I’m always looking for short cuts in cooking. I recently bought a Nomiku consumer sous-vide immersion heater. I have been pretty happy with the low-cost Ziploc-brand vacuum bags and manual pump. I don’t really see a compelling reason to buy a $150 vacuum sealer.

However, a lot of cuts of meat come already vacuum packed in a low-density polyethylene (LDPE) wrapper. Can you just cook the meat as-is in that wrapper as it comes from the store. That would sure make things easy. The short answer is yes. I have now done this a dozen or so times with skirt steak, flat-iron steak, and today with a leg of lamb (for Easter).