Heard of Sous-vide? Tasty, Juicier Food Made Possible by Vacuum Sealing

Heard of Sous-vide? Tasty, Juicier Food Made Possible by Vacuum Sealing

Some of you might be intimidated by the fancy name sous-vide, which is becoming a quite popular method for cooking food. However, cooking by this method is easier than its name. The sous-vide method of cooking food involves enclosing the ingredients of a dish in a vacuum-sealed plastic bag and placing the bag in a water bath, a combi oven, or any other appliance that can maintain a target temperature. 

The sous-vide method of cooking food takes a long time to cook the food thoroughly before it can be eaten; however, it results in juicier and tastier food. The concept is based on the fact that because the ingredients are packed in a vacuum-sealed bag, moisture from the ingredients is not depleted. In addition, as the temperature of the water is kept to be hot enough so that it cooks the food thoroughly while killing any food borne pathogens, there is no drying out of the food. The result is tastier and juicier food that cannot be obtained by other conventional methods of cooking.

The food variety best suited for the sous-vide method of cooking is meat and fish since they are sensitive to high temperatures. Cooking difficult meats like flank steak and turkey breasts can be made tastier if they are cooked using the sous-vide method. The method is best suited for cooking meat because it does not alter the texture, a feature very important when cooking meat. Most of the times when meat is cooked using conventional methods, it is overcooked. But, with the sous-vide method, the temperature remains the same while the meat is tenderly cooked with its juices remaining intact.

Pros of Using the Sous-vide Method

• Evenly cooked meat and fish is obtained when using the sous-vide method
• With sous-vide method of cooking, one can avoid the dried out, overdone meat as the final temperature can be controlled
• The food is safe to consume as the long cooking hours taken by the sous-vide method kill the pathogens that may be present in the food or the plastic bag. 
• The texture or quality of the dish being prepared remains intact with the sous-vide cooking as a uniform temperature is maintained throughout the process of cooking
• Vacuum sealing of the food ensures that decay of the food by water is prevented 

The sous-vide method of cooking can be used to get tastier, juicier meat and fish. There are special ovens and cookers that help in cooking by the sous-vide method. The computer controlled heater ensures that the water set at a low temperature is maintained for hours, if required. This method of cooking has an important benefit in the sense that it frees the cook from continually watching the food cook, freeing them to handle other aspects of the meal while the meat or fish is cooking in the sealed bag. With traditional cooking, there is little margin for error as the temperature can be high or fluctuate, leading to overcooked food in case of slight inattention. With sous-vide, you can have evenly cooked, juicy, flavorful food every time.

Written for PMG 

By 

Professional SEO Writer

Sipia Mahajan 

www.vacupack.com

Successful Retort Canning

Over the past 4 years since we were introduced to the retort canning bag. Here is a few tips for success.  The credit goes to our many customers who have reported back their process for all types of foods, temperatures, pressures, canners and most important vacuum packers. 

The excellent results and the disasters have made up the knowledge we currently use.  Here are a few quick tips. 

1. Keep the pressure while cooking between 10-12 lbs. 15 plus lbs have higher failure or even exploded the bags. 
2. Cook the product at least 20% longer then in jars or cans to insure the mass is cooked throughout.
3. With liquids the retort bags can hold more. Example 8oz pouch can hold 16oz water.
4. With solids such as meat. Cut the meat in thinner slices, load flat, do not put a big lump in the bag.
5. Approximate 2 oz more meat can be put in the bag so long as it is flat.
6. Load the bags snugly on their edge, off center of each other. 
7. For double layers, cross the opposite direction for the 2nd layer.
8. The caner must be snug but not over stuffed. To loose they failure rate doubles.
9. Fold the edges of the bag into the center before putting on the lid to avoid cutting the bag with the lid.
10. Use a vacuum sealer with domed and crimping heat wire one or two wires does not make a difference.
11. Increase the seal time 3.2 to 4.3 depending on the unit.
12. Flat band heat wires either one or two will have the highest rate of failure.  Upwards of 50% as they do not crimp the bag but rather burn it. 
13. Let the canner cool to 0 pressure before opening it.  Usually this is 30 to 45 min or more.
14. Open a properly cooled canner but still hot product and place the bags in ice water.  This will shrink and collapse the bag showing the still vacuum sealed product. Washing the bags will also allow you see if you have leaks. 
15. Do not let the pressure off the canner with the cock pit.  An overly hot opened canner will allow the bags to pop out and burst open the side seams.  This is the biggest reason for failed bags after cooking. 
16. Wash the bags check all the seams completely if a seam looks to be weak, place it in the fridge and eat do not store it.
17. Use bags of water to fill a partial canner.  This creates sterile water for emergency uses and fills the canner to keep the other bags from expanding to much. These bags can be made new each time or reused over and over.
18. Since the products can only be vacuum sealed when they are cold place cold water in the canner, allow for extra time to heat the entire mass before starting the clock for canning.
19. Shelf life is looking like upwards of 6 years for meats in a cool storage area. 
20. Rotate, Rotate and more rotation is best. 

If you have other ideas you would like to contribute to this blog please let us know.  This is a fun exciting new way of canning and storing foods. This information has come from the thousands and thousands of bags canned trial and error. 

Retort Canning of has NO Scientific data from the FDA or USDA for home canners.  The concerns come from non acid foods such as meats!  We are expressing our experiences, but by no way are these experiences authorized data. Can at your own risk!  
As they say, "Re-Heat before you Eat" on any home canned product in glass, cans or retort for best safety practices.  
All home canning is AT YOUR OWN RISK! 

It's Canning Time! Retort Bags or Jars

It's Canning Time!


Have you discovered the advantages of retort canning?

Canning is a great way to preserve and stock food. Every year, people break out the Mason jars and pressure cookers to prepare batches of fresh fruits and vegetables, jellies and jams, pickled condiments, or even meats, for year-round storage. But did you know there's a better way than bulky Mason jars or metal cans?

Retort canning, the latest in food storage technology, is both convenient and efficient. This method uses special retort packaging, made with flexible metal foil and plastic laminate—think Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) or Capri Sun pouch drinks—that are vacuum sealed to improve the canning process and increase storage times.

How does retort canning work?

The methods for retort canning are very similar to jar canning. You use the same pressure-cooker boiling methods you're used to for regular canning—it's just the storage container that changes.

For retort canning, simply place your prepared food (sliced or diced fruits and vegetables, jams, jellies, pickles, chutney, cooked or leather-style meat) into retort pouches, and seal with your vacuum packaging machine. Please note that retort pouches require higher sealing temperatures than regular vacuum bag, so you'll need either a machine that's designed for retort canning, or an upgraded sealing bar.

Then, boil your pouches in a pressure cooker, just as you would Mason jars. While retort pouch seals are also susceptible to bursting during the pressure-cooking phase, the average rate of burst retort canning seals is less than 1 percent.

Why should you choose retort canning?

There are plenty of advantages to retort canning. These include:

 Improved flavor. With retort canning, all the juices remain in the bag—there's no water transfer either into or out of retort pouches inside the pressure cooker.

 More volume. When you use lower canning pressure of no more than 10 pounds, you can fit an extra 1 to 2 ounces of product in each pouch with no increases in burst seals.

 Elimination of bacteria. Vacuum sealing protects your preserves from bacteria. One note here: Make sure your product is completely cooled before vacuum packaging to ensure 100 percent efficiency.

 Longer shelf life. Retort canned goods last 3 to 5 years or longer—and still taste just as great as the first day they were canned.

 Store more in smaller spaces. Slim, flexible retort packaging takes up less space than traditional Mason jars, so you can put up more food where storage space is at a premium.

In addition to canning, retort packaging has plenty of additional uses. We love retort canning to store emergency water rations. You can also use this method to store quick-serve individual meals—one of our favorites is lightly grilled hamburgers.

Enjoy the advantages of retort canning this season!
http://vacupack.com/bag-flat-commercial/retort-canning

At VacuPack, we're introducing two new chamber units, just in time for the canning season. They're smaller, less expensive, and come with upgrades for retort canning. Check out the MiniPack MVS20 and the Sammic 204T on our website—http://www.vacupack.com/ and happy canning!

Written by Melissa
wordsbymelissa.com

Copywrite PMG 2012
All links must remain active in this article if republished.

Retort Canning of has NO Scientific data from the FDA or USDA for home canners.  The concerns come from non acid foods such as meats!  We are expressing our experiences, but by no way are these experiences authorized data. Can at your own risk!  
As they say, "Re-Heat before you Eat" on any home canned product in glass, cans or retort for best safety practices.  
All home canning is AT YOUR OWN RISK! 

Reviews found on the Internet

11/9/2008
The following is an independant review found on the Internet, this one on eBay. Since we are a small company we do not have employees writing reviews daily to swamp the Internet. The VacUpack is manufacture and marketed by a very small company. We enjoy the independant reviews and want to bring them together. If you would like to send us your review please do so we will gladly post it.



VacUpack Go for Qualityby:
24 out of 24 people found this guide helpful.
Guide viewed: 2408 times Tags:

As a child growing up my parents and grandparents we very careful about products they purchased. As a child I remember thinking, it took them what seemed to me to be a lifetime to make a decision on a product. As a young adult I hastily bought products for my household on price and popularity. It did not take me very many years to figure out why the elders in my family were so careful about their research on products. They knew, as I soon did, that buying quality is far better than buying for price or popularity. As I soon found out price and popularity soon end up in the garbage and I was back to the store looking for the new item to replace the cheap item I had just bought.
Coming from the frugal background I come from, saving and not wasting comes naturally to me. Some 10 years ago or so I was introduced to Vacuum Packaging foods. This concept was fascinating to me and I bought my first Foodsaver. It was a nice small compact 2 vacuum sealer and served me for about 18 months, then one day it just would not work anymore. After being without a vacuum packer for a few years I bought another Foodsaver, but this time I thought maybe I should spend more money. So without research I bought a Pro version of the Foodsaver from the local store. (I thought it made sense!) That vacuum packer lasted until I offered it to my friends to seal their garden vegetables for refrigeration storage. The juice from the tomatoes, and salsa was sucked first from the canister then from the bag into the channel and then into pump that was the end of my vacuum sealer, after only 15 minutes of use! I was informed by the Foodsaver company that the machine was not repairable just throw it away they had a new version. I asked if the new version would do the same thing in similar situation. The answer was YES!
So at this point I was very disappointed, wanting to own a vacuum sealer, as I saw the great benefits but I did not want to buy another disposable popular product, but rather one that would do all types of sealing wet or dry and last for many years. This time I did my research and found commercial chamber machine, read about nozzle style verses channel style home machines. In researching I found information about all types of bag material and the difference in costs. I was pretty obvious that the commercial chamber machines are a great long-term value, however they were capable of far more production than I needed for my home. After a few months I ran across a friend who had a VacUpack. She explained to me how it worked and how happy she was with her machine. She invited me to watch it work. Her husband was a fisherman and so were his friends, they came to her home with a huge catch. I don't know how many pounds but it filled her freezer and much went home with his friends. They had two VacUpacks on the counter and worked for hours while we chatted and enjoyed a great evening. These two VacUpacks were soaked with watery fish slim. They endlessly vacuum sealed hundreds of bags that evening. After that night I found out where to buy the VacUpack and have now owned it for 5 years. I don't know how many hundreds of bags and rolls it has sealed but it is still going strong, looks great, and sits on my kitchen counter being used multiple times a day. I have not needed it yet but have been informed by the company that sold me my VacUpack that if anything were to go wrong with it, all parts are available to repair it. They even offer a tune up if one felt the vacuum sealer was not working up to par. This was the type of quality my family elders were looking for when they purchased an item. And I am glad to say the same quality I was looking for 5 years ago. Now what company manufactures the best toaster oven??? The search is on!
Guide ID: 10000000003803480Guide created: 06/12/07 (updated 10/30/08)

VacUpack

VacUpack

- Don't just wrap it...Vacuum Pack it!

The VacUpack vacuum packing system is our simple-to-use, economical, nozzle-style machine. The efficiency of this straight forward design makes the VacUpack the fastest and most efficient production residential machine available. The VacUpack features a steel heat bar this superior home-style heat bar allows wet bags to be sealed easily. This high production vacuum sealer is easily maintained offering unsurpassed durability in a home-style vacuum sealer.

Understanding the differences

- Home style to Commercial
This guide is written to explain the differences between machines and the associated bag materials. Check out the heading that applies to your needs machine.

Home style Vacuum Packers:

These Vacuum Packers are commonly referred to as suction style machine. Price range $50.00 to $500.00 is common. The bag hangs outside the machine using atmospheric pressure to push the air out of the bag. Or as some understand suck the air out of the bag. Either way the common style of bag used in this machine has a channel, texture, liner, and fiber to allow the machine to remove the air from the bag. These bags in the past have been very expensive. But that time has passed and the patents are expired and now the summer of 2006 you are seeing many types of bags on the market. This is a very welcome new development. If you have a machine or are looking to purchase a machine and the bag goes under a nozzle or into a channel you will need to purchase a bag material that has channels, texture, liner, or fiber for best results. The quantity packaging is usually 25 to 100 bags per case 2-mil, 3-mil, 3.5-mil and the rare 4-mil bag. Roll material is also common for these machines.

Home use VS Resale Food Distribution:

The home-style vacuum packers such as Foodsaver, Deni, Rival, Kenmore , Sinbo, Magic Vac and others are NOT approved for use in commercial distribution of food. There are very strict guidelines involving food since 911. The machines are not approved for use in packaging food for resale, by health departments across the country. The bags are FDA approved for food use, in homes! Do not be miss lead on Ebay and other sites where bragging and boasting of selling products across the country with Foodsaver and similar machines and associated bags are being used. It is illegal! You may get away with it for a while in some Podunk little town in the middle of nowhere. But if you are located in, or sell to a major metropolitan area, the health department will not approve a Foodsaver or similar machine for resale commercial use. This information comes direct from the King County Health Department, in Seattle Washington . We have been interviewed and given instructions many times and most recently at the 2005 Foodservice Show. There is an increased awareness by the Health Departments about the information being passing out to commercial users. Be informed! Any site can drop ship or sell you a bag "Cheap Cheap Cheap". Distributors like this are popping up all over the Internet. These Internet sellers have no experience on how it will hold up to your specific needs. Most are telling you it's OK to use these bags and rolls for resale! This is just bad misleading information! This misleading information is only designed to make them a quick buck, not designed with your best interest in mind. This information can cost you money and in many cases fines with your health departments, not to mention lawsuits from your consumers. Textured bags and the associated machines are FDA approved and designed for home use machines only, not for resale food distribution, especially across stateliness. FDA approval only means it is approved "save around food" this does not approve it for commercial use. Commercial FDA approved bags are 1/4 the cost of home-style bags. So there is no reason to use a home-style bag or roll for commercial resale use. Any savvy business owner understands to spend the money on the equipment not the disposable bag.

There are suction style machines that use flat pouches on the market for the commercial industry. They range $1,500.00 to $5,000.00 they are excellent vacuum packers. However that is not advertised for home use but for electronic applications. (Dry Products)

Chamber Style Vacuum Packers:

Chamber style vacuum packers are commonly used in commercial use applications. The smaller machines are becoming increasingly popular in homes and gourmet kitchens. To use these machines product is placed in a flat pouch. This pouch is a bag without channels, texture, liner or fiber. It is flat on both sides, clear or printed with many styles of zippers, gussets, windows. These commercial bags are seen every day in stores all over the world. The entire bag goes into the chamber of the machine. The lid then closes and vacuuming and sealing then takes place. These machines are much less messy and being designed for true commercial use they can be used for hundreds of bags per day. The case packaging of pouches for these machines is 500 to1000 bags per case per size, 2 mil, 3mil, 4mil and 5 mil bags are common. There are companies such as ours that will break a case for customers who just don't use 1000 bags at a time. But most web sites will keep cases intact at 500 to 1000 per case. No Rolls for these machines. We recommend the VacMaster Line built in the USA

Also found on these sites:

http://www.vacuumpacker.com/

http://www.profmarket.com/

http://www.vacupack.com/

www.vacupack.ca  Canada

Repair parts are also found at this site:

http://www.pmgquality.com/

Designed for Food Resale:

Chamber Style machines such as Sammic the only NSF approved brand. Many businesses use MiniPack, or VacUpack brands for vacuum packing and storing food in a resale packaging. The bags are designed for commercial use and are NFS and FDA approved for resale. The machines are NFS and FDA approved using storage guidelines for packaging food for resale, provided by State Health Departments. Machines come equipped with or without gas flush depending on the product you plan to package. Be informed buy the proper equipment for the proper usage, and set up your resale operation with confidence. (See Guide relating to Gas Flush Vacuum Packers)

Thom Dolder owner of Professional Marketing Group Inc. is the nations foremost expert on Vacuum Packing. He has been dedicated to home and Commercial Vacuum Packing since he was approached to sell the very first home style vacuum packer 22 years ago. Thom's knowledge and expertise is sought after by major manufactures of vacuum packers to give advice and guidance in engineering of new vacuum sealers. He has helped over 2 million end users with their vacuum packing needs, both home and commercial, through his in depth knowledge of the Food Service Industry relating to Vacuum Sealing.