Preparing & sealing sous vide recipes the day before

[phositadc]

I am hoping to get started with sous vide this weekend, and have a general question about preparing and sealing meals in advance.

 

Is it OK to go ahead and put the meat and seasoning in a bag, vacuum seal it, and store in in the fridge for ~24 hours before actually cooking it sous vide?

 

For instance, Sunday evening I buy some salmon filets, put them in bag with salt, pepper, and a slice of lemon.  Seal bag.  Then cook it Monday evening.

 

Would that work, or does storing the meat for ~24 hours sealed with salt + pepper + lemon harm the meat?

 

Any advice appreciated.

[nickrey]

Salt+lemon will modify the meat, as it does in any marinade/dry rub. The acid in the lemon will "cook" the meat: this is the concept behind ceviche. The salt will brine the meat, which is not such a bad thing unless you use too much salt: the salt and liquid in the fish equilibrate to a set level, which is the concept used to cure meats (eg. bacon).

Edited February 27, 2015 by nickrey (log)

[Anna N]

I am with Nick and would definitely not even think of this with fish especially with the lemon and salt. I no longer season meat before I sous vide it but add a little oil/fat to the bag and would have no qualms about doing this 24 hours ahead of time although unless I was feeding hordes I'm not sure why it's necessary. It really takes very little time to bag a few steaks or chops or whatever.

[phositadc]

Thanks for the responses!

[EnriqueB]

If your product is very fresh you can go ahead, I do it from time to time and the result is good. Though you should avoid acid in the bag like the lemon, as others have said it can cook the meat or fish. With meat also avoid salting before bagging, as the texture will change and look (a bit) like cured meat. With fish, you can pre-salt as that firmness is actually useful in many cases. With fish you should not keep in the bag for long, but if it is extremelly fresh having it bagged for 24 hours will not be as good as the same day but still can be ok, and in fact a better option than keep it 24 hours non-bagged.

[rotuts]

make sure that fish is as cold as you can get it for the entire process.