Hi all,
Long time lurker, first time poster. About 2 months into my sous vide journey, enjoying it immensely and I’m a big fan on vacuum sealing, but having issues with successfully achieving this when any liquid or marinade is in the bag. Can this be achieved successfully? I’m currently borrowing a vacuum sealer and need to buy my own. Are there features for this one some products?
Many thanks.
Sealing liquid in the bag can be done. You can freeze the fluid first and add it to the bag.
There are also sealers that have ‘fluid’ settings. It’s just a gentler pull than the standard and as soon as there is the slightest resistance it will go into seal mode. The sealer also has a second, hotter and longer setting for sealing damp bags.
It’s not perfect, you’ll still lose some fluid, but for anything oily or that you don’t want to freeze it is a little bit better than the standard setup.
For an edge type vacuum sealer, see Ember’s post. You can freeze or keep a close watchful eye on it as you’re sealing it. I find that the “liquid” setting isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, but if you watch it closely, and are ready to hit that “seal” button, it usually works out ok.
If you have the cash for it, a chamber vacuum sealer is designed to handle foods with liquid in the bag with no mess. it works by completely surrounding the food/bag/etc in a vacuum, rather than pulling a vacuum on 1 edge only. The only downside of these is the size (usually pretty large) and the price (a couple thousand USD for a decent sized one).