My Food Saver: Vacuum Sealer

I picked up this kitchen appliance last spring. These babies are NOT cheap! However, because I wasn't ready to make a big financial investment, I kept checking Kijiji until I found one. Score! I paid $40 for my Food Saver, probably a $200 savings. I took it home and started playing with it that evening. The seller was kind enough to give me a single roll with some plastic left on it.

Bags:
The best place to buy the special plastic you need to seal your food with is at Costco. I paid about the same price as the Food Saver for a box of a variety of sizes of plastic. It has some bags in it, but mostly rolls where you seal one end, insert the food, then seal the other end.

In this box I got;

• 36 pre-cut bags that are 1 quart
• 1 roll that is 8 inches wide and 20 feet long
• 4 rolls that are 11 inches wide and 16 feet long

I checked the other day and the price is pretty much the same, $39 for the box.

Bags are pre-sealed on 3 sides

Tricks:
You need some tricks to use this tool properly. For example it's tough to vacuum seal something that is relatively moist. Most of my camping food is dehydrated, so that's not an issue. But I tried using it to seal bags of freshly peeled and sliced apples to put in the freezer. I ended up putting a strip of paper towel inside the bag at the end I was sealing to catch the juice. 

It took me a while to be able to judge how big of a bag I would need. This plastic is expensive, and I wanted to get the most use out of my rolls of it.

I got into the habit of writing down not only what the contents were, but what I had to do with them (how much water to add, if I needed to boil it and for how long, how many servings, etc.) with a Sharpie on the outside of the bag.

Chef Glenn suggests putting in a paper towel on one side of the bag to help ensure that hard, spiky food doesn't poke through the bag and it provides a better backdrop to read any writing on the bag.

Just sitting here minding its own business....

I don't leave this appliance on my counter. it takes up a lot of space for me. My sister bought one recently (she has a tent trailer, so she camps with refrigeration) and she uses it a lot. It's excellent for freezing fresh meat into individual packets. It works well for splitting a large block of cheese.

For camping this past summer I tried it for a variety of things. Some worked and some didn't. My purpose in having this appliance was to shrink size of a food item, help in preservation, and make the food bag pack better.

When I repackaged a box of Kraft Dinner it created a solid block of pasta with the cheese sauce inside. I had been using just a Ziploc bag before and in this case the Ziploc bag is the better choice. The block just didn't fit in the food bag as easily as the Ziploc bag did.

I used it to package soft flour tortillas for a single meal (4 instead of the 8 in the package). This also did not work well as when the air was squeezed out of the tortillas they got stuck to each other. Ziploc wins this one too.

Open, ready to slice the length of bag you choose

I bought some soft, juicy jerky from Costco last summer. Pork Teriyaki (yes, it was delicious!). It packed quite well in the vacuum sealed bags. This was a win. It also helps keep the jerky from spoiling. However one must be careful as sealing alone might not be a solution for food preservation as other bacteria can flourish in a vacuum sealed bag.

I sealed turkey pepperettes in individual bags as well. I would put 8 inside a bag of its own for one of our snacks. I cut up another 8 to be put on a pizza or mixed into KD. Cutting up ahead of time really worked well. 

Turkey pepperettes, the uncut version

I have purchased some mini-snack-sized baggies (no brand name) that hold a much smaller amount of contents. I will put several of these into a larger vacuum-sealed bag for a meal when I don't want to mix the contents ahead of time. For example, pasta sauce, veggies, pasta.

Sealed, dried apples

I have put a single serving of a dehydrated chicken, rice and veggies meal in one vacuum-sealed bag, perfect to dump into my Thermos at breakfast to eat at lunchtime.

Overall I'm very happy to have this kitchen appliance in my toolkit for food prep. It gives me some peace of mind to know that all the food we've got packed in our food bag has a high level of durability, helps keep food fresh and dry, meal items are packaged together, and it is easy to tell what is in each bag.

Meals sealed and ready to go

My New Cadillac! - An Excalibur Dehydrator

Once a year at work I get a bonus. It's just before the RRSP deadline, so most of it goes into that. I treat myself to a new item with what's left over usually. And it's often a kitchen appliance of some sort. I bought a Blendtec blender about 3 years ago. It's a crazy price compared to regular blenders. But I have never regretted a penny I spent on it. It has an odometer and so far I've used it more than 700 times. I even make my own almond milk in it. This year I decided to invest in a better dehydrator.

As with my Blendtec, I turned to Costco.ca to make my purchase. They carry a lot more products online than they do in the stores and the price is reasonable. I probably would not be able to ever get a dehydrator in any Costco store near me anyways. There are several to choose from online. I could quickly eliminate any of the "professional" ones - they are meant for businesses and had stainless steel exteriors. I wanted something that would take a larger load than my current Salton dehydrator from Walmart. I chose the 9 tray Excalibur. Each tray is 14 inches by 14 inches (square). And no hole in the middle!

The Salton has the warm air come up from the bottom, through that central hole in the round trays. The Excalibur has the heat come from the back and it is more evenly distributed. It's not a bad idea to turn the trays around part way through the drying process. 

Old versus New

My dehydrator isn't perfect though. As you can see in the photo above, they mislabeled the front "door" and put it on upside down. Maybe I should ask for a discount? LOL

So far I've dried a huge pot of rice I had cooked specifically for this purpose. Yesterday I popped in 4 pineapples and 3 bananas. That combination makes the kitchen smell so yummy!

The drying times are cut much shorter with the new appliance. Although I do find it a bit noisier. 

The Excalibur came with the 9 trays and 9 perforated liners. However it did not come with solid liners. I use those liners to dry sauces (pasta sauce) and fruit leather.

Just the tray - MUCH bigger holes than the Salton tray

Close-up of tray liner

Tray with perforated liner

One whole pineapple all dried out

I like the Salton liners as they have a lip around the edges.

Salton solid tray liner

Size comparison

Fortunately I had taken out my Chef Glenn's cookbook and was re-reading instructions when I discovered that I could use parchment paper as a liner. I can certainly order special silicon liners for the Excalibur, but they're $13.99 each (if I buy 5+) and 9 would be, well, you do the math.

Ultra Silicone tray liners

ParaFlexx tray liners

I used parchment to dry the rice. It's not like the rice is in liquid form, it just shrinks so much during drying that it could fall through the nylon screen liners. It did the trick. I'm not sure though about using parchment paper for pasta sauce.

In the meantime, I'm passing my old dehydrator to LT. He's bananas about bananas, so he can create his own banana drying factory himself. But I'm holding onto my Salton liners, they fit into the new dehydrator for now. The Salton didn't come with any of its liners, I had to order them via mail from the manufacturer in Montreal. They weren't that expensive.

I'm going to try to expand my meal selection this year, which was why I had Chef Glenn's book out again. I'll let you know if I find one that is particularly delicious!

And here's a totally gratuitous picture of Winston exploring the box the dehydrator came in. His box fetish is so bad, he often tries to climb into boxes before I've even taken the contents out!

Salton Dehydrator

I've been using a Salton Dehydrator that I purchased at Walmart for about $50 for the last two summers. 

It's been a trusty tool, very essential to our success on our trips. With most of our food dehydrated, our packs are much lighter, our food is delicious and healthy, and we probably save a ton of money.

This stuff ain't cheap!

7-day trip menu

Spiced up chicken (I used canned from Costco)

Granola 

Fruit Leather

The two baggies hold one jar of sauce

Eggs and ham

I've gotten a lot of use out of my dehydrator and I've had no problem with it. It sits on an apartment-sized dryer in my kitchen. It's next to a window and I have to make sure that the window is closed for optimal function of the dehydrator. I think a breezy, cool day impedes its best performance.

I ordered special liners for my trays. The solid ones are used for the liquids, such as fruit leather and salsa. The other ones are used for items that shrink to a tiny size as they dry out such as blueberries and peas.

I think I might invest in a bigger dehydrator this spring. However, this one has suited me well. Two of my non-camping friends even bought one after hearing about me rave what a great appliance this is. Seriously, pineapple dried in this tastes amazing and you don't have to go camping to appreciate that!