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  • #31
    Originally posted by Scarbelly View Post
    We have been sealing for nearly 20 years and have never used paper towels or double sealing. If we have liquid we do a seal by hanging the bag over the side of the counter so the liquid stays down in the bag via gravity.
    I perform the same steps the only reason I double seal is if liquid seeped past then I wipe and reseal....seems to work for me

    And whats the worst case if the bag looses vac...Time to eat it

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    • #32
      Thats how my wife make hamburger patties, ball of meat ......Vac. j/k

      Originally posted by Pandemonium View Post
      That stinks because thats one of the reasons i got it was for fresh sausages, yes i found out about the patties being squeezed together with the handheld vac oops

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      • #33
        Well i did some sealing last night and i am not sure really if it gets out all the air?
        I first did a bunch of the premade salad and it sucked the hell out of it, shrank to a hard knot like my hand held has done, but also used it on steaks and hamburger meat and it didnt seem to suck it tight like i expected but then again i have never tried meats like that so maybe it did good but i could grab the bag and pull and get a little slack between the bag and steak. Maybe its normal but i thought the steaks would feel hard after vaccing

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        • #34
          Fresh sausages do not need to be frozen, as long as you've used natural casings and got a good twist between each sausage and left them overnight to set. The sausages are sealed I just vac them from the fridge. never had the meat squeeze out.




          I do vac marinaded pork steaks (lime marinated, recipe round here soemwhere I think) what i do for marinated or juicy food is just wrap it in a layer of clingfilm. When you vac the clingfilm seals the liquid in with the meat and the bags stay dry.

          That way I can marinade a load of pork shoulder steaks up, wrap and vac and keep them in the freezer for short notice bbq's :-)
          I also wrap up pre-marinaded ribs the same way.

          The other thing I do is I buy ready made bags NOT rolls. Over here the rolls are pretty expensive. The bags much less so.
          I buy bags big enough so that I can cut them down for various things. Half size is used for most things and quarter size is used for little snack packs of nuts, jerky, snackstix etc
          Just found a new local supplier and 1000 20x40 cm (16x8 inches) will run me around £50 - $80
          And last at least a year. Particularly when you consider I use half a bag at a time.

          pando. cuts of meat vacpacked will still feel like raw meat. it just removes the air from around the meat, but the water in the meat is what gives it it's texture and that doesn't change. and removing the air means it'll stay fresh in the freezer almost indefinitely.

          Some things I freeze before vacpacking so they don't get smushed:

          burgers (I roll in seasoned breadcrumbs before pressing instead of greaseproof circles, works just as well and none of that buggering about with trying to remove the paper from frozen burger pattys)
          I stack them in layers with clingfilm between each layer before freezing. Then when frozen vac in packs of 2.




          sausage rolls
          fish/prawn/crab cakes

          But never fresh sausages, that's down to the twisting and drying period. I guess if you're in a hurry, then freezing would be an idea. Or you could just leave them attached to each other and cut when defrosted. That would work equally well.
          Attached Files
          Last edited by curious aardvark; 12-29-2010, 10:41 AM.
          Made In England - Fine Tuned By The USA
          Just call me 'One Grind'



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          • #35
            I was thinking about marinating before sealing and freezing, good idea

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            • #36
              Originally posted by Pandemonium View Post
              Well i did some sealing last night and i am not sure really if it gets out all the air?
              I first did a bunch of the premade salad and it sucked the hell out of it, shrank to a hard knot like my hand held has done, but also used it on steaks and hamburger meat and it didnt seem to suck it tight like i expected but then again i have never tried meats like that so maybe it did good but i could grab the bag and pull and get a little slack between the bag and steak. Maybe its normal but i thought the steaks would feel hard after vaccing
              The Foodsaver type mnachines just don't pull near the vacuum that a commercial chamber type machine can. They just don't have the oomph. So if what you are used to seeing is what was done with a commercial machine, the Foodsaver won't be the same. This is particularly true in very dense products like steaks, roasts. Things that would be more "porous" (salads, shredded meats, sausage) will pull down a bit more as there is that space for air to be removed from. IMO the Foodsaver does a pretty darn good job for a table top, $100-150 machine. Just not the same as a commercial type unit. Does your hand held unit pull the bag tighter around steaks, etc.? Then there is always the possibility of a faulty unit
              sigpic

              Beef. It's whats for dinner.

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              • #37
                Originally posted by mulepackin View Post
                The Foodsaver type mnachines just don't pull near the vacuum that a commercial chamber type machine can. They just don't have the oomph. So if what you are used to seeing is what was done with a commercial machine, the Foodsaver won't be the same. This is particularly true in very dense products like steaks, roasts. Things that would be more "porous" (salads, shredded meats, sausage) will pull down a bit more as there is that space for air to be removed from. IMO the Foodsaver does a pretty darn good job for a table top, $100-150 machine. Just not the same as a commercial type unit. Does your hand held unit pull the bag tighter around steaks, etc.? Then there is always the possibility of a faulty unit
                No the hand held didnt pull any tighter because i did try it to see, ok so its working good then. Like you said the dense meats wont squeeze tight like salad

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                • #38
                  mine is a low end commercial italian unit and sucks like a hundred dollar whore :-)

                  To be honest for a number of things I could do with less vacumn lol
                  It squeezes slices of summer sausage flat and paper thin - not good. And if you freeze them first they crack lol
                  So now I just cut the big sausage into 1/2 pound chuncks wrap in several layers of clingfilm and freeze. Don't vac them at all.

                  My ideal machine would have adjustable vacumn strength.
                  Made In England - Fine Tuned By The USA
                  Just call me 'One Grind'



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                  • #39
                    Re:

                    I recently saw an "America's Test Kitchen's" Show where they reviewed a bunch of vacuum packaging equipment. They didn't like the battery powered portable stuff, or the cheap bags which were too thin as the plastic would tend to crack in the freezer and allow moisture & air to get into the package. They saw that as being about as bad as "freezer burn" itself.

                    Depending on what you are doing, here's what I do at home. Now if you are going to a cook off and an Inspector wants to see your vacuum sealed meat etc this ain't for you.....it's more for home use.

                    Get a box of the large thick plastic zip lock (with the red plastic zipper) bags.
                    When you are at the fast food place again take a few extra straws along with you.

                    When you put your extra food or fresh processed meat ready to cook into a bag, take the paper off the straw and zip the bag almost closed. Insert the straw into the small opening and to a point just above the food & juice or gravy and force the zipper up tight against the straw. NOW...suck on the straw evenly to suck the air out of the bag. If you need another breath, pinch the straw and exhale and take another draw on the straw. When you get her almost pumped empty pull the straw toward you with your teeth gripping the straw and still inhaling. As the straw slips out of the bag quickly push the zipper closed to seal the vacuum you created in the bag.

                    It just takes a little practice. It ain't perfect........but it's almost Free.

                    You can wash and reuse the straw..........even dip it in some Clorox water to sterilize it. Or just pick up a few extra paper wrapped straws each time.
                    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc1URQgQWNo

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