Vacuum Food Savers

[Merrilyn]

I'd like to ask a question of all the ladies who use a vacuum food saver.  Everything I've read says that you must freeze any kind of liquids before you vacuum seal the bags.  So how do you get on if you want to marinate meat in the vacuum bag?

The other thing I want to do, is try sous vide cooking.  To do that, I understand you put the meat and spices etc into a bag, vacuum seal and then cook in water at a constant temperature.  So does that mean if you want to add some kind of sauce to the meat, then you have to freeze it before bagging as  well?

I've just been given a vacuum sealer, but no instructions came with it unfortunately.

If anyone can offer any advice, I'd be most grateful.

[obbie]

You don't have to freeze liquids first.

You can marinate fish/ chicken in them, them cook,.
They are very handy to  have.

[Merrilyn]

So the liquid doesn't get sucked out when you vacuum seal?

That's what I was worried about.

[obbie]

No it doesn't. I use my Mums...

[Merrilyn]

Thankyou  so much Obbie.  I'm off to give it a try out now. 

[nazar]

what  brand /model is your valcum sealer ?
sometimes you can find the manual by doing a google search for them

[obbie]

My Mums is sunbeam.

Hope it works Merrilyn.

[Merrilyn]

Well, yes and no Robyn.  When I did a trial with just half a cup of water in the bag (and nothing else) it did suck some of the water out of the bag before sealing it.

However when I put steak in there and a fairly thick marinade, it didn't suck any out.  So it seems it has a lot to do with how 'heavy' or viscous the liquid is, as to whether or not the liquid stays in the bag.  I can see why they recommend freezing any liquid before vacuum sealing.

Mine is called a Foodsaver Compact II and I gather it's about 5 years old, so maybe the more modern ones have a switch to turn the vacuum off so you can just seal the bag when you've got most of the air out, before the liquid get sucked up.

I'll keep playing with this one, and if I find it really useful, I'll invest in one of the more modern ones.

Thanks Robyn, appreciate your help.

[meganjane]

I find that you don't need a large amount of marinade when vac packing.

[Nikkit]

Merrilyn I've found the only thing I've had to freeze before vac sealing is sausages. If you vac seal them raw/fresh it sucks the guts out of the casings! Not a good look!

I use mine a lot for when we go camping, I pre make meals and seal them then freeze them flat, seal all the meat for bbq's (remove all packaging first as it takes up too much room in the freezer), when we are crossing borders I peel veges and blanch and seal.
We have a 40 litre freezer for camping and I can get 14 days of food in there frozen.

There is a thread on here somewhere from a while back on vac sealers and it had loads of good info.

[jakodai]

Mine is called a Foodsaver Compact II and I gather it's about 5 years old, so maybe the more modern ones have a switch to turn the vacuum off so you can just seal the bag when you've got most of the air out, before the liquid get sucked up.

If you put the open end of the bag just over the heat strip, but not in the vacuum channel and then push down the way you normally would, this should allow you to seal without vacuum. I have a sunbeam vacuum sealer that's about that age, if not older, and that's how mine works.

[Merrilyn]

Thankyou ladies, that's been a big help.

It's kind of fun using it, isn't it.  I'm vacuum sealing everything 

[judydawn]

Here's a previous discussion on vacuum sealers.

[Merrilyn]

Thankyou Judy, you're a legend. 

[Halex]

Vacum sealing is an addiction for sure