Vacuum Sealing A - Z (Tips and Tricks)

The FoodSaver Vacuum Sealer is one of my top five favorite kitchen tools. I use it many times a week. Just last week I vacuum sealed 40 lbs. of Zaycon Chicken (referral link) for my freezer & vacuum sealed some cereal for storage.
I thought I would consolidate all the various posts I have on the vacuum sealer in one place. 

TIPS TIPS TIPS TIPS TIPS 

TIP 1: I find that if you leave extra bag space on the top before sealing, you later can open up the package using the slicer on your FoodSaver creating a clean straight cut. Then when you get out what you need, you are able to reseal the same package. This comes in handy. This week I had a lot of mushrooms I bought on sale and planned to use them several times. One bag, multiply times used and resealed. 

TIP 2: Sometime you may have sloppy leftovers. I have found it easy to freeze the leftover in a pan of some sort, then vacuum seal the frozen block. This helps keep your machine cleaner. When you want that meal for dinner, you drop the package in a pot of boiling water. The bags are sturdy enough to withstand the heat. Cut open the bag then serve.

TIP 3: Occasionally you will have a bag that all the air is not vacuumed out (on the left). If that happens I just put that in the front of the rest of the packages and use it first. To prevent it from happening, it helps to sort of push the food into the middle to create unobstructed channels on each side (on the right). That helps prevent air getting locked at the bottom and sides.

TIP 4: I mentioned above, since the bags are so strong, you can simply drop the bag into a pot of boiling water & cook. Even this raw chicken will cook completely and is very juicy because the package is sealed. It will even create a little broth.                 Posts on How to Use the FoodSaver Vacuum Sealer, 

                                                 Plus More TIPS.

How to Vacuum Seal Dry Goods

Step - By - Step: How To Vacuum Seal Meats

 

How to Clean Your FoodSaver 

Items that I've used in these posts:

          

What I do here is simply share our journey. We would love it if your joined our Perky Gramma Teaches community on Facebook. I participate in the Amazon Associate program, where I receive a small % commission for linking products that I recommend. I only recommend products I personally used and like. Your support is very appreciated, anything you choose to purchase through my link, is helping me to be able to share more things that I do with you. Perky Gramma Teaches Amazon link.

How to Clean Your FoodSaver & a Few Tips

I have always shared everything, including my bloopers.
In all honesty, I didn't realize you should clean your FoodSaver until mine stopped one day, telling me the tray was full. I know, gross. Sometimes the obvious escapes me. The simplest way to learn how to clean your FoodSaver is to open the machine. Seriously, it has the instructions listed inside. But, keep reading. I am showing you here with pictures. The front flips down & then there are two release button on each side. Push those in and the FoodSaver with fold completely open.
Then just read the instructions, remove the two trays, clean them well. The trays are dishwasher safe. Then let the trays dry completely.

 

 

 

 

 

After the parts are dry you reassemble the pieces, close the doors and you are ready to start vacuum sealing again.

TIP: 1) It is critical that the trays are completely dry. 2) The sensor that I am pointing at here on the left, will sometimes have unnoticeable residue that needs to carefully be cleaned or it will not allow you to reset the machine. This sensor triggers when then trays are full and need to be cleaned. The first time I cleaned the trays, I evidently didn't get the sensor completely cleaned of all residue. Causing it to still read full & not letting me continue to use the machine. It looked clean. Once I used the cotton swab with the rubbing alcohol & let it dry the machine reset itself and let me continue to vacuum seal.

What a difference a year makes (before & after)...

I realized several years ago that I wanted to have a more sustainable lifestyle, that is part of why we decoded to move and start our farmette. So I started to learn about gardening. I worked with a combination of "Back to Eden" and "Square Foot Gardening".
"Back to Eden" is a film that I go back and watch over and over, It is an hour and 45 minutes long, but I derive a sense of peace each time I watch the film. This is how I prepared the ground for our garden. 
Living in Northern Virginia our soil is heavy with red clay. This is a picture of what our soil normally looks like & a picture of soil from my garden today after one year of preparing the soil by the Back to Eden method.                    

                                                                                                            
 Pretty amazing, right? Note the worm...I have worms all over my garden..The earthworms help increase the fertility of your soil. They burrow through the soil ingesting and digesting the unbroken down organic material that is in the soil.Their waste (worm poo) provide vital nutrients for the soil. As they move through the earth it creates an aeration effect, which helps surface water penetrate further into the soil. 
This is so simple to do & more importantly very easy to maintain. I simply use a rake occasionally to uproot whatever weeds may pop up.

The "Square Foot Gardening" method, helps maximize the spacing of your planting as opposed to traditional rows. 

I got my garden started this year in early May & am so excited to see my plants starting to poke their little heads up out of the ground. For the seeds, I have chosen to use only non-hybrid and non-GMO seeds. While there are several great companies out there, I have chosen to use Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, which was recommended to me.

Now the why? I feel it is really important to practice your skills before you have to use them. I hadn't really gardened before, so I am learning as I go. I have also learned how to can the food from my garden. This way I will have hands on knowledge BEFORE I really need to depend on gardening. Gardening gives you power of knowing what you eat and where it comes from and everything tastes so much better. Plus, I have learned I really enjoy this as a past time.
I encourage you to start your garden if you haven't tried it yet. Now, take the time to watch the "Back to Eden" film. it is well worth your time. 

What I do here is simply share our journey. We would love it if your joined our Perky Gramma Teaches community on Facebook. Items I am using this week and books I am reading...

 

I participate in the Amazon Associate program, where I receive a small % commission for linking products that I recommend. I only recommend products I personally used and like. Your support is very appreciated, anything you choose to purchase through my link, is helping me to be able to share more things that I do with you. Perky Gramma Teaches Amazon link.