Vacuum sealers for food - money-saving or not?

sb44

sb44 wrote: »

I'm sick of buying jars of spices for the odd recipe and then never use them again and end up binning them.

I have just had an idea though and thought it may be of use to anyone else who has a Foodsaver sealer and canisters.



I have emptied the spices into small resealable bags (the ones that have a couple of white lines on the front to write on).

We have a couple of those large jars that you can buy cherries in syrup in (from Lidl), so I put the spice packets in there.

If you have Foodsaver canisters, besides using the canister to store you can put a jar in there, then vacuum the canister and it will seal the jar, ie the little button in the middle of the jar will seal again like new. That way you can save your spices, take them out as you need them and then just reseal the jar lid as before.

Perhaps other Foodsaver or vacuum sealer owners can put their own tips here for us all.

I tried this trick last night using a few fillets of chicken breast that I wanted to marinate quickly. Worked a treat, I only left them in the jar in the fridge for an hour and the spices had really penetrated the meat.

Angelina-M

Morning all.

I've just noticed that Lidl are doing those vacuum food sealers again this week and its got me wondering whether they are moneysaving and worth buying.

I'm actually considering getting the Eiffel vacuum sealer. I know its more expensive but for the way I use it I'm not sure the Lidl one will cope. What I do is freeze in bulk. For instance if the supermarket is selling cream off cheap, I buy loads and make butter to freeze. From the research I've done, the cheaper models dont like continous use so thats why i'm thinking of the Eiffel one.

However it doesn't seem very moneysaving when you look at the price of the bags! I've read somewhere that you can use the Lidl freezer bags which would work out cheaper but has anyone actually used these rather than the expensive bags on a roll?

I do get fed up of my homemade bread going dry due to freezer burn so i'm wondering if this is the answer to my problems?

Angelina-M

Ok I nipped into Lidl and they have four of their machines left. What to do.... cheapy machine or more expensive Eiffel??

I don't know about everyone else but when I get an idea, I want it there and then lol!

kathie1101

I have a tiny hand held bag sealer. It seals only, doesn't suck the air out, and as it is so tiny it takes me for ever to seal anything. So I have been wanting one of these proper machines for ages. Like you I have read that the cheaper ones don't seem to cut the mustard, and that you can't use cheap bags with them. However I read that the Lidl one says that it can be used with freezer bags. Last night I watched the demo on the Lidl site of how the machine works, and I don't know if it is different to how other machines work (not seen demos of others) but I can't see why any brand of freezer bag can't be used in it. Although I think it would be better with the better quality ones.

Based on this, I sent my OH out this morning. I was resigned that he wouldn't be able to get one as they were in the stores from last week, anyway 4 stores later and he has got me one. Way I look at it is that it has a 3 year guarantee, so if it is a pile of crap it will be going back

mmmsnow

You guys are so lucky. I went to my local Lidl first thing on Thursday morning and the **** in front of me bought the only three food sealers they had in the store (worse still, he did it in three separate transactions).

Angelina-M

Kathie you are making me want to rush out and grab one lol! Especially if I can take it back if its not so good. I've got some money that I won burning a hole in my pocket... thats why I don't mind paying extra for the expensive one... its like its not my money!

mmmsnow well there were four left at my local so I was thinking that people werent that bothered about them. I'm going to have to make a decision soon before they run out.

kathie1101

Unfortunately my OH won't be home until this evening for me to try it out, otherwise I would give it ago and let you know what I think of it. OH didn't bother buying any of their freezer bags though, he said they felt pretty flimsy, think they are better ones at Aldi.

My experience of Lidl has been pretty good with returning stuff if faulty/not happy etc. Example, the other week we bought a shoe cabinet and it had just a few screws/nuts etc missing. The store opened another pack and pulled out the full fixing set and said take the lot. Ok I know they wouldn't be able to sell the other cabinet as it would be missing a few screws, but it was a hell of a lot of extras that we ended up with that we can use for other stuff. They've also taken other stuff back without a problem.

kathie1101

Angelina I don't know if you've been and got one yet, but I've had a quick play with it so thought I'd come back and let you know how I got on.

You can use freezer bags with it, but they need to be a certain thickness (it does say in the manual what thickness) - the reasonable quality ones are ok. If they are not thick enough it will not work, although there is away of fooling it into thinking you are using a thicker bag and thus it will work, but then I'm not sure how this will effect the machine long term and/or if the thinner bags will keep food fresh etc. Anyway the Lidl freezer bags I said earlier weren't very thick, they are. OH was looking at the sandwich bags. The Lidl freezer bags are £1.49 for 75 large bags (think they are 25cm by 35cm) so for some things you could cut them in half. These bags do work with the machine. The Aldi freezer bags I have do not work.

It does say that it is meant for occasional household use, and not constant or commercial use. Which is fine for what I envision I will use it for - I think. Obviously I can't comment yet on whether it keeps things fresh or not, but it does seem to have sealed and has removed adequate air.

The thing that I like about it is that it can use normal freezer bags, which from what I have heard about the more expensive ones you can't (although apparently there is a trick involving inserting a straw that enables you to use normal bags with some of the expensive machines) so this is a money saver to me, as I could never afford the bags with the other machines.

Hope that helps

Angelina-M

Thats brilliant, thanks for the update. Yes i've read that there is a way to add a straw and it will suck out all the air so you can use Lidl freezer bags. I'm really interested in doing this as i've decided I absolutely need a vacuum machine!

I've spent hours today researching the different machines and i've decided on the Eiffel one. Its more expensive but as I said earlier its not my money so I don't have to worry about that. However the bag thing is important as I can't afford expensive ones either.

I came across this video on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpcswfHBuG8 she puts normal jars into a vacuum canister and reseals them!! I didn't know you could do that! I'm thinking I can dehydrate everything and then seal it up in the old jam jars etc.

I'm so excited, i'm going to order one in the morning. I'll let you know how it goes

sb44

kathie1101 wrote: »

OH didn't bother buying any of their freezer bags though, he said they felt pretty flimsy, think they are better ones at Aldi.
/QUOTE]

I bought some Lidl freezer bags last week and they are really thick, not flimsy at all.

They are so tough you can take the bag of frozen food and boil it in a pan, like boil in the bag fish etc.

It was £1.49 for 75 3 litre bags and it comes in a long box and is called Aromata Freezer Bags (blue box with strawberries etc on it).

I bought them to try with my FoodSaver vaccum sealer but they only seal with it, won't vaccum.

I normally need to buy 'channelled' bags but thought I would give those a go.