Re:Sealing issues

[Scott Mark]

No offense taken! I think I have an easier job, in that I only need to pick the amount of time for heat seal and I don’t have to worry about heat temp or cool-off time before the vacuum is released. I’ve worked with a fair selection of bags and I agree that “nobody’s happy when you melt one clean through” Plus you have to clean the sealer bar.

In terms of beef, so far, I’ve only been able to use the VP112 when sealing Top Sirloins. The chamber isn’t large enough to hold a ribeye or strip loin and I’ve been so danged miserly about trim that I have never been willing to cut a subprimal in half so it’d fit in the chamber. So for anything other than Top Sirloin, I use the Sinbo. I’ve actually got two of them, and I think I need to run through the cleaning procedure for both of them. There’s kind of a direct conflict between the goal of keeping sticky protein (juices) on the meat and the goal of not running juices through the vacuum sealer.

Maybe, in order to make them fit inside the chamber sealer, the correct solution would be to cut a couple of steaks off the end so it’d fit – but I’m also danged stubborn now about eating unaged beef! Maybe if I was making soup for a sick neighbor…

Toasty