Vacuum bag sealers. What are you baggin'?

I recently bought my first vacuum bag sealer, a Potane model from Amazon.

After grocery shopping I split family packs of meats into portion sizes and bagged. Steak, hamburger, chicken including wings and pork chops. Bagged some sliced mushrooms also.

I love this machine, should have had one years ago. It's my favorite new toy.

I may try some non-freeze items. Thinking of snacks like making my own trail mix but that's all I got right now.

So, what are you guys baggin?

Tips, tricks, suggestions.

Is it big enough to put Hoosiers in? :)

Everything man. 

I'm getting ready to buy a couple of the bigger marinade containers. Get 50 foot rolls of bag on Amazon and make your own, make sure to get a set of "gusseted" rolls, they expand, so boots/shoes, pork butts, blankets, etc will fit better.

I actually just got a Potane from Amazon last summer, way better than my old FoodSaver. 

Pork chops and chicken thighs when they're on sale. Everything that goes in the sous vide. Pork butts to marinate or cure. I have the mason jar attachment so Dana uses that for her coffee storage or anything else we jar. 

Sometimes I'll just throw a dry rub on a chunk of meat and vacuum seal it overnight, gets a bit better penetration that way. 

Clothes when traveling or for long term storage. 

Your weed will last all year and never go moldy if you use one of those.

That's what I hear

Do you have a sous vide wand? Put protein in vacuum bag, season, seal, cook.. Best way hands-down to cook fish and lean meats like chicken breast or pork loin, and guarantees steak is always perfect and tender; put a sear on it at the end and yer done.

I also like to pound thin chops into schnitzel and then bag and freeze--makes a good dinner almost Steak-ems convenient. Just thaw in water in the sink for a few minutes, bread, fry for 4 minutes a side, make your family believe you're a genius instead of just lazy.

There's an Alton Brown on sous vide cooking, btw, that makes it clear that it's fine to do this cook in plastic, but don't thaw vacuum-packed food in the bag it was stored in because anaerobic bugs are bad (think botulism).

Margie

Learn me: is vacuum bagging meat portions for freezing better than the ziplock bag method I currently use?

In reply to bgkast :

Short answer, yes. 

Long answer, even the freezer ziplocks leave air in and will get weird after a few months in the freezer. Vacuum sealed meats last over a year. Even cooked food lasts considerably longer when vacuumed before freezing.

Marjorie Suddard said:

 

... but don't thaw vacuum-packed food in the bag it was stored in because anaerobic bugs are bad (think botulism).

Margie

Just to make sure I understood this ... I always portion beef/chicken, vacuum bag and freeze food. I then remove from the freezer and if I don't have time, throw the bag under cold water. That's a no no from what you wrote, right? Even if I am going to grill it or cook it after it thaws?

In reply to Slippery :

Yep. Did not know that before the AB episode, and actually worried more about toxins in the plastic. But botulism I respect and fear above all others. So now I put it in a different, non-vacuum bag to thaw.

Margie

In reply to Marjorie Suddard :

Thanks for clarifying. I need to change my ways. 

On top of all the delicious things to eat, you can vacuum bag wheel bearings for if you want to go four wheeling, or if you worry about your trailer bearings going out.

Pack the outside with grease and the vacuum will pack the bearings for you!

Mr_Asa said:

On top of all the delicious things to eat, you can vacuum bag wheel bearings for if you want to go four wheeling, or if you worry about your trailer bearings going out.

Pack the outside with grease and the vacuum will pack the bearings for you!

Ok now I'm sold. Off to Amazon!

Since I live alone, I vac bag nearly everything in the freezer.  Buy it when it's cheap and freeze it.

Since I usually cook for one, I will vac bag things like flour, rice, or other grains that would go rancid before I could use them all.  I will divide a 1-lb bag of flour into 4 vac bags so it stays good.  Quinoa, stone-cut oats, and corn starch.

Meats, scrapple, fresh veggies in the summer and fall, bones for broth later, and I like to pick a bunch of my fresh herbs from the planter to bag before the frost takes some of them out.  I also had a stuffed animal from my childhood that was filled with corn like a bean bag.  The mealy bugs got to it so I vacuum bagged it to preserve it (and kill the bugs).

Works great for speeding up marinade times, sous vide cooking, or laminating small parts with epoxy.  Mine also works pretty well at re-sealing snack bags like potato chips.  You can also vac bag soft things like cake or bread.  Just freeze them first so they don't get crushed by the vacuum, THEN vacuum.  Same goes for liquids like soup.  I just set some open vac bags in a cake pan and fill it with the liquid, freeze it first, then vac seal it the next day.

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

Your freezing process for soup is also helpful with marinade.  If you aren't careful the machine will try and suck all your marinade out.

Freeze marinade, drop in bag, add whatever you want to be tasty, vacuum and then store in fridge to let frozen stuff thaw and get in the meats.

I like vacuum bags for carbon fiber and FG layups. Think foam core longboards and surfboards. Obvious transition to aero and body panel projects. 

Prior to Covid when chicken was almost free, I bought a Nesco  sealer.  I don't know good from bad so I checked Consumer Reports, it did well, you can even introduce marinate.  Whatever sealer you decide on, make sure you can get replacement bags easily.

bgkast said:

Learn me: is vacuum bagging meat portions for freezing better than the ziplock bag method I currently use?

exponentially so

I mostly freeze meat.  Get the 24 pack of Nathan's tube steaks and break it up into 8 packs, big pack of hamburger, pork or chicken, divide it into portions.  

Mr_Asa said:

On top of all the delicious things to eat, you can vacuum bag wheel bearings for if you want to go four wheeling, or if you worry about your trailer bearings going out.

Pack the outside with grease and the vacuum will pack the bearings for you!

this is brilliant

In reply to Mr_Asa :

Slick idea.

I'm now off to vacuum bag some bearings for the boat as well.