Well, I learned something new today. Accidentally.
So you know when you find something on sale, probably something you didn't intend to buy, but thought, "Oh, I can vac-seal that all day long, and eat it in 6 months!". I ran into 12 chicken drumsticks for $4.86 at Aldi's.
Can't say no to that. But here's the thing. You get them home, even when their frozen, they begin to "weep" a bit. Extra moisture coming off the meat, packaging, etc... So you've got two options: 1). Seal them as is, and hope there isn't a copious amount of "juice" coming off of them, and the seal works, or 2). Take them out of the package and dry them over and over with paper towels.
1). Didn't work. Too much liquid coming off them. 1st seal attempt failed.
2). Also didn't work. They were frozen but defrosting, so they kept sweating out fluid. Failed the 2nd attempt.
You can either, refreeze them, thus disturbing your schedule day the next day, or employ the paper towel trick.
Honestly, I didn't even know this was a thing, but I thought, "need something to stop that moisture from getting into the vacuum sealer..." So made a longer bag than usual and stuffed a couple of paper towels (making sure there were no gaps at the side) in there ahead of the vacuum sealer. Oh, my it worked! The paper towels soaked up all the moisture, stopped it from getting to the sealer, and now there's a nice, strong seal.
Into AI I go, just to see if that's a "known thing". Sure enough, it is. So here's the AI output:
How to do the paper towel trick
You’re basically creating a little dam to catch liquid before it reaches the seal area.
Heh. A little Dam. That's pretty much what I said under my breathe on my first two attempts.
The vac-seal veteran's around here probably know all this already, but I'm somewhat new to vac-sealing. I've only had this sealer for less than a year, so I'm fairly new with it, and I don't have a higher-end chamber vacuum sealer. I'll upgrade when this one dies. What can I say, I got it for free!.
So that's a little bit of trial-and-error maybe someone else won't have to go through.
So you know when you find something on sale, probably something you didn't intend to buy, but thought, "Oh, I can vac-seal that all day long, and eat it in 6 months!". I ran into 12 chicken drumsticks for $4.86 at Aldi's.
Can't say no to that. But here's the thing. You get them home, even when their frozen, they begin to "weep" a bit. Extra moisture coming off the meat, packaging, etc... So you've got two options: 1). Seal them as is, and hope there isn't a copious amount of "juice" coming off of them, and the seal works, or 2). Take them out of the package and dry them over and over with paper towels.
1). Didn't work. Too much liquid coming off them. 1st seal attempt failed.
2). Also didn't work. They were frozen but defrosting, so they kept sweating out fluid. Failed the 2nd attempt.
You can either, refreeze them, thus disturbing your schedule day the next day, or employ the paper towel trick.
Honestly, I didn't even know this was a thing, but I thought, "need something to stop that moisture from getting into the vacuum sealer..." So made a longer bag than usual and stuffed a couple of paper towels (making sure there were no gaps at the side) in there ahead of the vacuum sealer. Oh, my it worked! The paper towels soaked up all the moisture, stopped it from getting to the sealer, and now there's a nice, strong seal.
Into AI I go, just to see if that's a "known thing". Sure enough, it is. So here's the AI output:
How to do the paper towel trick
You’re basically creating a little dam to catch liquid before it reaches the seal area.
- Cut your bag a bit longer than usual so you have room for the barrier.
- Fold or roll a strip of paper towel into a tight band, the full width of the bag. It should run seam‑to‑seam.
- Place your food in the bottom of the bag, leaving a couple inches of clear space above it.
- Lay the paper towel strip above the food, a bit below where the seal will be, not touching the sealing bar.
- Put the open end in the sealer and run the vacuum. The towel will absorb juices pulled up the bag and keep them from flooding the machine or the seal zone.
You can leave the towel in the bag during storage and just discard it when you open the package; it doesn’t affect the food if it’s parked up by the seal.
Heh. A little Dam. That's pretty much what I said under my breathe on my first two attempts.
The vac-seal veteran's around here probably know all this already, but I'm somewhat new to vac-sealing. I've only had this sealer for less than a year, so I'm fairly new with it, and I don't have a higher-end chamber vacuum sealer. I'll upgrade when this one dies. What can I say, I got it for free!.
So that's a little bit of trial-and-error maybe someone else won't have to go through.
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