Vacuum sealing for extended trip

We've used a vacuum packing machine for the last 2 years. It does a good job, but still not as good as the butcher's cryovac.

Sausages: we keep them joined, and vacuum pack them without issues. The butcher's don't like to cryovac them because the contents squeezes out of the sausage. We don't like to leave them more than 2 weeks.

Chicken: Again the butchers are reluctant - we only vacuum pack the chicken breasts, and about 3-4 weeks has been OK in our experience.

Precooked meals: We don't bother, but the trick is to freeze them first, and then you can vacuum pack them.

40litre Engel: Set the dial on about 1.5 and you will have the temp at about 1-2 degreesC. We use an indoor/outdoor thermometer, with the probe tacked just below the cover at the back (I'm assuming you haven't got the inbuilt thermometer).

Packing: All our meat packets go into 2 litre or 3 litre Sistema KlipIT plastic containers. (get them at Coles/woolies/Kmart/BigW). Keeps it all tidy in the fridge, and its less likely the meat temp will change from fridge being open or warm stuff being put in. They fit in the 40L engel perfectly.

Cheers
phil

Why would you freeze anything first?

Pre-cooked meals vacuum pack well, but if they contain onion only keep them for about a week.
I wouldn't be brave enough to eat chicken after 4 weeks, try to use it within 2 - 3 weeks.
Also, red meat with bones won't last as long as boneless meat.
A vacuum packing machine is almost worth it just for the space they save in your fridge.

We've had one of these machines for years and find it invaluable. We have found that you can wrap meat in freezer go-between and still vacuum pack it. We often use frozen meat - take it from our freezer and vacuum pack it. We always freeze sausages and mince. We have also prepared vegetables, potatoes, broccoli, pumpkin, carrot and vacuum packed it in preparation for a meal - we haven't kept them for a long time - a couple of days when we knew we would just want to prepare the meal due to longer time spent travelling that day.

A tip i got some years ago to maintain frozen food in an engel is to prefreeze the food then put in the bottom with a 10mm sheet of polystyrene foam above it. If running at about 2 it will keep ice cream firm for several days. I have not tried it with meat yet.

Kiwiangler,

I thought the typos might just been the accent LOL.

Although one researcher claims that as long as the first letter and last letter are correct and the word length is right then human brains just rearrange to suit and recognise the word. So i did not evan notice yuor speeling misteak.

Thanks for the tip on Eva. I just used poly because i have a pile of it in the shed. BUt yeah a camping mat is better from durability point of view.

Divad.