grahamc wrote:Have been considering buying a vacuum packer. Can anybody please tell me:
a) If it is worth using for short term freezing i.e. slightly longer than long term in the fridge.
There is an advantage for longer term storage. Things store longer and deteriorate less quickly. For short duration freezing, isn't most of the damage to the food caused by the fact of freezing, rather than anything else - so the VacPak isn't going to make much difference - *unless* you accidentally leave it in the freezer for rather longer than you intended!
As Wohoki says freezer 'burn' (caused by drying) is minimised.
b) If I put a sponge cake or some blackcurrants in a vacuum bag, will they become squashed?
Atmospheric pressure is about 15 psi. Even if you can only get down to about 1/3 of that, that means there's 10 psi of pressure crushing whatever is in the bag. That would mean, on a 4"x3" piece of sponge cake, a force of about a hundredweight...
Interesting you should ask about fruit... (see below)
c) If I wish to freeze a made-up dish, e.g. stew or curry, will the bag take it?
Sure you can use the bags to freeze cooked dishes once they are cold. Just be careful about sucking gravy/sauce into the 'vacuum' tube! Depending on the bags you use, you can reheat as 'boil-in-the-bag.
And then there's "sous vide"...
This is *very* trendy. It means vacuum sealing your ingredients into the bag and usually cooking them in it - very very very gently (usually for rather a long time, in a precisely temperature controlled waterbath, like 62C �1C). In catering practice, the cooked stuff might well be chilled for extended storage, but domestically, foodies might go practically straight to finishing and dishing.
http://www.davidrowan.com/2005/09/trend ... times.htmlThere's an interesting New York Times article
here (just sit through the advertisement) which may give you some ideas about fruit, and things other than freezing. For example, marinading is much quicker under vacuum...
And then here's a guy using vacuum to raise a souffl�
http://www.alacuisine.org/alacuisine/20 ... sous_.html