Would you be interested in mail order sous vide ready food?

[Reezer]

I've been cooking sous vide at home for a few years now and find it hugely convenient to prepare/cook things in large batches and freeze them in sous vide bags ready to cook from frozen when I want them.

Probably my favorite is burgers. I cook off the onions or shallots (if using) and leave to cool. Mix the meat, garlic powder, salt, sometimes some spices if i feel like then add the cold onions in. Make into huge neat burgers using egg rings and put in sous vide bags. I leave in the freezer for 5 hours or so then fully vacuum seal the now hardish burgers.

Chuck them in the water bath at 57 for 2+ hours and there you go, perfect medium rare, tender as anything tasty tasty burgers. I either blowtorch or chuck in a cast iron pan of bubbling butter to crisp up the outsides.

Anywho, I was wondering if people would be interested in ordering boxes of ready bagged frozen sous vide food...?

Cost wise, my rough calculations indicate I could do quarter pounders for around 70p at supermarket ingredient prices, so probably a fair bit less if I got stuff at the cash and carry. On top of that, sous vide bags, poly boxes, ice and postage would add up to about £10 per order for a 5kg box, add £2 per extra 5kg.

What do people thing of this idea? Would you use a service like this (assuming the food was tasty and arrived in good condition...)?

Thanks

 

[Reezer]

The polyboxes I was looking at were < £2 each and claim to keep frozen food well within safe temperatures for 72 hours so I was costing based on the 2 day service but if I do end up needing next day you are right, that will be an additional cost.

Regarding premium quality, I was thinking I could offer organic/grass fed/specialty stuff as long as I can source it with a reasonable turn around. I'd guess organic grass fed welsh black beef would command quite a premium!

Thanks

 

[Reezer]

Have you ever tried sous vide from frozen? I suspect not if you immediately pfft it. I'm very picky about my burgers and meat in general and I've tested the same batches of meat fresh and frozen at various temperatures and with sous vide it makes no difference. I wouldn't do it for a fine fillet steak but nice fatty burger meat, chicken and tough cuts are perfect.

I suspect your reaction to the idea is fairly typical though so that'll be a challenge to get people to even consider the idea.

Re: the supermarket stuff - I was using supermarket as a price comparison only, I won't eat Tesco meat most of the time, it's been disgusting recently. The meat I've bought from the local wholesaler has always been of very high quality - they have a butcher on site.

 

[Reezer]

But you cant mix fridge/freezer with personal stuff.
Need anti fly stuff.

We have a spare fridge but yea, the freezer would be a bit of a pain. One option I've seen mentioned is coming to an arrangement with a local pub to use their kitchen when they are closed - as long as you have done a food certification and have your own insurance they aren't taking on any extra risk. I haven't looked into this but there are quite a few small pubs locally that might be open to the idea.

You have to comply with labeling laws. This is either easy or expensive depending on category. If you need it testing to get break down, is about £110 per test.

This is something I haven't looked into at all, thanks for mentioning it. Because I'm mostly mixing raw ingredients and repackaging them I was planning to work out the nutritional info based off the ingredients rather than testing, I'll have a look into if this is a valid way of doing it.

Then as others have said, Imo you're looking at a pretty much non existent market.
I don't even own a sous vide machine and those that do, are extremely unlikely to want to order pre made stuff.

Yea, I was half hoping it's the kind of thing that might get popular... get in ahead of the rush. When I discovered it and took the plunge a few years ago I couldn't believe how little attention it's gotten; It's not hugely expensive to get into and is basically an idiot proof way of getting extremely tender and delicious meats. It's also sooooo convenient for dinner parties and big meals - get your meat cooked ahead of time and hold it till your are ready to brown and serve it, brilliant.

Out of interest, how long do you cook frozen chicken for at what temp? would be interested in trying that.

I typically add an hour just to be on the safe side. I cook it at the same temp I would from fresh, so 60C for chicken. If you don't like the softer texture add a degree or two (my sisters won't eat it unless I do, they say it reminds them of raw chicken). One key to cooking from frozen is to get the bath up to temp before adding the frozen item - this way it stays in the danger zone for as little time as possible. I forget where I read it but someone probed some chicken and defrosted it several ways (counter, fridge, microwave and sous vide iirc) and sous vide from frozen resulted in the food was one of the safest ways to do it. This page says adding 30 mins is sufficient - I'd be happy with that if whatever I was making was < 1.5 inches thick I think.

I did a whole lamb leg from frozen once, 16 hours at 75C and it came out very nicely.

Domestically, it's still a very niche thing. Hardly anyone knows what sous vide is/the fact it's common in restaurants/etc. You'd be fighting against that inertia, and that's hard.

Yes, this is definitely true. I've had friends refuse to try it because it sounds weird. I'm kinda hoping some TV chef or cooking program will popularize it.

I had a little think last night and I definitely think there is far more viable business model in simply being a supplier of Sous vide equipment and supplies.

You might be right with the sous vide supply stuff - I've struggled to find good supplies at decent prices from trustworthy sites before. A one stop shop with professional reviews, recipes, etc would be quite cool.
However, I don't have the capital to set something like this up really.
I guess I could get a business loan/grant but if I was going to go that route I think I'd set up a software dev company (since that's my real background.)