Many of you, dear friends, have already become familiar with what I wrote about, and some, as far as I know, successfully use it at home. This means that I don’t have to talk for long about the main drawback of this technology, which at the same time is an obstacle to its appearance in the kitchens of not only people who are passionate about food, but also ordinary housewives: the relatively high “entry price”, that is, the amount that you will have to pay to cook your first or sous vide. There is nothing surprising here: some kind of meat grinder or blender that is always in use is one thing, but if we're talking about about devices whose purpose is not entirely clear, few will rush to fork out for them.
To try it out new technology, however, additional costs are not necessary - for example, you can pack food in a vacuum (well, almost) without a vacuum sealer. This method can be called displacement of air by water, and once you master it, you will realize that it has many uses. These include:
- Cooking in sous vide. This method can not only completely replace a vacuum sealer, but also in a number of cases (for example, if you need to pack a liquid in a bag - marinade, etc. - or products that are extremely sensitive to squeezing) is more preferable.
- Storage. Of course, a “real” vacuum is preferable, but by packaging the product in a bag using the water displacement method, you can expect that it will be stored in the refrigerator significantly longer.
- Freezing. One of the enemies of frozen food is chapping, but packaging in a bag from which the air has been removed can significantly slow down this process, extending the shelf life of food in the freezer.
This method has other applications, but the ones I described above are enough to interest those who have not heard of it. Therefore, without further delay, I move on to its description.
Air displacement method with water
To get started, you'll need to buy plastic Ziploc bags, which are usually sold in the aisles that stock foil, cling film, and sandwich bags. Ziplock is a closure that looks like a zipper and moves back and forth to open or close a bag. An example of such packages is shown in the photo below:
When choosing packages, make sure that this is exactly what you need food grade plastic, and be guided by the fact that their size exceeds the size of the products that you will pack: in order to remove maximum air, it is necessary that there is free space around the product - ideally at least 2 centimeters on the right, left and bottom, and at least 5 centimeters on top . The sequence of further actions is as follows:
1. Place the product (a piece of meat, fish, cheese, etc.) in a bag and close the ziplock almost all the way, leaving the bag open only a couple of centimeters.
2. Fill a large saucepan or other container that will easily fit your bag with regular tap water.
3. Carefully lower the bag into the water, which will squeeze the air out of it so that the bag seems to stick together. The bag must be lowered into the water almost completely, leaving only a slightly open part above its surface, from which air will escape.
4. When all but a small part of the bag is under water and you see that almost all the air has come out of it, close the bag and remove it from the water.
5. You have packaged your food in a virtually airless environment, and now you can cook it sous vide or store it in the refrigerator or freezer.
After using the bag, you can throw it away or, if desired, wash it and reuse it. At the same time, be aware that some Ziploc bags may begin to leak air over time, so I do not recommend using them for long-term storage.
I hope I described everything more than clearly, but if you are one of those who would rather see once than hear a hundred times, pay attention to this short and clear video:
1. First, let's talk about food. Place the food in a regular ziplock bag and close it, leaving the zipper slightly open. Insert a regular tube into this place and press the bag around. Make sure that air only passes through the straw. We begin to blow air out of the bag. When you see that all the air has been blown out, carefully remove the tube and close the bag.
2. If you don't have a string lock bag on hand, you can make your own. To do this, take a regular bag of food and two preferably wide straws. Cut one of the tubes lengthwise. We wrap the second tube around the top of the bag, and then put the cut tube over the bag wrapped over the tube.
3. To ensure that your things take up little space on the road, use vacuum bags. Prepare a stack of the items you need and place them in a large bag or trash bag. Before doing this, be sure to check that there are no cracks or holes in the bag. The package should be a maximum of two-thirds full.
4. Take the remaining third part of the bag in your hands and insert the vacuum cleaner pipe into the hole. Press the bag tightly against the tube. Turn on the vacuum cleaner and remove the air. Make sure that the vacuum cleaner tube does not touch the bag, otherwise the vacuum cleaner may become clogged or simply tear it. After this, quickly pull out the tube and, after twisting the bag, tie it.
5. If you want to pack your things, but you don’t have a vacuum cleaner at hand, you can use another method. This method is less effective, but also produces results. Place your items in the bag and check that there are no holes or cracks anywhere. Tie the top of the bag, leaving a small opening. Fill the bathtub or sink with water to such a level that your items in the bag are completely covered with water, but the top of the bag is not.
6. Having lowered the bag into the water, begin to press it with your hands, expelling the air. Be careful not to let water get into the bag. Once most of the air is out, remove the bag, twist and tie the top. This is how easy it is to create vacuum bags with your own hands. Stay with us and learn more and more new, useful and interesting things.
Well, after a certain number of experiments we can say that work on budget system Vacuuming of products is completed.
Buying a ready-made vacuum sealer is a bit expensive. Give 8-10 thousand rubles. For a device that is needed not every day, but only several times a year, a toad dissuaded me. So I decided to make it myself. Let me make a reservation right away - the result is not ideal. The whole process requires some skill. Sometimes a package that is not sealed has to be repackaged. But it's still cheaper than buying a ready-made packer.
In fact, you can do without a compressor (see photo 1). I think a manual vacuum pump (see photo 2) or a converted bicycle pump would be quite suitable. Perhaps even a regular vacuum cleaner or electric pump for air mattresses will do...
And to seal the bags I used... a bag sealer (see photo 3)! Many large supermarkets have these things. They seal customers' bags in bags so that they don't put anything they don't need in there. I bought such a device before the crisis, second-hand. Got it for pennies. Now, of course, it will cost more.
All that remains is to put it all together into a single whole. This is where some difficulties arose. Pumping out the air and immediately sealing the bag is not as easy as it might seem.
I connected a hose to the compressor suction pipe. I didn’t forget about the filter (I don’t really want grains of rice or other debris inside the compressor). I attached the tip of a ballpoint pen to the hose.
At first I did this: I took a bag with the contents and sealed it. Then he cut off the corner of the bag, inserted the tip there and turned on the compressor. The air was sucked out of the bag, after which I sealed the corner. But this method failed. The package wrinkled, it was sealed crookedly and not airtight. And for all the manipulations one pair of hands was not enough.
Therefore, instead of a pen tip, I made special nozzle. It is flattened at one end copper tube, into which a piece of tin folded in half and soldered at the edge was soldered. It turned out to be a very flat tube that did not interfere with the closing of the sealer flaps. To prevent the tip from being squeezed, a thin steel wire was inserted inside (see photos 4 and 5).
Now the process looks like this: the bag with the contents and the inserted nozzle is inserted into the soldering iron and sealed. The seam is interrupted only at the point where the flat tip enters the bag (see photo 6).
Without removing the bag, I turn on the compressor and pump out the air. Since the edge of the bag is still clamped in the soldering iron, it doesn't wrinkle. As soon as the air has been pumped out (this can be seen by the way the bag has stopped shrinking and you can hear how the compressor has begun to hum strained), I carefully remove the nozzle and immediately seal the bag again. It turns out airtight and smooth. To be on the safe side, I seal the bag again a little further from the first seam.
For demonstration I used the dried one last night Ground beef. I'm not going to store it for a long time, so I didn't put bags of silica gel and rusty nails inside). The last package had to be repacked later (see photo 7).
A few words about packaging bags. Not just any bags are suitable, but specifically those designed for vacuum sealing (see photo 8). Fortunately, you can buy it now. I buy from a company that sells disposable tableware, garbage bags, shoe covers and other consumables for food establishments. As a last resort, you can buy such packages online.
When choosing bags, take those that are denser. If for soft foods there is no difference, then “prickly” foods (long grain rice, oats, buckwheat) can “pierce” the film. It sounds strange, but I have encountered this. The film of the bag is stretched during vacuuming and the solid contents, if handled carelessly (for example, if dropped on a hard surface), may well damage it. And after a while the package will “inflate”.
If everything is done correctly, the packaging will preserve the food for a very long time. I’ve had two-kilogram packages of rice and buckwheat for three years now. Flat and hard, like a brick. I can’t vouch for the taste, I haven’t opened it yet, but I can’t see any bugs or mold.
I apologize for the paucity and quality of photographs. The process takes all hands, and there is nothing left to hold the camera!
A compact and inexpensive Chinese vacuum degasser, which I had my eye on for a long time, but for a long time I was tormented by doubts: is it necessary or not? And yet I took the risk of ordering, I think it will be useful for the kitchen, you will be satisfied with the products.
Vacuum packaging at home - it turned out to be simple and easy. Original name: XinBaoLong QH - Electric Automatic Food Vacuum Sealer
Designed for vacuum packaging of products, although if desired, you can vacuum seal anything. This is very convenient for perishable products such as cheese and butter, sausage, vegetables, berries.
If food is stored in vacuum packaging, the taste and shelf life are better preserved, since oxygen promotes oxidation and promotes the development of most types of different microbes. Products that contain a lot of moisture, even in vacuum packaging, should be stored in the refrigerator at low temperatures.
Of course there are more practical way storage, in special containers in which the air can be pumped out, and used repeatedly, but it all costs much more. I decided to make do with a simple vacuum sealer from Gearbest.
The device arrived in such a pretty solid package, or rather they sent it and didn’t come on its own :)
We open it and see the Vacuumator itself, which is protected by foam plastic on the sides, which prevented it from being damaged during transportation, since the packaging was quite dented. They probably kicked it a couple of times along the way to speed it up. There is no nasty chemical smell, the quality of the plastic is very good, there are no complaints about it at all.
They also kindly put two instructions inside, one in Chinese, the other in English language. But in this case, you can figure it out from the picture. without knowledge of the language
The set also included 15 special thick bags; if desired, you can order more. At the end of the review I will leave a link to the packages.
Bag size is approximately 19x25
The size of the vacuum sealer itself turned out to be 340 mm, although on the seller’s website the following figure appears in the description: 36.50 x 5.45 x 5.00 cm
What’s very good is that this is our original plug, the wire itself is not tied with a disposable tie, it’s quite convenient to store later
The lid is secured on the sides with latches
Fixes quite tightly
Under the lid there is a strip with heating element that seals the bag
On the right side is the pump hole that creates the vacuum.
The design is outrageously simple, of the controls there is one button on the left side that turns on the pump
And a button under the lid, which turns on the heating element for sealing the bag, but to press it you need to press down the lid with force, the power button will light up in red for a few seconds and then turn off the vacuumizer
There are also instructions on how to use on the top of the lid.
On the reverse side there is a plate with technical characteristics
There is also an orange thing on top that looks like a handle, but it is something like a valve. By pulling it, we let air under the lid so that it can be opened after sealing the bag. Although the lid opens without this useless action.
To start work, you need to take a bag, put what we will store in the bag, place it in the center, but not all the way, otherwise the pump will simply not be able to pump out the air
I decided to pack it as an experiment green onions, yes may he forgive me
The vacuum cleaner worked without problems
I've never seen cucumbers in vacuum packaging before, it's time to fix that
The device coped with this task with a bang, the quality of the packaging turned out to be superb
Well, the time has come to check whether this vacuum cleaner can handle simple bags, although I was initially sure that it would not work. For this purpose, the bags must be tight so that they do not stick together.
As I expected, the air did not even begin to be pumped out, but if necessary, you can simply seal the bag
As a result, I ended up with two experimental packages; I regretted translating the packages further. I think I need to order more, they will come in handy around the house.
In the end, I got a very cool device for only 22 bucks, which turned out to be super useful in the kitchen. It’s difficult to say how long it will last, only time will tell. But it’s definitely a mega useful thing, I can confidently recommend it.
Here I tried to demonstrate its work in a video review:
Vacuum-sealed products last longer than usual, and hiking conditions this can be a great help, especially if there are no grocery stores along the way. Naturally, not all products can be vacuum sealed. But knowing their list and having built several similar jars, you can easily store your rations in such a package, while sealing it in a similar way anywhere and at any time. How to make vacuum packaging with your own hands will be discussed further in detailed master class with photo.
Materials
To work you will need:
- glass jar with a tight-fitting lid;
- transparent plastic tube;
- small T-shaped air valve- 1 PC.;
- check valve- 2 pcs.;
- large syringe;
- drill;
- scissors.
You can purchase the tube and valves at a pet store. It is important that they match each other in diameter.
Step 1. Cut plastic straw into four pieces 5 cm long.
Step 2. Cut the end of one of the tubes at an angle.
Step 3. Place the remaining three pieces of straw onto the T-valve.
Step 4. Take the check valve and examine it carefully. You will see that for correct use it is marked. With the side labeled “in” or “in,” attach it to one of the T-valve tubes.
Step 5. To the second valve tube you need to attach a large plastic syringe without a needle. The design, in the end, should look like in the photo.
Step 6. Drill a hole in the lid of the jar exactly in the center. Its diameter should be half that of your existing plastic tube. This is necessary for a tight fit of the parts.
Step 7. Use the sharp cut end to insert the tube into the hole in the lid.
Step 8. Connect the second check valve with the inlet end to the tube in the lid, and the second end to the third tube on the valve.
The design for vacuum packaging is ready. To vacuum seal a product, you need to place it in a jar and use a syringe to suck the air out of it.