February 1st, 2006, 9:13 am

Vacuum Food Sealing Experiments!

Results from the first round of testing with my Vacuum Food Sealer. OK, Foodsaver.*

Test subject: duck breasts

Method

• Marinated a few days in a combo of tangerine juice and garlic. Placed on a tray in the freezer to solidify. Vacuum-sealed. Frozen for two weeks. Plunked out of fridge in the morning, defrosted in time for delicious duck tacos that evening (with a *lovely* pulm pico de gallo: with chunks of plum, scallions, cilantro, garlic and roasted jalepeños … tossed w. a hint of sesame oil …) ###Observations *

Dude, you totally have to freeze meat for like an hour or so before vacuum-packing it. Otherwise, it’s just too juicy … the bags won’t seal. *

Wow. Marinating meat and *then freezing it* takes years of prep work off my life. How hard is it to make up a double batch of marinade, and toss the extra meat into the freezer for when I need it? ###Results *

Kickass


##Test subject: Fresh corn tortillas from a little tortelleria
###Method *

Fresh tortillas were divided into “how many I think I eat a week” packages; some frozen, some ‘fridgerated. These were fridgerated. ###Observations *

Wrapping them in paper towels seems to have been a mistake. All of the tortilla moisture was sucked into the towels, which made them dry and unable to really rise on the comal. ###Results: *

Eh. Maybe without the paper towel next time …


##Test subject: Baby potatoes
###Method *

Potatoes that had been sitting in my pantry for a week were packaged in a bag. Left in the pantry. ###Observations *

Dude! After several days, the potatoes began to give off gases. Not sure if the gases liquified the potatoes, or the potatoes were liquifying on their own … but there you go … potatoes puffed up my bag and turned into JUICE! ###Results: *

I think I might be making vodka?


##Test subject: Lemons
###Method *

Lemons that had been sitting on the counter for a couple of days were packaged. Left on the counter. ###Observations *

The lemons too give off gases, so the bag is a little puffy. But they don’t appear to be aging very rapidly. Have yet to to taste-test. ###Results: *

Inconclusive, awaiting further testing.


##Test subject: Green onions/scallions
###Method *

Green onions were washed, *dried* and then placed in a giant “create your own bag from this roll” bag. The onions were sealed and unsealed several times as I accessed them for cooking. ###Observations *

Although the green tips of the scallions were crushed by the vacuum packaging, the roots remained firm and fresh throughout the week. *

One must leave an extra inch on the bag for each time one plans to reuse it. By this logic, the best use of these (expensive) bags would be to create giant bags and just reuse and reuse and reuse … ###Results: *

Depends on what you’re trying to use them for … but the base of these nice fat onions held up extremely well. This concludes the first round of Vacuum Food Sealing Experiments. For more adventures:

• Visit the Flickr Food Sealing Photoset, sure to grow in coming days.

• The vacuum food sealing archives

#####* Note: Readers will notice I’m careful to say “Vacuum Food Sealer” instead of using the name brand of my machine (FoodSaver). I don’t want to be a giant ad for my new toy, but at the same time, I’d like for Google to help fellow FoodSaver owners find me and my experiments. Rock and a hard place, my friends. Rock and a hard place.