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Sous Vide Bags 101: How to Choose the Right Bags for Sous Vide
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Aug 18, 2023
Why do you need the right bags for sous vide? Well, the bags used in sous vide cooking play a crucial role in ensuring the success of your meals. In this video, we’ll uncover the importance of using the right sous vide bags for cooking. The goal is to provide you with all the information you need to make an informed decision when it comes to choosing the right bags. Read the full guide here: https://www.streetsmartkitchen.com/sous-vide-bags-101/ If you are interested in learning more about my Sous Vide Once, Savor All Week program, you can find all the details here: https://www.streetsmartkitchen.com/sous-vide-once-savor-all-week/
View Video Transcript
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Hi, Sharon from G-Smart Kitchen here. In this video, we will uncover the importance of using
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the right sous-vide bags for cooking. The goal is to provide you all the information you need
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to make an informed decision when it comes to choosing the right bags for sous-vide cooking
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We will also discuss and address a big concern, plastic waste. So let's begin
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Sous-vide, a French cooking technique that has gained popularity in recent years
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involves cooking food in temperature controlled water baths. This method allows for precise control
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over the cooking process, results in perfectly cooked meals every time. But why do you need the
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right bags for sous vide? Well, the bags used in sous vide cooking play a crucial role in ensuring
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the success of your meals. They need to be able to withstand high temperatures without melting
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or leaching harmful chemicals into your food. Additionally, they should provide an airtight
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seal to prevent any water from entering the bag and compromising the flavor and texture of your
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ingredients. There are four main types of sous vide bags on the market. There are zip top bags
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like this and reusable sous vide bags something like this with air valve that you can use the air
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pump to pump the air out and silicone bags different size and of course the vacuum sealer
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bags where is my roll so i've got a vacuum sealer roll and pre-cut vacuum sealer bags so we will
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discuss this later except for the silicone bags the other three types are made of bpa free and
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food grade plastic all of them are also food storage bags and i personally use all four what
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i'm about to share is the pros and cons of each type of bag along with tips on when and how to
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use them based on my own personal experiences and i hope you find it helpful first up zip top bags
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so ziploc is most popular and familiar brand in this category but i'm using a different brand here
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There are regular zip top bags and freezer bags which are slightly thicker and making them
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steadier and more durable and freezer safe. Using zip top bags for sous vide is super convenient
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they're very accessible and the most cost-effective. Any sort of dense foods, particularly ones that
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comes with smaller sizes like steak, chicken breast, pork chops etc, fit easily into zip top bags with
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different sizes and they're unlikely to float during the cooking process due to their high
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density but keep in mind their limitations when exposed to high temperatures or long hours of
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cooking the seams of the zip top bag sometimes can fail causing unwanted leakage nobody wants water
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in your food right that's why these bags are not recommended for cooking over 158 very high that's
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70 celsius and or over six hours. Zip top bags are not suitable for sous vide vegetables for precisely
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the reason that I mentioned above. Because usually vegetables require cooking temperature over 180
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Fahrenheit, 82 celsius that's yeah. That's also because the vegetables are usually less dense
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so they tend to float making it very hard to keep them under the water and cook through
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It's certainly convenient to use zip top bags for cooking and discard them afterwards
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We're talking about zero cleaning here. But did you know that zip top bags are actually recyclable
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But the process is difficult and inaccessible in many countries such as Hong Kong where I live
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So they often ended up in trash bin after use. However, a personal choice could be washing the used zip-top bags that are still in good
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shape and reusing them to store food or other items. So I think this is not only about saving money but also about doing what you can to reduce
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plastic waste. To use the zip-top bags for sous vide cooking, we will apply something called the water displacement method
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Basically, what you do is you use the water from your sous vide bath to push the air out
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of the bag that contains your food as you lower it into the water The goal is to fully submerge the food and get air out as much as possible The water displacement method is very easy to execute
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Here's how to do it. First step, you want to place your food in the bag. In order to do that
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do you want to fold the top of the bag back over like that. So this way when you get your food inside
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the bag and nothing will touch the seal so to keep this area very clean then zip up like 80
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leaving a corner of the bag and zip. Second step, slowly lower the bag into the sobi water bath
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The pressure of the water will force the air out of it as you progressively immerse the bag
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Gently squeeze out any air surrounding the food especially the air bubbles trapped around it
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Now the third step, once the food is fully submerged in the water level, it's just below
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the zip line, seal the bag fully and clip the top of it to the edge of your cooking vessel
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Next up, reusable suvi bags. These bags usually come with a kit, which is essentially a menu
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I call it a menu vacuum sealing system. So it includes reusable bags, sometimes they come with
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different sizes this one is larger if you can see and i reduce it so it doesn't look very new
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and okay well those bags you can see they have air valves here and then a hand pump then
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ceiling kit clips like this before i own a vacuum sealer these were my go-to suvi bags
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so what reusable suvi bags are good for let's take a look they're actually good for cooking
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pretty much everything including vegetables because you vacuum seal them right so if your
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temperature is high if you're gonna cook for overnight long period of time totally no problem
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and you can also cook a larger cut of meat or other centerpieces dishes using the large sized bag
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from the kid they're also very good for prepping ahead to freeze and cook later or
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cooking ahead and freeze and enjoy later. I actually personally like the lighter one
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However, if you want to cook with marinade or with liquid, pumping the air out of the bag
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through the air valve can be very tricky. So as the liquid gets, like as you're pumping the
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liquid is going to get closer, closer to the air valve and then if you're not careful
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it's very easy to get the liquid sucked inside of the hand puff like this and in this area and
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you're gonna have to unscrew it and basically clean this area and then possibly clean your bags
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a little bit then do it over again so that's number one con i think and then the other
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disadvantage i can think of is if you like to make large amounts of food with single portions
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ahead of time doing you know meal prepping using the hand pump to manually suck the air out of the
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this this air valve like in multiple bags like doing this all the time it could be quite tiring
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and tedious one more disadvantage of the reusable sous vide bags here i think it's designed to be
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washed and reused many many times however the um the air that's totally personal experience the air
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valve here this thing can you cannot easily fall off but if you don't wash it with caution it can
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fall off once it's off then you basically leave a hole in this bag and it's not usable anymore so
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yeah i've had this experience like before the the bag even well now so not great so leave the
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air valve area clean and wash it with caution. To use a reusable sous vide bag, simply fold the top
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down first just like the zip top bags. Place your food inside without touching the air valve. Then
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use the sitting clip to seal it. Now place the head pump over the air valve and pump the air out
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Stop when you see liquid or juice start getting close to the air valve Now it ready for sous vide The next one silicone sous vide bags The best known sous vide bags made of silicone or stasher bags These multi storage bags are microwave safe oven safe
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dishwasher safe and obviously sous vide safe as well. They can be reused thousands of times for
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years to come if you take care of them properly making them the most environmentally friendly
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option for sous vide they're made with platinum food grade silicone and a leak-proof pinch lock
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seal so they're free from lead bpa or any other materials with names that you've never heard of
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they are endlessly reusable and resealable doing no harm to all earth at all so these
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bags are good for cooking small cuts like chicken breast, steak, pork chops, lamb chops, fish fillets
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for I think for one or two people maybe so cooking foods with marinade and sauce are fantastic with
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those bags food that requires long hours of suvi cooking is no problem so the disadvantage of those
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bags well first and foremost they are very pricey so if you want to have multiple bags
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or even replace plastic bags for cooking using these bags it could be quite an investment
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up front and the other thing is it's either user menu that you are not supposed to
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like flip the bags like this like you're not supposed to fold it or like when you clean it
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you're not supposed to turn it inside out so that will over time probably destroy this seal
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so this makes it really tricky to get food inside without touching the seal this part i i got this
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area messy all the time whenever i put food inside and so there are also limitations on the amount of
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food you can sue you with silver compacts due to their relatively small size this is the largest one
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I could find and this is a half gallon and then this one is a sandwich size I think so you can
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cook a certain amount of food in this bag but like a whole chicken isn't going to fit inside
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you know what I mean so you want to use your water displacement method to submerge your food
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and then using this bag you may find it tricky to force the air out entirely so especially where
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it's close to the top the reason is because I don't know if you can see it so on the top this
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area it actually pops out a little so and this this is the part that I find tricky to get the
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air out but overall it works okay so your bags might be floating but you can find a way to wear
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it down. Now the tips I wanted to share with you using silicone sous vide bags is based on my
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experience. I think they're better for small portions of food and you want to portion the food
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first, hold the bags like this like as wide as possible and then carefully place your food inside
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the bag without touching. Try not to touch this area. So and then I personally find it's easier to
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get unseasoned pieces like just a chunk of food ingredients inside first and then you pour
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marinade or wet sauce over it and then you can later you can marinate it overnight in the fridge
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and later directly drop the bag into the sous vide to cook so that's how i use my silicone sous vide bags
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last but not least vacuum sealer bags vacuum sealer bags are made specifically for
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vacuum sealers. There are suction vacuum sealers and chamber vacuum sealers. They use different
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bags. We're going to talk about suction vacuum sealers in this video. Not the vacuum sealer but
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the vacuum sealer bags. Well at the moment I use an ANOVA suction vacuum sealer paired with pre-cut
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vacuum sealer bags and vacuum sealer rolls. So let's take a look at pros and cons. Now first of
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After all, when you seal them, it's effortless because you're sealing them with a vacuum sealer
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That creates the best result for sous vide cooking And vacuum sealer rolls can be custom cut into your desired size so this reduces the amount of plastic you use and saves money so the vacuum sealer bags
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they're great for meal prep as vacuum sealed foods preserve the quality and freshness much
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longer in the fridge and freezer in my sous vide once saver all week meal prep program we vacuum
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sealed foods to sous vide. Then store them in the fridge in the same bags to enjoy throughout the week
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They can be used for sous vide pretty much anything. No cleaning is required. Well on that note
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vacuum sealer bags are also recyclable but it's not always an option in your area. But if your area
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has that option, please utilize it. And of course you're going to have to invest in vacuum sealer
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in order to use the vacuum sealer bags. So that's one time investment. I think it's worth it when the
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time is right for you. And here's the tip for beginners. If you're just starting out and you're
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reluctant to invest in reusable bags or a vacuum sealer, it's totally fine. You don't need to
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Start by cooking with the zip top bags that you probably already have in your kitchen. So if you're
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cooking at temperature over 158 bar height or for longer than six hours you can just use two bags
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double it up and then this way it provides you know extra security if and when the time is right
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you can explore the reusable and vacuum suit choices now whether you're a beginner or seasoned
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sous-vider knowing in and out of each type of bags can help you make the right choices every
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time you set up your sewing machine to do so consider the following factors before choosing
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a bag cooking time and temperature will you be cooking for longer than six hours will you be
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cooking at a temperature that's higher than 158 Fahrenheit if so consider not using zip top bags
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Secondly, wet or dry. Does your food have a lot of liquid, marinade, sauces
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You know, if so, consider silicone suvi bags or zip top bags if you're not cooking at a very high
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temperature for a long period of time. Next, the size of your protein. So basically large or small
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cuts. You want to choose the bags that are large enough to hold your ingredients comfortably but
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but not too large that they might take up unnecessary space in your sous vide water bath
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So it's best to have a variety of sizes on hand to accommodate different recipes
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For larger cuts, consider a vacuum silver rolls as you can custom cut them into any size that fits your needs
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For smaller cuts, sift top or silicone sous vide bags can do
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Now, if you're cooking vegetables, I cannot stress this enough. the best choice is a vacuum sealer with vacuum sealer bags
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If you're doing any sort of meal prepping, in a vacuum sealed bag, sous vide cooking pasteurized vegetables and meat
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so you can store the sous vide food in the fridge for a whole week
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or freeze them for months or years at a time without any freezer burn
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Last but not least, environment. Are you mindful of plastic use? If so, consider using environmentally friendly bags like silicone sous vide bags if possible
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Wash and reuse plastic bags whenever you can. Other than all the bags that I mentioned above, you can also cook food in mason jars
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Well, it's unrealistic to use mason jars for sous vide meats and fish, etc
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but they're wonderful for sous vide cheesecake, sous vide yogurt, other items that you can sous vide in a mason jar include lemon curd, chocolate pudding
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creme brulee, grains and beans. It's awesome. Alright, to sum it all up, when choosing the types of sous vide bag
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consider your specific needs and preferences. Experiment with different types or find one that suits your cooking style and produce the best results
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To find more information on sous vide bags, the link to our comprehensive guide is below
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If you like this video, give us a thumbs up and make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel
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Thank you so much for watching and I will see you next time
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