I’ve been having trouble with my vac bag seals breaking on long cooks.
They are Ambiano brand on a roll from Aldi.
I always double or triple seal … but they still break.
It happened on a 3kg brisket and a similar size pork shoulder.
I was aiming for 70C over 36 hours for a pulled style finish.
At about the 24 hour mark I go to check and the meat just slides straight out of the bag contaminating the water and losing all those delicious juices!
Any suggestions or recommendations for bags in Australia?
Aldi brands are not the surdiest ones Do you know from where the bag opens? (your sealing or the pre sealed sides)? both happened to me in the beginning.
If it is from your sealing it might also be that the bags you bought are not the perfect fit with your vaccum sealing machine. temp issue?
Not sure what you mean by double seal, second seal on the same bag or sealing the first bag in a second one?
with many cheap bags the solution is rather to seal a first bag and put it in a second one, and third one may be for longer cooks.
I sometimes double seal on the same bag if it appears that the first one is not perfect
Personally, I buy rolls of bag material from eBay. Only ever had once that the product wasn’t really soft enough to form around the items and so were inclined to slow leak air, but it still worked fine for cooking.
Here’s a few suggestions to eliminate potential causes of vacuum bag seal failures.
Use bags larger than you think you need so you have ample flat edges for sealing, particularly with the large pieces of meat you are cooking.
Fold the bag’s opening back over itself forming a cuff well beyond where you plan to seal. The plastic must be absolutely pristine to achieve a perfect seal. Don’t touch it there either. Seal twice a few mm apart at both ends.
Consider the cost of wasted food and buy the best quality SV material you can.
Do you submerge the entire bag? I often clip the top of the bag to the rim of the container. This is more to keep the food off the bottom of the container for better circulation and an even cook but it might help maintain your seals if you think it’s the quality of your bags. Although if you have a roll style bag that needs to be sealed at both ends this may not help.
Do you know from where the bag opens? (your sealing or the pre sealed sides)? both happened to me in the beginning.