Vacuum Sealers

[Hess]

My old FoodSaver pooped out on me, after 10 years of hard use.  I'm in need of a new one and wondering your thoughts.  Cabelas has quite a few of them.  The bloodbath begins in less than a week.  Shoot straight fellas,

Thanks,

EH

[VTer]

I'm interested in this as well. Always wanted to get one.

[Mike Vines]

Take this for what it is worth, but I'm so cheap that I use Ziplock freezer bags and a straw.  

I put the straw in the bag, get it almost sealed, and suck the air right out of the bag till it is all gone, then seal the rest of the bag and put it in the freezer.  My buddies, along with my wife's clients laugh at me, but it works, and saves a few bucks.

[Bobby Urban]

Another cheap, and I find better, method is plastic wrap and zip locks.  The vac sealer always gets blood in the seal and just never did what I wanted.  Bags are expensive and if you run out you have to find some.

I wrap everything tightly with plastic wrap and put it in bulk in 1 or 2 gallon ziplock freezer bags that are marked for cuts.  When I want some I just tak it out of the bag and reseal.  Lasts for up to three years without burn.

 I know this because I found a lost stray bag in the bottom of my freezer that still had back strap in it.  Thawed it and not worse for wear even after 3 years.  If you are keeping it longer than that I think you may be shooting to many deer :-)

Bob Urban

[Mike Vines]

I use the same method as Bobby with fish, and have the same results.

[Hess]

You guys are rednecks...I love it!

[Mike Vines]

Originally posted by Hess:
You guys are rednecks...I love it!

I prefer to call myself White Clutter.  LOL  Just kidding.  I'm always looking for a cheaper way to get the same result.  Only thing I will not skimp on is quality.

[Bobby Urban]

Although I do not have a ton of disposable income and I try to be a little conservative in most of my spending it is not cost as much as simplicity and time that drives my butchering/packaging.  I found dealing with the special bags and blood/juice getting into the vac seal a pain and the plastic wrap method is just quicker and IMO equally effective.  I am sure if you did a test a well done vac sealed piece of meat would last longer in the freezer but Like I mentioned above - plastic wrap is good for at least 3 years.  If I am keeping it longer than that I am shooting to many deer. I also like being able to pack the pieces in bulk in large freezer bags making it easier to store and utilize.  JMO and everyone has there own personal method.  
Lets just hope we all need to run out and buy more packaging this fall due to good luck in the field.
Bob Urban

[T Folts]

I was thinking of getting a foodsaver but I think I will continue the way I do it or try the plastic wrap and freezer bags.
The way I have done it for years is plastic wrap and then freezer paper.

[Dave Bulla]

If any of you know someone who works in a factory, you should ask them if they use plastic wrap on their palletized items.  

Most food places package items in boxes or cases of some sort, those get stacked on pallets and the entire pallet goes through a wrapper where it is wrapped in industrial (but still food grade) plastic wrap.  Very few operators run the rolls completely empty.  Instead, when it gets down to about a 1/2 to 1/4 inch of wrap left, they pull it off and add a new roll.  The new rolls are about 10 to 14 inches in diameter and ours came in two lengths.  The small ones were about the size of the wide stuff you get in the stores and the long one is about two feet long.  The long ones are great for wrapping big pieces of meat like entire hind quarters.

At the factory I worked at, these used rolls would be thrown away all the time and some had a good 1/2" of wrap left on the tube.  The tubes were about 3" diameter, heavy cardboard so 1/2" on that big tube was a LOT of plastic wrap if using it at home.  One roll would last in our kitchen about 3 to 6 months.  I'd ask a manager for a material pass for "used shrink wrap rolls" and they'd give me one no problem.  I'd bring 10 to 15 of them home at a time.  Still have some in the basement but don't work there any more so I'm kinda being frugal with them.  While I was working there, I gave away a bunch of them to friends who hunted.

Cool thing was, it is heat shrinkable.  Wrap stuff with it and use a hair dryer or heat gun and it shrinks down wicked tight.  Basically the same as meat from the store in the styrofoam trays.  If you look at most of those from the bottom, you can see it was plastic wrapped and the bottom was heated to stick it all together.

Just thought this was an option to throw out there.  I've gone through the same thing with vacuum sealers and blood in the seal or the units not lasting very long and have gone back to just multiple layers of plastic wrap. Heck, I was getting it for free so I wasn't stingy.  Going around and around half a dozen times seals stuff where it will last for years.  I don't even bother with freezer paper or bags most of the time.

Here in the midwest, there are a lot of factories and even those that don't make food still use a palletizer to stack and wrap the pallets of goods to be shipped out to the stores.  Heck, just look in Home Depot or Sam's Club at the pallets on the shelves and you will see what I'm talking about.  Practically EVERYTHING gets shrink wrapped onto pallets these days.

By the way, those stores can be a good source of used plastic wrap which just happens to be one of the best things there is for the you-stuff-it type targets...

[bergie]

For what its worth I have a FOOD SAVER sealer and just love it.

[JockC]

I like Bobby Urban's method a lot and use it for smaller cuts, with food wrap and butcher paper for the larger pieces.  Incidentally, buying a butcher paper dispenser was one of the best things I ever did...but I do use my Costco foodsaver for a few things, and I for them it does a much better job than I at least could accomplish with a straw, and that thick plastic seems to last longer without getting pierced.  Setting up the foodsaver on  medium phone book above where I lay the plastic bag and keeping a dishtowel handy to wipe off streaks of blood seems to take care of the blood management issues without much work.  For the time I put into hunting, butchering, trimming fat and silverskin, and cooking, I'm not going to sweat $5 or $10 worth of plastic bags a year--especially when I save far more than that in buying the food wrap and butcher paper in giant rolls at Costco and doing my own butchering.