide is just an expensive fad, you might be surprised to know just how much money it actually could save you in the long run.

Once you’ve got your sous vide water bath or thermal circulator and a vacuum sealer, you’re ready to start saving money every single week, as well as spending a lot less time in the kitchen.

Essentially, sous vide allows you to buy your meals in bulk and freeze them to reheat whenever you want.

We’re going to run through all the ways that sous vide could help you start saving money!

Buy In Bulk

While buying your meat in bulk will save you a lot of money, it’s important that you’re smart about it, as you don’t want to buy more than you’ll be able to use or more than you can safely store.

And we don’t just mean picking up the latest multi-buy offer at the supermarket here. The best way to save is to go direct to a butcher or wholesaler.

While the initial cost will be more, this is where you can really start to make some long term savings by buying in bulk, but just remember not to buy more than you’ll be able to use!

Both local and nationwide wholesalers are beginning to sell more to the general public, so be sure to seek one out.

And, because sous vide tenderises much tougher (and cheaper) cuts and makes them far juicier and tastier than traditional methods, it means that you can get away with buying much cheaper cuts than you normally would, without having to worry about a drop in quality.

Season & Freeze

Next, you’ll have to freeze the meat to use later on, but be sure to season and vacuum seal them beforehand so that they’re instantly ready to be cooked without any further prep.

Split the meat up into portion sizes, and add in any salt, spices or cooking oil that you want to use, before sealing using a vacuum sealer.

It’s also a good idea at this point to label the packages with the contents and the date that they were frozen, as it can all get a bit confusing if you don’t.

While this step can take a bit of time, it’s worth it for the time it’ll save further down the line, and it’s quite satisfying knowing that you’ve got all your food for the week (or even longer) set and ready to go when you need it.

Cook Using A Sous Vide Machine

Finally, when you’re ready to use some of your pre-frozen meat, simply pop it into your sous vide bath or another container.

Generally, we would recommend thawing out the meat and cooking it for the same amount of time as you normally would, but you can cook straight from frozen, although you’ll have to essentially double your cooking time.

You’ll also cut down on wastage because there’s no risk that you’ll over or undercook the food, all of which means more money in your pocket at the end of the week.

While the method certainly does take a little longer than a microwave meal or ordering a takeaway, the results are much tastier, healthier, and ultimately not that much more expensive.

Freezing Full Meals

Instead of just freezing meat, you can actually freeze entire meals once you’ve started to get the hang of things.

This means that you can essentially create your own frozen ready meals, ready to cook whenever you wish.

In fact, there isn’t much which can’t be cooked sous vide, so you might be surprised with just how many things you can freeze and sous vide later.

A good idea is to simply make a little bit extra than you need when you’re next cooking, and simply put the leftovers in a vacuum pouch, ready to freeze.

Leftovers generally tend to sit at the back of the fridge until they’re forgotten about and end up turning less than appetising, so this is a good way to get more out of them and cut down on wastage.

(Another advantage of cooking leftovers like this is that you don’t even have to sear them when they come out of the sous vide machine!)

So if the cost of a sous vide machine it putting you off, just consider how much money you could potentially be saving on your meals for years to come, with a little planning. Not only this, but they’ll also be tastier, healthier and easier to prepare too!

Post by Chris Holland

Our Chef Director Chris Holland worked as Head Chef at the prestigious Alderley Edge hotel before joining us. He has a passion for using the best produce and never compromises on quality. Author of our best selling book Sous Vide The Art of Precision Cooking, Chris is a expert on the sous vide technique.During the later part of my school days at Wardle High School Rochdale I always wanted to be a chef . I knew from the very start that my path to work was never going to be academic it was always going to be something practical and hands on.

As a young boy growing up I was inspired to cook with my Grandma who was and still is an inspiration to me . I have memories of helping make the cakes that she always had made for visitors and family alike . She made the most amazing cakes and I loved nothing more than eating the sweet raw cake batter straight from the bowl . We used to fight over who got to lick the bowl/spoon after the cakes were made. My grandma’s philosophy for cooking even on a shoe string budget was always to use fresh and seasonal ingredients either home grown or bought from the market.

School was somewhat of a drag for me as I was itching to learn to become a chef.

I started at Hopwood Hall college as a chef and instantly fell in love with it .To me it was the only real time I excelled in something and this inspired me to really get my head down and put in the hard work. College was the first time I really excelled in something and gave me the opportunity to laugh at the teachers who said I would never make something of my life!!!!

During the three years at college I also took on a part time position in a local hotel working the bar and restaurant first and then the kitchen. These were great days and gave me the opportunity to see how the industry ticks. I learnt a lot from those days both good and bad !! But I have to say I was itching to work only in the kitchen but it was a good insight into the catering world .

After completing college I moved away from Rochdale for a full time roll at one of Cheshire’s most talked about Hotel restaurants The Stanneylands Hotel. This was the school of hard knocks for me as I quickly realised that although excelling at college meant nothing in “The Real World”.

I loved every minute of the 18 hour days 6 days a week on minimum wage . Although difficult I feel that without this grounding I wouldn’t have achieved what I have today. After 18 months of hard graft I left Stanneylands and went with the Head chef to open a fine dining restaurant at Mere Golf and Country Club. The opportunity to work alongside Matthew Barrett was too good to turn down. I learnt so much from the ex-Ritz chef and working in a much slower paced role helped me develop a much better understanding of how to organise and run a kitchen. We were a very small team and teamwork was and still is the only way to go for me.

After 2 years at Mere I got the opportunity to go into The Alderley Edge Hotel as Junior Souschef. The Early days at the Edge were all about learning new styles of cuising which is invaluable in any role as a chef. I got the opportunity to grow and learn all aspects of every section which was inspiring . I was offered the opportunity at the age of 29 (2004) to take the role of head chef. For me this was when I really started to develop my own style of food.

After 9 years at the top winning Cheshire restaurant of the year , Chef of the Year and appearing on GBM amongst many highlights including cooking for many celebrities and famous people I decided to move on into development with Sousvidetools.

The main inspiration for this was to train and educate people . I always had a great passion for education but could never really see myself at a college . The job is super rewarding and I am proud to say we have become the leading light in sous-vide education in the UK . This is something I am very proud of . Food is my biggest passion and this is what keeps me interested the most . I love to travel and try out other countries cuisines. I am constantly inspired by ingredients and the pursuit of getting the best out of them without destroying their natural flavour .It is super important to me to continue to try and be at the forefront of the food scene this is what inspire me and the team to keep driving forward .

Technology is now widely used in the industry and I am super proud to say we have been a big part of spreading that message.

I am very lucky to be in the position I am and the drive to constantly improve our training and links to the next generation of young budding hospitality chefs.

TI feel that my experience over the last 25 years really enables me to get close and educate the “next generation” of chefs .

The industry which I love is really struggling to bring through new recruits and if I can help that process I will be immensely proud.

The food seen in the Uk has improved dramatically over the last ten years and I feel this will continue with the correct education. What happens next only fate will tell us...

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