muchalls wrote: I believe the youth of today would say TLDR |
Moggy wrote: You should never seal anything hot. Apart from anything else it helps to know what materials your bags are made of as the end result may well be a bad and potentially a dangerous product. A bit of background, whilst these domestic machines are called a Vacuum packer they actually create no vacuum, if they did then when you cut the pack open you would hear a inrush of air, you don’t. So what the machines are doing is removing air from the bags. Plastic bags are not strong enough to resist pressure at ground level which is about 1,013mbars or say 14.7psi as a result the pressure inside a sealed pouch is equal to the pressure outside. If you only partly vac a bag say 80% you are also pretty much negating the reason for Vac packing (which is usually to preserve foods) as the amount of oxygen inside the bag will eliminate the gain of the vac packing, the oxygen will ruin the food after all. In true vac sealers vac packing hot food causes a problem as it speeds the evaporation of water from the food which can actually create that water to boil. That evaporation does a lot of damage to the food, rupturing cells and causing channels to open in the food such that when you finally cook it the food won’t be as it should be – fish particularly. You can get around this problem by making sure your food is very cold first, even at fridge temps water can evaporate at pressures less than 20mbar/0.3Ppsi, why, as we all know water boils at lower temps the higher we go (as the pressure decreases) so at a typical sealing pressure of say 23mbar/0.3psi the boiling point of water is only 20degC, if you vac pack something that is warmer than this it will boil. These mainly are the commercial machines you see around but the same problems still apply to domestic sealers main difference is that the vac pump on domestic sealers isn’t anywhere near powerful enough to seal as tightly There is a good chance that if the food is hot you will also not get a complete seal. There is also a good chance that the hot food will create a mess in your sealer as the liquid will be much more readily free to be drawn out of the bag. Warm food can also get a good crop of anaerobic bacterial growth, if it does throw the food away. That can happen when you don’t properly freeze the bag after sealing and the bacteria have produced excess gas. The sealers we have are properly called edge sealers not vac sealers. |
Ara wrote:
Thanks Moggy, I will vac seal my smoked fish cold next time, the juice did make a bit of a mess. Cheers |
feeder wrote: The easy way Ara to avoid the liquid getting sucked into your vac packer is to fold a paper towel and put that between your fish and packer. Incidently Moggy if -85kpa is not a vacuum, what is it. Cheers |
You can seal wet products easy if you use this idea which I am sure what some other people have been referring to.
Basically take a paper towel and fold it in half and half again till you end up with a flat towel about 15 to 20 mm wide, place on vac bag and measure inside width of the bag then snip off excess so it fits exactly across the width inside the bag
Pack bag with wet fish etc - or even liquid and place towel in near the top as you can but outside of the sealer - don't let it get trapped under the sealer lid otherwise you won’t seal well at all.
Now grip both sides of the bag with finger of both hands - yep that one hand a side and squeeze tight, practice that first, ok you can let go now
Now your use to it have the towel held by one hand and with other push the vac button and immediately grab and squeeze the sides - this stops any moisture from going around the sides - and it will if you don't do it.
The towel will mop the moisture up and your sealed. With liquid as soon as the towel gets close to being wet to about mid-way press the seal switch to stop the vacuum and start sealing.
You should be ok at that point
Works every time, word of caution – make sure you do not contaminate the paper towel make sure your hands are clean and you are folding it an a clean surface, if you do that you won’t have any problems. I have had towels stay in bags for 2 years without any problems.
Basically mine look like this
Moggy wrote: Works every time, word of caution – make sure you do not contaminate the paper towel make sure your hands are clean and you are folding it an a clean surface, if you do that you won’t have any problems. I have had towels stay in bags for 2 years without any problems. |
waynorth wrote:
That's the bit I was concerned about - the paper towel looks pretty disgusting. Good to hear it isn't an issue. |
Tasman and Golden Bay snapper still running hot We are not far away from daylight... Read More >
Variety is the spice of life On one recent trip, the plan was to spend a... Read More >
Fish where the fish are! Catching fish or just going fishing? I tackle this issue... Read More >
Thoughtful tactics required for better fish Over the course of each year the fishing varies,... Read More >