I have had a FoodSaver vacuum sealer for the over 10 years. Since I have been buying meat from local farmers and ranchers, I have hardly touched the vacuum sealer in the past 4 years.
Over the past few weeks I have been doing a lot of planning ahead and pre-making some foods that will save me some time over the next few months. I will be having surgery and out of commission for a while and unable to spend time doing the things I normally do, like cook and garden. I will have lots of help to get me through the first few weeks, then the house will be back to the two of us. I want to do what I can now to be prepared and make the time easier on everyone, including me. So, I have been baking bread with onion, sage and oregano to make into stuffing and making bread crumbs. I have been stocking up on dry beans and grains (and cat food and cat little!) I have been drying more of my own herbs. I keep many of the dry herbs in the freezer to help keep them fresh.
I have seen the jar sealers from FoodSaver and was curious about how they worked, but I couldn’t find anyone that had used them. I finally just took the plunge and bought both the jar sealer for the regular canning jar and the wide mouth canning jar (actually it was one of those practical Christmas presents that I ordered and told my husband he bought me for Christmas!) Hey, that works for us and I love those type of gifts.
I was so excited to receive the jar sealers that I have been on a vacuum-sealing spree and loving loving loving it. I have pulled all my dry herbs out of the freezer and vacuum-sealed them in canning jars. Most of the things in our cupboards are in glass jars, but I decided to switch them out into canning jars so that I could vacuum seal them. You may remember that I have an obsession with jars…. well, all those jars really came in handy.
I have gone through my soap/lotion-making cabinet and vacuum sealed the elderflower, the calendula and many other dry herbs. Next on my list is making crackers and getting those all vacuum sealed to retain freshness. When sealing anything in jars, just make sure it is completely dry. If there is any moisture and you vacuum seal your jars, you items will not be fresh.
I have not had these jar sealer for long, but so far I am thrilled with how they work and how easily the jars seal. I love that all the air gets sucked out and that means the contents should stay super fresh for a very long time.
I think these jar sealers make sense if you buy things in bulk, if you are planning ahead, if you are living in a humid climate and you want to extend the shelf life of you food. It all ties in with my frugal nature and trying to plan ahead and be prepared.
Have you used any jar sealers? I would love to hear how they work for you and how you like using them.
Sincerely, Emily
Not Dabbling In Normal 
Sounds fascinating and just up my street 🙂 Question is, if one put boiling goods into a sterilised jar, and vacuumed sealed it, would it “can” the goods? Or is it only for dry goods?
Hi Dani – The jar sealers are not safe to use for actual canning. You can use it to extend the life of a previously canned jar that you have opened and only used part of, like spaghetti sauce or jam. You may need to use a new lid to vacuum seal the jar, but you can use the new lid over and over. If there is a nick or dent in a lid, the vacuum seal might not hold at all or not very long. I have been using mine mainly for dry goods, but will also start to use it for canned jars once I open them (my hot sauce, jalapeno jam, peach puree)
I’ve never used them. I do have the vacuum sealer though.
hi Daphne. If you vacuum sealer has an accessory port – you are all set (well, you need to order the accessory hose and the actual jar sealers! – then you are all set!)
http://www.foodsaver.com/searchresults.aspx?search=accessory%20hose
Great post! Got one use often, my only complaint, the seal does not last as long as I would like. When I open a jar of tomatoes or something I canned last summer and only use half the jar I seal it. Last twice as long! Also LOVE it for keeping cheese! It does take up a fair amount of room on the counter and have thought about the wall mount unit instead. I put up frozen breads and stew last August in the bags. Really hate them and they are expensive. Found I could wash them out and re-use several times. Also found bags much cheaper through butcher supply houses. Have fun!
Madpotter55 – Thanks for your comments!! I will keep an eye on the sealed lids and see how long they hold. Ya – counter space is a big thing. I have had mine sitting on the counter for over a week, but it is really in the way. My parents leave their on top of their washer and that way it is off the counter but still set up and useable for them. There is too much other “stuff” sitting on my washer to do that, but I make give that a try.
My parents use the containers a lot to seal in fresh things from their garden and have been amazed at how much it extends the life of those fresh picked items (raspberries and lettuce) I have found some of the containers for a fraction of the price at thrift stores.
containers
http://www.foodsaver.com/product.aspx?pid=9065
I used to use the bags to vacuum seal for the freezer a lot and would always cut my bags a bit bigger so I could still reuse them. Thanks for the tip about getting them at a butcher supply house.
Do you have a supply house you could recommend to everyone?
I am way behind the times and never heard of a jar sealer like that. Nancy
http://www.meatprocessingproducts.com
http://www.vacuumsealersunlimited.com/
I also just picked up a roll of 15 x 50 roll of bags from Walmart for $23.00 plus change.
here is a product I used before I could afford the electric vacuum sealer. No bags and no electricity! Oh and it works great. Our salad bowl and mushrooms would last weeks.
http://pump-n-seal.com/
I just gave it to my daughter and miss it. It would keep a bowl of lettuce or mushrooms fresh for weeks. There is something really great about not plugging a machine in and just pumping out the air by hand.
I also use the marinade canister quite a bit. So much faster than leaving it in the fridge all day or over night. Fish is especially good in the marinade canister.
I have managed to amass quite a collection of canisters from garage sales, store sales and people passing them on. Most of my dry goods are kept in the canisters, everything from raisins and dried beans to pop corn and cornmeal.
Happy vacuuming everybody!
Oh have had mine 8 years now. Got it for sending jerky and other stuff to Africa when our daughter was in Peace Corp. Packages often took months to arrive. Between bugs and heat the vacuum sealer really got a work out because I vacuumed sealed everything, including books and underwear!
Sandy – those are great links. Thanks! That top link has bag rolls on sale right now. Great prices. And the hand vacuum sealer you mentioned looks neat too. At least your daughter has it – so it is still in the family (right?!)
Hi Nancy, they are pretty neat. I am having a lot of fun with them. Do you have a vacuum sealer that you use?
Sounds great, Emily. Hope the seal lasts–check back with us after 6 months to report on how it held up
Thanks. I hope the seals last also. I have several canning jars I hang onto that have chipped lids. Those will not work for the vacuum sealing. One of them made it into the mix when I was working on sealing jars and the lid did not hold the seal after 24 hours. Also lids that have nicks of dents – stay away from those. Use new lids, it is worth it.
My son bought me a vacuseal years ago and asked me if I wanted the jar sealer as well and I declined. We don’t have jars like you guys get in Australia and I don’t know if the jar sealer would work with our solid state screw on tops but I am really glad that you are getting good use out of yours :). Sorry to hear that you are having surgery soon and hope that everything goes extremely well and that you are back on your feet ASAP :). It will give you more time to go hunting online 🙂
Hi Fran. I tried looking at this website to compare things but it seems inactive and I can’t view any pages. http://www.vacuseal.com.au/
For me, and the jars around here, I know if I can fit the canning screw ring (band) on it, then the top dimensions will work for the jar sealer, so it doesn’t have to be specifically a canning-type jar. You don’t need the screw band at all for this jar sealing stuff (just the flat lid part) You only need the screw band if when you open the jar you want to use it just to keep the lid on (and not re-vacuum seal it into place)
Once I open any jar with a canned or processed food in it, I like to use the plastic lids. They are just easier for me to use and less mess (like sticky jam)
http://www.amazon.com/Ball-Regular-Mouth-Storage-Caps/dp/B0000BYC4B/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358110257&sr=8-1&keywords=plastic+canning+jar+lids
I find that some of the plastic mayo or peanut butter lids are the same size and work just as well. I find that sometime the ball plastic lids do not seal well (like when I mix up the contents of the jar when I make Italian salad dressing in bulk for pasta salad… kind of messy!) but for stuff that I am not shaking, they work great.
Oh lids….. I do love the plastic screw top lids by Ball but I just found out the regular metal canning lids (the white part exposed to the food you just harvested and canned) has BPH in it. It retards rust on the lid. Foiled again! Now I am looking at Tattler lids and Weck jars…….. Ready to vacuum seal myself in a glass jar…..
We don’t have the flat lid with a screw top jars over here 😦 we only have jar lids like full screw top lids. Would they work?
Madpotter55 – I had heard that about the metal lids. I hope to switch over to tattler too!
Fran – No the full screw lids will not work. Bummer!