cryovac meat

I recently came back from a 5 week trip, I cryovac all the fresh meat, cooked meat, stews and Pizza. Nothing was frozen just carried in the fridge. Pork & chicken do not last as long so I buy fresh as I travel if possible.

From experience 5 weeks is about the limit for refrigerated meats.

Cryovac works great.

I get it done whenever I can. Except if you have sharp bones then it can puncture the bag.

Cheers
Stu

Works best with red meat with no bones as they can puncture the bag. If you want to cryovac chops use pieces of the meat trays that supermarkets use to package meat. Place the meat between the pieces of try to stop the bones rubbing through the bag.

Chicken and pork dont keep as long as red meat. Sausages and mince are OK too. WE have our own machine and also use it to store preprepared meals. When they have cooled we freeze them in a suitable sized container then remove the frozen block from the container and slip it into a cryovac bag and seal it up.

We usually freeze meat before we pack it in our camping fridge. As the frozen meat goes in the bottom of the fridge we have learned from experience to pack the meat into sturdy plastic containers. If this is not done the weight of the fridge contents on top can puncture the cryovac bags, especially if you are travelling on corrugated tracks.

Cheers,

Val

I was just googling and came across an older thread from this siste.

http://www.exploroz.com/Forum/Topic/44446/DIY_Cryovac_Systems.aspx

Hi Gordon,

Been through all this as well. One thing you need to be aware of is that once the meat thaws the cryovac seal is broken. ie. you can't then keep it for 3 weeks or whatever at fridge temperature. We used to freeze our cryovac meat but don't do it any longer for this reason.
Pork and chicken actually last less time in cryovac as they emit some sort of enzyme or vapour once they're cryovaced that makes the meat break down more quickly. So best to take these fresh and eat them earlier, or buy fresh on your travels.

Cheers

Lou

Hi gordon i am a butcher cryvac is the best way to keep meat but you still must keep it under 5 degrees at all times . Pork and chicken will go off quicker than your red meats . colder the better . If its not kept under 5 degrees it still will go off . Cryvac takes the air out of the bag and then seals it good when in ice becuse water wont get into your meat . hope that helps

Hi there
Your butcher is right...your meat will last much longer if you cyrovac and then freeze it. We always get our butcher to cyrovac our meat for us before we go on a big trip.
We also freeze it, and have never had any problems with any of the meat or chicken we have bought. Our fridge/freezer holds about 4 weeks worth for our family of 4, and I haven't had any go bad yet.
Your butcher will be able to tell you what you can or cannot cryovac.

Cheers
Jodi

If you're going to freeze cryovac meat it's a good idea to get your butcher to do it and pick it up just before you leave. They can get it more quickly and solidly frozen than you can in a domestic fridge, esp. when you put quite a lot in together. It may feel rock-hard frozen on the outside but it isn't always inside.

Lou

Wow lot's of thoughts here.

As I'm only going away for two weeks I reckon I'll be fine. As the mrs always keeps a running log\diary of everything, when we're back I''ll ask her how we went with it and report back.

We've had good results with cryovaccing, just running our Engel as fridge (not freezer) but when we return home and we freeze the unused stuff (never has been pre-frozen) we have found that anything on the bone, such as chops, goes green very quickly the second time around, following defrosting, on the next trip (still in the cryovac). Be careful if doing this.

Now, we just consume those unused chops etc as soon as we return, and don't freeze for later.

Cheers.

Gordon_Adel

Most Butchers can, and will Cryovac meat, if you ask them
But
In 2009 we did a 3 month trip covering The Gunbarrell, the Canning and the Kimberley. just had the odd Pub, or Roadhouse cooked meal
We were away for 3 months, and SWMBO dod approx 80 meals.
Cryovaced them all and staced them into the 40 lt Engle (same thing as a Waeco).. All sealed in meal lots, and laid flat in a freezer, then strategically mixed, and transfered into our Engel 2 days before we left.
We had some left by the time we got home, and were all brilliant.
SWMBO dod roasts, curries, Spagetti bases, and just about all our favourite dishes.
Instant Potatoe mix was the go and if done with UHT milk, you can hardly tell the difference. Peas, corn ect, were freeze dried..

We lived like kings (and queens)

Those little Units are available at Harvey Norman, and at Aldi, if you watch for them. They are also available over the Net

Cheers
Bucky