Sausagemakings Vacuum Packers and Slicer

[tristar]

Does anybody on the Forum have any experience of the above items for sale on the Sausagemaking main site? There is very little information available on the pages themselves and the pictures are quite small. As I live in Southeast Asia I want to make sure that the equipment is up to the job before making a commitment. So any users of these items out there willing to give a few comments?


Regards,
Richard

[Rik vonTrense]

Is it just vacuum packers and slicers you are enquiring about ?

If you use an expensive vacupakers like Reber or Foodsaver II then they are initially expensive at least �150.

But also they use a special bag and these bags are very expensive too because they have very small airways in the back of the bag so the pump can draw out the air before it is permanently sealed with a wide sealing heat strip. The bags are reusable though after washing and drying but get smaller each time as you have to cut off the sealed strip portion.. These say that you can save goods for upto a month without freezing and with freezing up to three years. Food in these bags does not get frosted nor does it get freezer burns.

The cheaper versions costing around �20 and using ordinary poly bags can be used very effectively if you use them with a bit of common sense....they are not as powerful as the costly ones so there is a special way of using them to extract as much air as possible.

Place your food in the bag and just seal it ....do not bother to extract the air. Most of these bags have a tube that goes into the bag to extract the air and then the heat strip in front of the tube seals the bag but it never seems to extract all the air.

If you just seal it without extracting the air then cut off the corner of the sealed bag just enough to get the tube in then you can extract all the air and when it is all extracted then seal the bag and as it has the minium length to seal and does it quickly then no air gets back in before it is sealed.

But as always you only get what you pay for but it does extract most of the air without flattening your food.

Slicers well the Argos catalogue one seems to have a good name and if you cannot get the to send one to you I am sure someone can oblige in this country that deals with them.

Well that's the best I can advise Richard..............
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[jenny_haddow]

Hi Richard,

I've been using the cheaper version of the vacuum packer for many years now and find it more than adequate for domestic use. Rik's tip on sealing the bags is a stroke of genius as the more air you can extract the better. I see Franco is selling a similar machine for �35 and the rolls of bags. I use a good quality freezer bag with mine as thin plastic wont stand up to the heat very well and may leak. The pricier machine will create a vacuum seal, but at a price, the cheaper version is best described as a bag sealer rather than a vaccum packer as I wouldn't want to rely on it to preseve the goods inside the bag for any length of time. It's great for the freezer, and I seal my bacon with it when I'm curing, all in all it's good for the home sausage/bacon/salami etc. maker.
As to slicing, I have a Kenwood slicer which does the job very well. It cost me about �30 and is very similar to the Argos slicer in all respects. It goes through the rind on bacon ok, which can be difficult with some I believe, but you do need to roll the bacon up to fit the sliding carriage. The blade diameter on mine is about 160mm, the metal slicer Franco has for sale has a 190mm blade, so it depends on how big a piece of meat you want to slice.
Hope this helps

Jen