How and why do you use a vacuum sealer, and is it essential for you?


 

Attachments

  • 1647178941904.png
    1647178941904.png
    563.5 KB · Views: 3
Joe Anshien said:
We started out with the hand held which is a great way to see if it is for you. Then we added the mason jar attachments. Then we found a great deal on an almost new countertop one on FBM.
View attachment 47043
View attachment 47044
View attachment 47046
Click to expand...
Joe, do you really like the mason jar attachment? I have contemplated one but never pulled the trigger.
 
Richard in NS said:
Joe, do you really like the mason jar attachment? I have contemplated one but never pulled the trigger.
Click to expand...
Yes - We have the wide and regular ones. When my wife makes pesto, smoothies, marinades, grated cheese, etc. Lasts much longer. We sometimes purchase large cans of olives or sauces and vacuum 1/2 and keep in the refrigerator.
 
Barb and I are on our third vacuum sealer, and it is an essential tool for us. We buy all of our proteins on sale and vacuum seal them into portions for two. Things like chops and steaks we do individual items. I've taken strip steaks out that have been vacuum sealed that were close to a year old and that were just as good as the day we froze them. What we save on buying sale items only has more than paid for the vacuum sealers many times over.
 
Well with today's prices you want to make use of every thing you buy. You can buy bulk and seperate before you freeze it. You can cook up items like Italian sausage on the smoker so you can have great smelling and tasting spaghetti in January. We love Korean ribs, and Bolgogi, so we make up a few batches of each and vac seal in the marinade and put most into freezer 3 months latter take out let it thaw and finish marinating.
Got started using the Vac sealer in the early 90's have worn out a couple. It made our garden in Kentucky go so much farher. Fresh and canned.
Best tool to buy. I have on commercials about revealing bags on chips and such back east that was a issue here in AZ a bag of tortillas will last 3 weeks to a month on the counter.
Oh yeah when our dog was alive we would get livers and gizzaeds from the butcher cook and mix in mixed veggies and some older rice. The vac seal up quart bags for a whole week or more. Our dog loved the fresh smell coming out of the bag.
 
I was talking to the guy that just picked up my EX4 cookbox and he has a Vacmaster chamber sealer. I had never heard of one so I just looked them up. Check out the video:
 
Joe Anshien said:
I was talking to the guy that just picked up my EX4 cookbox and he has a Vacmaster chamber sealer. I had never heard of one so I just looked them up. Check out the video:
Click to expand...
Joe, we bought a Pro260 bag sealer several years ago, and I am really happy with it, as well as customer service. I can't say the same about the famous branded version, for either product or [completely non-existent] customer service.

Another brand to consider is Weston.
 
When Meijer had Ground Angus Chuck for under $4 recently, we bought 25 lbs and made up 1 lb packages. When Kroger recently had pork shoulders on sale for $1.50/lb I was able to bag up enough CSRs to last the rest of the year. After the Super Bowl each year there are a lot of unsold wings that get marked down. We adopt many packages of them.:)

Our sealer more than pays for itself just by being able to take advantage of sales and avoid runs to the store. When the grocery stores ran out of meat 2 years ago and jacked up prices, we weren't affected.

If I had to give up a kitchen appliance, my sealer would be at the bottom of the list.
 
Rich Dahl said:
Barb and I are on our third vacuum sealer, and it is an essential tool for us. We buy all of our proteins on sale and vacuum seal them into portions for two. Things like chops and steaks we do individual items. I've taken strip steaks out that have been vacuum sealed that were close to a year old and that were just as good as the day we froze them. What we save on buying sale items only has more than paid for the vacuum sealers many times over.
Click to expand...
Which brand sealer do you have? I have found ziplock brand sealer bags are heavier than the food saver brand and helps with long-term storage fighting freezer burn. I ask because I have a real old food saver like a gen one or 2 and I think it's on its way out. I want to replace it with a quality unit.
 
I'm not looking it up right now, but I think there is a pretty good review of various vac sealers on Youtube from America's Test Kitchen.
 
JimZ said:
Which brand sealer do you have? I have found ziplock brand sealer bags are heavier than the food saver brand and helps with long-term storage fighting freezer burn. I ask because I have a real old food saver like a gen one or 2 and I think it's on its way out. I want to replace it with a quality unit.
Click to expand...
Jim, there's a big difference in media. I've been buying 3mil media that seems to work pretty well for me. And I've said it before.... I'll never have another FoodSaver branded device. VacMaster & Weston are a couple of good manufacturers.
 
We've had our sealer (one of the Food Saver brand ones) about 10 years or so. Admittedly we're not heavy users but it hasn't given any trouble. Though if we were as serious as that guy (or some of you folks seem to be) I would definitely invest in one of the more "pro" level ones
 
I wouldn't want to be without one. When I had a large freezer I used to buy pork butts by the case and smoke them two at a time. Vacuuming sealing and freezing the excess pulled pork was the easiest (maybe the only) way to make that work. Buying other meats in bulk and freezing them in meal-size portions makes life simpler for us "empty nesters", too. I bought a cheap (relatively) Sinbo sealer, manual operation, no bells and whistles. Its only positive features are price, small size, and the fact that it uses flat bags rather than the more costly embossed bags.
 
Last edited:
JimZ said:
Which brand sealer do you have? I have found ziplock brand sealer bags are heavier than the food saver brand and helps with long-term storage fighting freezer burn. I ask because I have a real old food saver like a gen one or 2 and I think it's on its way out. I want to replace it with a quality unit.
Click to expand...
We have the Food Saver Game Saver model. This is our second game saver and I only bought it because it was on a great sale price. The original is still working great after four years of hard use. One feature we like with it is it's a continuous use model, meaning you don't have to let it cool down after so many cycles. We recently did two large pork bellies of bacon and sealed the sliced to the tune of 104 bags one right after another.
I will say our first Food Saver, a lower price model was slow and needed to cool down after about six or so bags. I wouldn't recommend those at all.
We use 50 ft rolls of bag sealer and cut them to the size we need, that works best for us.
 
Anyone own a WESTON brand vac sealer?
I was looking to up the game a bit and wanted a brand I can trust, and I don't know a whole lot about any of them.
Weston seems to run from about $100 or so all the way up to around $2000.
I was eyeing up a fairly entry level unit from them, reg price is $260 on sale for $210.
Thanks!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top