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6 The advantages of this cooking method Extending shelf life with vacuum conditions By evacuating air – and hence oxygen – the vacuuming process prevents food spoilage. Reducing the growth of bacteria inherent in food can significantly extend the shelf life of food, depending on the initial condition of the food. Optimising cooking results Vacuum sealing food in bags ensures that minerals, vitamins, and flavours are retained as eectively as possible. Additionally, the low temperatures typically used for sous-vide cooking result in very little of the food’s moisture escaping, particularly where meat and fish are concerned. This is also aided by the vacuum- packing process, allowing the juices to give the food its own marinade and creating a better taste. At the same time, the food is prevented from drying out. What is more, the low cooking temperatures achieve very even results. As food is usually cooked at the required core temperature, the possibility of it becoming overcooked is ruled out. Shorter marinating and pickling times Thanks to the vacuum and the fact that it stops as much flavour as possible from escaping, far less seasoning needs to be added to the food. Additionally, vacuuming draws as much air as possible out of the food, pushing the marinade deep inside it instead. This reduces marinating and pickling times from days to a matter of hours. Making convenience products Making your own convenience products involves preparing, cooking and cooling dishes, then heating them up again at a later point. This process causes the food to lose practically none of its taste or texture. It is a useful technique if you are cooking for guests, for example. On the day itself, all you need to do is heat up the dishes and serve, leaving you much more time to attend to your guests! When making convenience products, it is important to ensure that the food is cooled down quickly once it is cooked and is stored at temperatures below 5 °C. Ice water is recommended; this will cool the contents of the bag down to less than 5 °C. Cooling the food through to its centre usually takes the same amount of time as it does to heat it up, so you should make sure to give the cooling process as much time as it needs. If the vacuum-sealed food has been frozen, it should be allowed to defrost slowly in the refrigerator or in cold water. It can then be heated back up to the specified temperature in a steam oven, in exactly the same way as vacuum sealing bags that have been stored in the refrigerator.