Re: Food Saver

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 1/2/02 5:36:05 PM Pacific Standard Time,

chrotts@... writes:

> I have a FoodSaver ordered

>

Janine,

Where did you order your Food Saver from and how much? I have seen them at

Costco for around $179.00. Just haven't bitten the bullet yet and I do need

one.

~Donna

[Guest guest]

On 1/3/02 at 3:40 AM " Ivanthecool@... " <Ivanthecool@...> wrote:

>Janine,

It's <G>

>Where did you order your Food Saver from and how much? I have seen them at

>Costco for around $179.00. Just haven't bitten the bullet yet and I do

>need one.

I ordered it from Service Merchandise online. I am getting the Tilia™

FoodSaver® 1050 Vacuum Packaging System which is on sale for $159.97 plus you

get a free Tilia™ FoodSaver® 3-Pc. SaverMate® Canister Set. At least it

was on sale today.

Go to

http://www.servicemerchandise.com/

Click on Kitchen

@(~~~>~~~ K. ~~~<~~~)@

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List Owner: K9Nutrition, K9KidneyDiet, RawPetsFoodSaver,

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[Guest guest]

Oh, that wasn't me that said that. I have a food saver, bought at...hmmmm, off

of t.v. about a year ago. It's great. I use it for my wildcrafted morels and

King Boletus mushrooms, my herbs and sometimes, even for food! lol

We paid, gosh, I can't remember, but I think it was

$100 and came with bunches of rolls of plastic and stuff. And the jar vacumm

thing too. Haven't used that yet, it's still in the plastic wrapped bag even!

It was one of those T.V. ads. I think the price at Costco was about the same

when we bought ours from t.v., BUT we got the jar thing and the video and

something else, maybe more bags? So, it would be a toss up.

Janine

www.HerbaTherapy.com

[Guest guest]

>Any suggestions for a non-electrical way to buy fresh fish and store

>(in serving size pieces)? It's not convenient for me to buy fish on

>a regular basis. Also, I want to take advantage of seasonal prices.

I use a baggie filled with salted water, so the fish is encased in

a block of salty ice. Then it doesn't get freezer burn. The fish

itself is not really in contact with the ice, and I'm figuring

that once the ice is frozen and the bag in the freezer there

isn't much chance for plastic to get near the fish. The salt

water also " brines " the fish while it is freezing, so it tastes

better when you cook it.

You can do meat this way too -- if you add vinegar and spices

you can marinate the meat during the freezing/thawing process.

If you can go to a little more work, you can freeze the meat or fish

in a metal square container (or bowls), then when they are frozen,

take them out and wrap them in something (foil or plastic bags

shouldn't matter at this point, since you are just dealing with a

block of ice).

>

Heidi S

[Guest guest]

-

I have a Tilia Foodsaver Pro II, which I think is the most powerful model,

so I can give you some feedback on it.

Basically, I like it a lot. Although using it does require some care to

assure a good seal (if you let food juices get in the way, you can wind up

having to re-do the seal, for example -- Tilia suggests partially freezing

liquid or semi-liquid foods before sealing) when you do get a good seal,

which is virtually every time once you get the hang of it, the seal seems

very solid.

I'm not especially jazzed about having to use plastic, though, so while

they say their bags are safe to microwave and boil, I've never done either

(I don't even own a microwave anymore) and I don't plan to. I just

preserve food in them and then cut the food out when I'm ready to use

it. They say the plastic is reusable (though you lose a couple inches

because the machine needs some clearance past the seal line) but I've had

trouble getting stronger food odors out and actually reusing them. They

also say the plastic is dishwasher-safe, but I've yet to manage to arrange

the bags in the dishwasher so that they got clean and didn't just tip over

and fill with water.

The nice thing about the higher-end models is that you can also vacuum-seal

ball jars. There's an attachment for regular-width and wide canning jars,

and while I have no way to measure how hard the vacuum it creates in the

jars is, it does suck _some_ air out, and it seems to measurably add to the

time food keeps in those jars even when just refrigerated. The models with

the hose can actually be used with a bunch of different attachments -- a

sort of universal jar lid, the hood that hooks over ball jars to

vacuum-seal them using their own lids, wine bottle sealer caps, etc. I try

to use glass jars whenever possible, but that doesn't really work when

freezing dozens and dozens of sausages at once. <g>

>Any suggestions for a non-electrical way to buy fresh fish and store

>(in serving size pieces)? It's not convenient for me to buy fish on

>a regular basis. Also, I want to take advantage of seasonal prices.

Heidi's suggestion is good too, though it takes up a lot more room than the

fish itself. Also, there's drying, salting, and other means of curing.

-

[Guest guest]

Heidi

> I use a baggie filled with salted water, so the fish is encased in

> a block of salty ice. Then it doesn't get freezer burn. The fish

> itself is not really in contact with the ice, and I'm figuring

> that once the ice is frozen and the bag in the freezer there

> isn't much chance for plastic to get near the fish. The salt

> water also " brines " the fish while it is freezing, so it tastes

> better when you cook it.

What's your water/salt ratio for fish brining/freezing?

Thanks,

[Guest guest]

>What's your water/salt ratio for fish brining/freezing?

I don't measure so I'm really not sure. I think it's about 2 tsp of salt

(non-iodized)

and a half cup to a cup of water per bag. The usual brining technique is

about a cup of salt per gallon though, so you could mix that up and then

pour it into the bag.

See:

http://www.msue.msu.edu/msue/imp/mod01/01600579.html

>

Heidi S

[Guest guest]

I don't have any input on food savers, but in regards to being

concerned about storing food in plastic, you can wrap non-liquid

items in paper before putting them in plastic and freezing. You

can get unbleached wax paper at most natural food stores

(dioxin from bleached paper may be as bad as plastic). You'd

have to label the bags, of course, unless you like surprises.

Aubin

[Guest guest]

>>>>>I don't have any input on food savers, but in regards to being

concerned about storing food in plastic, you can wrap non-liquid

items in paper before putting them in plastic and freezing. You

can get unbleached wax paper at most natural food stores

(dioxin from bleached paper may be as bad as plastic). You'd

have to label the bags, of course, unless you like surprises.

---------->I used to used unbleached wax paper that my local health food

store sells, but i noticed that when i wrapped meat in it and froze it, the

part touching the waxed paper became discolored. So I contacted the

manufacturer and asked them what type of wax was used on their product, and

they replied " parafin " wax. So i googled " parafin " and found numerous

sources that referred to it as toxic. i don't recall what amount would be

considered toxic, but since I was freezing lots of things in it, I guess it

could have a cumulative effect. i *think* it's particularly toxic to the

respiratory system, but i don't recall the details very well.

Now i freeze most things in either pyrex bowls or ball jars. i also

sometimes use unbleached parchment paper because it seems to have either no

wax, or considerably less than wax paper.

Suze Fisher

Lapdog Design, Inc.

Web Design & Development

http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3shjg/

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