MCS or practicality?...a vacuum sealer

[Hugh]

Sorry EdF, I replied to your comment in the wrong spot below to Ddecker.

[Hugh]

No pan to heat water at work. Have access to a fridge. there is a microwave but there is a long line up for it. I've just been eating the cafeteria food. I'm thinking home made sandwiches and salads now. Between purchasing bulk, SV and vacuum, seems like a doable strategy.

[Thunder77]

You're lucky! You can feed MCS, AND buy something practical at the same time. I use my sealer all the time.

[Hugh]

Yep. A man needs his toys.

[HorseDoctor]

Can't answer that one as we don't usually vac pac leftovers unless they are going in freezer. I do know that if I buy a big block of cheese and cut it in smaller pieces, the vacuum sealed ones don't mold while the zip loc portions better get eaten within a week. I've been using vacuum sealers for many years for LOTS of things. Process all of my own game, fish, as well as bulk purchased commercial meats. I do 20#-40# of bacon at a time and vacuum pack the end product in 1# bags. My wife has about 200# of peaches, pears, apples and blueberries vacuum packed (seriously) for next years smoothies and desserts. She dries a lot of fruits as well as cherry tomatoes all of which gets vacuum packed and then frozen. She also cooks gallons of tomato sauce from garden produce, freezes it in quart plastic containers then pops them out & vacuum packs them. Vacuum bags stand up to shuffling around the freezer better than plastic containers. As long as the vacuum is not compromised, the freezer life is phenomenal!!! I have found packages of vacuum packed meat in my freezer that was older (years older) than I care to admit on a public forum that was still fine. In our household the vacumm sealers are an absolute necessity. We always have at least one backup unit on hand in case one wears out. Probably should have bought a commercial unit years ago.

[Hugh]

That looks interesting Ed. I've read about but never tried more aged beef.

[FireMan]

Practicality be damned! MCS, feed the need!

[Ddecker]

Yeah I use Anova too. It works great. For Foodsaver, I got the 2 in 1 from Costco. 5480 is the model. So far so good but have only had that about 3 weeks(2 briskets and a turkey). Before that I was using ziplock bags with the SV.

[Hugh]

One report I saw says vacuum sealed beef and poultry can be stored up to 2 weeks in the fridge versus 1-2 days non-vacuum sealed.

If you were to compare the flavor/quality of 10 day old food reheated from the fridge vs the freezer, what would be your assessment?

[Nate]

I have the little hand held pump from ziploc.

[EdF]

[EdF]

If you have fridge space for it, get an Umai bag (https://umaidry.com/) and dry age for 35 days. Slice into steaks and bag individually. You won't regret it.

[EdF]

You've got the SV for at home. Get a sealer - you'll use it. For lunch, if there's some kind of pan you can warm water in, put the sealed bags into it a relatively low temp (150 or so). This is a practicality in your situation with only two of you.

[GadjetGriller]

Zip lock use to make fresh saver bags but have stopped and gone full vacuum now. So food-saver is your only option (that I know of) that has both Fresh saver and vacuum saver bags. Whats the difference you wonder well the fresh saver are zip lock type bags that have a port on the side that allow the air to be sucked out once sealed.I use these for lunch meat, Keeping butter from taking on the fridge smell and leftovers that I know will be eaten quickly they are of course reusable (thus perfect fr lunch meat and cheese) and vacuum bags are well vacuum bags. The food saver vac's work on both (so no water displacement needed) I actualy use the fresh saver bags way more than the vacuum.

[BriggsBBQ]

My wife kicked it off the counter so I do not use it as much as I want because sometimes I just say screw it and freeze something in the package. I use mine a good amount. For me I will mostly freeze salmon and then when I get home I throw it in the sous vide. It takes and hour to thaw and such but I usually go watch tv or do something else so I do not count it as cook time. Then after just pull it out of the bag season and sear like 3 min a side. Also I like vacuum sealing for when whole tenderloins go on sale. 9.99 a lb I trim them up and make as big of steaks as I want then vacuum seal it. The trimmings go in beans or a good stir fry. I want to do it with whole ribeye some day but they are very heavy so not made the investment.