Do you use a Food Saver -or other vacuum seal sys? On meat?

I freeze my meat/fish when I first come home from the store and have never had any issues. Recently cooked a piece of trout that had been in the freezer over 6 months and it still looked/tasted like I had just brought it in from the grocery store.

It definitely keeps food longer and in better condition than ziploc bags do, especially long term. I debated on getting one for nearly 3 years and after I did I wondered why on earth I hesitated. Definitely worth the cost to me. The one thing I will note is that I have better luck with the premade bags than I do with the cut to size rolls.  Not sure what the issue is but I seem to get a better seal from the premade bags so that's all I buy now.

I also vacuum seal the meats when I get home from the store - I never freeze the meat first.

I’ll typically trim the meat down to how I’ll be preparing it. Chicken breasts are trimmed down to cutlets, steak for tidbits are cut into bite sized pieces, other things are frozen into portions. I can store more in my freezer this way plus it defrosts faster and there’s flexibility if we aren’t eating together.

I’ve cooked months old meat that tasted just fine.

It’s the one appliance I have replaced immediately when it broke.

I use mine often it's well worth it. I never freeze my meat before I seal it. Everywhere now and then I'll have a bag that lets loose and doesn't maintain its seal but that's not very often. It definitely does help with the quality and longevity of the meat.

I vacuum seal a lot of things, meats and beyond.

For meats, I prefer precut bags. I use gallon for wings and quart for chicken breasts, chicken tenders, thing cut breasts, and 1 pound of ground turkey.

I make an assembly line after laying down some saran wrap and paper towel on my counter.

I have the bags pre labeled with a sharpie (date, store I bought from, how much), and opened. I then have my meat to the left of those bags. I glove up and add the meat to the bags.

I then take off my gloves and with paper towel I have already in small sections, wipe the tops of the bags inside and out to remove any fluid.

Then I start to vacuum and seal. Once done, I add the bags to my freezer.

For ground turkey meat, once vacuumed and sealed, I smoosh the meat into the entire bag area to be thin as possible. This helps with storage and defrosting.

I also vacuum seal:

Souper Cube cubes of stock, soups, rice, left overs, ground meat

Shredded chicken

Flash frozen fruits like blackberries, blueberries, cranberries

Flash frozen fresh vegetables like green beans, onion, bell pepper.

I also pre make turkey patties and seal
those as well. Makes burger night so super fast.

ETA: you seal fresh meat. You do not freeze it then seal.

I have had 3 broken seals since 2019 when I got my Food saver.

The best trick to prevent that is to clean where you will seal the bag. That extra liquid can cause the seal to not be good.

Agreed. I find I'm using it more frequently even to repackage frozen foods for longer term storage.

I never pre-freeze meats before sealing them. In fact, I think this is the first I've even heard of it.

Ive never frozen meat before using the foid saver on it. We recently ate steaks that had been in the freezer for about 2 years. They werent freezer burned at all

We have one and honestly we don’t use it much. About the only time we get meat that isn’t already frozen is when we run out of beef from the butcher and need to grab something from Costco Business Center. We’ll get a big hunk of meat and cut it up into steaks or chops and package them in ziplock freezer bags in packs of 2-3 depending on how big they are. ETA: we never freeze the meat first before we bag it. I do that with fruit, shredded cheese or scooped balls of cookie dough though. I’ll freeze the stuff loose on a sheet pan and once it’s frozen solid I’ll bag them up for longer term freezing. That way it doesn’t freeze into a solid clump and I can take out only as much as I want without having to thaw the whole bag.

I bought a box with two big rolls of bags for the food saver from Costco a few years ago and I doubt we’ll use them up in my lifetime. I either end up making the bag too big or too small 90% of the time.

Years ago I started a thread like this saying I was thinking of getting a FoodSaver. elaine messaged me and said she just bought a new one and would send me the old one. It is a workhorse and still going strong.

One thing I do that no one has mentioned is use it for packing for long trips (14-19 days.) I make 3-4 day bundles of underwear and socks. It saves room in the suitcase and, the bundles are so hard, they can be used as a weapon if someone breaks into your hotel room.

I’ve had a food saver since 2016 and it is probably my third most used kitchen appliance behind my rice cooker and microwave. It also is great for sealing food before I put it into the water while using my sous vide.

I’ve had a FoodSaver since they first came out over 30 yrs ago.  The only things I freeze first are soups and my spaghetti sauce.  Those I just drop in a pot of boiling water when I’m ready to use.  I do wrap my ground beef first in some plastic wrap so the juices don’t squirt out along with the air.  Wouldn’t be without one.

Costco has a pack that is some bags and some rolls.

I never heard of freezing the meat first. I've had mine for 18 years and used it for every meat that has been put in the freezer during that time. It is the main thing I use it for. I still love it - one of the best purchases I ever made.

I often buy meat at Costco and got a food saver for repackaging it for the freezer.

I love it!