vacuum sealer question

[Barnacle Bill]

About every other month we go to a Sam's club and stock up on things we use a lot of. One of them is about 15 lbs of 90% hamburger. When I get home I divide it up into 1 lb portions and put it in freezer bags. I flatten them to make them easier to store and try to squeeze out as much air as possible. This has been working out OK for us and I've never lost any as the freezer stays at 0°. However this is a PITA doing all this and I have been wondering if it would be faster to use one of those vacuum sealer thingys. Off hand I doubt it but then I've never used one so thought I would ask the experts.

[skeetbum]

Where you gonna find and expert?

[Barnacle Bill]

Where you gonna find and expert?

Hey, anyone that uses one of those things is an expert to me.

[keeferfish]

Works great and food lasts a long time but not faster than a zip lock bag for sure. First you in roll to the length needed seal first end, then cut, add burger, vacuum and seal the other end.

Zip lock is add meat and ZIP.

[SeaRay]

I have used one for years and really like it. It reduces the space needed to store foods and they thaw really quick. However, their strong suit is long term storage and if you only freeze and store for a month or two a Ziplock is going to be quicker and cheaper.

[vic n]

As SeaRay said, the vacuum is best for long term storage. It sounds like you are using your hamburger quickly enough that a vacuum bag is not needed. I use a sealer quite a bit. If I already have a few bags of fish frozen in ziplocks, I will vacuum seal any new fish I want to save. Deer and beef will keep for years if done well. Bags are re-usable if you care to clean them out...they just get a bit shorter each time you cut them open.

[Barnacle Bill]

Thanks for the info. That's pretty much what I was thinking. I just got to eliminate the new toy factor and stay with zip lock bags