Monday morning TNT delivered a package upon opening I found that it was just the bags. So I rang sausagemaking and told them what happened the young lady from sausaemaking told me to ring her if it had not arrived by the morning. Fortunately at 8:30 am TNT again came and delivered the vacuum packer to my relief.
I opened the brown box and discovered that the packing was sparse to say the least just three small thin pieces of polystyrene. I therefore carefully inspected the contents for damage and thankfully could find none.
With the box unpacked and the contents revealed there was one Reber vacuum packing machine an attachment for creating vacuums in solid containers you have to buy the containers to use this. There was also a set of instructions and twenty medium sized bags. The plug on the vacuum packer is of the two pin variety but Franco had thought of this and sent a converter with the package I had received the day before.
I was anxious to start so I read the instructions, they seemed clearer than the average flat pack furniture puzzles. But like all instructions a bit esoteric until you put them to use.
I had an OX tongue waiting to be cured but thought this a bit advanced for my first try, so I got a couple of already frozen sausages out of the freezer. I plugged in the vacuum packer and waited the obligatory fifteen second for it to warm up. I then filled a small bag with the two frozen sausages put them in the vacuum packer as the instructions had told me to do, and pressed the button the bag crumpled as the vacuum started to take effect, the vacuum gauge meandered around the dial until maximum vacuum was achieved. The machine then stopped I took out the small crumpled bag of frozen sausages and was impressed by the ease of use and efficiency of the machine.
Although the instructions warn against using any wet ingredient in the food to be packed I thought I would give the slightly wet and newly cured OX tongue a go. I put the tongue in a large bag and followed the previous procedure. I could see liquid being drawn up the bag and for a time was a bit concerned this would damage the machine fortunately it did not. When I inspected the packed OX tongue it was obvious that the vacuum was not as complete as was the case with the frozen sausages.
In conclusion on the whole I think the Reber Vacuum packer is an excellent machine good value for money and does what it says on the box. The wet ingredients problem in my opinion can be avoided by semi freezing the ingredient in the bag first then vacuum packing. I will certainly be using the machine frequently.
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