Food saver, I got a lemon!

S

sallybr

Well-known member
Well, last month I got a food saver as you may remember. It worked FOUR times, now it won't seal unless I use the manual seal right after the vacuum is pulled.

returning to amazon - still in search of another one

I thought about the Breville since I love the brand, but apparently it sucks. Or not.

 
You may have indeed, but you will LOVE it when you get the

right one. Mine is "giving out" a bit like that, and on another board, someone had a FS customer rep walk her through cleaning and repairing hers--which I may try. BUT brand new, should be returned, of course.
Mine doesn't owe me much--probably 8 years old and in use constantly!! It is the plain pipe rack one--no bells and whistles. I had trouble with that model and went back to the plain jane version.

 
No surprises here...

... I've had a great food saver for 10 years, so it's not that I am a food saver virgin smileys/wink.gif

just got a lemon this time... next one shall be a winner!

 
Ok; so naive question, how do you "fit" your foodsaver into your lives? In other words, when do you

use it? I recall Sally, that you use for sous vide, but beyond that, when is it used? I purchased one at at a garage sale; it works, included all the bags. I used it twice, then put it in the basement. I just can't think of times I would use it.... Curious on how / when anyone uses a food saver. I want to figure out what I am missing.....

 
Cheese...as soon as I use a new block of cheese I use the food saver.

Cheese will last forever as long as there isn't any air around it.

 
use it several times each week

It does a great job at keeping cheese from getting moldy (wrap the cheese in parchment first). I've had some last months. Also keeps cut cabbage from getting black on the edges so I can use it gradually until it is gone. I use it for other things as well, especially to avoid freezer burn in meat and leftovers. I generally wash and reuse the bags until they are damaged.

 
great for Costco shoppers.

I buy large packages of lamb chops and seal them 2 in a bag. Ditto with pork chops. I also buy large packages of cheese and seal and freeze portions. Freeze soups in plastic containers and then remove, seal and freeze and have containers for another use......The best one I discovered was sealing a whole box of Cheerios. My grandsons in Switzerland love them and it's easier to take the compressed bag than the huge box. Not one gets crushed, I was amazed.

 
I have had a Food Saver for many years and use it for all meats, poultry and seafood if I know they

are going to be frozen for a time. No more freezer burn and they keep for a very long time. I use it for all cheeses, never have to toss moldy cheese away now, as I keep a lot of cheese in my fridge. Also, nuts, home made applesauce for my freezer. home made pasta sauces too. Blackened Hatch chilies that I do in Sept. and use all year long. So many uses. A real biggie is that you can reseal all your chip bags, and those papery bags that cereal in packed in, inside the boxes. Reseal candy bags, too.

You must keep your Food Saver out if you are going to make use of it. No one wants to keep getting it in and out every use, and I use mine several times a week, I keep it on my laundry room counter. Sometimes we use it more than once a day.

We also reuse our Food Saver bags several times after the initial usage. They are washed with hot water and dish soap inside and out, and hung to dry above my laundry room service sink. Sure saves a lot of money.

 
As others have said, cheese cheese cheese. I have saved

enough sealing cheese to pay for all the FS I've had. I don't wrap in parchment. No need IME.
You can use it for fast marinating of meats. They sell the plastic containers for this purpose, but you can just put your meat and marinade in a Tupperware container and "seal" it--I don't pull the full vacuum, and the rigid sides of the container keep the meat and marinade in. Done in 20 minutes instead of hours.

 
keeps cheese from feeling slimy and makes bag easier to wash and reuse

 
Good trick. I use food grade plastic wrap to wrap meats before putting into a Food Saver bag. This

works great to keep the meat juices off of the inside of the bag. I take the meat out of the freezer bag when thawing too, so the melting juices do not run out of the plastic wrap.

 
Thank you! I never realized that the bags were reusable! Silly me! I will give it a whirl, The

candy / breakfast cereal idea could be extremely helpful here. Also the cheese / costco runs. Thanks for the inspiration!

 
Definitely reuseable. When I'm sealing cheese that I know I'll

be resealing, I make the initial bag larger to accommodate the future resealings.
I also will put some meat and chicken in a separate thin plastic bag (leave it open so the vacuum can reach it) so that FS bags don't get so bloody, etc. Oops, see that was also covered.
IME cheese in a FS won't get slimy as it will in just refrigerated plastic bag. It certainly doesn't hurt to put it in parchment--since that's the way to keep it from doing that in the refrigerator

 
I am so happy to hear that others have discovered the bags can be used over and over.

Charley,s comment about cutting them larger to allow for several reseals is a good one, and something you learn on your own quickly. These bags are expensive to buy so reusing just makes sense. Of course, the Food Saver folks would not like to hear that!

 
and not only that, but...

I usually cut my sealed bags open on a short edge so they stay as large as possible for as long as possible. Contrary to what I read in the instructions, resealing what was previously a factory sealed side works just fine.

 
Bacon!! I usually cook 4 slices of bacon for the 2 of us for breakfast. Then

the package of remaining bacon goes into the FS bag with a folded paper towel half. When the vacuum pulls the air the paper towel stops the bacon "juice" from preventing the seal.

As with cheese, I cut the bag extra long to reseal.

 
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