New Chamber Sealer

Little Steven

Not a very big one. The chamber is 11"x11". I wanted it more for saving liquids and leftovers as well as sous vide mains.

4Runner

LS - Thanks. How much headroom from bottom of chamber to top of lid. CT - the same warning is in the Food Saver manual as well. Also, I believe both manuals mention it isn't a substitute for canning. I'm guessing neither suck out all the oxygen and they mention the bacteria warning as a CYA. Please let me know what you dig up.

Little Steven

The tray is just over 2" and there is about 2" more in the convex cover. I believe the 215/210 do 11" x 14" bags. To do a large roast you would have to go to a large commercial unit. All I know is the chamber style removes more air than the foodsaver style. I don't know much about canning but I know that everything has to be sterilized. It is also done in a vacuum but the vacuum remains in the jar. There is still the possibility of anaerobic contamination too. As I said this is for saving stuff in a freezer or sous vide uses

Steve

The Cen-Tex Smoker

4Runner said:

LS - Thanks. How much headroom from bottom of chamber to top of lid. CT - the same warning is in the Food Saver manual as well. Also, I believe both manuals mention it isn't a substitute for canning. I'm guessing neither suck out all the oxygen and they mention the bacteria warning as a CYA. Please let me know what you dig up.

Correct- it's is recommended out of an abundance of caution and it is a total CYA (for Foodsaver anyway). I'm good about it, just not freaky about it as I would be with a cryo seal. If I do something that was factory sealed (like chicken breast that come individually vac sealed, I am freaky about it- you just don't know. But I've done enough research to know that food savers do not provide the proper atmosphere (or lack of it) to allow for botulinum growth. That's the only thing that scares me. The other stuff you will know before you eat it and I've never had an issue. I'll throw it in the freezer for 30 min then throw it in the fridge if I seal it at home but I do the ice bath when I'm not sure. it's always better to be safe and with a little reading you'll know what's safe and what's not. The only real danger with SV cooking is mishandling true anaerobic packages. It's extremely rare (like zero confirmed cases of illness or death form botulism that I can find and I've spent hours looking) but it has shown up in "challenge tests" in labs where they actually introduced the bacteria to the foods and tested after 16 different scenarios of cooking/cooling. 

I guess the warning is: Even though it's not documented that is has happened, this could happen under the perfect circumstances. Since the penalty is so severe, that's good enough for me.

The same scenario is present in canned foods and there is infinitely more of that going on than SV cooking. It's still considered extremely safe and is as common in most homes as any other type of food. I think people panic about SV because they don't understand it.

They actually banned it in NY for a period of time after that lab study came out. Even though nobody ever got sick. Meanwhile they are serving canned and preserved food by the truckload with the same risks.

4Runner

Wow CT!  Thanks for the information.   I have my Sous Vide Supreme in the box from the $199 sale they ran last month but no vacuum sealer.   Looking at the chamber sealers but they are so much more expensive than the Food Savers.  Just trying to catch up to you, and others, on all this.   Good stuff.  

The Cen-Tex Smoker

4Runner said:

Wow CT!  Thanks for the information.   I have my Sous Vide Supreme in the box from the $199 sale they ran last month but no vacuum sealer.   Looking at the chamber sealers but they are so much more expensive than the Food Savers.  Just trying to catch up to you, and others, on all this.   Good stuff.  

You don't need to wait. you can cook SV under 170 degrees (which is essentially everything) safely in normal zip loc bags with the air squeezed out. I just try to keep the seal above water with ziplocs though as they are not watertight.

Canugghead

Canugghead said:

Sweet and wicked man. Is that VP115?  Can you use regular Foodsaver bags/rolls in it?

This place seems to have the best prices on the interweb.  Being in canuckistan, I won't be surprised if VP115 costs more than VP215 from this site:

http://myvacmaster.com/cgi/ary.wsc/category.htm?l=Chamber-Vacuum-Packaging-Machines

Last week the vp215 was $799, now it's back to regular price of $999.

Little Steven

In the US right?

Canugghead

yup, the same link in my post.

4Runner

Price on the 115 went back to retail.   :(