So who cryovac's their meat ?

Just wondering if anyone cryovac's their meat ?

If the freezer is on the small side i assume it would allow a longer life refrigerated and keep the fridge in good nick with the meat being fully sealed.

Thoughts or experiences ?

We have been thinking of getting a criovac maching ...
Used to buy criovac packs of meat when we lived in Hedland ....
Meat would keep for a month unopened in the fridge...
Might get something sorted for a trip in April...

Cheers Nanjim
Jim

Hi Nanjim, how long ago was this in Hedland ?
Good to hear the fridge life on the meat

Let me know what research you turn up or if you buy a machine.

Was there 96 till 2002/3 there abouts... ..
Used to buy Harvy Beef criovac packs from Action  supermarket...
Corner of McGregor St ...
Been thinking of doing up meal size criovac packs for future travels ...

Cheers Nanjim
Jim

Hardly Norman and retrobits have such machines and I think Chinese KMart have a few cheapies.

the trick with cryo is not to include the bone so u will have to eat scotch fillet.

regards
oneday

Have recently just purchased one so will be able to let you know how it goes after my next up and coming trip away.They can also be used for other applications such as stowage of wheel bearings and any thing else you want to keep moisture from getting in to.
Cheers

Phil

We use a vacuum seal and highly recommend getting one!
Not only do we vacuum seal our meat, we also vacuum seal prepared meals for reheating.
In the weeks leading up to a trip, we cook extra and freeze the left overs. We then remove the frozen meal from the tupperware container and vacuum seal it. Means we don't have a heap of Tupperware containers to store and takes up less room in the freezer.
We find precooked meals are great when out bush - just reheat and cook up some rice or pasta to go with it - more time swinging, less time cooking .

Not sure what types are out there but we got ours a few years back - it was one of the cheaper models. It won't seal if there is a lot of liquid in what you are trying to seal but we get around that by sealing the meat/meals frozen or putting the meat in a freezer bag before sealing it.

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Cheers,
Jo

hey Jo, thanks for the great tips on the prepared meals, something we were going to do by using disposable plastic containers but now we will repackage it like you guys do, oh and can you comment on your experiences with "shelf" life of foods you cryovac ?

Oh and Phil, top idea on the bearings, cheers

Hi Banjo, Haven't really tested the shelf life too much as we take two waeco's out - the small one we run as a freezer so we keep our meals frozen for most of the time. The longest we have left one in the fridge in the vacuum seal was a week. We've started freezing meals as early as 2 months before we head off.

Just a tip though - don't leave it until the day before you go to seal the meals. Sometimes a sharp edge on the frozen food can put a tiny hole in the plastic and cause the vacuum seal to fail. Freeze them a couple of days before so you have time to test that the vacuum worked or if you need to reseal one or two.

Gday All
Been using an "Orved" vac packer for the last seven years. Fantastic. No blood or crap anywhere in ya fridge or freezer and the meat and fish are like brand new when you defrost them. More expensive than most of the others but my butcher told me to buy that brand and he was dead right.
cheers
Brett

We looked at this a few years back and decided it wasn't worth the effort as we usually run out of beer, wine and diesel (and bloody 'dozer parts!!), check the post, get a cuppla beers and a pub lunch, and a latte all within a fortnight - so we just head into town and buy fresh, stick it in the freezer and it's solid by next morning.

As that famous prospector, Henry Carr Boyd once said, "Any silly bugger can be uncomfortable in the bush".

As that other far less famous prospector said, "A latte would be great right now".

Mind you 300 kms (one way) north of Meeka is LONG stretch to get a pub lunch!!

been using vac packs on boats and going bush for a few years. Trick is to freeze the food before vac sealing, as stated above. We also use 3 engels, a dedicated 40l for the freezer, a 35l for the piss and a built in 57l upright in the camper (replaced the old poxy 3 way electrolux when it died). Can keep tucker in good nick for up to 6 months so far on commerial boats.
Cheers