Sous vide vacuum system

[Anonymous Modernist 2906]

Hi,

I'm looking to buy a vacuum sealer but I don't know which one to buy. I was going for the foodsaver V3840, but i read on the site :

"Can FoodSaver® Bags be put in the microwave?

Yes. You can heat cooked foods, such as leftovers, in a FoodSaver® Bag. The bags should never be used to cook raw foods.When microwaving, cut open a corner of the bag before putting it in the microwave so steam can escape. Avoid microwaving foods containing a lot of oil, as oil will get hot very quickly and could cause the sides of the bag to stick together."

So I'm not sure anymore if it's a good choice. I

Is the sousVide supreme vacuum sealer a better choice (cheaper, and bags cheaper as well) ?

Thanks

Dominic.

[Scott Heimendinger]

Hi Dominic,

I have a FoodSaver and I'm not a huge fan of it. I briefly used the edge-style sealer sold by SousVide Supreme, and I was a bit more impressed. Note that any edge style sealer you choose will have problems when sealing liquids or wet foods.

-Scott

[Anonymous Modernist 2906]

Hi,

Thank you Scott, so the best edge-sealer I could buy is the sousvide supreme. But what do you use ? The bigs sealers that costs more than 2000 $ ?

Dominic

[Anonymous Modernist 393]

I believe that you are a little bit confused too - Seattle Food Geek was saying that he prefers the "best edge-sealer" vacuum system which is sold by Sous Vide Supreme (the maker of the Sous Vide Supreme circulator).

If you have a little bit bigger of a budget and are looking to buy a chamber vacuum sealer and not spend $2000 or more you might want to check out the VacMaster VP112 (Use google product search to find sites selling it). It will close you close to $600, but it is about the mostaffordable household chamber vacuum system. I love mine and have gotten so much use out of it outside of sous vide that I don't ever regret buying it.

Either way good luck and if you have any other questions I'm sure we're all more then happy to help.

[Anonymous Modernist 3009]

I also have the VacMaster 112. Does a great job with liquids, I've made stock quite a few times this month and appreciate its curved chamber. Don't forget to chill your liquids, we had a nice boilover inside the vacuum chamber when we took stock from the pot directly.

The bags for the edge sealers are about 10x more expensive (50 cents vs 5 cents) as they require a matrix of ridges to suck air out.

[Anonymous Modernist 3093]

Another big thumbs up for the VacMaster VP112! It's fantastic. You'll need to do a few test runs with liquid in the bags to get the hang of how much head room to leave, but once you get the feel for it, it does a great job. If you are going to be regularly doing sous vide cooking (like an average of once a week or more often), it is definitely worth the cost of upgrading to it from an edge sealer.

[Anonymous Modernist 1810]

I have a VacMaster and am consistently having the issue that the bag seals, the seal/pressure on the bag seems tight but then inevitably there seems to be air in the bags, making them float while cooking. Any suggestions?

[Anonymous Modernist 210]

ngaudi said:

I have a VacMaster and am consistently having the issue that the bag seals, the seal/pressure on the bag seems tight but then inevitably there seems to be air in the bags, making them float while cooking. Any suggestions?

If the bag seals and is tight your VacMaster is probably running fine. When you start heating up a sealed item any water turns to vapor expanding the bag. This is unavoidable as far as I know.

[Anonymous Modernist 1810]

The bag starts expanding before heating.

[Anonymous Modernist 3093]

ngaudi said:

I have a VacMaster and am consistently having the issue that the bag seals, the seal/pressure on the bag seems tight but then inevitably there seems to be air in the bags, making them float while cooking. Any suggestions?

Have you tried increasing the duration of the vacuum phase beyond the default?

[Anonymous Modernist 6375]

i have the miniVAC from Vac-Star, its great- with a more or less small footprint.Its around 2000$ but great for fluids, you can adjust vacuum-pump duration and sealer duration (for example for thicker bags, i use PA-PE 20/70)

http://www.vac-star.com/de/p1-miniVAC.html