Kitchen

[momtochloe]

Thanks to you andigrif for your tip on the ziplock bags. I cook for one so I often have to freeze half jars/cans of something and a ziplock bag may be the answer.

[kitty4me]

On 4/8/2015 momtochloe said:

I do have parchment, I'll give that a whirl . . . thanks again for the tip (and please know I spiralizer envy of your Williams Sonoma purchase, that is a beauty!) . . .

Thanks momtochloe I will give it a whirl this Summer. I will also check around here for those liquid block bags.

[VaBelle35]

There is another Foodsaver thread on here from a few months ago where a poster posted step by step with pictures on how to put the paper towel inside to absorb the moisture and seal.

[kitty4me]

On 4/8/2015 VaBelle35 said:

There is another Foodsaver thread on here from a few months ago where a poster posted step by step with pictures on how to put the paper towel inside to absorb the moisture and seal.

Vabelle35 do you know how I can locate this thread? Who started it maybe? I put foodsaver in the search and went through a lot and didn't find it. I will keep searching. If someone has the link could they please post it here?

[4uthebest]

On 4/8/2015 Katey1261 said:

On 4/8/2015 VaBelle35 said:

There is another Foodsaver thread on here from a few months ago where a poster posted step by step with pictures on how to put the paper towel inside to absorb the moisture and seal.

Vabelle35 do you know how I can locate this thread? Who started it maybe? I put foodsaver in the search and went through a lot and didn't find it. I will keep searching. If someone has the link could they please post it here?

Actually I do quite a bit of Sous Vide and when I am not using a chamber Vac Seal I will use the paper towel thing quite often.

Here is what I do..

First of all I make a bag far larger than I normally would by 3-4 inches and fold it over and then fill the bag with the appropriate amount of meat.

Get a couple full sheets of Bounty or similar and fold it lengthwise until it is about 1"" wide and then place it in the bag and across from the meat separated by about 2 inches making sure the towel goes completely from the left to right/right to left side of the bag and if it is too long just fold a bit of the end over itself so the fit is exact without bulging the bag.

Now unfold the top of the bag which should now be clean of any pieces of meat or blood and insert it as you normally would and using the moist setting push the vacuum and seal button and

you will see the juice start to be sucked up and start into the towel but if you did this right the bag will be sealed and you are done.

Probably in reality this would not really need such care but if the meat is extra moist you can do this.

With Sous Vide I typically am working with a Marinade with my protein so there is always quite a bit of extra fluid.

NOW

another way to seal the meat (I will never purchase any chopped beef as I grind my own) is to put it in the freezer for a couple of hour and then get that semi frozen meat into a normal sized food saver bag and seal it using the Moist setting.

In this way you do not use more bag material and paper towels and the meat will NOT have any ice crystals OF ANY Consequence. In other words NO EFFECT on the quality of the chopped meat.

I have used the paper towel or quick freeze method since the late 80's and my chopped meat will stay virtually perfect a minimum of 2 years in the freezer. I stress a minimum....

That is it..

[debic]

The only thing I ever prefreeze is bread and liquids. I put the liquids in round lock and lock containers so they will pop out and then vacuum. This way they fit in my pans when I simmer in water. A great way for reheating.

I have always used paper towels and I fold them 4 times. I also make sure the meat is well drained before vacuuming them. The moisture barrier bags are over priced IMO and they probably came about after people called in and said they used paper towels. LOL

[momtochloe]

4uthebest and debc, thanks for the tips on using paper towels when using the Foodsaver. I'll give them a try next time I go to use it!

[kitty4me]

When using paper towel are you sealing the towel in with the meat?

[4uthebest]

On 4/9/2015 momtochloe said:

4uthebest and debc, thanks for the tips on using paper towels when using the Foodsaver. I'll give them a try next time I go to use it!

momtochloe, Since I do so many sealings and use the 11" bags where there is more than the normal fluid, there is ZERO chance that folding a bounty towel four times would be effective as the fluid would leak out. If you are using the 8" bags folding 4 times would be a good option but as I said before if you just put the meat in the freezer for a couple hours (assuming it would take 3+ hours to freeze hard) you should be fine without paper towel if you use MOIST but really in the 90's there was no moist option so I used the soft freeze method for my proteins.

When I do it with a paper towel, I will as I described place the towel about 2" from the meat .

[momtochloe]

4uthebest, thank you for your reply. I think the majority of the items I will be using this for will be chicken and beef. I kind of plunged into this headlong and didn't realize about the moist setting but too late now I need to learn to work with what I have. The first thing I tried it out on was a steak and there was no liquid at all so it didn't even dawn on me there could be a problem with other foods. I have been reading that some folks buy say a tray of chicken parts and cook them all at once and seal them up that way. Since I cook for one and it's grilling season, that would be a great option for me. Have you tried this and if so do you recommend it?