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.

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