Traveling - vacuum sealing

amother

Tue, Aug 05 2014, 5:02 pm

amother1223 wrote:

What is the best brand to buy for vacuum sealing meals? Anyone have any experience with vacuum sealing? What travels well and what doesn't?

I'm posting anonymously because I actually am known for my great love of my vacuum sealer.

I have the Food Saver. Its relatively inexpensive, and probably takes a bit longer to do the job than more expensive brands, but it does a great job.

http://www.amazon.com/FoodSave.....saver

As I said, I love it.

The bags and the rolls (which are cheaper) work well for solid foods, including foods with some --but not excessive -- liquid. I've had no problems with "lumpy" food such as chicken poppers or slices of roast. I wasn't successful, though, with cut up pieces of chicken on the bone. Maybe it would have worked if I hadn't tried to shove the whole thing in one bag, but that lost the vacuum seal.

But wait. There's more! You can get plastic containers or canisters that you can seal with the Food Saver. Or you can get the jar attachment and seal glass Ball Jars with it. I've been freezing soups that way.

We used it to pack up a week's worth of vacation lunches and dinners for our family, which includes two teenage boys, and it worked great. No leaking at all, and the food stayed well. I should mention that we froze some of it, which might have helped.

At home, we don't have a local butcher, so I tend to stock up when I go, but only have a tiny freezer. Not only does vacuum sealing give me more storage room, it keeps things so much nicer than plastic bags, foil, or even freezer wrap. I can pull out meat that's been in the freezer for 6 weeks, and it looks as fresh as the day I put it in. No freezer burn. Great taste.

One thing to be aware of is that the instructions say that some liquids can be pulled into the mechanism. There's a drip tray for that. I've never seen it happen, but because it can, I only use it for meat. (I do use the attachment for everything, because it doesn't go near the drip tray.) You should AYLOR -- I didn't bother -- if you want to use it for both meat and milk.