VacMouseketeers POST HERE!!!!

[Ron Pratt]

Shane – welcome aboard!!! Good write up!

As for the small amount of air left in the bag which you described as a bubble – I won’t worry about! As for bonding you’ll see a gradual change in appearance in 3 to 5 days as the bag bonds with the meat inside. It almost becomes a skin with it – then when it is time to remove the bag the amount of resistance is like pulling the backing off Contact Paper.

As for the space around it – that also sounds like you are fine. Granted more space is always better than less space, but as you said you have the added air flow from the fan.

Ron

[Anonymous]

Hello, I got my VacMouse in the mail a couple of weeks ago, but due to a hectic work schedule, I wasn’t able to test until a couple of days ago. I read through this thread carefully before testing to make sure I had the benefit of everyone else’s experience. I regret to report, however, that I could not evacuate any air at all using the VacMouse and my Pro-2300 vacuum sealer.

I will post pictures later tonight and I’ll step through my process. I do have some small usable strips of VacMouse left that I can cut out and use for additional tests if anyone has any suggestions after my post later this evening.

Skip

Edit: I dislike posting pictures from Amazon because the links eventually go dead, but here is a good picture of my sealer, the Weston Pro-2300.

[Barry]

After obtaining a Food Saver 2450 and a subprimal ribeye, I used the Vacmouse.
Excellent idea you have here. No problems whatsoever, the entire process was much easier to handle.

A close up of the double seal:

I would encourage you to put the Vacmouse on the market. Thanks for the opportunity to test this!

[Thea]

Aiki–
Thank you for the excellent description–sealer model, experience, and the pictures (telling their thousand words!).

I’m wondering if you would let the Forum know again where you bought your 2450 and what it cost. It seems to be the simplest and most affordable FoodSaver models that enable this VacMouse aid to get you dry aging with DrybagSteak the most easily.

You pictures also show how nicely the VacMouse prevents the blood from being drawn up into the snorkel to mess up the process.

Look for the Big Release of VacMouse (see the spotlight in the skies, folks?) later this coming week.

We appreciate your taking the time and effort to participate in the beta testing, write up a review and root us on.

Please share your impressions of the steaks when you finish dry aging! How long are you planning to dry age?

–Thea
aka BagLady

[Barry]

Hi Thea,
Believe it or not, the Food Saver website was the place of purchase. They were having a really good sale, so we got the device plus quite a few steamer rolls for about $100. I’m glad that you will be selling the Vacmouse very soon.

The first project was a choice grade ribeye which was aged 35 days. Projects 2&3 are the same cut and grade but will age for 45 days based on recommendations from this site. The outcome was incredible– more intense beef flavor and tender as wet aged prime.

I can’t thank you folks enough for doing what you are doing.

Barry

[Theron Malone]

Hello everyone! I’ve been watching and reading the links on this forum for a while. I found you guys from another forum that recommonded these bags. I was really interested in it and started watching. As I read these threads, I thought this process might work for any large cut of beef. I love brisket and decided to give it a try. I ordered the bags and asked it I could try out the Vacmouse inserts in return I would give a full review.

1. I nevered tried or practive prior to using it for the first time.
2. I started with a 13.5 lbs brisket that I got from Sams
3. The vac sealer I’m using is a Foodsaver Vac 1075
4. After placing the brisket in the bag, I sealed on corner so that the rest of the bag would fit into the camber of the Foodsaver, which is 12in wide.
5. I took the Vacmouse and place it inside of the drybag and set the sealer on #2 which is for wet/moist foods.
6. I pushed out all of the air prior to starting the sealing process.
7. The Foodsaver started pulling the bag tight against the brisket, not as tight as a regular foodsaver bag but pretty tight.
8. When it finished with the first seal, I went ahead and put two more seals on top of the first for precaution.

Here are some of the pics from the process. I’ll let you know if the seal holds and how the aging process is going.

[Ron Pratt]

Welcome aboard, Theron! Thanks for your report. That will be on nice chunk of cow – how long do you intend to age it and will this be your first attempt at aging a brisket? I’ll sure be curious as I wonder how much meat may be lost after trimming. Ron

[Theron Malone]

RRP wrote:

quote :

Welcome aboard, Theron! Thanks for your report. That will be on nice chunk of cow – how long do you intend to age it and will this be your first attempt at aging a brisket? I’ll sure be curious as I wonder how much meat may be lost after trimming. Ron

I guess I’m going to go for 21 days. And yes this is my first attempt at dry aging a brisket or any other meat. I did try to wet age one once but I got scared after the first week and never tried it again. I do think this will work and I expect to lose at least 1.5 – 2 lbs. I’ll be sure to update the weight before I trim it also.

[Steven Almas]

Well it’s been 30 days and the VacMouse is still hold strong. I decided that 30 days was enough, so I cut up the primal. Here’s some pics:

The primal lost just shy of 20% in water weight which is inline with previous agings. I’m very satisfied with the performance of the VacMouse.

[Andy Starvaski]

Hey RCR!

You didn’t happent to come here via the Smoke Ring didya? B) Welcome aboard! I am glad you tried the vac bags. I’d love to hear how your aged brisket comes out!

Cheers,
Andy

[Theron Malone]

Andy wrote:

quote :

Hey RCR!

You didn’t happent to come here via the Smoke Ring didya? B) Welcome aboard! I am glad you tried the vac bags. I’d love to hear how your aged brisket comes out!

Cheers,
Andy

Thanks Andy! I found this board via the Big Steel Keg forum. One of the members was singing the praises of the dry bags and I had to check it out.

[Allen]

was just wondering if you have the vacmouse strip up against the meat (about a inch or so) will that help the bag from collapsing?? just a thought..ill be giving it a try soon.. :S

[Peter Kalbach]

28 days later, the ribeye was removed, the bag held the seal well, once trimmed the steaks looked great. Cooked exactly the same method to medium rare as the unaged a month ago that were cut from this same primal. Now maybe too much time had gone by, but the memories of the steaks 28 days ago were better than these. These were great steaks, but did the 28 days really improve them to make up for the time, effort and cost?

Anyways, onto the next test of the VacMouse, this time a sirlon. Sealed the bag at an angle and cut away the extra corner material leaving an opening as wide as the vacMouse. Put the vacMouse in place, set the V3880 foodsaver to Pulse vac mode and triggered the switch by wiggling the bag in the opening. Then pausing the vacum a few times worked all the air out of the corners and got a great seal. Double sealed just to make sure and off to the drying rack.

[Ron Pratt]

Shiloh – BTW cool moniker – your idea of the strip being closer to the meat will work fine, but no need to get too close either. Please let us know your results..pictures are even better!
Ron

[Ron Pratt]

peter – hopefully I’m not going to come across as being defensive here, but are you familiar with the taste difference between aged beef and freshly bloomed steaks? Personally 28 days for a rib eye sub primal is too short to make a “slap your forehead” difference based on memory from 28 days ago when the steaks you had then had just been cut and “bloomed”. Maybe my preference for 45 days seems long to you, but to me and my wife there is no comparison! Ron

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