Sam K.

Two minutes a side is far too long, and the fix is to make the sear violently short rather than to make the pan cooler.

What works for me on a 1 inch steak:

• rest the bagged steak, then take it out, pat it dry and leave it uncovered on a rack in the fridge or freezer for 10 to 15 minutes. A cold, dry surface buys you time before the interior notices
• get the pan to the point where a drop of high smoke point oil is shimmering and just starting to smoke
• 45 to 60 seconds total per side, flipping every 20 seconds rather than leaving it still
• finish with butter off the heat, not during

That gives a proper crust with a grey band you have to look for. Flipping often sounds fussy but it genuinely keeps the sub surface cooler while the surface still browns.

Batch cook one protein a week rather than cooking it daily. A kilo of chicken thighs or a big tray of tofu roasted on Sunday means the 30g at lunch is a decision you already made. The reason most people fall short is friction at the moment of eating, not lack of knowledge.

It reads 147F on a probe thermometer, so a couple of degrees high but not enough to explain it alone.

So the whole set and forget thing does not apply to breast at all. That is useful and slightly annoying.

Nothing is wrong with your seal, that is water vapour and rendered fat expanding inside the bag as the meat heats and gives up moisture. Every long cook does it. Two fixes that actually hold:

• put a rack, a heavy ceramic plate or a couple of dinner knives in the bag's way so the bag physically cannot rise. A cheap wire cooling rack cut to fit the container is the standard trick.
• clip the top of the bag to the side of the container with a binder clip so the trapped air collects above the waterline rather than lifting the meat.

What you should not do is ignore it. Meat above the waterline is not at temperature and for a twelve hour cook that is a food safety issue, not just an evenness one.

Not always the answer people want but the timing being that consistent is a hint. Genuine hunger is less punctual.

And if the sugar alcohols in that protein bar are maltitol, be a little cautious with quantity the first time. My own experience with eating two in an afternoon was educational and I would not repeat it at work.

Component prep is the middle option and it is the only version I have ever stuck with. Instead of five finished meals, you cook parts on Sunday and assemble differently each day.

A typical Sunday for me is 50 minutes: a kilo of protein, a big pot of grains, and two trays of roasted vegetables. Then Monday is a bowl with yoghurt and lemon, Tuesday is a wrap with the same protein and some raw crunch, Wednesday it goes into a soup base, Thursday it becomes fried rice. Same macros, four different meals, and none of them tastes like the previous day.

The fifth day is the one that always fails, so I plan for it to be eggs or something from the freezer rather than pretending it will not happen.

Same for anything with fresh herbs, add them on the day. They go dull and slightly bitter after two days in a container.

They produce two genuinely different dishes, so the question is what you want on the plate rather than which is better.

24 hours at 131F gives you something that slices like a steak, pink throughout, chewy in a pleasant way, with the connective tissue softened but the muscle fibres still intact. Great with a hard sear and a knife.

8 hours at 150F gives you a pot roast, brown grey inside, fibres that separate under a fork, and juices you can turn into gravy. That is the familiar Sunday roast texture.

If you have never had the first one, do it once because it is genuinely surprising. If you are feeding people who expect a roast dinner, do the second, because the first one confuses guests.

The first time you cut into one after the sear is the moment the whole method makes sense. Edge to edge pink is hard to unsee.