Sealing bags with a Food Saver
We have had our Food Saver for MANY years. As a matter of fact, they don’t make the model we have anymore. (I wish they did because it has a place inside the Food Saver to put a roll of bags and you can cut off and make the size you need.). Anyway… we love our food saver and use it all the time. We use it for left overs, for splitting out large quantities of frozen items and vacuum sealing them and for sealing bags of chips. Works like a charm.
Helpful hints for using your Food Saver:
- Use the bags made for a food saver. Not all bags will work and some are made better than others. We have used the actual Food Saver brand and some off brands and some of the off brands work well and some don’t seal quite as well. You can decide by trial and error, but the best of course, is the name brand.
- When using a bag, we have found it is better to turn down the appropriate bag at the open end, of the bag, and if someone is helping you, they can put their hands up in the spot where it is turned down. If no one is helping you, it will still help keep this part, that is turned over, dry. (Turning it down keeps whatever you are putting in the bag off of the turned down part as that part needs to be dry and not have anything on it in order to seal properly.)
3. Make sure to leave enough space for the food saver to close and for it to be at the proper place to suck the air out. (Approximately two inches.)
4. If there is anything that would hamper the item from sealing (like some of the food got there) take a paper towel or napkin and wipe it out.
5. If you have a wet item, make sure to press the “wet food” button and if it starts sucking too much liquid, go ahead and manually push the “seal” button once the juice starts being sucked up. (It won’t have as much air sucked out of the bag, but you also won’t have a mess to clean up.)
6. For wet items and meats (which are often “wet” items because of the “juice” in the meat.) I typically seal mine twice just to make sure it is sealed properly. In the beginning, I had a couple look like they were sealed and at a later time find that a very small spot wasn’t sealed and the meat has a little freezer burn. Lesson learned the hard way.
7. Once sealed, make sure sealed ok and them label and date the item.
You are all set! Other things I have found that I can vacuum seal are potato chip bags, like I mentioned in my initial comment. If you seal them, start at the top of the bag because you are going to have to cut the bag to get back into them. If does keep them fresher. I have also, just in a couple of occasions, sealed a bag of spinach. It isn’t made for sealing, but I have had it work. It is not one that I always seal like I do chips.
Good luck with your vacuum sealing! I know you will love it once you start using it regularly. 😊
