What do you use your Food Vacuum Sealer for?

bulk noodles, oiled ace in the hole revolver..and ammunition

 

I keep vacuum sealed clothing in my truck because I tend to get wet when fishing.
5lb bags of sugar will not get hard and become a 5lb brick of sugar if you vac-seal them before putting up in storage.
Pasta in its original boxes will keep fresh much longer and the boxes prevent broken, sharp, dry noodles from puncturing the bags. FAK's stay sanitary and take up less space when vac-sealed.

We put up frozen blueberries / apple slices in 2 cup portions every year.
Why 2-cups ? That's what most recipes we use call for.

Firearms / knives wrapped in VCI papers for caching.
Ammo as well. (adjustable vacuum time set to minimum.)

 

What don't we use it for? I always keep an eye out for sales and when they hit, I load up. I got about 40 pounds of sweet peppers last fall that I sliced and diced, flash froze, and sealed up into 2 serving bags for easy grab all winter long. We get steaks by the slab, dry age, slice n season, and seal in 2 packs. Always check the Expires-Tomorrow bin for deals on stuff, from shredded cheese to pork roasts, reseal at home and freeze. Bacon. We go striper fishing a few times a year and seal all the fillets. Butcher rabbits, seal 'em up. I also vac seal dead rabbits to freeze and sell to the snake people. The other day I made a bunch of jalapeno popper chicken (slice the breast about 1/2" thick, smear jalapeno/creamcheese/bacon mixture, roll up, brush with lime juice and olive oil, then roll in panko or parm cheese) and sealed those up for nights I don't feel like cooking.

I also use it for bulk dry goods, like the gallon box of Idahoan "Real Potatoes!" that I get 5 boxes at a time of, or the instant hashbrowns that come in the same kind of carton. Fishing licenses and IDs sealed up for the boat. Probably more stuff but can't think of 'em now.

 

"Foodsaver" has a jar option for large and small mouth jars. The brick of sugar, four, and salt have been replaced with quart, 1/2 gal. and gal. size jars. some two years old and no rocks. They have containers for spice, grains and pasta, just can't bring myself to pay the price when jars that we have will do the same job. Reloads go into cardboard box then into sealer bags. Bigger bags work great for clothes and long bang sticks for long term storage. Love it for meats, cheese and greens. We are looking to make a repairable one this year.

 

Most all the veggies & meats in my freezer are vacuum sealed. As well as the majority of the items in my E&E bag in my truck. Still putting together an E&E bag for my new to me 2012 Kia Soul. To duplicate the bag in my truck.

 

What I've been doing is vac sealing the .22LR's loose in rice. To be fair, the wife's uncle came up with this plan. Down here humidity is a real bear on things, and an old trick everybody uses is to put a few grains of rice in the salt shaker to keep the salt from clumping up.SO, the thought here is perhaps it will help with the .22 ammo as well. I can't say if it works for sure as we haven't been doing it for all that long, but I will say it helps with the vac sealing. With the ammo in the rice, edges of the brass/bullets don't poke through the bag when I get a tight seal. We've been just packing the bags flat in an ammo can or bucket. YMMV, but it might be worth a try.

 

I would suggest the vacuum bags that you suck dry with a vacuum cleaner. They are zip lock on one end, and reusable. I think they are called "space saver bags". Save the one shot bags for your food.

 

Bars of soap
Diff cloths items to pack into a storage tore
Gun cleaning products
Pus a lot more to keep the size and space to pack things into a storage tote to keep at the cabin

 

I have vacuum packed special use first aid packs for chest wounds, bullet wounds, loose meds, etc... it makes packing first aid kits easier... each item is a one use pack and as such you don't have to worry about repacking your med bag...

 

We are hunter gathers by nature. I use mine for meat and fish mostly.

 

I vacuum alot of stuff but i've never been able to get a good seal on chili and have never tried soup.... what is your secret?

 

A couple tricks to sealing liquids. Place your sealer above the surface so the bagged liquid level hangs below the sealing bar. If you have a sealer with separate vacuum and sealing features just vaccum until the air space is at a minimum then press the sealing bar. The sealers without this feature rarely adjust the vaccum down low enough to trip the sealer and shut off the vacuum.The best we have found for sealing liquids are the heat seal only units. Just adjust the bag in the sealer until most of the air is out and press the sealing bar and you're done.Make sure the area of the bag that you seal is clean and dry. That goes with any sealer. Hope that helps.

 

Thank you Oldawg... do you ming sharing what kind of vacuum sealer you have? I have a food saver because i like the jar feature but have been looking at other versions... more commercial kitchen versions.

anyone is welcome to chime in here with type of vacuum sealer they use

 

These days we use one of the snorkel style sealers available online. I think the brand was Simbo, an import I'm sure but it works(4 years now)They usually run around 125-135 bucks.What I like about them is the separate vacuum and seal controls. You can also buy replacement heat elements for them unlike Foodsaver brand. As often as not we use a heat sealer either alone or with O2 absorbers. The one we have is a generic 12 inch "hand impulse sealer" from Amazon. Currently runs 30 bucks and free shipping. We've had ours about 2-3 years and still haven’t replaced the original heat wires. We will seal about anything with them not just food. From these it seems 350.00 on up is normal pricing but these cheaper ones do the job for us.

 

Sugar and salt. lbs price $1.16/$.45. Have three to four year life.

 

I just can't do spam... IM still looking for a better way =)

Let me rephrase... I would have to be darned hungry to do spam

 

I finally got a Food Saver and have been busy. One question: When doing flour is it normal for the bag to still be flexible(?). Basically it seems like there is still air in there. Am I doing something incorrect?