Vacuum Packing Foods

[Owly055]

     I've never vacuum packed anything, but the process interests me as a way to handle foods for long passages.   One of the stories I read again and again is about containers breaking during a knockdown or violent weather.  Glass is a no/no as far as I'm concerned.  It's inflexible and takes a lot of space.  A vacuum envelope is flexible and can they can be stacked in a small space.   Even things like flour, oatmeal, cornmeal, etc, purchased in remote parts of the world can create a nightmare of weevils, etc.  Vacuum packing should nip this in the bud.  There are envelopes capable of being used for pressure canning, generally double sealed, but it would seem to me to be something you could address without the high dollar equipment.  Heat and pressure are easy to produce.   It looks to my admittedly inexperienced eye like vacuum packing is a no brainer when it comes to food for a long trip.   

     I'd be interested in hearing about the experiences of others with this technology.

                                       H.W.

[CharlieJ]

Vacuum bagging is wonderful for cruisers or long term live aboards, and for much more than food..
i bag extra spark plugs, filters, and various things like that. Any thing that needs to be kept dry, and corrosion free

Cold weather clothes take up a LOT of room, just folded, but bagged, they take MUCH less room, don't get wet, and wool sweaters don't have a moth problem. And you can safely stick them almost anywhere

Spare sheets and pillow cases take MUCH less room once bagged.

In fact, I have seldom used them for food :)

A small foodsaver, and a roll or two of gallon bags take very little room.

Some what disagree on the glass. We canned meat on board, using the pressure cooker, in half pint jars. Found that a half pint was good for one meal, with other things added of course. Stored them tightly packed, wrapped in old socks in a specific locker. Empty jars got washed, re wrapped, and stored under full ones. Seldom had any other glass containers aboard though

pic of some of the meats canned, while at anchor in Boot Key Harbor

[Owly055]

Vacuum bagging is wonderful for cruisers or long term live aboards, and for much more than food..
i bag extra spark plugs, filters, and various things like that. Any thing that needs to be kept dry, and corrosion free

Cold weather clothes take up a LOT of room, just folded, but bagged, they take MUCH less room, don't get wet, and wool sweaters don't have a moth problem. And you can safely stick them almost anywhere

Spare sheets and pillow cases take MUCH less room once bagged.

In fact, I have seldom used them for food :)

A small foodsaver, and a roll or two of gallon bags take very little room.

Some what disagree on the glass. We canned meat on board, using the pressure cooker, in half pint jars. Found that a half pint was good for one meal, with other things added of course. Stored them tightly packed, wrapped in old socks in a specific locker. Empty jars got washed, re wrapped, and stored under full ones. Seldom had any other glass containers aboard though

pic of some of the meats canned, while at anchor in Boot Key Harbor

Thanks for those great ideas.   I hadn't considered the use of vacuum packing non-food items, but it makes a great deal of sense.       

     Long distance passage making / world cruising, pretty much guarantees that you will end up going through some extremely violent weather at some point.  For example, traveling into the Atlantic from the Indian Ocean, you are going to pass through what is probably the most unpredictable and dangerous commonly traveled bit of ocean, where the Agulhas Current is often in opposition to the southern winds.  Chances of a knock down or even capsize are quite significant.   Likewise the Tasman Sea, and the area northeast of New Zealand that cruisers often travel between the islands of French Polynesia, Fiji, Tonga etc, and New Zealand, to avoid the typhoon season.
     Glass is not a good thing in a boat as far as I'm concerned.  There are too many accounts of people wading around in a stew of battery acid, olive oil, broken glass, and various other junk in the saloon after a knockdown, trying to get the bilge pump to work.    The problem with glass is that it can be very difficult to get it all cleaned up, and many of us like to go barefoot.
      The mylar vacuum pack bags designed for pressure canning are not cheap, but they don't shatter.   Any food you can pressure can in glass, you can pressure can in the proper mylar bags.   There is of course absolutely no reason they cannot be washed out, dried, and re-used.   They would get a bit shorter each time.  The trick being to snip them off right next to the seal.   Glass jars are very vulnerable.   

                                                                 H.W.

[CharlieJ]

Can't disagree, but- in 2 1/2 years of cruising with the half pints, we never broke a single one.

Now other glass containers are almost never aboard, ,including booze- LOVE the plastic bottles, and will decant glass into plastic if needed

[ralay]

You might also want to freeze your vaccuum packed dry goods to kill the bugs.  From what I understand, most grains are already full of weevil eggs at the store.  It's just a matter of keeping it around long enough to grow a noticeable infestation.  I also lost a bunch of boxes of bulk food I packaged for backpacking food drops to pantry moths.  They just ate their way out of the plastic and ran amok.  I've found them in Clif Bars and commercially packaged foods too.  I'll eat me some weevils.  Moths are a little too...macroscopic.

[Owly055]

Can't disagree, but- in 2 1/2 years of cruising with the half pints, we never broke a single one.

Now other glass containers are almost never aboard, ,including booze- LOVE the plastic bottles, and will decant glass into plastic if needed

I've actually considered soaking eggs in vinegar to remove the calcium from the shells...... they'll bounce like a rubber ball. 

                                 H.W.