45 Forkfuls of Christmas
Forkful #34: Seal That Stuff Up!
We all know the current trend: the economy is down, everyone is cooking more and eating out less, and shopping more at the club stores like Sam’s Club and CostCo. The trouble with that is, what do you do when you get home with a family pack of 50 pounds of pork chops? We typically try to divide those big packs up into the portions we’d want at any one time and then freeze them in Ziplock bags… unfortunately that just creates the ticking time bomb of knowing it’s only a matter of time until your food gets freezer-burned and gross.
We’re also huge fans of U-pick farms and farmers markets; this year we brought mountains of peaches, blackberries, fresh corn and other seasonal goodies. We ended up spreading them in a thin layer on cookie sheets and quick-freezing them, but again they’re sitting in Ziplock bags in our freezer. Seems like a good solution would be to vacuum seal them so they stay fresh all winter.
Another cool use of a vacuum sealer would be for poaching and sous-vide cooking (they do it on Iron Chef all the time… seal up some meat or fish with a marinade and put it in not-quite-boiling water. Every time I watch them do that I think it looks like it produces some great results, but I’m not about to go out and buy a big immersion circulator to do the job. However, a vacuum sealing and a pot of water would do the trick just fine!
For us, like many people I’m betting, this is one of those gadgets that we’re unlikely to buy for ourselves, but would use a lot if we had one. Those are the best type of gifts – the ones someone would really use, but wouldn’t think to get for themselves.
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3 comments for “Forkful #34: Seal That Stuff Up!”
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Bill loves our sealer. He seals all sorts of things. It’s great for quick thawing meats. I throw the bag into some water and it’s thawed in no time.
That’s how we do it too, only with Ziplock bags… the sealer seems like it would work much better, and since we have a chest freezer it’s probably a very worthwhile investment for us.
You are so right- I wouldn’t buy for myself, but my mom got me one about 5 years ago and I use it all the time- cuts down on freezer burn, great for sealing foods to take camping, sealing makeup for travel… many uses!