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While a recent Williams Sonoma Instagram video thought it was teaching people how to sous vide in a reusable plastic food bag, there’s a great tip hiding in the second half of the video. You know how reusable food bags are notoriously hard to keep open? Enter this genius trick.
The video is ostensibly about how to cook sous vide using Stasher bags (reusable food storage bags) and it demonstrates the technique with a recipe for lemon asparagus. It starts with putting the asparagus, lemon, and garlic into the bag. But when they go to add the olive oil, that’s when things get interesting.
Usually, you have to hold a reusable plastic food bag open with one hand and pour with other since they won’t stay open, closing as soon as you let go. This can make it tricky to hold the bag steady, especially if you need your other hand to hold a bowl or catch a toddler that’s about to pull their sister’s hair (or whatever).
In the Williams Sonoma video, they simply slip in the metal ring from the top of a Mason jar instead of awkwardly holding it open. The bag’s inclination to always try to close suddenly works in your favor: it holds the ring in place at the top of the bag. You suddenly have a big, Mason jar-sized opening to pour in the olive oil — or whatever else you’d like to add to the bag.
In the Williams Sonoma post, they go on to add a few spices and then sous vide the asparagus, but what will stick with us is the genius Mason jar trick. We’ll be using this hack anytime we need to pour something into a reusable plastic food bag, freeing up our hands to steady the bag and avoid pouring tomato sauce all over the counter.