Vacuum Sealer Recommendations needed


 
Ed Pinnell said:
You should be fine, if you, say, wrap the individual steaks in saran wrap and then seal several steaks in a single bag, and then remove the steaks and re-seal as needed. This helps to keep things organized, too, rather than having to keep track of individual packages roaming around in your freezer. If you plan on individual packages and you do 6 or 8 packages in a row, the consumer models will likely shut down and wait for a cool down at some point. It's the number of consecutive sealing operations without a cool down that does it. Your workflow can determine whether the consumer unit will work for you or not. I've never burned one up, or even had to replace a sealing tape, but the vacuum pump and the vacuum chamber seals on the cheaper units are the weak link. Make sure you can buy the vacuum chamber seals and don't store the unit with the lid closed, and when the pump goes it's time to replace the unit.
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I agree. Got a small burnt spot on the sealing bar of my Geryon and had to replace it. IIRC, it only took sealing 4 or 5 bags in rapid succession. Replaced it with this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08T1LJ2FP/?tag=tvwb-20 in May of last year.
I vacuum seal herbs and hops Mason jars, so the accessory port was a big plus. When I do use bags or rolls, I'm careful to allow time for the heating element to cool between uses.
 
Ed Pinnell said:
I was wrong...I paid more for the Weston. I just looked and I bought the Weston at an eBay auction for $122.49 + tax & shipping on 1/10/20, total purchase = $161.53. I bought the GameSaver for $110.60 on 6/01/15 from Red's Gear on Amazon, no tax and free shipping. I was surprised when I won the auction with such a low bid! We still have the GameSaver for a backup.

We use ours quite a bit...with just the two of us, it's a necessity. I've got a pork loin roast ($1.99/lb) to cut into pork chops today. We routinely buy the limit (usually 10#) of hamburger when it goes on sale ($1.99/lb) and divide it into 1lb portions. We bought the limit (10#) of country-style ribs ($1.99/lb) for the slow cooker. She bought 9# of bacon recently, I don't remember the price. I double-seal each end of a bag with a label between seals at one end, a holdover from the early days with FoodSaver, so that's 4 seals per bag. I'm just not comfortable with a single seal, it doesn't look right to me, force of habit. I've got shopping bags of pork, beef, and chicken, all stuff we buy when it's on sale, and whenever anything goes on sale, we take inventory and see if there is anything we need.

I think we ended up with 10 steaks and 3 roasts from the rib roast sale, and I've got a ribeye steak in the fridge for dinner tonight that I'm probably going to cut in half it's so thick, and we both love a good crust so there's an opportunity for more crust there.

My wife would prefer that I seal in individual portions, but with so many things in the freezer, it's more of an organizational thing for me.

I created a sheet of labels in Excel to put between seals. With the GameSaver there is a lot of space at the top between the edge of the bag and the seal, not so much with the Weston. I'd post it but the file format isn't permitted, but it's easy to create your own. Since I double-seal anyway, it makes sense to me to do it this way., and I've been doing it this way for years...YMMV
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Great idea. I buy a lot of meat when it goes on sale too and use a Sharpie to mark packages when breaking down and vacuum sealing. Will be switching to your way now.
 
Bob Bailey said:
Great idea. I buy a lot of meat when it goes on sale too and use a Sharpie to mark packages when breaking down and vacuum sealing. Will be switching to your way now.
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Thanks! I know I've spewed out a lot of info here and some of it may be useful, some of it not. I never cut short an automatic sealing cycle because I just figured that a double-piston pump was there for a reason besides being a selling point, but maybe I'm wrong, I don't really know. The wrapping part takes time but I have a set up for that, and I also cover the bone ends with parchment paper and that takes time, too, so it's probably too much effort for most people.
 
LMichaels said:
OK, well I guess we avoid that as I put the steaks on toweling to get all surface moisture removed and since it's just me and the boss, and I cut my steaks 1.5" thick, she only freezes one per unit. So I guess because of that we have avoided any issues. But I get it now
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Barb and I do the same 98% of what we vacuum seal are Individual pieces. The only time we freeze something first is things like soups and sauces.
We have the game saver model, and we use the snot out of it. Just made 42 bags of bacon and sealed nonstop and the sealer never blinked. The first two food savers we had you could only do maybe 4 or5 in a row before you had to let it cool.
 
I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but we have a 15cf chest-type freezer and I found a 7-year old turkey in a corner a few years back. My wife is not very orderly in the way she manages food and has a tendency to "buy things for the freezer" and then never use them. It's purely an organizational thing for me, putting several items in one bag, and makes inventory control much easier for me. For instance, she wanted to buy bacon today and I reminded her we have 3# in the freezer that we need to eat first.
 
Ed Pinnell said:
I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but we have a 15cf chest-type freezer and I found a 7-year old turkey in a corner a few years back. My wife is not very orderly in the way she manages food and has a tendency to "buy things for the freezer" and then never use them. It's purely an organizational thing for me, putting several items in one bag, and makes inventory control much easier for me. For instance, she wanted to buy bacon today and I reminded her we have 3# in the freezer that we need to eat first.
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That's funny Ed, Barb is just the opposite, at the first of every month she takes inventory of our big upright freezer and refrigerator/ freezer in the garage and also does the inside freezer as well. Writes up everything in them and then as we add or use items, she takes them off or adds to the list. No surprises when we go shopping or wonderful discovers of hidden proteins. kinda drives me looney tunes, but she is super organized.
 
Rich Dahl said:
That's funny Ed, Barb is just the opposite, at the first of every month she takes inventory of our big upright freezer and refrigerator/ freezer in the garage and also does the inside freezer as well. Writes up everything in them and then as we add or use items, she takes them off or adds to the list. No surprises when we go shopping or wonderful discovers of hidden proteins. kinda drives me looney tunes, but she is super organized.
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Now that's how it should be done!
DanHoo said:
When are you planning to cook that turkey, Ed?
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She is compulsive when it comes to food being on sale. She always wants to buy 2 turkeys at Thanksgiving...we only eat turkey once a year, for cryin' out loud! That means next year we will be eating year old turkey. I put my foot down and dug in on that one...all I have to do is bring up that 7yo turkey and she backs off, so it had a positive result. No more turkeys in the freezer!
 
Ed Pinnell said:
I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but we have a 15cf chest-type freezer and I found a 7-year old turkey in a corner a few years back. My wife is not very orderly in the way she manages food and has a tendency to "buy things for the freezer" and then never use them. It's purely an organizational thing for me, putting several items in one bag, and makes inventory control much easier for me. For instance, she wanted to buy bacon today and I reminded her we have 3# in the freezer that we need to eat first.
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That's why I do most of the shopping and manage the freezers. My wife often buys on impulse and many things she buys tend to sit around forever. She doesn't understand FIFO (first in, first out). I do allow her to stock the pantry but sometimes need to move what she bought front & center so she can see it. So much for marrying a younger woman and expecting her to guide me in my waning years:)
 
DanHoo said:
Reminds me there is a 12 lb turkey in the garage freezer. I haven't smoked one in a while...
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Better go see if it's old enough to vote yet!

The thing I dislike most about turkey is that it seems like you're eating turkey for weeks afterwards. That's a lot of protein to cook all at once...unless you put the leftovers in the freezer, and no turkey in the freezer! :LOL:
 
Ed Pinnell said:
Better go see if it's old enough to vote yet!

The thing I dislike most about turkey is that it seems like you're eating turkey for weeks afterwards. That's a lot of protein to cook all at once...unless you put the leftovers in the freezer, and no turkey in the freezer! :LOL:
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It was a frozen 59 cent a pound last November.

Maybe I'll quarter it and refreeze half.
 
Just took stock of my strips and looks like I gotta pick up another whole strip loin again. We'll be giving the sealer a workout again soon
 
Actually, something frozen for that long doesn't have an off-appearance or smell or anything else like you might think, so that's why you should always date things that go in the freezer. My wife doesn't seem to grasp the concept...right now there is a chicken breast in the sink covered in frost in a ziploc bag with no date on it. I ain't eatin' that. Or she will think she has done good by putting the month and day on the outside of the bag with a Sharpie but no year. Drives me nuts, but I'm not about to start WWIII with her about it, I'll just take over the freezer management.

EDIT: In all fairness, I love her, and there are plenty of things that I do that drive her nuts, too. That's what marriage is, putting up with each other's crap and looking forward to another day of it.
 
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DanHoo said:
gamingsection.net

Can you eat 2 year old frozen meat?

Well, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, any food stored at exactly 0°F is safe to eat indefinitely. ...
gamingsection.net gamingsection.net
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Ok, confession time. We did cook it and...there was something off-putting about it, the texture or something, and I did try a small taste but spit it out right away. Safe or no, psychologically, I wasn't about to eat it.

But if you like, I can send you some the next time I find one. :LOL:

EDIT: Also, and I haven't checked it in eons and I really should, but the freezer outside is below zero...I think. I keep the fridge at -4F/34F but I'm gonna go check the freezer now.
 
I didn’t see it mentioned here, but an additional use for the foodsaver is that it has a marinate feature with a vacuum hose and containers that comes in handy for meats, especially for jerky.
 
Yep, mine did a whole bunch of packages as "beef" and a date. They might be boneless chuck short ribs but totally unsure.
 
Confession time, I'm a turkey junkie. We have three turkeys in our freezers. I cook/smoke turkeys all through the year. When they are closing them out after thanksgiving and Christmas for $.39 lb. I stock up. At least they will all be cooked by mid-summer. Turkey hash, turkey soup, turkey casserole, turkey sammies and some cheap protein for the pups. None of it is wasted.
 
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