Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Boiling Home - Canned Foods!

Taken from the March / April 2010 Backwoods Home Magazine.

"Ask Jackie


Boiling home-canned foods

Have always seen specific instructions to be sure to boil home canned vegetables for a certain number of minutes before using or even tasting them.  Is it necessary to boil home canned meats and soup stocks before using them? 

Ruth Marvin 
Goldendale, Washington 

Yes, it is recommended that we bring canned vegetables and meats up to a boiling temperature and hold them there for 10-15 minutes.... just to be sure that any possible bacteria is killed.  This can be done in the oven on the stovetop, or by frying 

Jackie " 


Thank you to our wonderful customers who have been passing along viable information and safety tips.  We sincerely appreciate the help.  

PMG  

Re-Heat Before You Eat! Home Canning Safety.

This article was taken from the March April 2011 Backwoods Home Magazine.  

Thanks goes to our attentive and caring customer who sent us this information.  :)


Under Ask Jackie

The title was: Running the pressure canner without water.

Peter Regan of Beaverton, Oregon 

Wrote to Jackie about her response to another reader, concerning the lack of water in her canner.  We are posting here the entire article "retyped" as it mentioned retorts in the conversation and we feel the entire article is a very viable piece of information for home canners using not only jars but retorts also.
There is no FDA or USDA information for retort canning for the home canner.  We express our experiences, they have no scientific FDA or USDA backing.  Can at your own risk!

Running the pressure canner without water

I'm a regular cover-to-cover reader of BHM, and I really appreciate your section on food preparation. However I must take exception to the answer you gave to Mary Wolfe in Issue #126 Nov/Dec 2010 issue (Oops-Waterless Canning). She forgot to put water not her canner before pressure-processing pint-jars of beef, but the jar lids did seal properly.  Your reply: 

"... Here's my guess: probably your meat is okay, as the jars all sealed and there probably was some steam generated by moisture in the jars during processing.  But I'd mark the jars and be awful sure I checked each one carefully upon use.  Look at the meat, open a jar, making sure it is still sealed well, then smell the meat. If all is okay, be sure to bring the meat to boiling temperature for 15 minutes before eating.... 

My comments are based on 20 years experience as a Food Safety Inspector, including numerous cannery inspections, completing the standard "Better Process Control" classes several times (*highly recommended for home canners, and required by law for canning retort. Operators see your state college food science departments). And completion of an Advanced Canning course provided by the FDA.  (I'm now retired.)  While I'm not a full-fledged Food Science Professor, or a certified "Process Authority" for a cannery, my professional opinion is as follows: 

1. The jars of processed meat have well-sealed lids:  This means that the contents of the container reached at least boiling temperature (212 degrees F) producing steam and forming a vacuum when cooling.  However, there is no way to know whether the contents reached the required full-processing pressure and temperature (10-15 psi of pressure / 240-250 degree temperature) and for how long.  The boiling temperature most likely killed all the food-poisoning and spoilage bacteria, but not the most critical spores of the botulinum bacteria. 

2.   Well-sealed lids also show that there was no re-contamination after processing.  But what is still present and viable, like the spores, can still be a problem.

3.  The time and pressure/temperature specifications in our canning manuals depend on heat transfer by the steam in the pressure cooker-canning vessel, continuously and to the entire surface of the jar and lid for proper heat penetration to the coldest spot inside the jar/container.  
Without water in the canner; 
a) heat was probably only transferred throughout the bottom of the jars; 
b) the jars were probably insulated somewhat by air remaining inside the canner, and
c) it is highly unlikely that the proper temperature/pressure could be maintained though the cook.

Conclusion:  It is highly likely that botulinum spores were still viable in these containers of meat, and produced botulism toxin in these jars within a week or two. 

Regarding your recommended handling procedures: 

1. Check for sealed lids: Yes, this shows that at least a boiling temperature was achieved inside the jar, and three was no re-contamination after processing.  (But botulism is still possible.) 

2. Checking appearance and smell of the product upon opening:  Yes, this shows that (more easily killed) spoilage bacteria were destroyed.  But, Botulinum spores, bacteria and toxin is odorless and does not produce viable changes.  Also, do not taste, even a little bit, to go along with your smell check.  Botulism toxin is the most deadly poison known--- even a fingertip dipped in the food for a taste can kill.  

3.  Bring the meat to a boiling temperature for 15 minutes for 15 minutes before eating.  Yes.  This procedure will destroy any harmful bacteria, as well as botulism toxin, that is in the food.  (However, please be careful how you handle the utensils.  Fore example, if a spoon is used to empty the jar into a pan for cooking, the spoons's surface may be contaminated and transfer residue elsewhere.)  This cooking procedure has probably saved hundreds of lives over the years.

As an alternative procedure, may I also suggest that it is safe to take the marked jars and run them through another canning cook process, without opening them?  Just follow the same time and pressure temperature recommendations for the original food product.  This may "mush" fragile vegetables like asparagus, but meats will only soften a bit more in texture.  There would be no safety issues with storing them away again.  

Again, Jackie, I greatly appreciate your column, and this is the first thing I've ever had any concerns about.  Keep up the good work! 

Peter Regan 
Beaverton, Oregon.

Peter, you are right.  The steam generated from the meat broth may not have been enough to have safely processed the meat.  I guess the old adage is right; when in doubt....reprocess.
Jackie  


Friday, January 24, 2014

CHEF TALK - PIZZA TIME

CHEF TALK, PIZZA TIME 2014

The holidays are over. I hope that you can look back on your holidays with a smile but now it is back to business. It is time to look at things a bit more seriously.
I trust that your New Year resolution list is pasted on your refrigerator, with an additional copy on your computer screen.
 Times are still difficult worldwide and many of us will have to tighten the belt a bit more and there is already very little room left. If you are one of those who really feel the pinch, every bit of help on how to spend your money more effectively and still being able to put a healthy and tasty meal on the table is more than welcome.
One wise move is to invest in quality. It definitely saves money on the long run. Quality food and also quality kitchen aids. A quality knife last a lifetime, a set of cheap knives is a wasteful purchase. Same goes for food and storage of food items. A cheaply bought vacuum sealer that gives you a leaking seal after a few weeks has no purpose of even buying it in the first place.
Second is to buy good quality food products from a vendor you can trust, who can give you some decent information about the product and also how to handle it. Good quality food last longer and when you vacuum seal it, it will last even longer as it stays in much better condition. No freezer burn or dried out meats in your freezer for which you paid good hard earned dollars. Throwing food away is easy. Getting the most out of your dollars is not so easy.








Prepared ready meals loaded with preservatives and all sorts of other not so healthy stuff are relatively expensive and of seriously less quality than meals you make yourself. You cannot see or control the contents of these ready meals. You only know what you eat when you cook yourself.
Lovely sounding taglines are of no value to a consumer, I mean, it does not mean anything when it reads on a packet ‘New formula, made with the freshest real beef’. A line like that means zero. Correct me if I am wrong. First of all you do not expect a product with beef contents to be made with half rotten beef and secondly it raises the question: does that mean that the older formula did not have real beef? 
The real valuable information on the packaging, cut of meat, fat contents, added flavoring and preservatives depend completely on what health authorities require by law or food act. Any information that has not been stipulated will not appear, believe me. This means that even when you know the countries food act by heart, you still do not know what you eat.   
This is reason enough for me to stay away from those kinds of products.
Make a well balanced diet a priority. Use fresh produce and cook your own food. You know what your family likes so choosing those items should not be too difficult.
When you do not have too much time left in a week due to a heavy work load and other family obligations, consider dedicating an hour per week and do some bulk cooking. If dedicating your time to a specific task at a specific hour does not work very well consider this idea. 
On Sunday I cook from 11 am till noon. You might have something else planned, so that may not work for you. Try this method at a different time. It works much better for me. When you have the prepackaged products in the refrigerator, you do not want to waste them, you paid for them, you vacuum packed them so you are more likely to use them. 




When the kiddos complain, make pizza and ask them to help, they will love it. Freeze the pizzas, vacuum seal and keep frozen. Homemade pizza ready to go, it does not get much better than that.  
Buy bone in chicken pieces, for example, firstly they are cheaper and secondly they have more flavors and stay juicier after cooking.
Place all chicken parts on a baking tray, season with salt, pepper and any other seasoning you have (paprika powder, garlic, chilly flakes) or any other seasoning of your liking.
Preheat your oven to 325 F and roast for 40 to 45 minutes. Leave to cool, portion the cooked pieces and vacuum seal. When you eat chicken a few times per week, keep it chilled. If not, freeze it. Anyway you choose, you have ready protein to use.
Do the same with your vegetables, only choose a different vegetable for different days. You can precook vegetables (blanch), fry vegetables or braise, this way you have a good variety at any given time. Your meals are almost ready in a very short period of time.
Carbohydrates can also be prepared, cooked rice, boiled or roasted and even mashed potatoes vacuum seal very well. Cooked pastas vacuum seal perfectly also.   
Once you are on the right track and the response from the family is positive, you will enjoy cooking more and more.
Did I tempt you with homemade pizza? Here is a recipe for the dough and sauce, the topping is your choice, great way to use some leftovers as well.  
  


HOMEMADE PIZZA
Ingredients:
2 Tsp Dry yeast
1 Cup Warm water
2 Tbsp Olive oil
3 Cups High protein flour (bread flour)
1 ½ Tsp Salt
Pinch Sugar
METHOD:
Dissolve the yeast in a few tablespoons of water with the sugar. Mix until it looks frothy. Leave for ten to fifteen minutes..
Place the flour in a big bowl and slowly add the yeast water and the rest of the water. The water may be too much or too little for the amount of flour. This depends on type of the flour and your individual environment. Do not worry. If it is not enough add a bit more, if your dough is too soft, add a bit more flour.
Add the salt and the oil.
Knead all into soft dough. Good guide is that the dough should not stick to your hands anymore.
Cover the dough and leave to rise in a warm place for an hour or so, depending on the temperature in your kitchen. You should have about 1/3 more dough after the rise.
Divide the dough in portions, the quantity of dough is enough for 2 pieces, ½ “thick, 14” round pizzas.
If you want smaller sized pizzas, just divide to your liking.
Form the right size and thickness, and leave the formed pizzas to rest for another ½ hour.
If you freeze the pizzas, you can do this with or without topping.
Pre-heat your oven to 450 F
Bake the pizza for 10 to 12 minutes if you want to freeze it later. Bake a few minutes longer if you plan to eat straight from the oven.
Freeze the pizza after it has cooled down, vacuum and keep frozen. They stay perfect for up to 3 months.
THE SAUCE:
A good Italian pizza sauce is made with tomatoes, onions and garlic. No tomato paste or puree.
Ingredients:
½ Nos Big onion (finely chopped)
3 Cloves Chopped garlic  
5 Nos Ripe tomatoes (chopped)
Oil for frying
Method:
Fry the onions till translucent in 3 tablespoons of oil, add the garlic and fry for another minute.
Add the chopped tomatoes and simmer for ten minutes.
Season the sauce with salt and pepper and leave to cool.

You can use any type of topping you like, use some of the leftover vacuumed meat you have.
Enjoy 
  

Written for pMG by:

(Professional Chef) Marinus Hoogendoorn

Culinary expert in recipe development  

www.vacupack.com

1-800-227-3769





  

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Retort Canning and the Scientific Information.

Retort Canning, there is no official scientific information for home users by the FDA or USDA.  The scientific information is for commercial users using an autoclave.  A home canner is not rated for commercial use.   Can at your own risk.

In the past articles we have talked about canning in retort pouches for meals with meats, such as chicken, fish or red meat.  We have expressed our own personal experiences and those of our commercial clients.
We have heard from several people and read on several blogs some new and very false information.

1) The suggestions of using less temperature due to the retorts being a thin package.
          This is false. The need to pack the bags snugly in the canner creates a mass that must be heated though out to kill all bacteria.  The bacteria only dies when proper temperature is reached for an extended period of time. 

2)  The suggestion of using less time due to the retorts being a thin package.
           This is false. The mass created by packing the bags snugly to avoid blow outs requires more time to ensure the center of the canned product reaches the proper temperature.  We suggest no less than 30% longer time than suggested home canning guidelines.   Example a 60 minute can would require 90 minutes in retorts to be safe.  Again there is no scientific data on this example. 

3) We have read where non retorts such as mylar type bags are being used.
           This is suggested as a less expensive option.  Retorts are specifically designed with special air barrier properties, they are non toxic. Mylar does not have the air barrier properties nor is the toxicity rated for canning. Mylar is a polyester product not suitable for food and heat.    Any reseller selling bags that are not the standard FDA Gold Retort bag, should display the retort bag manufacturer specs proving their bags are actually retort not just a food package.   A reseller will gladly have this information posted for customers. Beware if you do not see this information clearly posted. 

4) Many non vacuum packaging companies are suggesting not to vacuum seal.
     All retorts on a commercial basis are vacuum sealed.  Either by a standard chamber unit or a roll stock unit. To achieve 100% successful retort canning, the bags are vacuum sealed.  Leaving the air in the bags as the product boils the side seams will give way and leak.  Also with air left in the bag it is extremely hard to see if the product inside has gone bad.  

We would like to express the extreme dangers of some of these suggestions.   We use 30% more time than the home canning instructions to ensure the entire mass is completely heated though out. Using standard home canning heat instructions never less than 10lbs. We have used these instructions ourselves with great success.  However there is no scientific information about retort canning and we are only expressing our own experiences.  Until the scientific research has been completed you are canning retorts at your own risk.

We have been contacted by Dr. Elizabeth Andress with her concerns about retort canning and the non scientific information.  Although hundreds of people have used retorts for their canning and it is widely used in the commercial industry.  There is no laboratory scientific information to give exact time and temperatures especially for meats.  

Dr. Andress wrote the book for USDA for home canning.  We are excited to work with her in the near future.  We look forward to her scientific research to publish her next canning book, using retort pouches.

We encourage all to be safe, use longer times, and no less than 10 lbs of pressure on non acid food such as any meat of fish product.  If the bag is open do not eat and please discard it.   If the bag expands like a balloon while in storage do not open or eat.  Always reheat any home canned foods before eating to ensure bacterial has been destroyed.

We have enclosed Dr. Andress information as she is the USDA expert on home canning. Dr. Andress has not given any suggestions on proper canning of retorts and at this point does not condone the use of retorts in home canning.  But rather is concerned about the misinformation or lack of information being posted.   We hope to be able to post scientific guidelines very soon.

----------------------------------------------
Elizabeth L. Andress, Ph.D.Professor and Extension Food Safety Specialist
University of Georgia
208 Hoke Smith Annex
Athens, GA  30602-4356


PMG VacUpack 
1-800-227-3769  


Living on a Budget

Living on a Budget


My name is Sue Adams and I work part time for VacuPack. I work for them a few hours a week, as I am retired and living on a fixed income. Below are a few things that I have found helpful in staying within by budget.

 1.   When grocery shopping, watch for sales or shop at the warehouse stores.  Buy larger quantities      and vacuum seal fresh vegetables, fruits, grains,meats. etc.  Vacuum seal your food in various size packages to be used at a later date for soups, stews, dinners or appetizers.


       http://vacupack.com/vacuum-sealers-home-style/vacupack-vacuum-sealer/vacupack-elite-vacuum-sealer-home-unit.html



 2.   You can cut spending painlessly by keeping track of all your expenditures.

 3.   For necessary purchases (food, insurance, transportation, etc.) be sure to comparison shop to find the best pricing.

 4.   Build an emergency fund.  This will help you to avoid having to take out a loan to cover unexpected expenses.

 5.   Limit your spending for birthdays and holidays (especially Christmas).  It is easy to overspend on others, but not wise.


 6.   Arrange with your bank or credit union to automatically transfer funds from your checking to your savings account, each month.  If you add that amount to your monthly budget, you won't even miss it, and it will be there in case of an emergency.

 7.   ALWAYS avoid using high interest credit cards and payday loans.

 8.   Save your coins (your loose change) and add it to your savings account.  You will be surprised how quickly this adds up.

 9.   If you are a low or moderate income earner, you may qualify for an "Earned Income Tax Credit".
Pay down your debt with part of this credit.

 10.   If you are employed and your company offers a 401K program and your employer will match your retirement savings, you should take advantage of this option.

I hope these simple ideas will help you in the new year.

Written for PMG by:

Sue Adams

WWW.VACUPACK.COM
1-800--227-3769


Friday, January 3, 2014

What Is Healthy Food?

WHAT IS HEALTHY FOOD

When I spoke, about the Primal and Paleo diets in my last article, I promised to dedicate my next article on the same subject. I concluded that it all comes down to having a healthy and balanced diet, with moderate portioning and home cooked, not readily bought food off the shelf.
In ancient times, people had to do with what they found or bagged in their surrounding areas. I am a very practical person, if I may say so and when I try to imagine how life would have been those days, I see somebody wake up in the morning with a hungry feeling in his stomach, so what to do now.
He or she is going to look for something to do away with that feeling and without a refrigerator filled with what not, I imagine that instead of killing and eating one of the ‘cave mates’, a less emotional measure would be to look for some animal to catch instead.
If there were only a few people, one bird, rabbit or something small would do. Later when more people were existent, more prey was needed, or more food for that matter. Humans taught themselves and each other better ways to stay alive. I do understand that wheat and grains were not available but plants were in abundance and our cave man friends must have eaten some of them. Development has therefore always been a part of life.

                                   





Development that has led to bad, better and good products as we know them today. 
Our way of eating healthy food should also be like that of the cave man, go to your local market and find produce that suits you. 
Cook it yourself and avoid processed foods that contain loads of sugar, preservatives and other artificial coloring and flavoring. You do not need them.
My definition of healthy food: home cooked, fresh ingredients, moderate portioning.
The introduction of processed foods and convenience products has led to us buying those foods for the obvious reason of convenience. 
Fast food arrived and was popularized as being quick and convenient. This was a disastrous development. Millions of people are addicted to fast food. Even the fact that fast food is being described as the heroin of the modern generation still does not stop people from consuming fast food.
I saw this guy who weighed 543 pounds. He went through a gruesome weight loss program lasting one full year.  With all his dedication he lost half of his weight, awesome right, BUT, he takes the bus home from work to avoid the temptation of passing by a fast food joint and not being able to resist and stop if he drives his own car. Wow. Is that fast food addiction, or is it me?



Many of us have products of the processed food category on our kitchen counters or in the pantry. Ketchup (sugar), bottled pasta sauce (sugar), chips (sugar, salt), cookies (sugar), soy sauce (salt) and the list goes on. Store bought bread has at least 12 added chemicals to keep it “fresh” longer. All preserved meats and seafood, smoked or not, contain salt and sugar. To make these products, bacon and smoked fish and so on, they are brined or dry salted, both methods contain salt and sugar. Sugar is used for color after smoking and salt to preserve the meat or fish. 
I do not think that you have to omit some of those products completely but rethink if they are your daily diet.  
You may think, but it is easy, convenient, grab a packet, stuff it in the microwave and I am done.
Well if you wish to place yourself in that category, good luck

If you wish to eat healthier, read on.
A vacuum sealer is a great tool to help you, keep your foods fresh, semi or half cooked, raw and fully cooked, saving money and giving you peace of mind by knowing what you eat, because you cooked it yourself. 
Portioning of food and the balance of ingredients are another great money saver.
I mean, four slices of bacon, with three fried eggs, a scoop of baked beans and a few slices of toast. Do you really need that every morning?   
Portioning of food is perception!!
This is not my wisdom but scientifically proven. Your brain tells you via vision, (you looking at your plate) when your stomach is full or satisfied. By using a smaller plate and with that obviously a smaller portion, you will have the same ‘I am full’ feeling than you have by using a bigger plate and a bigger portion.  




Observe a well balanced mix on a plate. I fully agree that 40% protein, 40% vegetables and 20% carbohydrates is a good mix but ensure that your cooking method points at the vegetables and protein. The carbohydrates are then eaten last and less, this is better for you as the carbohydrates take longer to digest and the nutrients of the protein and vegetables are the first to be absorbed in the blood stream. 


Some tips as promised to help you reduce cost. 

Healthy food does not have to be expensive by default.
Tip 1:
Do not throw any of your purchased food away. When pre-preparing the vegetables you just bought for vacuum sealing and storage, you will have some end pieces or root pieces. Carrots, celery, leeks, coriander and so on, these roots are more flavorsome than the parts you cook to eat. 
Prepare a mix of those root pieces and vacuum seal them. They are great to use in stocks and as a base when you cook a roast. They stay healthy for at least a week in your refrigerator and you can freeze them also if you like.
Tip 2:
Watch for cheaper cuts of meat and fish, instead of lamb leg or lamb chops, use lamb shoulder, de-boned rolled up lamb shoulder makes a great roast. Same thing goes for pork shoulder. Slice thinly when it is cold, portion, vacuum seal and you have a great cold cut for sandwiches, salads, or a cold platter dish for a weekend lunch.
Pork trotter is such a much undervalued cut of pork meat. But a piece of meat that is really lovely to eat.

Try this simple recipe,
4 Nos Pork trotters
1 Nos Roughly chopped medium onion
1 Nos Red chilly
3 Cloves Garlic
1 Bunch Garlic (cut in half)
4 Stalks Coriander root, keep the leaves for later
½ Cup  Vegetable oil
1 Bag Of your own earlier prepared vegetable roots
1 Stalk Rosemary
2 Tbsp Butter
2 Tbsp Vegetable oil







Method:
Pre-heat your oven to 325 F.
Prepare a marinade of the onion, cloves of garlic, chilly and coriander stalks by placing them in a blender and blending them fine, while blending, add the oil.
Season the pork trotters with the marinade and salt and pepper.
Place your own vegetable roots on the bottom of a baking tray with the garlic bunch, add the rosemary and the butter and vegetable oil. If there are no onion pieces in your vegetable root mix, add some.
Place the trotters on top, roast in your oven for 2 ½ hours or so, depending a bit on the trotter size.
After the roasting time the meat will come off the bone and is lovely, flavorful and great tasting.
Remove the trotters from the tray, add 2 Tbsp of flour to the tray with all the vegetables and mix well, add 1 Cup of stock and simmer for 5 minutes.
Press all this through a sieve, rest for a minute or so, you can now scoop of excess fat easily as it will float on the top.
Serve the trotters as they are or remove the meat and serve with the gravy and garnish of your choice. 
Vacuum seal and chill or freeze.

Enjoy !!

Here is another tip,
If you find that one whole bunch of garlic is a bit too much for your gravy, remove it before you add the flour.
Cool the garlic until you can handle it and press the flesh out.
Mix the garlic with some butter, finely chopped onion, some finely sliced coriander root, salt, pepper and a bit of oil. 
This makes great roasted garlic butter, roll it into a sausage shape, vacuum seal, and freeze.
Flavored butter like this works great on all sorts of meat and also seafood.
Any questions? Please ask and I will be happy to help wherever needed.   


Written for PMG by:
Professional Chef Marinus Hoogendoorn 
Culinary expert in recipe development.  

www.vacupack.com
1-800-227-3769




Vacuum Sealing Vegetables



Vacuum Sealing Vegetables


Remembering the days.  The days when my grandmother use to can vegetables!  It was a huge and mysterious process, involving a number of glass jars, rubber gaskets and an element of danger.  If the jars were too hot and the pressure inside built up, the jars could have exploded. A possibility of sending flying glass everywhere.  For that reason, we children were not allowed in the kitchen while this was going on. Or maybe the element of danger and mystique it was a great excuse to keep us out of the way. 

Vacuum sealing is a much easier and safer process.  There is little danger, outside of burning one’s self with hot pans or boiling water, certainly not likely to be as dangerous as flying glass!








Vacuum sealing vegetables can save time and money down the road.  If you buy fresh vegetables when they are in season, they are usually much cheaper than they will be if you wait and buy them later from the grocery store. During the summer and fall months when we harvest vegetables or buy them from local growers, we package our vegetables for use at a later time, using our VacUpack vacuum sealer.  It is easy to have control over the contents and the size of the packages.  We package  “soup mix” vegetables, mixed vegetables, corn, carrots, peas, green beans, potatoes and wax beans. We package them in sizes just right for our family, not forgetting to plan to have larger packages for holiday cooking.  Peeling potatoes on Christmas Day is a pain. It’s much easier to pull out a pre-packaged bag of potatoes and just throw it into a pot of boiling water, allowing us much more time to spend with our loved ones instead of sweating in the kitchen!



We have a standard home stove, so there are only four useable burners.  Save stovetop space by putting several packages of different vegetables into one big pot, freeing up your burners for other use. This method for vacuum sealing vegetables can be time consuming if you have a lot to do but it is a very easy process.  

The Vacupack SousVide Bags are built for this process.  Traditional Vacuum Sealing bags will leak the boiling water into the bag destroying the food. 


First, boil water in a large pot.  When the water is boiling, add your vegetables.  You do NOT want to cook them all the way through.  Leave them in the boiling water only until they are hot through.  Then, immediately remove them and place them in an ice water bath until they are cool.  Drain them and then vacuum seal them.   Label the packages with the contents and the date and place them in the freezer.  When you wish to eat them, simply put the bag into boiling water for a few minutes until the vegetables are hot and they will come out tasting as fresh as they day you bought them.

You can also simply let the vegetables thaw and use them for dips and vegetable trays as well.  Having pre-cut and pre-packaged vegetables is a huge convenience when entertaining and is a bit of a luxury when you think about the amount of work and cost that is saved by using a vacuum sealer.

Another thing we do with our VacUpack vacuum sealer is to package small packs of vegetables and freeze them, also pre-made meals, then we take them to grandmother’s.  She is getting on in years now and we provide these fresher vegetables, and homemade meals for her, which offer more nutrients than canned vegetables and traditional frozen store bought meals.  She loves to eat them and it is much easier for her to cook them rather than struggle with cans (her arthritis makes her hands weak). The fact is, the more you use your vacuum sealer, the more ideas you will have and you will be limited only by your imagination. 


Happy cooking! 

Written for PMG by:

Jacqueline Moderson
-
Excellence in Customer Service/Support, Proofreading and Data Entry


1-800-227-3769

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Bitcoins Accepted


BitCoins Accepted at VacUpack





PMG VacUpack is happy to become an authorized Bitcoin retailer.  Many of our vacuum sealing products can now be purchased using Bitcoins.  In 2014 we hope to be able to also add Litecoins. 


All Bitcoin purchases come with Free Shipping in the USA on UPS. All items requiring freight transport may not be free shipping, but will have discounted shipping rates.  Freight shipping varies per location and country. Each order will be individually evaluated to find the best shipping, lowest cost, available.  

The Bitcoin prices are based on December 2013 price of Bitcoin.  The fluctuating price of Bitcoin is difficult to monitor the web prices. If there is a huge discrepancy between the daily price listed and the actual value of the Bitcoin.  PMG reserves the right adjust the Bitcoin pricing before the product is shipped.  Bitcoin sales are not final until the price is equal to the US or Canadian dollar asking price.
Customers may request a quote in Bitcoin for any product we have in stock.  Special orders must first be authorized for Bitcoin purchases. 

If you would like to buy Bitcoin, follow this link to a safe secure CoinBase site. 


If you have any questions about our Merchant Account and Bitcoin purchases please call
Toll Free 1-800-227-3769 International
Bitcoin is available on www.vacupack.com
And soon will be available on www.vacupack.ca