[Rob Babcock]

WOOT! After researching and taking notes for six months I finally pulled the trigger on a new vacuum sealer. And NOOOOOO, it ain't no foodsaver! As you all probably know I'm a chef by trade and an all-around kitchen geek. Clamp style sealers are very inexpensive and do a good job on many things but don't work so well to seal liquids. And since I do a lot of sous vide cooking I like to be able to cook in a liquid. This requires a chamber vacuum sealer.

Enter the VacMaster VP215! It's a chamber vac with a rotary oil pump. It pulls almost 30" of vacuum! Here's a few pics!






Here's one of the main reasons I bought it over other similar machines: The ability to seal retort pouches!




You may think you don't know what a "retort pouch" is, but you may have one in your pantry right now. They're the pouches you buy your tuna in. They were developed for the military for MREs.

With this machine I can now easily seal liquids like chili, marinara sauce, gravy, soup, etc.  And the retort pouches will let me can stuff in "flexible cans" that are just like a Ball Jar but not breakable.

In addition to cooking, I also like to hike, camp, etc. so it will be great to have this for wilderness/survival stuff, too:






This is a couple shots of the first retort pouches I sealed- filled with fire gear!  Again, these are very, very thick pouches constructed with three layers, the middle being made of mylar.  These don't break, rupture or leak easily.  The VP215 has a double-wire seal bar, creating two seals to ensure the integrity of the pouch.

Two the pouches I sealed contain four Weber grill lighter tables each.  Those of us who've used the Weber and WetFire products have concluded that if they're not identical then at least the difference isn't worth talking about.  One fatal flaw of both products is that exposure to air kills them quickly (between 1 week and 1 month, depending on conditions).  The flimsy packaging of WetFire can be a real problem if you rely on it.

But a retort pouch isn't at all flimsy.  They were designed to keep food edible for years in every conceivable climate and situation.  I will track these to verify but you've gotta see them to believe them!  They're very thick and really tough.

The bonus- my mom has been canning since she was a little girl, almost 60 years.  I can use a pressure canner to make my own homemade MREs, shelf stable but with recognizable food in them!    I can control the sodium and additives, creating what I want to eat...did I mention I'm a chef and science geek? 

Retort pouches are available with capacities from 2 oz to 16 oz, so you have a lot of options for using them.

I'll keep you all posted as I explore the possibilities of this machine.

Anyhoo, just though you guys might dig this.  It was expensive, almost a $1,000 USD, but well worth it to me.

[Rclark]

huh. Nice 

[Dan Driscoll]

Sure you're not a chef and a survivalist? 

It's a pretty cool gadget and I'd love to play with one, but it's way outside what I could justify to myself, let alone my wife. If I were going to drop that kind of coin on a piece of kitchen equipment anytime soon it would be for a new range or fridge.

[Syrah]

S-W-eet Rob!  I had my eye on that exact machine for months, but figured I'd start with the little Sous Vide Supreme model first to see if sous vide was really my thing.  I recall it was generally considered one of the more reliable models.

I put my $1k towards a Hobart slicer because I'm a cured ham fanatic.  It sits proudly on my counter in the face of my wife's scorn.

I do find it frustrating when whatever meat I'm sealing has just a tiny bit of residual liquid that gets sucked into the sealer and the bag doesn't seal properly.  Not to mention no wet marinades.

It's on my "win the lottery" list, including a blast chiller, True fridge and freezer, and those blindingly expensive combi ovens.

As for sous vide, I have mixed feelings.  I think it's a bit like my first microwave.  It's a tool that's good at some things, but not all things.  My pork tenderloin was too ham-like.  I tried antelope fillet both on the grill and sous vide + blow torched.  My wife and I both prefered old school grill.  The sous vide gave it a perfect colour but a stewed/roast beef flavor.  So far my best experiment was a lamb leg I carved up and vacuum packed with tons of garlic.  I almost ate the whole damn thing myself!  Up next weekend, turkey leg, finished with a couple of minutes in the deep fryer for color and crunch.

[Rob Babcock]

I'd love to have a Hobart slicer!  Til I win the lottery I'll have to make do with Japanese knives!   But if I was to win the lottery I'd build a full-on restaurant kitchen in my home, that's for sure.  Exhaust hoods, a smoker, Alto-Shams, a steamer, a pair of steam-jacketed kettle, etc.  In fact, I think maybe a steam kettle would be slightly ahead of the slicer to me.

The VP215 is an awesome sealer, that's for sure.  A grand is a lot of cash, true, but it's great for sealing stuff with a lot of moisture.  It always got on my nerves vac sealing chicken with my old machine and having to bleach my sealer afterwards.  Also the Foodsaver type bags with channels get expensive; I always found myself balancing making my $.75 worth of lettuce keep an extra couple of days vs spending $.35 on the baggie.

So far I really love it.  There's so much more flexibility than with a Foodsaver.  First of course is the ability to seal liquids.  To try it out I actually sealed up a couple bags of tap water and it worked perfectly.  With the VP215 you can adjust the length of vacuum (ie how much air is removed), the seal time, the time to allow the seal bar to cool on the seal, as well as the level of power applied to the seal bar.  When I use 3 mil bags I've been doing 30 seconds of vacuum, 2.0 seconds of seal and 1.5 seconds to cool at the lowest power setting.  With retort pouches I've so far had the best results with 45 seconds/ 4.5 seconds seal/ 3 seconds cooling @ Medium on the bar.  It works very quickly and quietly, too.  The machine has a very solid feel to it.  It should at 86 lbs!  It was all I could do to lift it out of the box!

For sous vide you can do a lot in Zip-lock bags but for long cooks I prefer to have stuff sealed.  Being able to use 3 mil bags that only cost a couple cents is pretty nice.  I agree that sous vide isn't the best tool for every job.  When I first got my water ovens I was doing everything in them just for the novelty.  To me chicken breasts are so superior cooked this way that I'll never do them any other way provided I have time.  It's also fantastic for burgers!  I like being able to cook them at 130 F to pasteurize them and make them safe, then finish them in a hot pan or on the grill.  Occasionally I start them on the gas grill and transfer them to SVS while they're still raw inside.  I just know too much about how commercial burger reaches us to ever eat it under MW when cooked traditionally!

I like sous vide for sirloin steak, too.  The perfect edge-to-edge doneness is nice, combined with a nice crust built with a final brief sear.  While baby back ribs are best smoked they do come out amazing sous vide.  Corned beef and beef brisket are astonishing this way!  It's amazing being to have brisket medium rare yet tender enough to cut with a spoon (I do 3 days @ 131 F).  But I don't care for ribeyes done this way, so much.  All the fat doesn't really work well for me.  The whole mess lacks "structure" and just doesn't have the texture I like.

I will say I used my Sous Vide Supreme to make the best turnip I've ever tasted!

At any rate, one thing I'm looking forward to is sealing some chicken thighs in a bag with Devil's Spit and sv'ing them.  I'm also eager to try some fruit compression in my new VP215.

[Rob Babcock]

Sure you're not a chef and a survivalist? 

No, not a survivalist at all.  While I think it's sensible to have a stock of stuff at home to ride out short term emergencies (eg tornado, blizzard with power outtage, etc) I don't subscribe to the "prepper" mentality.  To me survivalists are folks stocking up on food and guns, preparing for the collapse of civilization.  That's okay by me but if the world ends I'm not sure I wanna go on, "Mad Max" style.  Me, I'm just an avid camper and hiker.  I look at survival as being prepared to stay out if I get lost or injured while out in the woods.  Basically I want to be able to keep fire gear dry, maybe package food items for camping.

If I can get it all figured out I'd like to use the retort pouches to make my own shelf stable MRE's.  That would be nice for camping.

[jqp]

I wonder how useful this would be for those with diabetes - would it be useful to allow preperation of lots of low sugar/carb foods at a time on some weekend, to be consumed in months ahead?