For those of you with food savers
Seasyde
17 years ago
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Comments (18)
marie26
17 years agolisbet
17 years agoRelated Discussions
What do you think of this food saver?
Comments (1)The brand is fine - I have 2 of them tho not this model - and likely this model, though not their best by far, is okay too. If you can afford one of the better models then go for it. Most all models have canister adaptability. The canisters are what I'll call moderately successful depending on what you store in them. They don't hold their seal indefinitely so aren't for long term storage and they aren't cheap either. We find there are much easier and better methods of long term dry storage. I linked just some of the many previous discusions here on vacuum sealers for your review. Be sure to note the alternate sources for rolls and bags given in several of them. Dave Here is a link that might be useful: Foodsaver discussions...See MoreFoodSaver question
Comments (12)I had something similar to that device for marinading meat. It came with a shorter version of a hand pump and a squareish container with flat cover and a rubber seal in the center that would allow the hand pump to pull the vacuum. If the vacuum were done in the down stroke it would be much easier to pull a decent vacuum, but it will not pull a vacuum until you pull UP on the plunger, using pull force. For most people thats a bit more exercise than I would like. The electric pumps on the FS go down to about 25in mercury where 30 is usually the maxiumum for larger, more powerful vacuum pumps. My special external vacuum is a dual chamber diaphram type pump and all this is done by a double shaft motor and two pistons. The full strength 5% vinegar will eventually soften the tender peppers, but if stored, they usually last up to about a year before getting soft. I also add the Pickle Crisp to act as a buffer for all that acid when doing the peppers. The method I use has no heat of any kind applied to the jars or contents. Because of that, I don't think that diluting the 5% vinegar is a very good idea unless a heat processing were done after filling the jars, and that heat process is what will soften them. If I were to attempt to can them using a conventional pickling recipe, the end result would be all green mush. Sweet cherry peppers are also a favorite of mine, and are very hard to find pickled in jars. I grow them here as well, but have not tried the vacuum method on them yet. Marinades work very fast to tenderize things if they have acid in them. Even soy sauce marinades can make mush out of beef if left soaking in it for too long. Simple brining marinades like salt, sugar, a little flaver and a good soak in a vacuum for about 2-4 hours will work nicely. The thicker the meat, the longer it should soak. One of my favorites on the grill in summertime is a marinade made of lime juice and a few other herbs. Chicken breasts are marinaded in it for about 30-60 minutes and they come out really tender. Red wine vinegar is OK as a marinade, but again, because of the high acid, a very short soaking is needed. I don't know what a potato would do in a red wine vinegar, but must assume it would turn dark and be like a potato salad without the added dressings....See MoreFood Saver recommendations...
Comments (26)On the subject of oxygen absorbers..... I used a FoodSaver a couple decades for home food storage before being introduced to oxygen absorbers, but I do have oxygen absorbers and occasionally use them for dry packing instead of using my FoodSaver, but I prefer the FoodSaver. You can also use them together. Add an oxygen absorber AND vacuum seal the jar, or add an oxygen absorber to a mylar bag and use your FoodSaver to seal a mylar bag for long-term storage. There are food storage books like "Dinner Is In The Jar" by Kathy Clark or "The Gourmet Food Storage Handbook" by Stephanie Petersen (aka Chef Tess Bakeresse - she has lots of videos so check out her web site), using canning jars or mylar bags for making a whole meal and vacuum-sealing the jars using either an oxygen absorber or FoodSaver. Using these recipes you can quickly make 30, 60, or 90 days worth of meals. Chef Tess Bakeresse has recipes for individual size meals that work great for hubby to take to work in his lunch. Set up an assembly line with freeze-dried food, fill jars, pop in an oxygen absorber, put on the lid and ring and you've got your own "convenience" foods ready for storage. I would never suggest oxygen absorbers over a FoodSaver because you get so many more uses out of the FoodSaver. I use a lot of bags, especially for frozen foods. I have many of my silver serving pieces vacuum-sealed in FoodSaver bags so they never tarnish. I use the double-bag trick mentioned above. I'll portion things in inexpensive fold-top sandwich bags, quick freeze them, then repack them into a FoodSaver bag. I got a free box of Ziploc Perfect Portions bags and love them for using as the inside bag. I freeze Sloppy Joe mixture, pasta sauce, soup, stew, chili, the meat mixture for Stroganoff, homemade applesauce, etc. in plastic storage containers. I use containers that are for 1 or 2 servings. When completely frozen, pop them out of the containers. Stack the "cubes" into a FoodSaver bag and seal shut. Now all your plastic containers can be used for something else. But back to oxygen absorbers. They come in different sizes to accommodate different size containers or volume of food. For a quart jar use a 100cc oxygen absorber in the top of each jar. They cost about 1-cent per packet for the 100cc size (prices vary, so do the math) and are NOT reusable. There are charts available for how many oxygen absorbers are required for different volumes of food if you do a search on the subject. For more information check out the link below. When it comes to home food storage, the LDS Church has it covered. Information about using oxygen absorbers is readily available on-line. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: Longer-Term Food Supply...See MoreFoodSaver - model recommendations anymore?
Comments (16)We bought the model that Costco sells now, thinking it was the heavy duty model that they used to sell. It just didn't have enough oomph...wouldn't seal anything the least bit moist. We returned it and ordered a GameSaver Turbo Plus. It has a pulse feature and a setting for moist foods. It wouldn't seal automatically so we sent it to FoodSaver and the replacement came the other day. It was a more expensive model, but it does a good job so far. It took me awhile to get the leftover containers to seal, but I finally figured out I hadn't snapped the lids on hard enough. And I couldn't get canning jar lids to seal until I used two, but they were used lids, so who cares if it takes two? And I saved a couple of wine bottles so I can buy bigger (cheaper) containers of olive oil. Nothing worse than rancid oil...it'll be the true test of the bottle stoppers, lol....See MoreSeasyde
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