Sous Vide Bags, Two Sizes, 200 per Pack

For anyone with a sealer who uses it for two different jobs. The first is delivery: a drink bagged and closed reaches the customer’s home without losing aroma and without the risk of a bottle tipping over in the rider’s bag. The second, less visible and more profitable, is storing perishable ingredients, which is where vacuum sealing pays the machine back in a few weeks.

Almost everything that spoils a bar preparation goes through oxygen: citrus juice turns in a few hours, cut fruit oxidises while you watch, an infusion loses its scent before its taste. With the air removed that mechanism slows a great deal, and a preparation that lasted one service comes to cover a week of work. The prep and pre-batch laboratory supplier quotes fifteen days on the most delicate ingredients, a number to check against your own kitchen, but it gives the order of magnitude.

• Large size: 20 x 30cm, pack of 200
• Small size: 15 x 20cm, pack of 200
• Contents: suitable for solids and for liquids
• Use: vacuum storage and vacuum cooking
• Needed: a sealing machine

Which size, and why almost everyone gets it wrong first time

The bags come in two formats and it is not a question of price. The 15 x 20 is the single portion bag: the drink going out, the garnish made up, the fruit for the shift. The 20 x 30 is the preparation bag: fruit cut for the weekend, the infusion, the citrus prepped ahead. Anyone starting out nearly always buys only the small one, and after a month finds out that the heavy work, the work that really saves time, is done in the large.

Liquids, which are the hard part

A chamber sealer will draw the liquid up as well if you are not careful. With a bar machine it helps to hold the bag upright and stop the vacuum as soon as the level rises towards the sealing bar, or to chill the preparation well before bagging, because cold it moves less. The seal has to stay clean and dry: a drop on the closing line is a seal that gives way the following day.

What should not be bagged

Sharp edges are the enemy of a vacuum bag: a bone, a shard of ice, the hard stem of a pineapple pierce the bag during the vacuum and the seal fails without anyone noticing until the next day. If in doubt, take the edge off, cut it shorter, or use a second layer. Preparations that go on fermenting, such as very ripe fruit left at room temperature, are also to be avoided: they produce gas, the bag swells and the seal gives.

How to keep them in the store

Closed in their pack, dry and away from heat. Bags that have taken up moisture seal badly, and an imperfect seal always shows up once the contents are already in. It is worth keeping only the week’s supply to hand and leaving the rest in the closed box.

FAQ

What sizes do the sous vide bags come in? Two: 20 x 30cm and 15 x 20cm, each in packs of 200.

Do they work for liquids? Yes, they seal solids and liquids. With liquids it helps to hold the bag upright and to bag them cold.

Can they be used for cooking? Yes, they suit vacuum cooking as well as storage.

Are they any use without a machine? No. The sealer does the work: the bags are the consumable.

How long do bagged preparations last? It depends on the ingredient and the fridge temperature, but on perishables you move from days to weeks.

The more you buy, the less you pay: 4 packs -5%, 6 -7%, 8 -10%, on the same item.

Dispatched from Rome, Italy. 15-day returns, free of charge. Questions before you order? Message us on WhatsApp on +39 351 929 6937.

The other equipment for taking drinks out of the venue is in the cocktail delivery category.