Does your meat have a bad smell after a long and low sous vide cook? It’s likely caused by Lactobacillus, not spoilage. At temperatures below 60°C / 140°F, these “stinky cheese” bacteria can survive and thrive during long cooks (8+ hours), creating unpleasant odors and sometimes even puffy bags. Searing before bagging often fails because bacteria can re-contaminate the meat during handling. That is why the solution is to kill the bacteria after you’ve vacuum sealed the meat, but before sous vide cooking. That way, re-contamination is impossible.

So if you are going to cook meat for longer than 8 hours at a temperature of 60°C / 140°F or lower, then season and vacuum seal your meat as usual, but then submerge the sealed bag in hot or boiling water of at least 77°C / 170°F until the raw surface color is gone, 10-20 seconds. Make sure that all of the surface of the meat is exposed to the heat. If you put multiple pieces in the same bag and they touch each other, the space where they are touching becomes a ‘cold spot’ for some lactobacillus to survive the scalding step.

After scalding, cook sous vide like normal and there will be no stinky smell, guaranteed.

More explanation about this in this article.

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