Results with Using Food Saver Bags?


 
G

Gene_N

TVWBB Fan
Hello all,

Using my 22.5 WSM, my M.O. is to smoke large amounts of meat (butt, brisket, chicken) then portion out into 20 oz family dinner servings then seal and freeze using my Food Saver. It saves $$$ and time for busy weeknight dinners. Last night, I heated, opened and served a 2lb bag of pork butt I made last Dec. It was the first bag of that batch that came out dry. I finished off the leftovers this AM to confirm the good flavor but dry meat. Because I ran out of the 8' bag roll, I portioned bigger servings with the 11" roll.

4.5-5 months. YMMV. This could be a 1-off because the other batches came out moist. Has anyone stored food longer than 5 months and gotten good results? Just curious.

I have not encountered dryness with brisket because that does not last much past 6-8 weeks. The kids and I love KC burnt ends. :-)
 
I usually pull then use most of the drippings left after I foil before Foodsavering. I use the pre-cut bags though, not the rolls. I have found the rolls do not seal as well for some reason.

I have never had a problem with dry pork. I usually boil some water, drop the bag in and cut off the heat and let it sit for 15-20 minutes.

Hope that helps. There is a Amazon seller that has pre-cut bags very cheap. the quality is very good.
 
Hi,

Thanks for the tip on the Amazon seller. I am a prime member and it is cheaper. I heat the meat differently. I will place a bag of meat in a pot, cover with cold water, cover, heat to 180-200 then simmer on for 30-40 mins. The bark is chewy, no crunch but my kids and I are not big bark lovers.
 
FoodVacBags Bags & Rolls is the seller. They have both rolls and bags. The quality of the bags is very good and at a very reasonable price.
 
I found a lost pack of pulled pork in my freezer a few weeks ago that was 2 years old. I heated it exactly like Gene_N does. It was almost as good as right after the pulling (given the extended freezing time in my chest freezer), but the shreds were smaller.

For freezing, I break up the pork into large chunks, put them in cheap quart zippy bags with a couple of tablespoons or so of finishing sauce such as one of Kevin Kruger's finishing sauces or Fat Johnny's Bastardized Piedmont Sauce if I have no drippings. Press them flat and then freeze them flat before inserting them into self-made 8" wide bags. I'd rather use quart bags and pull out as much as I need. They reheat easier too. I feel that the meat loses less juices if I vacuum it after it is frozen.

Note: After freezing, I pierce the inner cheap bag once or twice in the thicker plastic strip just under the zipper before vacuuming so that the inner bag will be sure to vacuum fully and so that the suction doesn't pull the zipper open. I find a corn holder with 2 prongs very helpful for doing this. A push-in will make somewhat smaller holes.

When you reheat, reheat in the FoodSaver bag as Gene_N described.

Rita
 
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Just my .02 but I buy the rolls and sometimes the bags, off of ebay. The seller is foodvacbagsandmore. The quality is very good, and haven't had a bag lose vacuum. I use the my foodsaver, almost daily, either reheating or cooking things, and consider this one of the many, great things I've learned, by lurking and reading posts on TVWBB. I also reheat a lot of things, either like Gene_N or Rita suggested, or I just place in a pot of water and heat via my Anova sous vide cooker.
 
I also came across a bag of Pulled Pork, in a foodsaver bag from last fall. I also throw in a pot of water and reheat.
It was just as I have read on here.... taste just as good as the day it was pulled!
 
Does anyone find that boiling (or simmering) frozen meat in a food saver bag releases a lot of oil/juice from the bag? It also seems to break the seal, because the bag separates from the meat -- it's not held tight.
 
Stone said:
Does anyone find that boiling (or simmering) frozen meat in a food saver bag releases a lot of oil/juice from the bag? It also seems to break the seal, because the bag separates from the meat -- it's not held tight.
Click to expand...

The seal isn't broken, if it were, your bag would be full of water and your water would be full of pork fat.

What you're seeing is the air left inside the meat mass expanding as it gets warm. Foodsaver doesn't pull a perfect vacuum, so some air is always left in the bags. That's why you can get some freezer burn even in a vac sealed bag.
 
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