Thread: Vacuum packing and liquid

@zeropak, is it not something that could be explained in a post? I have one of your machines and am forever running into this problem, both with fish and venny...

Would love to know how I can avoid it, as it's the most frustrating part of processing and preserving the goods after a successful trip to sea or in the hills.

Originally Posted by Dorkus

@zeropak, is it not something that could be explained in a post? I have one of your machines and am forever running into this problem, both with fish and venny...

Would love to know how I can avoid it, as it's the most frustrating part of processing and preserving the goods after a successful trip to sea or in the hills.

yes probably it is but there are a few variable specific to the individual. however have I will take a shot at covering the main points. need to have dinner and then I will take a shot at this. stay tuned.

Ok so here are a few general tips on how to get the job done right and some of the mistakes made which cause the problems mentioned above.
Interestingly I have just finished vac packing a little over 100 bags of prime Fallow Venison after a couple of days away with a mate. All those bags are well sealed and now in the freezer.
The biggest issue people strike is liquid getting into the sealing area and compromising the integrity of the seal. You then either end up with no seal or a seal which eventually fails in the freezer.
So stop the liquid getting into the seal area and the problem goes away, easy, well not quite, but here are some do's and dont's.
1: Your meat must always be well chilled prior to processing. chilled meat releases far less liquid than meat at room temperature, or close to it.
2: Often when processing meat you end up with a stack or pile of meat ready for vacuum packing and the residual liquid in the meat will pool in the bowl or tray the meat is sitting in. So the the cuts of meat at the bottom of the stack have some residual liquid on the surface of the the meat. Paper towels, tea towels (don't let the wife find out) or any old rags are essential for giving the meat a quick wipe to remove that surface liquid.
3: When loading the bag, fold the top down like a pair of socks, this make loading the bag easier and keeps any remaining liquid off the the surface area of the bag where the seal is going to go. This is super important when loading mince into bags.
4: Don't be miserable with the bag size. Depending on the size of the bag you need something like 40 to 75mm of clean film between the the meat in the bag and the edge of the machine. Anything less is false economy. doing the job twice because the bag was too small in the first attempt is a waste.

Domestic type machines with their single, narrow seal bag are not very forgiving if any liquid or food residue is in the seal area. So you need to take a little more care with the process. when I am processing larger volumes I tend to use one of the double or triple seal machines, they are a lot more forgiving of any residue in the seal area, but this does not mean a good job cannot be achieved with the standard domestic type machine. You just need to take a little more care.
If you follow step 1 and 2 there is normally very little liquid getting dragged from the meat. If on the odd occasion you do manage to get some liquid in the seal area, then straight away fire another seal on the top of the bag to be sure.
When processing larger volumes of meat with a domestic type machine use pre made bags instead of rolls. This makes the job much faster and the machine is less likely to overheat. It is the seal function which stresses the the machine, not the vacuum pump. So using bags mean half the number of seals.
On the subject of bag size, always go for a smaller size, like a 20x28cm or 22x30cm bag, there is less likelihood of air locking in the bag because of how the meat is positioned. Only use rolls for the odd occasion where you want to do a larger cut, like a whole leg roast.
To avoid air locking always allow a small gap down the side of the bag so that air is not trapped at the bottom of the bag. The exception to this rule is mince. with mince push it into the bottom and corners of the bag and then push it flat. When the vacuum process starts put some hand pressure on the top of the mince to push any remaining air locks out.
That pretty much covers the basics. Hope it helps. Please let me know if I've missed something.