vacuum sealer and re-heating advice.

[Catsup and Mustard]

Good morning,

I Know one or two of you on here do this already and looking for some advice on the matter.

I am going to start to vacuum pack my finished products so that friends and work colleagues can re-heat at a later date..

What I would like to find out is.

1) What Vacuum sealer's do you recommend? My budget is between £50-£100 but can go a little more if needed.
2) When it comes to the packing bags and re-heating, do you use bags that are oven proof or what is the best way to re-heat say a rack of ribs/pulled pork?
3) I was thinking of offering a sachet of BBQ Sauce so what would be the best way to pack and seal some?

Thanks

Philip

[MrJaba]

Very interested in this advice also!

[Toby]

I believe people have been using a fresherpack? there is a thread on here somewhere. I had hoped that vacume bags were all microwave safe, my aim was to freeze everything down then stick it in the microwave to defrost and heat up but that would have been far too easy!! So whatever you do dont microwave them! I havent worked on any other methods yet so will wait to see what others suggest.

[Swindon_Ed]

I bought this one a couple of years ago and it's still going strong
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Andrew-James-Qu ... d_sim_kh_2

I had hoped that vacume bags were all microwave safe, my aim was to freeze everything down then stick it in the microwave to defrost and heat up but that would have been far too easy!! So whatever you do dont microwave them! I havent worked on any other methods yet so will wait to see what others suggest.

I've been chucking mine in the microwave for ages and i've never had a problem, what issues have you been having Toby?

[Clayfish]

I've got an Andrew James vacuum sealer like this http://tinyurl.com/c4oayvt and get bags from fresherpack I use rolls for the bigger stuff.

Sealing and reheating pulled pork & sauce is easy, I've not used the moicrowave, but use a pot of hot water, just under boiling, make sure there's a decent amount of water as the bags can melt if they sit on the bottom too long, then you have soup!

Also come in handy when the missus gets to the supermarket just as they are marking down the meat!

[keith157]

I have a Foodsaver and use the JML rolls of bags, there is also a company on ebay that sells different sized bags from the same dimpled type plastic. I've not had any problems with these heavier duty bags in the microwave or as boil in the bags re-heating in water.

As to a bag sealer, from my own experience ensure that the sealer will allow you to stop the vacuum process and seal it when you want to. Mine doesn't and it can get a bit messy if there are too many juices in the bag.

[keith157]

Here are the search results for fresherpack

search.php?keywords=fresherpack&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=all&sr=posts&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

[MrJaba]

So for those of you that do it, if say I cooked up a big batch of pulled pork, how would you seal small pouches of it? Say meal sized portions? Just add the pork directly or with juice, or sauce?

[Catsup and Mustard]

Thanks for the tips, I went and ordered the cheaper of the Andrew James vacuum sealer with 60% off great deal.
Also Like the fact it can seal as well as vacuum then seal,thanks to Keith for pointing that out.

Now I need to a excuse for her indoors to explain why next week Ill have a Dutch oven, Vacuum sealer and a Maverick ET732 on the doorstep

[Swindon_Ed]

So for those of you that do it, if say I cooked up a big batch of pulled pork, how would you seal small pouches of it? Say meal sized portions? Just add the pork directly or with juice, or sauce?

I'll weigh up the pork normally a mix of 250g & 500g bags and then just add the pork straight to the bag, normally there is enough moisture in the meat so i heats up almost as good a fresh.