Vacuum Sealing (Your tips) and tricks

[Rookie'48]

We have a regional grocery chain here in Iowa called "Fareway" that has some good sales on ground beef every so often. BUT - the sale is only good if you buy 10 pound tubes (limit of 2). I get 2 tubes & the OL gets 2 tubes (total of 40 pounds of burger!) then I make one pound bags & vacu-suck them, smoosh 'em flat & into the freezer. They freeze quick when they are flattened out like that, take up a lot less room and defrost faster/easier than a one pound blob.

[sdbbq1234]

Heck, we vacuum seal almost everything.

Soup or Chili: Take a soup bowl, line it with plastic food wrap letting it over hang all around, pour the soup/chili in for a good serving size, place in freezer until frozen. Remove from freezer, take plastic wrap off, place in bag, vacuum and seal. We almost always have chili in the freezer. And Thanksgiving time, we make turkey noodle, rice or cabbage soup. We have a BOAT load, so we eat some and freeze the rest.

Meat: Divide into amounts we use for a meal; place in freezer on wax paper until almost frozen (or until it's firm), place in bag and seal.

Bone in Chicken breast: Place in freezer on wax paper until firm, wrap with plastic food wrap, place in bag with a few paper towels where the rib bone points are to keep them from poking thru the bag, and seal.

If you have the Ball Mason jar attachment, you can buy bulk spices, take out what you need and put in smaller container, put the rest in jars and seal.

We also use the canisters they have to marinade meat. The lids have a vacuum port and the unit will suck the air out.

wallace

[sincitydisciple01]

The biggest tip I can offer on vac sealing is to not pay full price on the bags. Costco carries a big box of them. I think it's got a total of 5 rolls and 30 quart sized bags in it. Not a bad deal @ $40. BUT!!!!!! 2-3 times a year they have a coupon in the monthly book for $10 off. It's a great deal. Don't recall if there are limits or not, but it's a steal!

[ricksegers]

By thing when sealing wet meats is pre-freezing. We buy bulk hamburger and will prefreeze 8 ounce slabs before vac sealing. We do cube steak, boneless skinless chicken breasts, pork chops.
We prefreeze soup or chile in plastic boxes and freeze overnight then slide out and vac seal it. I'm a big fan of my unit. BTW sin thanks for the tip on the Costco bags.