Read The Directions Before Kicking To Curb........

[Lawdwaz]

So a couple yeas ago I bought a FoodSaver vacuum sealer from Walmart.  Every other year I have Italian sausage made at a friends butcher shop and it comes in links, tied but not cut and in roughly 20lb bags.  Wrapping those slippery little links the way I do backstraps, ground and stew in Saran wrap & freezer paper is a pain in the keister.  I figured the vacuum sealer would work great but just had trouble with it sealing properly.  I ended up just wrapping my usual way and all worked out.

Yesterday I picked up just a tick over 50lbs of mild Italian sausage and was dreading the wrapping process.  I wanted to give the FS another chance..........out it came.  The first one seemed to seal good, the next to no dice.  UGGH!!  I wrapped a couple the old fashion way and decided to break for dinner. 

My wife was slaving in the kitchen and I was sipping a Manhattan in my easy chair and I decided to break out the owners manual for the FS and go over the hugely complicated sealing process before putting it in the tote Wednesday morning.  Hmmmm, so when you hit the "vacuum and seal" button you are supposed to wait until the red "seal" light goes off??  Why don't they highlight that in the directions??

FM, it worked great after that.  I made up about 25 bags and got the process started; wife pulled the links out of the bag and snipped the casing for every two and put them in piles of six while I bagged and sealed, the thing worked great.  Anybody else ever use one??  (relax, I'm kidding.  I know I'm way late to the party)

I'll continue to use my Saran wrap/freezer paper for all my other wrapping but for the sausage, the FS gets the nod.

The moral of the story is as a last resort, read the damned instructions.

[G-Man]

My friend had one and wasnt putting bag over pin hole poker to create vacuum.. easy mistake .

[Paula]

My friend has two, one works when it wants to. He bought some cheap bags for the bigger one, they don't seal well or at all. 

Edited January 14, 2019 by Paula

[turkeyfeathers]

Larry , I opted for the $1 per order / vacuum sealed at Costanzas for ya upon venison drop off for  the goods to be made   A few bucks I figure beats freezer burn on some good goodness 

Edited January 14, 2019 by turkeyfeathers

[mowin]

I've got a Cabela's brand that I use at home for smaller packages of chicken, ground beef, ECT from the supermarket. Works good.

I also have a chamber vac sealer for the large jobs. 

[Nomad]

I borrow Moog’s,.....

Costanzas only does packs of six dogs and such ,which is to much for the wife and I ,do 4 . It’s sad getting old can’t eat like I used to .

[Lawdwaz]

2 minutes ago, Stay at home Nomad said:

I borrow Moog’s,.....

Costanzas only does packs of six dogs and such ,which is to much for the wife and I ,do 4 . It’s sad getting old can’t eat like I used to .

Since you're home for lunch, why not just choke 'em down for leftovers the next day??

[Nytracker]

I'm on my 3rd one. Burned one out after 6 years. One got moisture in the pump and quit. The one I'm using now is a BPS sportsman silver addition. Have been using this one for a long time . I do a couple  deer a year and a larger hog. Wife uses it all the time for burger and chicken plus leftovers. I pulled a package of beef and barley soup out of the freezer the other night . Tossed it in a pot of boiling water 15 minutes later it was done . Poured out in bowls and dinner was served. When son was stationed  in Korea  we use to freeze cookies on a cookie sheet  then put in food saver  bags . He said they were fresh when he got them and they didn't get broke up.

They claim  you can put the bags in a dishwasher and reuse but I'm not sure I'm into that.

[Lawdwaz]

18 minutes ago, Paula said:

My friend has two, one works when it wants to. He bought some cheap bags for the bigger one, they don't seal well or at all. 

I was on eBay last night, looking to get another couple rolls.  Boy there's a lot of choices out there!  As you probably can guess, I don't headaches so I'll opt for the better bags.  They might not be FS brand but they'll be good ones.  Heck, one seller had sold 12,000 of those bags and still had 100% feedback.

[Robhuntandfish]

14 minutes ago, Lawdwaz said:

I was on eBay last night, looking to get another couple rolls.  Boy there's a lot of choices out there!  As you probably can guess, I don't headaches so I'll opt for the better bags.  They might not be FS brand but they'll be good ones.  Heck, one seller had sold 12,000 of those bags and still had 100% feedback.

Walmart sells the rolls in the zip lock brand for a decent price. 

[Nytracker]

I buy a 6 roll pack of fs brand at Sam's club

[nyslowhand]

I have the Game Saver version and love it. Works great. but.. you do have to ensure end of bag is nested into vacuum pocket & flattened across the sealing wire strip. When filling bags, you do have to keep the area you want sealed clean so it seals properly. Haven't tried any other brand of bags, the FS continuous rolls work great. Just not as convenient as the pre-cut ones. Have found a couple of small quirks I'm not overly satisfied with when using my FS. I always cut bags to size & double seal, so the sealer can overheat after a while causing me to wait for it to cool down before proceeding. There is a "Liquids" sealing button, but when I see liquids starting to be drawn into the top of the bag, I immediately switch to the sealing function. Not sure bags with liquids have all the air drawn out before I prematurely seal them... But they do appear to freeze well! Annoying quirks, but merely slight work-arounds! In the past have come across ground (links) meat that have been in chest freezer almost 3yrs and have NO freezer burn.

Edited January 14, 2019 by nyslowhand

[Tughill Tamer]

I use one every year when I get around 20 pounds of venison made into crogan bologna. Work's great !

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[dbHunterNY]

i have the cabelas commerical 12" model but it's the same idea. biggest problem people have with using this style of sealer and air grid bags is larger items have bulk and it sometimes forms a crease that runs across the seal bar or spot where the bag is sealed. it might seal but won't stay sealed for long.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

My suggestion when doing ground is for like a pound or 1.5 pound package we make the bags out of 11" rolls. Make them about 10" long and put the ground in when it in one very packed ball. seal it and once its out of the sealer, use your hand,  a glass or a rolling pin and press the ground flat so it fills the entire bag and about 1/2" thick. It stacks unbelievably well in the freezer this way and it thaws in a snap. We do this with our Venison Italian sausage as well, because we partially thaw and them cut the flat slab into quarters and grill. We like the Italian on a good burger type roll. It is easier to put peppers and onions on an keep them there. 

[turkeyfeathers]

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[Robhuntandfish]

49 minutes ago, Tughill Tamer said:

I use one every year when I get around 20 pounds of venison made into crogan bologna. Work's great !

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does the Croghan meat market do this or do you make it?   I didnt know they took venison in to be made for bologna?  

[Tughill Tamer]

does the Croghan meat market do this or do you make it?   I didnt know they took venison in to be made for bologna?  

There is 3 places that I know do it Miller's and Noltz meat market both in lowville and Eddie's meat market in Croghan. I take mine to Eddie's I've had it from all 3 places and I like Eddie's the best.

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[Robhuntandfish]

2 minutes ago, Tughill Tamer said:

There is 3 places that I know do it Miller's and Noltz meat market both in lowville and Eddie's meat market in Croghan. I take mine to Eddie's I've had it from all 3 places and I like Eddie's the best.

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yeah i have places here that will do it, and am real familiar with Millers - my brother went to school with Danny- but didnt know the actual Croghan meat market did venison bologna?  cool - thanks  

[Tughill Tamer]

I don't think the actual Croghan market does do Venison bologna Eddie's is actually about 4 miles outside the village of Croghan. There bologna is Awesome it's one of my wife's favorite ways to eat venison.

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[Lawdwaz]

7 hours ago, Culvercreek hunt club said:

 We do this with our Venison Italian sausage as well, because we partially thaw and them cut the flat slab into quarters and grill. We like the Italian on a good burger type roll. It is easier to put peppers and onions on an keep them there. 

Sometimes we do our venison sausage inside with the cast iron skillet.  When doing so, about half way through the cooking we slice them open half way also.  I feel they cook better and also take the onions/peppers better.  Great minds think alike.........

[nyslowhand]

On 1/13/2019 at 6:57 PM, Lawdwaz said:

The moral of the story is as a last resort, read the damned instructions.

Isn't this a "Guy" thing? Regardless of item - Open box, set instructions aside and proceed with any assembly or operating the item as if we know what to do!!?!! The instructions or user manuals should be saved, just in case we don't know what we think we know..... I'm guilty!

[2012_taco]

9 hours ago, nyslowhand said:

Isn't this a "Guy" thing? Regardless of item - Open box, set instructions aside and proceed with any assembly or operating the item as if we know what to do!!?!! The instructions or user manuals should be saved, just in case we don't know what we think we know..... I'm guilty!

I'm guilty of this, I just recently bought a 360 heater for the blind/shop and just threw a 1lb tank in it and lit it up. It worked fine. The next day I went to use it and I couldn't get it to light. I returned it and picked up a second one. When I went to use it I re-read the instructions only to find out I was supposed to turn it to the start position for 30 seconds and then try to light it. Apparently you need to purge the gas line before it will light. It works fine and I assume the first one would have worked fine if I would have read the directions! DUH!

[2012_taco]

On 1/13/2019 at 8:05 PM, Lawdwaz said:

I was on eBay last night, looking to get another couple rolls.  Boy there's a lot of choices out there!  As you probably can guess, I don't headaches so I'll opt for the better bags.  They might not be FS brand but they'll be good ones.  Heck, one seller had sold 12,000 of those bags and still had 100% feedback.

Lawd, I have a pile of those bags in my garage you can have. They smell like cigarette smoke for some reason!

I have a FS and we use it all the time. My wife cooks up chicken, burgers etc. and we freeze them in 2 person serving sizes. Pull them out for dinner in winter and they taste like they just came off the grill. Also works great for meals when we go camping. When I need to freeze stuff that has liquid or excessive moisture I place the it on a cookie sheet and put in the freezer for 10-20 minutes then vac seal. It helps keep the moisture out of the vacuum. For soups I freeze the soup in a plastic bowl then pop the soup out of the bowl, put it in a bag and vac seal. 

[Lawdwaz]

43 minutes ago, 2012_taco said:

Lawd, I have a pile of those bags in my garage you can have. They smell like cigarette smoke for some reason!

I have a FS and we use it all the time. My wife cooks up chicken, burgers etc. and we freeze them in 2 person serving sizes. Pull them out for dinner in winter and they taste like they just came off the grill. Also works great for meals when we go camping. When I need to freeze stuff that has liquid or excessive moisture I place the it on a cookie sheet and put in the freezer for 10-20 minutes then vac seal. It helps keep the moisture out of the vacuum. For soups I freeze the soup in a plastic bowl then pop the soup out of the bowl, put it in a bag and vac seal. 

I don’t want those stinky bags back!!