Food Saver machine for camping food

Corey

Corey

OverCamping Specialist
http://www.foodsaver.com/

Friend of mine bought two a year back from Costco.
His is an older model, a horizontal one, not the newer upright versions.
It could be this one.
http://www.foodsaver.com/ProductDetails.aspx?productid=985

What are the advantages to one of these for camping?
I have never used one, but would like to pick up his extra one of get a newer vertical style.

I imagine I could precook some stuff at home and then throw the bags into the ARB fridge?
Can you boil with these type of bags too to heat up your dinner?

Lets say you want to cook up a stroganoff dish at home, then you can bag it, freeze it, then take them camping and simply drop the bag into a pot of water to warm it up?

I am trying to justify the need for one of these for the upcoming camping season next year.

They have a recipe area on the website, and indeed it looks like you can do pasta to boil in the bag later.
http://www.foodsaver.com/Recipes.aspx
Pasta Dinner Recipe
Print Recipes

Cooked Pasta – With out sauce.

Cooked spaghetti, angel hair, linguine, noodles, and other flat pastas can be vacuum packaged with FoodSaver® Vacuum Packaging Systems.

Tubular shapes, corkscrews and similar shapes flatten out and are not recommended for vacuum packaging.
Directions:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.
2. Drain.
3. Rinse thoroughly with cold water and drain very well.
4. For leftover pasta, rinse and drain very well.
5. Loosely fill FoodSaver® Bag so that pasta is no more than 2 inches thick for easier stacking in freezer and faster thawing.
6. Label, vacuum package and freeze for up to 2 years.

Thawing:
Place FoodSaver® Bag on dish and thaw in refrigerator overnight or until thawed.

Reheating Suggestions:
Use thawed pasta, cold, in salads such as Asian noodle salad and pasta primavera salad.
Or, for hot dishes, reheat frozen or thawed pasta using one of the methods below.

Stovetop Directions:

1. Immerse sealed bag of frozen or thawed pasta in boiling water.
2. Turn bag several times while heating.
3. Boil until pasta is soft and hot.
4. Or, remove pasta from bag and place directly into boiling water for 2-3 minutes.
5. Drain and serve with your favorite sauce.
Click to expand...
This looks like a good model here, the one featured in their index page.
http://www.jardenstore.com/product.aspx?bid=18&pid=5569&cid=79

T000-18004-001_2.jpg
 
desertgirl66

desertgirl66

WEMT
These types of machines are awesome for camp food! You can make any food you want at home, freeze it and when at camp just drop in boiling water for a bit. This process really minimizes clean up, conserves water, and you can use the heat up water for clean up or washing with.

I even use an old Daisy Seal-a-Meal that works wonders!
 
Corey

Corey

OverCamping Specialist
I am thinking this would be great or dinners.
Breakfast in camp with eggs, hashbrowns, sausage, ect, I would still cook up the normal way, as you can not beat the smells :D

But for fixing dinner I think this would be great, and less of a mess to clean up afterward, and more time to relax around the campfire or other stuff.
 
rusty_tlc

rusty_tlc

Explorer
Other uses besides food;
Dry set of clothing.
Matches and survival gear.


For food I freeze sauced items in shallow dishes first. The semi disposable plastic containers work well because the sides slope so you can pop the food out after it freezes.

I pack all my meat for camping this way. Since we don't have an ARB/Waco we use ice chest. The sealed bags prevent soggy hamburger.

If all that isn't enough, I can take advantage of sales on meat and eat a lot better food in camp. We've kept steaks for months in the freezer with no burn.


I think you could say I'm a fan of the vacuum sealers.
 
the dude

the dude

Adventurer
We bought one of these this summer from Costco and LOVE.

We use it not only for camping (saves on space and mess) but also for repacking "family" packs of meat.

One of our favorites is to seal chicken/fish/beef with out favorite marinade and then freeze for camping trips. In the Engel, by the time we are ready to use the food, it has had ample time in the sauce and is quick and easy to prepare...and no mess!
 
Corey

Corey

OverCamping Specialist
Will be getting one next month for sure after seeing how everyone is liking them.
 
jgatliff

jgatliff

Father, Husband, Outdoorsman, & Adventurer.
Big Fan

My Wife & I are big fans of our Food Saver. We use it to vacuum seal and freeze all sorts of stuff. Here are some of our uses:

Freezing Leftovers - Any soups, stews, pot roast, etc, we freeze to either take camping or warm up one night when we're not feeling up to cooking.

Taking advantage of Meats Sales - We mostly use it for Boneless Skinless chicken breast, when it comes on sale we usually buy 20 pounds or so, trim the chicken, then freeze 3 breasts per pack and we have have chicken in the right proportions for most things we cook.

We also break up the larger family packs of burger and freeze it.

I have also vacuum sealed other camping gear for safe storage in my Bug Out Bag (ammo for instance).

I haven't tried to freeze spaghetti, but that sounds nice! I have frozen has bropwn casserole and it comes out great.
JG
 
EricGagne

EricGagne

Adventurer
jgatliff said:
I have also vacuum sealed other camping gear for safe storage in my Bug Out Bag (ammo for instance).
Click to expand...

That juste gave me an idea. Chop small pieces of wood, wrap them and a dozen of wood matches with a few sheets of newspaper, seal it with your food saver and you get a nice little fire starting kit that's protected from water and humidity.

Tie a few of them together with tie wraps, put them under your truck seat and forget about them..........until needed.

I haven't tried to freeze spaghetti, but that sounds nice! I have frozen has bropwn casserole and it comes out great.
JG
Click to expand...
Never did for camping (yet) but I do it at home, you just freeze the sauce and pastas separately. You can make bags of sauce and any other pastas you like. Drop the bags in boiling water. Once hot you just open them and mix them before eating.
 
Hilldweller

Hilldweller

SE Expedition Society
My favorite benefit is the camp cleanliness that it affords. The animal-attracting odors are minimalised in the cooler.

I had a great session with the sealer last night. Smoked turkey and all the fixins are sealed and ready for our Thanksgiving camping.
 
calamaridog

calamaridog

Expedition Leader
I've made stew and sealed it up. Then just boil in the bag or microwave. I had to partially freeze it prior to sealing due the the volume of moisture.

We seal game and fish and it lasts longer than ziplock freezer bags.
 
PhulesAU

PhulesAU

Explorer
In case you not the type to watch commercials...... Zip-lock just started advertiseing a "vacuume Storage" bag seals like regular bag with a little 1 way valve to attatch hand pump to remove air.
 
DontPanic42

DontPanic42

Adventurer
There are 2 vacuum freezer bags on the market -Reynolds Handi-Vac and the Ziploc vacuum bag. I have been using them all summer while the big vacuum sealer sits in a box. The Handi-Vac uses a battery powered pump while the Ziploc is a simple hand pump. The hand pump works for both bags. I prefer it for traveling. The advantage to this system is that the bags can be resealed. Just take out what you want, zip it shut and pump it down. Either version will not replace the big vacuum sealers for large odd shaped items or for sealing Mason jars but I have found these new bags very handy.
 
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