Re: [CH] vacuum sealers

Chad A Gard (gard@indy.net)
Mon, 10 Feb 2003 16:37:33 -0500 

On Monday, February 10, 2003, at 03:02  PM, Margaret Lauterbach wrote:

> Yesterday's digest had a number of posts about the home vacuum 
> sealers.  They work fine to prevent freezer burn, but there's another 
> use that wasn't mentioned.  You can put a roast or steaks into one of 
> the jarlike containers that come with the sealer, along with a 
> marinade, then pull a vacuum on it.  I've been told the vacuum opens 
> the pores of the meat so it sucks up more of the marinade.  Margaret L
>

I've only had my vacuum sealer for a few weeks, and thus haven't tried 
using it to marinate.  But, they mention it in the video it comes with. 
  Like sandy said, they make a square shallow container specifically for 
that, though you could also use one of the round containers or 
whatever.  You can't really use the bags, though, as the marinade would 
be sucked into the vacuum, creating a mess.

One thing to be aware of if anyone else is new to vacuum sealers...  I 
vacuum sealed some thai hots I had dried from Jim's open fields.  
Actually, they were probably a little over-dry.  Anyway, it was like 
the second thing I sealed, and I managed to pretty well pulverize them. 
  The thin-skinned quite dry peppers were fairly brittle, and when the 
air was removed from the bag, the external air pressure crushed them.  
So I no longer had whole dried thai hots in the bag.  So, when getting 
used to it, keep your hand on that "manual seal" button....

Also, thicker-than-normal banana chips (which sunk in middle when they 
dried, leaving a sharp ridge around the outside) and dried habaneros 
didn't get along too well with the bags.  They had sharp edges, and the 
bags would cut themselves on the fruit.  After a day or so, the bag was 
back to inflated...  A layer of paper towel solved the problem, but you 
can't see the lovely fruit that's inside the bag now...

I really want to get the mason jar sealers for my peppers, but, alas, 
not in the budget at present.



Chad A Gard
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