Seal a meal; cooks thoughts for preserving food and using these devices?Looking to get one to preserve some fruit before summer is over, oth
3 Comments
SallyMSeptember 3, 2012
I love mine. My brother gave me a 10 lb. salmon he caught. I filleted it, portioned it out, sealed it, and now I have about 20 portions in my freezer.
MockhumanSeptember 3, 2012
I have a Foodsaver and have been putting by fruits and veggies for about 5 years now.
First things first - buy the heavier mil bags available on ebay and amazon. They stand up to the rigors of our big deep freeze and are less likely to be punctured. The ones that came with my foodsaver were pretty wimpy.
Second - invest is a high quality machine. Some of the lower end models loose their oomph fast. Mine also has a "moist" food setting which I find helps get a good seal on items like fruits and veggies that have liquids in the bags with them.
For Fruit- I recently did some peaches. I blanched them to remove the skins, pitted and sliced them. I added 1/3 cup of sugar and a 1/2 t of citric acid per four cups of fruit. I let them set for about 10 minutes to make their own syrup. Then I put them into the bags and sealed on "moist". I then laid them flat so they are easy to stack.
If you don't have a machine that can handle liquids, you can put the fruit in the bags and place the unsealed bags into the freezer in an upright position. Once they are frozen you can then seal them with no sealing issues. The only drawback to this is that they don't lay nice in the freezer.
I've used the same technique with strawberries and raspberries.
Hope that helps!
Rosie
First things first - buy the heavier mil bags available on ebay and amazon. They stand up to the rigors of our big deep freeze and are less likely to be punctured. The ones that came with my foodsaver were pretty wimpy.
Second - invest is a high quality machine. Some of the lower end models loose their oomph fast. Mine also has a "moist" food setting which I find helps get a good seal on items like fruits and veggies that have liquids in the bags with them.
For Fruit- I recently did some peaches. I blanched them to remove the skins, pitted and sliced them. I added 1/3 cup of sugar and a 1/2 t of citric acid per four cups of fruit. I let them set for about 10 minutes to make their own syrup. Then I put them into the bags and sealed on "moist". I then laid them flat so they are easy to stack.
If you don't have a machine that can handle liquids, you can put the fruit in the bags and place the unsealed bags into the freezer in an upright position. Once they are frozen you can then seal them with no sealing issues. The only drawback to this is that they don't lay nice in the freezer.
I've used the same technique with strawberries and raspberries.
Hope that helps!
Rosie
SeaJambonSeptember 3, 2012
Don't have one, but know folks who do. Those that have them totally RAVE and say they are worth their weight in gold.
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