What do you use your Food Vacuum Sealer for?

[NVBeav]

Or, if you don't have a Vacuum Sealer, what would you use it for?

Embarassing Discourse (that can be ignored) below
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There's a link on SurvivalBlog to a great deal on a FoodSaver V2830 Vacuum Sealer Kit, so I thought to myself, "What a great deal for $60! I think I'll ask my wife...".

So I ask my wife, and she asks me: [insert sarcasm here] "What are you going to use it for?"

So I says to my wife, "Uhhh, vacuum sealing things like -- uhhh, Tools and food. Yeah, food! -- like we can pre-package meals..." [I wasn't getting a positive feedback] "We can buy big packages of meat and seal separate meals up!"

I started grasping at straws: "I can pre-package our rifle magazines so we can bury them in the desert or mountains..."

So, here I am at Ask The Audience :^)

[RightHand]

I use mine for lots of short term storage. When I bake, I mix several batches of dry ingredients and vacuum seal them for later use. The longest part of baking is assembling and measuring dry goods so having this done makes a basic cake/pancakes/waffles,popovers/scones, etc a breeze.

I buy coffee beans in bulk and store smaller smounts in vacuum bags.

I tend to do all my cooking on weekends and store for later. I'm not a big fam of plastic containers so the sealers bags are a perfect alternative. They also store better in the freezer because of their maleable state before freezing.

Fresh veggies that have been blanched are another perfect freezer storage use as well. I still do some canning but not as much as I used to do.

I think of the sealer more in terms of time and money management. I live alone so my food needs are small but buying in bulk and storing saves a lot of money

[Tango3]

$25.00 at a yard sale couldn't pass it up, its mostly good for freezer bagging or repackaging stuff for camping.....thought about bagging my old XXX and some ammo for some late night armament agriculture..maybe it'll sprout?

[Clyde]

I vacuum pack chili & soups for the freezer. When you want to eat them, you simply boil the bags in water and serve out of the bag...toss bag in garbage and there is virtually no clean-up other than spoons and bowls. The cooking mess is a one shot deal. So, I tend to make a 6x the normal amount of chili and make one kitchen mess for my wife to clean-up (sorry ladies, she won't let me clean the cooktop. I clean the rest, but I have been forbade from doing this.)

[Seacowboys]

I vacum-pack Broco exothermic cutting rods and underwater welding electrodes to keep them fresh. This has the added advantage of keeping down wastage from extra boxes getting opened and exposed to the elements.

[Tracy]

Koolaid to go. Sugar/flavor in a small strip ready to add to water on any outdoor adventure.

Reseal the Chip bag (without vacuuming) to reduced the crumpled-bag-top in the cupboard. Keeps everything nice and neat.

Salsa (or any other liquid or soup) for freezing.

Hot Cocoa Cones (these are really fun and easy).

Split up larger packages - sometimes in original package!.

Freezer pops

Frozen yogurt sticks

Cookie dough tube

The possibilities are endless!

[Tango3]

I like the:
"reseal the chip bag"!
and "prepackaged kool aid"
hmmm...

[Akheloce]

Halibut and salmon... vacuum bag it and deep freeze. Up to about 200 lbs of Halibut, and 400 lbs of Kenai red salmon. Halibut is harder to keep, since when I have people over, it's easier to do a big batch of beer battered deep fried halibut.

[Quigley_Sharps]

Matches
Clothes for rafting/ books etc cell phone for the raft trip.
ammo

[Seacowboys]

That's a great idea about the ammo, Quigley. I will seal some up tonight to go into the cache.