A method for cooking meat comprises (a) vacuum sealing the meat in a bag 18, (b) placing the bag on a rack (10, fig. 1) with the meat 20 supported in an upper section of the bag, and a lower section of the bag able to receive exudate 22 discharged from the meat during cooking, (c) placing the rack in a cooking device (see fig. 6), (d) cooking the meat, and (e) removing the rack from the cooking device and allowing the meat to cool to a safe handling temperature. The bag may be sealed after cooking to segregate the meat and exudate, and may be cut after sealing to separate the segregated components. The cooking device may be a steam oven or immersion boiler. The rack preferably has spaced apart supports 16. A sealing and cutting device (24, fig. 7) may be provided for sealing and cutting the bag after cooking, and preferably creates a pair of spaced apart seals such that the bagged components can be separated by cutting between the seals. The sealing and cutting device may include means (32, fig. 7) for retaining the exudate section of the bag after cutting.
