Two common practices that are ingrained into you as a chef are save time and save dollars, without sacrificing quality, of course. Many commercial techniques and technologies have been made more accessible and affordable to the home cook over the past decade, one of my favorites being the vacuum sealer.
This tool once a large, heavy, and expensive piece of kitchen equipment can now be shipped to your door overnight for around $40. Now easy to store and use, a vacuum sealer can save you time, money, and help neatly organize your freezer or pantry. I’ve recently upgraded my vacuum sealer and picked up a small chest freezer, and pairing this duo is a great idea for all home cooks.
To save time the vacuum sealer can expedite marinating and pickling processes through pressure, reducing oxygen, and maximizing surface area coverage of your brine or marinade. It can also make thawing frozen items much faster and is great for storing dry goods like grains, legumes, or cereals. You can even use it in conjunction with an immersion circulator for sous vide cooking, which is a low and slow process of preparing meats and vegetables to a very specific temperature in a water bath.
This great piece of equipment also prolongs the life of frozen goods by preventing things like freezer burn. This allows you to purchase greater quantities or larger cuts of proteins or prepare larger batches of soups and sauces, break them down into the portion sizes you want, and hold them frozen for a greater amount of time. Typically, when you purchase bigger cuts or more quantity you save on the per pound price. Here I have some large Hanger steaks broken down into portion sizes.