Opinions on Foodsavers????????

I love mine....I use it everytime I fire up the ole' Cookshack. Whenever I have some extra smoked food left, vacuum seal it, freeze it, and whenever we want a quick meal just nuke it. Worked great the other night when we had some unexpected company and had some Foodsaved pulled pork...perfect. Plus the bags are re-usable when properly cleaned.

I have the "Vac 350" model... I think it was around $100 bucks at Wal-mart. We're happy w/it.

Hey Iowa Man,

I use the heck out of mine. Not sure the model, but I got it at Costco about a year ago or so.. It's great for us because I always cook too much food for the two of us. last night I re-heated some pulled pork from about 4 months ago, tasted like I just smoked it. It's really good for cheese and other items that you can buy in bulk but can't use right away. You can also mix up a batch of spices and rubs, and food save them for later use, just cut open the bag and your ready to go, no need for jars or containers, the bag's shrink up nice and small and take up no room...

On a scale of 1-10, I'd give it a 10.. it's one of the few gadgets we use all the time...

Hi Iowa Man!

I am on my second FS....I plum wore out the first one!

If you BBQ, you NEED a FS!! They are simply the best appliance to use for freezing your leftover BBQ meat. BBQ meat is one of the best meats to freeze and use as leftovers, so this purchase makes a great deal of sense.

When speaking of models.......they ALL use the same vacuum pump, so the only difference is in the options and extra's. I have the Model 1050(Tillia seems to change their model numbers every 2 years!). This was $150 at Sam's Club. This unit has the 2 switches which means you can seal your bags without creating vacuum OR seal before the juices(marinades) run up into the motor.

The biggest drawback is the price of the bags. I buy mine at Sam's Club which has the best prices...bar none. However, I do not find them that expensive.

Be prepared, you will go through a bunch when you first get it. I sealed everything in sight!! But, I now use it mainly for freezing items and use it some for marinading. Oh, I use it on all of our foods, not just BBQ!

Hope this helps!

If you decide on one let me know, I can hook you up with a 10% discount at the same place you got the thermometer. I'd have to buy it and you could pay me.
I think I bought the 1050 model last yr. and like it a lot.

Make sure you take advantage with one of the forum options that many don't use (but I'm here to happily remind you about)

The search function:

I went to the search function near the top of the page, selected search, brings up a new screen, typed in "Foodsave" and then selected "all open forums" in the drop down menu (the default is only the current forum you are in).

The results, 18 foodsaver references.

Hope that helps Iowa Man!

Smokin'

Been thru 6 Foodsavers ever since they came out. Couldn't live w/o it! Just got the Foodsaver Pro and may put up my whole salmon pack with it this year!

Freezer burn is a thing of the past. Moosemeat lasts well in it. Bags are $$, but they pay for themselves.

Highly recommend!

Check out Wells Can Co in Canada for great prices on Foodsavers. Even ordering from the US you save because of the favorable exchange rate. Not affilliated, yada yada, just a satisfied customer who likes a bargain.

The web site is at:

http://www.wellscan.ca/foodsaver.htm

quote:

Originally posted by fisherman:
[qb]If you decide on one let me know, I can hook you up with a 10% discount at the same place you got the thermometer. I'd have to buy it and you could pay me.
I think I bought the 1050 model last yr. and like it a lot. [/qb]

I'll let you know Fisherman. I may have to fire up the Electra Glide and throw the dog on board and head to Williamsburg. And yes, both of my Schnauzers ride Harleys. They're part of the family aren't they?

You da man,,,Fisherman. Maybe we'll have to get together sometime and cast a line.

Kevin

null

I've had a foodsaver (professional) for about four or five years. I pretty much seal up everything I freeze and it does keep everything fresh. It is especially good for freezing cooked butt and brisket. To serve, you just put the bag in boiling water and serve.

There are only a couple of complaints. They are exorbitantly priced for what they are. And the price of the bags is exorbitant (ie. it runs 50 to 75 Cents per pound).

Secondly, the bags are rather flimsy-If you have a bone that is anywhere close to sharp, it will easily pierce the plastic and you have lost your vacuum seal.

Thirdly, you have to be very careful when you make a seal that the plastic is dry and does not contain any food matter at the point of the seal. Otherwise you will loose your vacuum.

The foodsaver is in a catagory where much could be improved through competitive economic circumstances. There are a few other products out there but represent no real competition. If there was real competition, price for the units and bags would be 1/4 to 1/3 of what they are now and the products would be much better than they are now.

That's my two cents.

MIN Que
(Formerly from Iowa but now from Minnesota, an even better State)

I have the model 1050, if im saving 1 lb of pork butt to freeze for beans or saving some smoked salmon for a snack a week from now I could not get by without it, there a must.
I also use it when butchering venison, vacuum sealing all that meat it lasts a long time and no freezer burn.

OK... I know this is a stupid question, but I'll ask it anyway: If you vacuum seal some meat (butt, ribs), can you just ship it as is with a 2-day delivery, or must it still be either refridged or frozen as well. The only way it might not be a totally stupid question is that I'm thinking of those foil packages of all kinds of stews and soups and stuff that store on shelves for years without the fridge. Are those irradiated or something???

The FS is a great product. Works really well. It really is the best vac sealer on the market. I know people who have bought some "Knock Off" sealers and everyone who purchased one was less than satisfied, poor vacuum,poor sealing etc. Eventhough the FS brand bags are pricey they are far superior that the "cheaper knock off bags". I have a Compact II which was a refurb model which I purchased off of ebay, they are refurb'd by Tilia (FS) and they come with a full 1 year manufacturer warranty. Picked mine up for $70 delivered. I also picked up some of the bags on ebay at a much lower price than I have found in any store (saved a minimum of 10 bucks). Also Ebay is where I found a polder Ebay when I couldnt find one locally. Just my 2 cents worth. Hope it helps you out some

woodburner,
The foodsaver does not preserve food and therefore you still need to keep the product cold. Think of the foodsaver as a ziplock bag that has had the air sucked out.
Richard

I am a cheap skate!
I use a shop vac. Thats right "a shop vac" I adapted and use a straw at the end of the hose. Just seal up the Ziplock bag except a small corner and slide the straw down to the bottom. Turn the shop vac on untill it has sucked the air out and slowly withdraw the straw. When the straw is removed, just seal the last little corner of the ziplock bag and you have done it! Been doing this for years. Works great. Hope this helps the others that want to save money.

Dang, DSW, I thought and thought about how to do that trick, and I never figured it out!
Engineering just ain't my thing. And besides that, the Wild Willy rub I made had too much cayenne pepper for the missus. She threw a spare rib at me, I ducked, and it hit a family heirloom. The cayenne etched the varnish.
Well, I'll keep thinking.

Guess my brother's an even cheaper skate than DSW. He showed me how to just use a ziploc, a straw, and lung power.

Why are the bags so expensive, anyway? Do locker plants, cheese factories, etc etc pay that much?

Supposedly (if you believe marketing) the bag on the zip lock lets air through it (but not liquid of course) and over time odors will leak.

The bag on the foodsaver is "different."

So, looks like someone needs to take up the Foodsaver vs. Air Powered Ziplocks -- the freezer test.

Smokin

While the shop-vac/straw method is very appealing to us he-man bbq types, there is an even easier way to get the air out of a zip-loc bag. Zip the bag closed, leaving one corner unsealed. Then, submerge the bag in water up to the lip of the unsealed corner to force out all the air. Seal the bag at this point and you have an air free baggie of goods.

Here's a tip that will extend the life of frozen foods and help prevent oxidation. Mix a small amount of vitamin C crystals in water, about 1 Tbls per quart. Dip the meat/fish to be frozen in the solution, then wrap in freezer wrap/plastic wrap. You won't taste the vitamin C when the meat is cooked, but it will prolong it's life in the freezer. I have done this with lots of beef, chicken and fish with much success.

We have a Food Saver and it does work great. But, if you are processing a whole steer, the cost of the bags can get excessive. That's when we turn to the Vitamin C mix. And don't grind up vitamin C tablets, get the pure crystals.

I guess if you can boil in the bags, they're probably nylon or a combination of plastics. Regular ziplocs are just polyethylene. But, it'd be interesting to see what difference they make in real application. Maybe someone could take two bone-in skin-on chicken breasts (these seem to be the worst for freezer burn) and do a trial for 6 months.

Personally, if I've got something that I really care about like beef tenderloin, I wrap individual pieces first in saran, then regular strength foil, then group them in a storage-grade bag sucked dry. The saran is mostly there to make it possible to get the foil off. Then one can microwave a few seconds to get the saran off.

Good ol' plastic coated butcher paper seems to work just as well. Plus, a non-self-defrosting freezer set to -10F helps a lot.

Guess I'm too lazy to do all the tricks to get around the FS.

You can take it to a cookoff with you and do all your saving on the spot ,while it is fresh.

The boil-in-the-bag feature is a real plus,right up to a cooked brisket.

The wife cuts and reseals bags and even runs them through the dishwasher.

You can use it to reseal other commercial products,with or without vac.

One of our biggest uses is the endless nunber of spices and blends that go into pint widemouth jars to seal and unseal constantly.

We dry a lot of peppers,some whole -some pieces-some ground and it makes storage easy.

There is an alternative to everything,but the midlevel FS, where you can control seal and vac is right handy for us klutzes.