Freezing good cuts of meat

[pacanis]

I buy Smith's hot dogs by bulk. They come still linked together and are numerous, but I never counted them or bothered looking at the lbs. I have to eat two or three to be able to get them all in the canister, so they take up the space quite nicely and are more than just a couple of hot dogs in a large void. Of course the space in the canister grows as I take out what I need, but they are usually suffering freezer burn by then.
I also tried using the canister to keep them in the refrigerator, in hopes they would not slime up on me. No go. The vacuum bags work better at both hands down.

I didn't know you were not supposed to freeze the canisters, but I did read they were not dishwasher safe and have heeded that. Everytime I have opened them the air has whoosed in, so I do not think the seal has been bad, just that they don't work as well for keeping hot dogs fresh or frozen.

Personally speaking, I would wrap a $14.00 steak in plastic wrap and freeze it before I would use a canister.
I can't speak for the hippie lettuce

[elaine l]

Lucky for me I live right down the street from a butcher. If it is a great cut I buy it there and then eat it that night. I have also frozen fairly good cuts before with no problem. In the colder months I like to have a stash in the freezer of anything I may want to eat without running out. Having said that, those are the meats that I would buy at the regular market.

[GB]

Originally Posted by pacanis

but I did read they were not dishwasher safe

The ones I have are dishwasher safe, at least the canister part. I do not put the lids in the dishwasher.

[mcnerd]

Hmmm, there's space in the lid above the rim of the canister, plus air space in the food itself (other than liquid) so I've never experienced a lack of ability to pull a vacuum to seal the lid.

but the point being made was in the alleged storage of some hot dogs, allowing exposure to air more so than a bag sealed up against the dogs; a complaint by the original poster.

[GB]

The canisters are voided of air though so unless there is a leak, the dogs should not spoil any more than they do in the bags. I have stored dogs in the canisters for a long long long long time without any problems.

[pacanis]

Let's back this up to Andy's post;
He said he has good luck wrapping his food in plastic wrap and then putting in a ziploc.
I have tried the ziplocs alone, especially when they were pushing the freezer bags when they first came out, also squeezing the excess air out, but that didn't seem to work very well for long term storage. Certainly not as good as butcher paper.
I'm still thinking there is something to having the layer of protection tightly pressing on your food, like you get with the bags.

[Katie E]

When I use my HandiVac bags, I first wrap my meats in Reynolds Press 'n' Seal, then I remove all the air from the vac bag. Freeze.

When I'm ready to use the food out of the bag, I take out the plastic-wrapped frozen mass and place in a standard zipper-lock bag to thaw. The HandiVac bag rarely gets any food juices on it, but I wash them with hot soapy water any. They seem to last quite a while this way.

Also, wrapping bony meats in the plastic wrap first helps too prevent the bones from abrading the bag, which would keep the vacuum seal from forming/staying.

[Potato Repairman]

I was under the impression that improper defrosting would degrade the quality of frozen foods even more than the method of storage. For example,a frozen fish left out on a counter to defrost leaves a water mess vs a slow defrost in the frig which leaves the fish nice and firm. Or is that the result of improper freezing? Would someone please elaborate?

[GB]

Quality is the least of your issues if you leave fish on the counter to defrost. I would be much more concerned with food poisoning than quality. That is just simply not safe.

[DramaQueen]

Originally Posted by GB

Quality is the least of your issues if you leave fish on the counter to defrost. I would be much more concerned with food poisoning than quality. That is just simply not safe.

I have to go along with this one. Leaving food on the counter to defrost is just begging for trouble. While the inside of the food is still frozen or partially frozen , the outside has already thawed and is beginning a life of it's own. Not good. By the time the whole mass is defrosted you've got some nasty stuff going on. I always defrost in the fridge. I always know what I'm having for dinner tomorrow so I take out whatever I need from the freezer the day before.

As for Food Saver cannisters, these are supposed to be use for dry ingredients like cookies, bread crumbs, cereal, nuts etc. not for freezing or keeping meats. That what the bags are for and the bags take up far less room in the freezer. I think the cannisters are a pain because when I need something in the cannister, I have to take the air out, then re-vacuum it. I go through those dry ingredients too fast to worry about spoilage.

The potato ricer? ?? That's on a pedestal along with the Food Saver for things I can't do without. The ricer has been one of the most useful gadgets I own. I'm always finding uses for it.