I am thawing a 5# bottom round roast that I want to sear and SV to medium rare then refrigerate for deli-style sliced roast beef - sandwiches and salads. But I don't want 5# all at once - I plan to split it into 3 portions after it thaws, then sear and vacuum seal separately for SV. If it makes no difference, I'd rather SV them all at the same time, then freeze 2 for later. I don't see why that wouldn't be okay, but if there's any reason why freezing raw would give a better outcome than freezing cooked, I'll do that.
I generally lean towards: freezing raw will give better results than freezing the cooked roasts. Both freezing and cooking force moisture out, but cooking forces more out.
Normally when you thaw cooked meats, you're looking to reheat after thawing, which forces more moisture out. It's cooked twice. But... in this case you're not looking to reheat the sandwich meat after it thaws. So it's probably really close in this instance.
It comes down to whether (A) freeze-thaw-cook-freeze-thaw is better than (B) freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw-cook. If you add a "reheat" to the end of "(A)" it's cooking twice so almost certainly drier. But you're not doing that here, you're slicing thin and going for room temp. So I'd go with whatever's more convenient for you.
If not cooking outdoors, I am cooking on the stovetop with my 14" carbon steel wok, 12" CI skillet, or in the oven with my two Lodge CI pizza pans, or two dutch ovens. I've also got a nifty Lodge carbon steel grill pan that rocks for veggies outdoors.
I'm in this boat with some pastrami I've done with the SVQ method. Smoke, then finish with sous vide (instead of steaming). My plan is to cool in the fridge, and then run it all through the deli slicer, since cool meat slices easier than hot. I then plan to vacuum seal and freeze in 1# bags, for use in sandwiches. I would do the same thing with roast beef I think, and likely will soon.
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