# Let's Talk about what YOU do with a "FoodSaver"



## Urinal Cake (Oct 19, 2013)

In particular storing "Dry" foods.
I think we all know the benefits of Freezing items, but long term storage (1 year plus) is my interest.
Thanks,
Cakes


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## csi-tech (Apr 13, 2013)

I have one but for dry foods it seems impractical. I freeze deer meat. Dry stuff would go in mylar and food safe 5 gallon buckets. I have sealed trail mix and dry stuff in individual servings for extended hunting trips and when I am off in the woods. Those bags are expensive.


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## Urinal Cake (Oct 19, 2013)

They are expensive. I bartered for a bunch of rolls can flour sugar etc be sealed? what's the shelf life?


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## Maine-Marine (Mar 7, 2014)

Sugar will last forever

wheat is better then flour.. wheat will last for 1,000 of years... think pyramid and the pharaohs

honey will last forever

rice will last a long long time

beans will last a long long time


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

I basically use my vac saver for normal day to day storage of food. I was brought up on a farm and my mother would freeze meats, etc. and they would get pushed to the back and come out freezer burned to death. I too had this happen a few too many times. I'm going to guess I bought my first vac saver 25 years ago or close to that. I have found foods buried in the freezer that were 2 years old and they were fine.

My local food store (Fry's part of Kroger) has 10% discount for seniors on first Wednesday of the month. My wife and I keep a list of what's needed on a monthly list and stock up. Sometimes they have good sales at the same time and we will stock up on ground beef in 2 pound rolls and vac save them. The last time I picked up 25 rolls, 50 pounds. Same with pork loins and cut my own loin chops. Costco and Sams are another place we shop for large quantity packages and divide and vac seal the foods. Frequently we will make pot roast in the pressure cooker and ribs in the smoker and vac save half for later.

LONG ago I noticed that after the 6th or 7th reuse of a vac bag, they would leak. Or the meat would contaminate the seal area and the bag would leak. To prevent this, I started wrapping the meats in Saran type wrap first. Prevents the juice or grease from messing up the seal. Then I notice a bonus. The Saran wrap would be so tight on the meat, it was like a second skin. I found meat packages that had leaked but the Saran wrap prevented the freezer burn. This is standard procedure for everything going into a bag. 

We buy big bags of rice, beans, chocolate chips, flour, coffee beans and the like and vac save in 1-2 quart mason jars. However since I learned that the little chemical heating pads operated the same as oxygen absorbers, I toss one into the jar before vacuuming. I keep one jar just for use heat packs so I can reuse them again. As a test I tried one jar without vacuuming and and in ten minutes the Ball Dome lid sucked in and had a strong seal. A long time ago I tested the vacuum on the jars and turned one upside down in a sink full of water and popped the lid. It sucked the water about 1/4 of the way up the jar. Since oxygen is 21% of air, vacuuming and adding an oxygen absorber eliminates all the oxygen in the jar and adds significantly to the vacuum in the jar. Math says that it could be creating a 40% vacuum.


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## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

I would advise against trying wheat flower or anything equal such as corn starch.

Those powders will jam up the reed valves in the sealer.

Granular products such as sugar is good to go but not powdered sugar.

When doing granular's, hang the bag over the table, keeping the bag as vertical as possible while running the vac.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

My dried goods go in glass canning jars. The foodsaver is used for frozen goods.


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## Mosinator762x54r (Nov 4, 2015)

Seeds. I buy seeds on the cheap at the end of a season and then food save them for the next year. Some of them continue to carryover. I paid 10 cents a pack for these heirloomers at the dollar store. You'd be amazed how many packs of seeds you can get for $10-$15 when they are 10 cents per.


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## 8301 (Nov 29, 2014)

What would I do with a food vac???

Well,, there's this cat I don't like....


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## GTGallop (Nov 11, 2012)

We mostly do wets and freeze. Stuff like steak, chicken, fish. But we also get a bumper crop of citrus around here so we have lemon, lime, grapefruit juiced and frozen. We also zest the lemons for cooking purposes.

Dry stuff I've done:
Cerial
Cliff Bars
Home made jerky
stacks of money
Documents
clothing 
salt
dried fruits and trail mixes
dog food.

Most of the stuff I do, I do in single serve sizes so I can just grab "units of meal." Grab two breakfast and two lunch units for a long car ride. That kind of thing. I think the longest I kept anything was some home made apple sauce that the wife made. I made some tube shaped pouches and then filled them when the apple sauce was hot and steaming right out of the pot. Vac'd and speed froze them. About 18 months later they were good as new. I know that's more wet than you were thinking but that's what I do.


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## Auntie (Oct 4, 2014)

Polar fleece blanket size are vac sealed to keep them clean and dry, they are stored under the seat in the truck. We also keep a change of clothes that are vac sealed to keep them clean and dry. Vacuum sealing also reduces the size.


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

Vacuum sealing fluffy things like pillows and blankets will reduce their size but when you need them, they may never come back to full loft. 
My old neighbor had family over and his niece forgot her stuffed Barney the purple dinosaur. As a joke and to reduce size, my neighbor had
me vacuum save it so he could stick in a big envelope and mail it from his work. When the pancake arrived, the girl was horrified. When 
the stuffed Barney was removed, he only came back to 3/4 size. Six or seven months later when my neighbors went and visited the family, 
Barney had still not come back to full size even though he had been was and dried several times.


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## MI.oldguy (Apr 18, 2013)

We buy meats and chicken,especially marked downs,sub-freeze it and seal then freeze.we also make soups,spaghetti sauces chili and hash browns,veggies etc.put it in rubbermaid food savers,freeze and the next morning,take a square block of frozen product and vacuum seal them.we vacuum seal flour and sugar as well.we have a full chest freezer of meals.

I may try vacuum sealing my fresher ammo too....


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## sideKahr (Oct 15, 2014)

Vacuum storage is not an area I have explored. This thread is very interesting to me.

Hey GT Gallop, how many 'stacks of money' do you vacuum seal, buddy? LOL.


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## Gunner's Mate (Aug 13, 2013)

I use it day to day for food, but where it shines is Vacuum packing things in my backpack like socks, underwear, ponchos, parkas, and a set of bdu's, I also seal a small set of tools and flares that stayin the boat ( I Fish mostly saltwater and its a hard environment on tools)


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## bigwheel (Sep 22, 2014)

I dont own one but I have a chum who lets me borrow his when I need it. He has the vacuum marinade buckets and I have found it highly useful in knocking off a bunch of time for marinating meat primarily jerky and speides. I liked that feature so well I bought a manual vacuum marinator which has a lot larger capacity and works with a hand pump. It can knock a two day marinade down to ten mins. 
Jaccard Speedy Plus 4.5 Liter Review 2016 | Elite Marinators


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

Thought this would be a good place for a report on the new "Game Saver" #GM2050. $82.33, free shipping on Amazon. I've had food saver by Tilia for about 20 to 25 years. I still have the very first one they came out with. This unit is supper fast and is rated to handle 40 bag seals in a row. The sealing strip is very close to the vac chamber and so it uses maybe 1/2 the usual bag for the seal and thus will save a few pennies when reusing the bags as I do. While I liked the FoodSaver V2244 Vacuum Sealing System ($79.99 on Amazon) I've had for some years, this one is a lot better. I give it 2 thumbs up based on my first 5 days of usage and packaging a bunch of steaks and pork chops.


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## GTGallop (Nov 11, 2012)

sideKahr said:


> Vacuum storage is not an area I have explored. This thread is very interesting to me.
> 
> Hey GT Gallop, how many 'stacks of money' do you vacuum seal, buddy? LOL.


I did three stacks of 1's so $150. Yeah, I know - not as impressive as it sounds.

I also did a thing for my sister when she was young. I took an envelope and put some money ($60 in three 20's I think) in the end of the envelope on the right side. Then on the left side I had printed a dotted "cut here" line. When the money was in the envelope I hot pouch laminated it so it was sealed tight. I gave it to her and put it under the drivers seat and told her it was for emergencies. That's the last time she thought of it - until about 7 years after she had traded the car in. :-( Oh well. Still a good idea. My daughter will get the same.


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## sideKahr (Oct 15, 2014)

GTGallop said:


> ?..I also did a thing for my sister when she was young. I took an envelope and put some money ($60 in three 20's I think) in the end of the envelope on the right side. Then on the left side I had printed a dotted "cut here" line. When the money was in the envelope I hot pouch laminated it so it was sealed tight. I gave it to her and put it under the drivers seat and told her it was for emergencies.


Great idea!


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## Medic33 (Mar 29, 2015)

ahhh, don't know? save food maybe?


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## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

Another thing I use the vac. for is medication, tablets in specific, 
I put 100 tablets in a bag neatly in a single layer none on top of each other with a desiccant pack, pull the vac. then freeze.


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

GTGallop said:


> I did three stacks of 1's so $150. Yeah, I know - not as impressive as it sounds.
> 
> I also did a thing for my sister when she was young. I took an envelope and put some money ($60 in three 20's I think) in the end of the envelope on the right side. Then on the left side I had printed a dotted "cut here" line. When the money was in the envelope I hot pouch laminated it so it was sealed tight. I gave it to her and put it under the drivers seat and told her it was for emergencies. That's the last time she thought of it - until about 7 years after she had traded the car in. :-( Oh well. Still a good idea. My daughter will get the same.


I like this. I'll have to make a run for the bank for a few thousand $$$$, Bazinga.


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## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

SOCOM42 said:


> Another thing I use the vac. for is medication, tablets in specific,
> I put 100 tablets in a bag neatly in a single layer none on top of each other with a desiccant pack, pull the vac. then freeze.


Quoted my self so as not to sound incoherent.

I made a device to do the tablets neatly.

It consist of two pieces of plywood hinged to form a book.

It is 12"x12" in size.

On the inside there is two sheets of soft foam to make a sandwich, one glued to each plywood sheet.

I put the bag with the tablets in it on the foam, sort them out add ID and date sheet, along with desiccant packet.

Close the top, latch, put bag extension in vac and complete sealing.

Looks like a blister pack when done.


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## DadofTheFamily (Feb 19, 2015)

Ammo with a desiccant.


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## Quip (Nov 8, 2012)

Ammo stored in the vehicle.
Beans, rice, sugar, salt/spices. 
1st aid stuff. Gauze, band aids, trauma packs... Greatly reduces their size. The mini surgical kit.
Everything I want to make sure stays dry in my bags including clothing.


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