All About Vacuum Sealing

[Hinotori]

Hubby made me carefully vacuum seal up a bunch of ammo he was putting into storage. It's hard to get ammo for that particular gun so trying to keep what we can get good.

 

[Fixit]

I have 1 of these that i have to play with one of these days.

Fish & Game Vacuum Sealer

Our portable vacuum sealer is a true fish and game meat-saver. Its portability and versatility make it perfect for hunting, fishing, camping, and hiking trips.

outriggeroutdoors.com

 

[tortoise]

Freeze fruit before vacuum sealing. I tried vacuum sealing fresh blueberries. It crushed the berries and sucked out the juice. Funny in hindsight, but not at the time

 

[Finnie]

Yesterday I found limes on sale at Walmart for 25 cents each! 5 of them made a pound, so that was $1.25/#. I got 10 pounds!

I will be canning limeade soon, but first I want to freeze them. So this was my first test of the vacuum sealer.

For the first one I kind of wasted some from placing the end of the bag too far in the sealer. So on the second one I tried putting it not as far in.

I imagine there is a sweet spot. Or I will at least get used to where to lay it.

The first two came out really nice. But sadly, the next two didn’t hold the vacuum.

I’m not sure why. The troubleshooting section of the manual suggested a few things such as a wrinkle in the bag where it seals or a puncture in the plastic. I held them under water in a dish pan and the bigger one did not show any air bubbles, so I couldn’t find the leak on that one. The smaller one has a leak at the corner of the seal. Maybe it had a slight fold there? I also suspect maybe the cheapest bags I could find to do a trial of the machine with might have been a bad choice.

So, I need to fiddle with it some more.

 

[Hinotori]

I like the Weston rolls. The cheaper ones I bought have a lot of issues

 

[Finnie]

I like the Weston rolls. The cheaper ones I bought have a lot of issues

I will look into those. It very well may be the cheap bags. After trying the air bubble in water test, I removed the limes and let those two bags dry, and today I resealed them (with the limes). They are holding fine this time.

I put some of the limes into a third bag, and I noticed when pulling more plastic off the roll, that it is badly creased. So I made a point to put a non creased section of bag over the sealing area of the machine. I bet that was my issue yesterday, because I noticed creases yesterday, but I don’t think I paid much attention to whether they landed on the actual heating element.

Also, on some of them I did a double seal, and some I practiced with the in between seal setting, which is labeled “moist”. I don’t know how that settings is beneficial, but I can certainly see the advantage of using a double seal, in case one of them fails.

 

[Hinotori]

I sealed up a pork top loin today. Steaks and some coarse ground. Probably get used in meatloaf.

That little hand grinder I picked up does good and the hopper is wide enough that the steaks I didn't like the tendon and such going through them could go in whole instead of cubing.

 

[Hinotori]

I will look into those. It very well may be the cheap bags. After trying the air bubble in water test, I removed the limes and let those two bags dry, and today I resealed them (with the limes). They are holding fine this time.

I put some of the limes into a third bag, and I noticed when pulling more plastic off the roll, that it is badly creased. So I made a point to put a non creased section of bag over the sealing area of the machine. I bet that was my issue yesterday, because I noticed creases yesterday, but I don’t think I paid much attention to whether they landed on the actual heating element.

Also, on some of them I did a double seal, and some I practiced with the in between seal setting, which is labeled “moist”. I don’t know how that settings is beneficial, but I can certainly see the advantage of using a double seal, in case one of them fails.

Costco sometimes gets the Foodsaver ones on sale. Usually its the bags though.

 

[Finnie]

We played around with the vacuum sealer some more tonight. It seems to fail more often than it gets it right. The suction will be on, but the air doesn’t leave the bag. Or else it sucks most of the air out and then quits while there is still too much air. Or, it looks really good, and then as the bag of food sits, it loosens up and takes in air.

We think we have figured out that most of the problem is if we tuck the end of the bag too far into the drip tray area. So we need to learn just exactly where the machine wants the open end of the bag.

But that doesn’t account for when it seals tight at first but then loses its vacuum as it sits. Double seal seems to work ok, so I think I’m going to stick with that.

 

[Finnie]

Costco sometimes gets the Foodsaver ones on sale. Usually its the bags though.

Oh, I did see foodsavers, both machines and refill rolls, last time I was at Costco. I stood there looking for a while, but wasn’t at the point yet of knowing what brand I wanted to get. I’ll have to check there when I need more bags.

Will be soon, because my $10 package is half gone.