Vacuum Sealer Hack #1: Ziplock!

[Dr_Pain]

Ever wondered why you couldn’t just seal your cheapo ziplocks, well I did!!

Having done a couple of Umai dry aging projects and using the little mouse that comes with the kit, it made me wonder. What if you could keep the ziplock open and have a channel to evacuate the air (since the bag is slick and just tends to collapse on itself). After a few libations and looking at the ziplock I was playing with I asked myself “could you not just use the top portion as a vacuum bag as a channel!!! It is ribbed slightly so you could find the opening of the bag easier. So I cut the top, made small sections and tried my luck…… AND low and behold it worked like a charm.

Having experimented a little I can say

1. You have to use a top with a small rib (vacuum channel) otherwise the heating element won’t make a proper seal
2. Place the zipper on the cushion portion to allow the best vacuum channel and not to collapse the bag shut (since the top only has very small ribs)
3. After the vaccum and seal don’t wait too long to remove the bag because they are obviously small gauge plastic and May stick

[Dr_Pain]

24hrs and the seal is maintained. I think next time I will experiment with thicker freezer bag. These were sandwich bags

[cdavis]

Dr_Pain good hack

[HerbcoFood]

Pretty darn interesting.

[Dr_Pain]

cdavis said in Vacuum Sealer Hack #1: Ziplock!:

Dr_Pain good hack

Thanks! It was fun experimenting. I started resealing my cheese bags and bought some dry shitake mushroom from the asian market and I knew I was not going to eat them all so I used the vac sealer to reseal. Worked like a charm

[keend0]

I do something similar with my Excalibur seasonings if I do not use the entire bag. I just used a small strip of a textured vac seal bag inserted in the original seasoning bag to draw the vacuum. Works great!

[marzig20]

Dr_Pain great idea!

[bocephus]

Dr_Pain Interesting, I am going to have to give this a try.