Vacuum Sealers Rock

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Stock Pot

Senior Cook
Joined
Aug 1, 2012
Messages
295
Location
New Hampshire, USA
I don't know why I waited so long to get one of these things. They are so superior to any other way to put food away for freezing. You can get the bag rolls for about 15 cents a foot, too. Good bye ice crystals and good bye freezer burn.
 
I have one because of my sous vide cooking addiction, but they are wonderful for any sort of freezing.
 
I've gone stealthy now and just use the battery powered Reynolds Handi-Vac tool in conjunction with Ziplocks quart and gallon sized vacuum bags. While a counter top vacuum is fine, I got tired of lugging it out each time, cutting the bags, etc. I get every bit of vacuum I need with the battery powered Handi-Vac and Ziplock vacuum bags. It may not have the vacuum power to crush aluminum cans, but so what? :LOL:
 
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I just bought one recently and I use some thick generic type rolls of food bags. It works well for vac packing cheese. It doesn't work well for anything that has liquid, like ham, or like blanched pea pods. The water seems to cause issues and makes it near impossible to seal.

For the rolls of food vac bags....I take out my rotary cutter and mat that are from sewing, cut all the bags from each 50 ft roll, seal the one side of each, so they are ready when I need them. Saves money and time.
 
I started using a Foodsaver at least fifteen years ago. I can buy meat in bulk, and freeze it for months with no drying or freezer-burning. Now that I do sous vide cooking, I have another use for it. It is an essential appliance in my kitchen.

CD
 
We bought our first Tilia Foodsaver in the mid 90's.. Wore it out (well, I wanted a newer model...shhh ) about 10 years later... Use ours almost daily...

Ross
 
When you make 25# or 30# of sausage and cured meat at a time, you gotta have one.
 
I could never justify the cost of a food saver. I wrap freezer foods tightly in plastic wrap and put them in zip lock freezer bags. That was working for me.

Then one day we stopped into a Goodwill store and I saw an old model for $2. so I bought it. Went to War-Mart and picked up some bags and I was off and running.

It works well for $2 and does the job. Not sure what I'll do if it dies.
 
Cheese, this is why it is worth having a vac packer. Mold won't grow or is very minimal without air. Some of my cheeses crumble when freezing and taking out, so I just want to refrigerate instead OR put in the cheese cave (55 degrees F), and I want to leave it there to age. I have brick cheese that needs to stay in the fridge, since 4 or 5 lbs of cheese is too much to eat at one time, I cut it in quarters, so about a lb plus of cheese in the cheese drawer, the rest vac packed in the fridge lower storage drawer. When making cheese some people even skip the waxing and just vac pack for aging in the cheese cave, lots of controversy but it works.

This also works. Before handling your cheese, wash hands with soap and water, rinse well, spray or squirt some vinegar on your hands and dry them. Treat bread boards or surfaces you are cutting cheese on in the same way, or use paper towels, or bleached dried freshly laundered tea towels. I vac pack and haven't had mold growing on any of those cheeses. I don't let the 'help' help me cut the cheese, it saves on cheese going moldy. I've been doing this now since the end of February for cheeses that are refrigerated or going in the cheese cave. Almost 5 months, proof positive, it works.

The only moldy cheese I ever see in the refrigerator now, is the 1 lb sections I've cut and put in a regular plastic bag, that we haven't eaten, sometimes touched by the help :LOL:. With our variety of cheeses, I check the cheese drawer, put new cheeses in weekly, remove any that are not being eaten in a timely manner. We three eat about 2 lbs of cheese per week on average. I just shredded and froze motz and colby. The cheese drawer has gouda and I'm going to add a lb of brick to it.
 
Cheese, this is why it is worth having a vac packer. Mold won't grow or is very minimal without air. Some of my cheeses crumble when freezing and taking out, so I just want to refrigerate instead OR put in the cheese cave (55 degrees F), and I want to leave it there to age. I have brick cheese that needs to stay in the fridge, since 4 or 5 lbs of cheese is too much to eat at one time, I cut it in quarters, so about a lb plus of cheese in the cheese drawer, the rest vac packed in the fridge lower storage drawer. When making cheese some people even skip the waxing and just vac pack for aging in the cheese cave, lots of controversy but it works.

This also works. Before handling your cheese, wash hands with soap and water, rinse well, spray or squirt some vinegar on your hands and dry them. Treat bread boards or surfaces you are cutting cheese on in the same way, or use paper towels, or bleached dried freshly laundered tea towels. I vac pack and haven't had mold growing on any of those cheeses. I don't let the 'help' help me cut the cheese, it saves on cheese going moldy. I've been doing this now since the end of February for cheeses that are refrigerated or going in the cheese cave. Almost 5 months, proof positive, it works.

The only moldy cheese I ever see in the refrigerator now, is the 1 lb sections I've cut and put in a regular plastic bag, that we haven't eaten, sometimes touched by the help :LOL:. With our variety of cheeses, I check the cheese drawer, put new cheeses in weekly, remove any that are not being eaten in a timely manner. We three eat about 2 lbs of cheese per week on average. I just shredded and froze motz and colby. The cheese drawer has gouda and I'm going to add a lb of brick to it.

It is only the oxygen in the air that will allow the growth of mold or allow other foods to decompose. The nitrogen part of air is often used as an environment to prevent spoilage and retard ripening. If you pressurize draft beer containers with nitrogen the bubbles are much smaller than with CO2 and IMO is much smoother in taste. Some tire providers want to fill tires with nitrogen and charge a premium. I laugh at that as air is 79% nitrogen.:ROFLMAO:
 
I love my FS, the company is amazing with their customer service. About a year after I got mine...I was using the mason jar attachment to seal up some pea soup I have made (you can store sealed soups and stew in the fridge for at least a month...too chicken to test beyond that). Well...my fault, I over filled the jar and got pea soup in the accessory hose...yuk! Called FS, told them what happened and that it was my fault. Wanted to know if there was a way it could be repaired or replaced (the hose). I was told no, but they would send me a new unit free of charge! Better yet, when I originally got the unit, I order a combo pack with a marinator, storage containers and a deli keeper and that is exactly what they sent me free of charge! I have since bought one for my daughter and my sister and they love it as well.
 
It is only the oxygen in the air that will allow the growth of mold or allow other foods to decompose.

True enough. There are also yeasts and molds floating in the air that live in a household environment and the yeasts and molds that float in from air outside.

+1 for vacuum packing. It's not a cure because we live in our contaminated lives, but it sure helps.
 
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