Vacuum sealers for food - money-saving or not?

LoveLifeAgain

Kevie192 wrote: »

You need to copy the IMG code straight from photo bucket and just paste that directly in your reply... That's what I did above.

Kevin

Wow, thank you Kevin :T
I will try that when I do another one. I put some black grapes into a jar just to see how long they last and so far so good and pleased to say that the jars still have the button down

LoveLifeAgain

sb44 wrote: »

I am sick of throwing away over ripe bananas.

I do use them to make banana muffins but sometimes they go a bit too ripe and I end up binnning them.

I read somewhere that you can freeze them and use them to make muffins, bread etc so thought I would give it a go.

They look great, I would be very interested to know how long they last.

sb44

charybdis1 wrote: »

They look great, I would be very interested to know how long they last.

They are in the freezer so hopefully if the bag stays sealed they should be fine for months.

Fingers crossed.

sb44

Sunnyday wrote: »

SB it wasn`t a jar that lost the seal this time it was one of the cannisters that work with the vacuum sealer. This worries me a bit as i thought that they would be perfect as they are sold to work specifically with the sealer.

The cannisters that i have are these ones http://www.fresherpack.co.uk/products/4/9/vacuum_sealer_food_canisters/

I am wondering if its anything to do with the onions themselves so i would be interested to hear if anyone else has had any problems. I`ve had a quick google but not found what i`m really looking for. If i get chance later i shall have a more thorough search.

I`m off to pull some veg before i go to w*rk as i plan on running the dehydrator overnight tonight when the cheaper electricity kicks in

Have a good day peeps.

SD

One of my FoodSaver canisters was the same.

The trouble shooting guide said check that there are no food particles between the rubber seal on the canister.

I just pulled the rubber down a bit and re adjusted it and it worked.

[Deleted User]

I have dehdrated potatoes, parsnips, turnips and onions and all in several `proper` vac bags. About 6 of the bags have lost their vacuums over a few weeks and not just the spiky stuff but soft things like onions. I have re vacuumed and re packed the bags into other bags ie they are now in a double lot of bags. My opinion now is that I will not be storing dehydrated foods in vac bags

I have very successfully stored home dehydrated foods in lock and lock boxes in the past, onions, peppers, mushrooms and they are still going strong in their third year of storage. I dehydrated green beans, potatoes and marrow yesterday and have vac packed in the AJ canisters after the excellent results with beetroot stalks. I dried beetroot leaves a month ago and they went into a lock and lock and they still rattle so are moisture free

My conclusion so far is that vac packing in bags is superb for maximising freezer space and stopping freezer burn and I have also had good results with nuts, pulses and barley for some reason. Not good for storage of dehydrated veggies

Anyway, I have ordered more canisters as I like the way you can re vac so easily

taxsaver

Kittie, it's quite possible that the bags have NOT lost their vacuum seals at all, but rather that the dried foods are emitting gases which are then inflating the bags to give the appearance that the vacuum has been lost.

Sunnyday

sb44 wrote: »

One of my FoodSaver canisters was the same.

The trouble shooting guide said check that there are no food particles between the rubber seal on the canister.

I just pulled the rubber down a bit and re adjusted it and it worked.

Thanks for that SB - I shall fiddle about with the seal and see if it makes a difference.

taxsaver wrote: »

Kittie, it's quite possible that the bags have NOT lost their vacuum seals at all, but rather that the dried foods are emitting gases which are then inflating the bags to give the appearance that the vacuum has been lost.

This is what i was thinking about with the onions, i`ve read that some foods can emit gasses and i thought that maybe onions were one of them but this doesn`t seem to be the case *scratches chin*

Well i`ve now packed away all my dried onions - they are in open cheapy freezer bags with the ziplock bits cut off and left open ended and put into one of the proper vac bags that came with the sealer.

I managed to get 5 small bags into the large one and have vacuumed and sealed it. There is an extremely small amount of air in the very bottom bag but it worked ok and has drawn all the air out of the rest and sealed the top. I`ve now thrown it into the freezer.

I`ve also frozen lots of sliced onions and i have the dehydrator full again to go on later tonight.

It scared me last night as it turned itself off after half an hour and the back was glowing red :eek:
I changed the fuse and popped it back on again after a few minutes and all was well but i slept on the sofa just in case it should throw a wobbly.

Hopefully it will be ok now as it slaved away for the rest of the night and i had perfect results this morning.

First pic is the bags within the bag - there are about ten onions and quite a lot of onion tops in here
[IMG][/img]

Here is the excalibur waiting for cheap leccy time to do its thing
[IMG][/img]

SD

taxsaver

SD your excalibur looks really good! You must stop keep tempting me!!!

Now, I've had my first go at sous vide - sort of! (picture's a bit blurred I'm afraid).




This is one of the chickens that I'd prepared and frozen a week or so back and the vegetable medleys (sounds a bit posh that! ) both of which I posted pics of when I did them.

The veg I simply put the bag in the micro for about three mins and they were done nicely with all the goodness and still a little bit of crunch retained.

The chicken was immersed in a pan of boiling water (straight from frozen) for about 15 mins from when the water returned to the boil, at which point I turned the gas right down to its lowest setting. I couldn't really keep the water down as low as I'd have liked but it still turned out great and the flavours from the marinade that I'd sealed in the bag with it and frozen were fabulous!

Still a work in process as I think I'll try the slow cooker next time as that should hopefully stay at a lower temp more easily.

You might notice that in my enthusiasm for trying the new method I totally forgot to do potatoes!! :rotfl:

sb44

taxsaver wrote: »

OMG! That chicken looks wonderful.

Did you say you cooked it before you froze it Taxsaver or did you put it in raw with the marinade?

taxsaver

Thank you. :j

I put everything in raw. The chicken raw with marinade sealed at night then frozen next day. The veg I put in raw with butter and pepper (I don't use salt if it can be avoided).