Vacuum sealing crovacing info

Hi Jason,
We only just bought one on ebay last month for the same reason we have wanted one for quite a while. Our only concern was having to use that brands bags only until we got this one that can use any plastic bag to seal things up to 30cm it is great. Friends of ours have been using theirs to seal everything from meat to fresh veggies and keeping them refrigerated while we had to keep ours frozen. Just arrived back after a 2 week trip and even lettuce was still fresh although we did not vacume seal it but just sealed it. Also got 100 specialized bags from a crowd in Sydney on ebay for $15 plus postage which was cheaper that the local shops.
Wazza

Jaso,
We have used this method 2x on 2 week trips.

Just been to Red Centre and did 9 meals. Some meat, mostly pre cooked stuff like stew type food, vege/rice etc included and worked fine.

The cook prepares it, puts in appropriate container to stack in Engle, freezes it, then empties it out of the container and vacs it.

Whilst it does thaw in the fridge, we were eating it over a week later.

I am sure the unit comes with some sort of guidelines too.

Hope this helps.

I don't actually have one of these but I do buy meat vac sealed. I can say that it really helps with the usable life of green food too.
On a recent trip to the cape we had a heap of meat vac sealed and in the fridge, much to our disappointment the rough track caused the bones in the meat from different packets to rub resulting in a few packs being punctured(we ate well that night....hmmmm mmmmeeet). So our next trip to the Simpson we only had boneless meat and no problems. So I'll be sticking with boneless cuts or having them deboned from now on.

Just thought you might like to know
Cheers
Joe

Hi,

Have had one for a couple of years. Great. We pre-cook stews, curried snags etc and freeze them before packing. Have packed meat, poultry etc all well.

Friend did peanuts. The uses are endless.

The unit I have is small and we take it with us when we go camping to

for fish or any other items we purchase on extended trips. It works well on the 300w 240V inverter.

There is a place at Caboolture that sells bags over the net.

One word of caution, stubby caps can ware a hole in the bag quickly. Either store separated or drink the beer quickly.

Redeye.

had the sunbeam 550 for about 3 months and its great to seal your own curries/stews etc.(and chose your favourite snags)
also tried it on original packages. eg bag of shaved parmesan, used half, then sealed it in its original package.
sealed frozen steaks in freezer look like they were just sliced instead of having
freezer burns.
found that if you squash too many steaks into a bag and leave some air at the bottom, it cannot suck that bit out sometimes. a bit of seperation is required i think.

i have sealed a curry, unfrozen, despite the instructions saying to freeze things first. it doesn't seem to suck anything into the machine. err yet!

have fun

We have an Italian made ORVED. We buy the bags in lots of 100 for about $25-30 from the local butcher supplier.

Their recommendations are very conservative, I assume because of liability issues. We run the engel at 1 degree C. We store all cryovaced food in plastic containers so they never get damaged by moving around in the Engel.

With chicken, we only use breast, and use it within 1-2 weeks. Red meat, we're happy with 3-4 weeks. We also cryovac bacon, and some sliced meats, so they can be bought in bulk, and put into meal-size packs. Sausages can be done. The preprepared stroganoff or curry etc gets frozen, and then vacuum packed.

For veggies, we prepare pumpkin, vacuum it and it stores really well unrefrigerated for weeks. Do the same with cabbage/coleslaw. All other F&V gets wrapped in newspaper and stored in a cardboard box.

My wife makes a nice date and walnut loaf, so we freeze that, and then cryovac it.

We like the machine.

Try pre-packing spare sets of wheel bearings with grease ...... & vacuum sealing them. Makes it quick & easy if you have to replace them on a trip.

Hi jason

we dont have one YET. Thats on the christmas list from the mother-in-law for my hunband. A friend had one in Karumba this year. We used it to pack some of our fish, other fish we packed in zip lock bags. The zip bags are showing freezer burn already (only 6 - 8 weeks) the vac packed stuff looks like it just stopped swimmin' Cant wait to get one to give a try...means we will have to go catch some more fish!
Thanks everyone for all the info.

Ellen