Freezing with suction!

My son does a lot of fishing and he stores the bounty in vacuum bags in his freezer. It's great - and I get a share. Does anyone use a vacuum sealer for their vegetables/berries prior to freezing or are such products too "soft" as opposed to fish or meat? Since the cost is about $120 or so, I need to research the info before I invest. Appreciate any help/advice.

I use mine for greens both leftover cooked and blanched, soups, anything. The way to package berries for storage is to freeze in a single layer on a cookie sheet and then package, vacuum and return to the freezer.

Kay

Grandpop wrote: My son does a lot of fishing and he stores the bounty in vacuum bags in his freezer. It's great - and I get a share. Does anyone use a vacuum sealer for their vegetables/berries prior to freezing or are such products too "soft" as opposed to fish or meat? Since the cost is about $120 or so, I need to research the info before I invest. Appreciate any help/advice.

Food Saver runs specials all the time. You should be able to get on their email list here:
http://www.foodsaver.com/Index.aspx

I bought their $50 model last year, about half their asking price. I found it a little bit awkward to use the first time out. I haven't yet used the squash I froze, so can't tell you how I did. There are various models, so get the one that is best for you.

I would consider vacuum method also for long term storage of things that oxidize, like silver or iron.

Tom

Why didn't I think of that??? I raise bunches and bunches of blueberries each year and I freeze them just like you said . . . separate and then in the bag. I'm thinking I can do vegetables the same way . . . blanch, freeze, bag and vacuum. Funny how simple things can be. Thanks for the nudge!

tomperrin wrote:

Food Saver runs specials all the time. You should be able to get on their email list here:
http://www.foodsaver.com/Index.aspx

I bought their $50 model last year, about half their asking price. I found it a little bit awkward to use the first time out. I haven't yet used the squash I froze, so can't tell you how I did. There are various models, so get the one that is best for you.

I would consider vacuum method also for long term storage of things that oxidize, like silver or iron.

Tom

and thanks for the lead . .

Grandpop wrote: My son does a lot of fishing and he stores the bounty in vacuum bags in his freezer. It's great - and I get a share. Does anyone use a vacuum sealer for their vegetables/berries prior to freezing or are such products too "soft" as opposed to fish or meat? Since the cost is about $120 or so, I need to research the info before I invest. Appreciate any help/advice.

We have had a cheapie vac sealer that uses tube or premade bags for over four years .. we freeze alsorts of things according to the suggested methods for each individual product .



Soft fruit tends to go soggy once it is thawed so is best used in pies & puddings

The best thing about vac freezing is that you don't get freezer burn and you can make up family sized portions in individual bags .

Some fruit and veg can be frozen as is but most need to be blanched to kill off any surface bacteria.

We often bag & freeze cooked mashed swede,& carrot , potato or sliced cooked potatos for use in quick meals .

Our soups and stews are made in big batches and whats's left is portioned up for 2 & 3/4 people.

The best bags I have found are slightly more expensive than the flat roll stuff .. they have an embossed mesh pattern on one inside face and are slightly thicker .. this allow fast extraction of air.



Tip.

If you have a lot of liquid in a bag stand it in a deep box in the freezer till it freezes then bring it out and vac seal it.



If you want to get a marinade deep into meat of veg .. put the marinated stuff in a vac bag extract the air and seal it ..leave it in the fridge for a couple of hours .



I frequently buy four or five live chooks and sort them out .. making up bags of breast & full thighs



The carcasses are broken in half and slow cooked in the big slowcooker with garlic ,carrot ,onion and celery to make five pints of stock per two carcasses, it then gets frozen as above in measured pint bags for use in all sorts of cooking & soups.when needed.



Do use a quality wide tip permanant marker pen to write what's in the bags on the open flap end for it's amazing how a few months down the line you end up planning a meal only to find you have picked out the wrong unmarked bag. do put the ful date on the bag as well for vac freezing can extent the life of frozen food by quite a lot .. ( look on line for charts and blanching charts ).

We also buy in bulk quality commercial stuff that is frozen down to minus 30 oC . As soon as it is delivered we decant it into our own vac sealed packs in 2 3/4 sized portions for there is no way we want 10 pound of king prawn in one box in the big chest freezer , the same happens with premade desserts in pots or any of the pies we get.

we just love our machine. i could never get all into the freezer that i do without it. and it does prevent freezer burn which is important to us as we only harvest venison two weeks in the fall and that has to last us all year.

like plantoid said, make sure to mark all of your packages. once wanted to make peach cobbler and instead the girlie got out cooked squash. she has a touch of colorblindness and didn't look at the contents closely lol.

I use my Foodsaver all the time. I think it's the only thing I ever bought from QVC, but it was worth it. I buy the Foodsaver bags (like another poster mentioned, they're definitely better quality) from BJs (a wholesale club) most of the time.

Mostly, I use it to package meat into individual portions since I live alone. But I use it to freeze chili or tomato sauce as well. And this past Fall I used it to freeze some herbs I wanted to save (using the freezing on a cookie sheet ahead of time method). The less watery ones turned out really good (such as rosemary). The ones with higher water content tasted great (basil, parsley, etc), but they were soggy. So they were great for flavoring, not so good for garnish.

I didn't grow enough last year to freeze any vegetables - maybe this year!