All About Vacuum Sealing

[Finnie]

Ha ha, that’s funny about the Torani syrups! I actually dislike the peach one. 😅 It’s going to get thrown away as soon as ant season arrives. The other one will get moved to the fridge unless it’s gone by then. Major battle with ants here every spring through fall. I’ve been loathe to use any chemicals around the foundation of the house with the chickens in the back yard.

That is a good idea to vacuum seal your dehydrated things in jars. Mine has a port for a hose, and it says I can buy a hose separately.

 

[murphysranch]

I bought mine used on eBay back in 2010. It works great. I just change the foam seals once in a while.
I vacuum:
cheese - grated, whole, sliced, cubed
raw meat
lunch meat that I buy in bulk and slice
dehydrated veggies
cooked meat
raw rice
bags of flour and sugar
oatmeal and cornmeal
tried noodles when they were cheap - the edges cut the bags too much
spices bought in bulk
never thought about matches or paperwork

I buy rolls at estate sales. If they are good looking and not yellowed, I'll pick them up. I only buy rolls. I also wash the bags. I've been washing out zip bags since the early 80's when they were invented and never had a problem with them or vacuum bags. Of course, if there is a hole, or the bag loses its' seal, its trash.

I don't worry about the wet stuff. I wash out the vacuum narrow tray which has some juice in it, afterwards.

 

[Mini Horses]

Mine pulls enough moisture it gets into area to seal, then can't seal. Sometimes a paper towel in bag works.

When I seal something I might use some, not all -- like herbs -- I leave bag a couple inches larger than needed. Cut at seal, take what I want, re seal. Saves a lot of bag use. The zip locks with a suction hole are great for this type re use. 👍 Those bags are $$.

Also...marinate in them. The vac forces marinates into the meats

 

[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

 

[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]

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.

 

[Mini Horses]

just get a foodsaver and the jar attachments at the price

That's what I have. Plus a little Foodsaver one that's for sealing thru the little sealer holes in their bags 🤷

 

[Hinotori]

That's what I have. Plus a little Foodsaver one that's for sealing thru the little sealer holes in their bags 🤷

Id got the jar attachments for mine in 2009. Best way to keep my herbs I pick for tea fresh.

 

[murphysranch]

That is a GREAT price. On the Costco sub reddit, they get good reviews.