I've been sealing and freezing foods ever since the Daisy Seal-a-Meal that Empty referred to came out (although that does not have a vacuum in it.)
First, buy your bags online at Amazon and at Walmart. They are 1/3 the cost of buying that on the Food Saver site. I just wrote
a long post on this on the "What's For Dinner (or lunch)" thread.
Here are some of the things I've learned:
-These are
perfect for small/single households...it's more about convenience for us than it is about buying bulk
-Sealing individual servings makes it easier to defrost quickly.
--This applies to raw foods (chicken parts, pork chops, etc) as well as cooked-ahead foods
-You can cook in batches and have a variety of meals available at your fingertips
-As C'est moi said, freeze meats to set the juices before sealing them
-Defrosting is done quickly by submerging the sealed bags in a bowl of water (Air Tight = Water Tight)
--Chicken parts take maybe 45 minutes
--Steaks & burgers are under 30 minutes
--Fish & seafood take maybe 15 minutes
-If you want to defrost something that you did not freeze in a bag, you can seal the frozen item in a bag for the sole purpose of defrosting it in a bowl of water. I do this all the time.
-I'll weigh ground beef I've bought, make 1/4# patties and freeze those rather than the entire package
--You can make a quick burger
--You can pull out the exact amount you need for a recipe rather than an odd-sized frozen brick of meat
-I seal & freeze lots of prepped foods
--I'll cook in batches, including grilling burgers or hot dogs, then zap in the microwave for a fast lunch
-I use it to keep odd ingredients on hand that I would not normally have around
--Freeze lemon juice, broths, sauces, etc in ice cub trays then vacuum seal
--Freeze the extra chicken broth when a recipe takes less than a full can
---One cube is a little less than 2 TB in my trays
--I wash, chop and dry parsley, cilantro, etc and freeze it so it's on hand when I need it
--I freeze lemon and lime zest to have it on hand
--I freeze chopped shallots to have them on hand
-Carry-out soup containers are the perfect size for pre-freezing single servings of soups, spaghetti sauces, chicken & gravy, etc. to then transfer to a bag
--The diameter of the frozen serving fits the opening of the small pint bags perfectly
--You can buy them relatively cheaply at Amazon or EBay
--I'll roast a whole chicken, bone it, make gravy, pre-freeze single servings of chicken & gravy in these, then pop out of the container & vacuum seal
-You can buy an attachment to use your canning jars as vacuum canisters (see pic below)
--This is obviously not the same as canning
--This is obviously not for freezing
--It's handy to extend the life of things you use infrequently like raisins, craisins, dates, nuts
--It's handy to keep liquid foods fresh for an extended period of time
-You can get one for quart jars and one for pint jars
--This works for those shorty jars as well
--To break the seal, wedge a spoon between the lid and the jar screw threads
---You can reuse the lids for as long as they hold the vacuum seal...this is not real canning
--After vacuuming, remove the tube to relieve the pressure before pulling the adapter off of the lid
-You can buy vacuum bottle stoppers for wine
--I cook with wine but don't drink, so don't use it up quickly. This keeps it fresh
---I lay the sealed bottles down on their sides in the fridge and they do not leak
Lastly, don't waste your money on the vacuum sealed Ziploc bags. They do not stay sealed. Instead, if you have stuff you want to access frequently or freeze in batches but use just a little at a time, buy the rolls of bag material (a good idea to have this on hand anyway in both widths), and make your bag long enough to leave enough excess for you to cut off, remove what you like, and reseal multiple times...you can reseal the bags after you've opened them as long as there's no food particles at the top (just clean it out with a napkin.)
Oh, and don't waste your money on a vacuum marinator. They don't really "open up the pores of the food," and do no better than marinating in a Ziploc bag.
Have I overwhelmed you??? You'll find your own uses as you play with it. These are really great for small households. If you need advice I'm sure lots of folks here have used these things. Feel free to ping me as well.
