Food Saver Vacuum Sealer

[idahobob]

Just a short note.

I was digging around in one of our freezers the other day and ran across a package of sirloin tip beef roast that we had vacuum sealed. The date on it was Dec 2008.

As it was not wrapped in butcher paper after sealing, I could see that there was NO freezer burn at all.

Took in in, thawed it out and cooked it up. No freezer flavor, just good meat flavor.

Another very good reason that the Food Saver is a very important tool in our food storage program.

If you do not have one, I would highly recommend that you do.:D

Bob
III

[realist]

I know the rolls are expensive but I use the food saver to seal 25 lbs of rice and another 25 lbs of black beans with O2 absorbers last month. I figure that if I do this once a month my stocks should be in pretty good shape by the end of the year. The one thing that you need to check is to make sure that you have a good seal. I set them aside for a couple of days to make sure they are properly sealed. If I find that one did not seal I either use it or reseal it. I will be storing these in square plastic food grade buckets. The thing that I like about sealing them this way is I have them all in five pound amounts to limit my loss in the future.

[Vodin]

I know the rolls are expensive but I use the food saver to seal 25 lbs of rice and another 25 lbs of black beans with O2 absorbers last month. I figure that if I do this once a month my stocks should be in pretty good shape by the end of the year. The one thing that you need to check is to make sure that you have a good seal. I set them aside for a couple of days to make sure they are properly sealed. If I find that one did not seal I either use it or reseal it. I will be storing these in square plastic food grade buckets. The thing that I like about sealing them this way is I have them all in five pound amounts to limit my loss in the future.


I Double the seal. When I start a new bag I seal it 2 times at the bottom. I then fill it, vacuum out the air, seal it 1 time at the top and then remove it and seal it a 4th and final time. With a 5 gal bucket I am able to get 20lbs of short grained rice in it. Or 7 bags that have 6cups of rice in each. I have placed it in a gamma lid bucket since I go through Japanese rice often. You can see leaking bags (I havent had one yet) because the properly sealed bags have the impression of each kernel of rice.

Vodin

[ak474u]

I've done rice, beans etc in 2lb bags for a long time. I have the best luck with the bags that you size for yourself. I've packed spices, sugar, salt, rice, all kinds of beans, curry powders, pasta, all kinds of stuff. I was thinking of sealing a rifle sometime just for giggles. I have done lots of rice and bean mixes as well, I just un-box, cut the cooking instructions off, put the flavor pouch, label and the directions in the bag where I can see them from outside, dump contents, and seal em' up. Never had any issues with freshness, or seal failures.

[Katrina]

ak, good to know I can un-box the mixes and seal them up in the bags. Do you think it will work with the boxed potatoes? Like scalloped and au gratin? Just got my Food Saver (early b-day present to me). Am starting to "play" with it. Have done pork loin roast and corn on the cob so far.

[ladyhk13]

We use our sealer which is a Weston (made in USA) for about everything from rice, animal food, berries, sugar and flour, meats to egg noodles. The egg noodles was the weirdest because I forgot to put it on Manual so I could control the amount it sucked and it was like it was crushing every single noodle but when I opened the bag they were all actually in one piece! I guess the machine "felt" it and can decide on how much pressure to put on the food.

Realist, if you are using a sucky machine why are you putting O2 aborbers in them? Isn't that kind of a waste of money since the sucky machine takes out all of the air anyway? We use O2's for things like buckets and cans...just my opinion.

[ak474u]

ak, good to know I can un-box the mixes and seal them up in the bags. Do you think it will work with the boxed potatoes? Like scalloped and au gratin? Just got my Food Saver (early b-day present to me). Am starting to "play" with it. Have done pork loin roast and corn on the cob so far.

Never tried au gratins but I've done idahoan mashed taters before, just rotated them after 2 years.

[realist]

Ladyhk13 it sucks out most of the air, I believe in redundancy and use the O2 absorbers to finish out the sucky part. I was actually looking at sealing them in a Mylar bag for additional protection but I think that I will only use them for the larger buckets.

[bacpacker]

If you empty out box mixes in a sealer, be sure to cut the instructions off and seal with them. I did some stuff one time and much later had to guess at instructions.

[izzyscout21]

I've been meaning to add one of these to my kitchen. I should really get on that......

Thanks for the reminder

[Katrina]

ak
Thanks, will try to do the orottens and sclopded pots (as my boys would say when they were little)and let ya know how I did.
bp, thanks for reminding me on the Instructions. The way I've been thinking lately (senior moments) I probably would forget to add them to the bags when sealing them

[AlphaTea]

All good advice here.
A few more tips I have learned over the years:
For noodles I just seal the bag with an O2 absorber in it, you dont need to suck it out you just need the O2 out. I actually try to make sure the bag has plenty of air in it. Air has about 20% O2. The O2 absorber will remove just about all of the O2 and leave the 79% Nitrogen + other gasses. That way you dont crush your noodles. raw noodles like macaroni and wheels displace a lot of air
Spaghetti will usually puncture the bag if you vacuum it out.
Avoid handling vacuum packed rice bags too much as the rice grains will also puncture the bag.
Try not to vacuum pack sugar unless you like big sugar bricks.
Do not vacuum pack Gummi bears unless you want a Gummi loaf.
I have learned that O2 absorbers, if used correctly can draw one heck of a vacuum by them selves.

[ladyhk13]

I love my sugar in bricks...I usually put 7 cups in each, it's a good number to be able to use quickly and they store easily. As soon as ya cut into the seal the sugar immediatly falls back into its powdery form. I buy sugar in #50 bags so keeping it in that or filling up buckets and having to keep opening a 5 gallon bucket to use just doesn't work for me.

[AlphaTea]

I don't know if you have noticed it, but I was in Sams the other day and saw that a 50lb sack of sugar cost more than ten 5 lb bags at Walmart.
I saw that you had to look at the unit price on Pasta too. The larger packs were not always cheaper per lb than buying single packs at Walmart.
Strange huh?

[ladyhk13]

Gonna have to check and see if that's here too or maybe regional? What is your price up there?

[AlphaTea]

IIRC it was $31 for the 50lb bag (yellow bag Dixie Crystal?) and $2.89 for the 5lb bags (WM brand).

[ladyhk13]

Thanks Alpha...should be going into town this week so I can check WM price and will have to make a trip to the big city to get price on bulk.