Making my own boil in the bag meals?

[Matthew.Passmore]

I want to have a go at making my own boil in the bag meals and wanted to run it by you to see if you think it would work ;)

I have bought some special catering bags made to boil food in (https://www.culinaryinnovations.co.uk/osb/showitem.cfm/Category/53/)

I have have bought a heat sealer to seal the bags,

If I were to make my food, say a curry or a chilli then place it in the bag, manually remove as much air as possible and then seal the bag.

Then after I sealed the bag boiled the whole thing for a good while to kill everything inside then leave to cool.

would this work to keep the meals fresh(or as fresh as possible)/edible for a decent length of time; maybe a week or 2 without refrigeration?

Cheers,

Matt

[Mesquite]

I think you have to boil the bag whilst it's open then seal Matthew. Then seal it when it's cooling and this will create bit of a a vacum and help to preserve the food.

[Matthew.Passmore]

yer if I did that then re-boiled after the seal to kill any bacteria that was on the bag and got in via the air prior to sealing would that make it last longer?

[scubapauly]

this might help

http://www.helium.com/items/818026-camping-tips-how-to-make-boil-in-a-bag-meals

[Mesquite]

Wouldn't have thought a full second boil would be necessary, just leave it in the boiling water for a few seconds ought to be sufficient to kill off any exterior/intererio bacteria. Be more effecient if you did it while the food was still hot from the first boil.

[Matthew.Passmore]

this might help

http://www.helium.com/items/818026-camping-tips-how-to-make-boil-in-a-bag-meals

cheers, I saw that earlier, that just says make the food, bag it and freeze it, take out of freezer when needed.

[IanM]

No problem with sealing the bag and cooking, it is a standard way of slow cooking, but keep the temperatures up.

Have a Google for "sous vide" which has been around forty years or so but is coming back into fashion for those that always want their food 'different'!

[tommy the cat]

Is it ok to cook these boil in the bag meals form frozen!!!
I have always thought that everything (even bread) needs to be defrosted before cooking?!?
D

[Matthew.Passmore]

Is it ok to cook these boil in the bag meals form frozen!!!
I have always thought that everything (even bread) needs to be defrosted before cooking?!?
D

Nah can cook anything from frozen as long as you make sure it is hot all the way through.
Only says you can't on packaging because of the higher risk of not heating properly all the way through.

[He' s left the building]

Then after I sealed the bag boiled the whole thing for a good while to kill everything inside then leave to cool.

would this work to keep the meals fresh(or as fresh as possible)/edible for a decent length of time; maybe a week or 2 without refrigeration?



Boiling would not get the food hot enough to destroy all harmful bacteria, industry standard is 121 deg C for three mins, anything less than that results in an unacceptable (lethal) C. botulinum risk (http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/publication/vacpack0708.pdf)

Don't confuse food safety with food quality: hazardous food may appear and smell fresh, yet spoiled food may be safe to eat (ie keeping food 'safe' and keeping food 'fresh' are two completely separate disciplines)

[tommy the cat]

Now I'm just confused!
Cook from frozen......121 deg c for three mins?!?!?!
Dave

[British Red]

The point on botulism is that you need a pressure cooker / canner to get food up to temperature to kill it. You can't do it in water.

This is how pressure canning unrefrigerated food works. Its something I plan to try but never have. There are a number of ways to rpeserve food - drying, acidity (pickling), freezing, adding alcohol, adding sugar (jams), adding salt (Parma Ham) etc. Not all kill bacteria but they create an environment that bacteria can't reproduce in.

Sadly, meat cooked in a "water bath" (normal pan) is not hot enough to kill botulism. If kept unrefrigerated for an extended period, illness is a real risk.

Hope that makes some sense - its something that interests me but I'm no expert

Red

[Colin.W]

When I did my food hygiene cert. a couple of years ago we were taught that to ensure the nasties were killed food should be heated to at least 70 degrees for a minimum of 2 minuits, which also applies to jars and storage containers for preserving food. I've not heard of any new evidence since then so that's the rule I use

[Shewie]

I've been using the Lakeland boil-a-bags for a few years and never had any dribbly bot the next day. I tend to stick to pre cooked stuff out of cans though and just rebag it before setting out. Stag Chilli or tinned chicken korma are probably my faves, a couple of pitta or naans aswell and it fills me up nicely. I've found most cooked stuff in sauces lasts long enough for decent trips out.

[nicodiemus]

I do moraless the same thing, except I give my baggies a good going over with the no-rinse iodine solution. Red will know what I mean on that score!

[He' s left the building]

When I did my food hygiene cert. a couple of years ago we were taught that to ensure the nasties were killed food should be heated to at least 70 degrees for a minimum of 2 minuits


Thats the guidelines for reheating chilled stored food, this temp will not kill C. botulinum, which produces a toxin that kills people who make mistakes when canning/packaging their own food.

If you repackage prepared food in bags then I'd suggest repackaging the day you set out on your trip and consume within 12 hours after repackaging (ie day trips).

Canning or repackaging your own food is asking for trouble, do an online search for 'Clostridium botulinum' or 'botulinum cook' for details.

I'm not making this up, I have a post-graduate degree in health and I give out this sort of advice for a living :)

[British Red]

Hmm - not sure I totally agree there Boops. Canning (bottling) your own food using correct method - by which I mean pressure canning, taking into account height above sea level, appropriate temperatures and pressure canner weights, cokking times etc. is safe if using proper kilner type jars with new seals etc. according to validated recipes and times.

This means you absolutely will eliminate C. Botulimum.

I'm not sure if you meant "re-packaging commercially prepared food" rather than "your own food" - if so - I agree ;)

Red

[He' s left the building]

The latter I meant, bagging your own food, I tried to be brief to avoid confusion :)

I didn't want the original poster to make a stew of some sort, contaminate the bag when filling and then seal it thinking he'd made some shelf-stable boil-in-the-bags!! :)

Assuming someone has done their homework, it is possible to do some home preserving, including canning, it's just quite risky if you don't know what you're doing?!

Shewies method of transferring tinned food into a bag on the morning of a trip would be safe enough.

[British Red]

Fair play :)

I have an interest infood preservation under the "self sufficiency" heading and would hate people to think you cannot preserve your own meat etc. in a non refrigerated way. Of course you can - but being careless is the kind of mistake you don't make more than once ;) That applies to using an axe as well though...and I like to think this forum embraces both an understanding of risk and a willingness to explore older techniques....canning is newer than jerky after all!

Red

[tommy the cat]

Ok good info so you cant you boil in the bag from frozen? I am a bit over cautious with stuff like this take after my mum who cooked stuff to death!
Also how does Iceland 'do' the cook from frozen meats that they advertise at Christmas? (turkey and hams I think) Not that I would try the rubbish just dont get it?
Thanks for the info Dave

[Matthew.Passmore]

Cheers for the info guys, I'll have to stick to making them the night before for 1 or 2 day trips or seal and freeze them.

Tommy, you can cook from frozen as long as everything is fully heated to 70+ Celsius all the way through, the talk of heating to 120 odd is to kill Botulism in foods for preservation.

I have been reading about botulism and it says that 100 deg c is enough to kill the bacteria itself but not the spores it forms which later "Re-animate" but acidic environments prevents the formation of the spores, not worth testing though I feel.

Cheers.