kitchen tools – the vacuum sealer
In most cookbooks or food blogs, you’ll find a list of “must have” tools and utensils. These are really helpful if you’re getting started. If you’re already a home cook, chances are high that you’ve discovered the tools that you need, based on what you cook and your style of cooking. These things are personal and there isn’t one list that works for everyone.
With that in mind, if you’re one who buys in bulk, the vacuum sealer is a tool you’ll want to have in your kitchen. Buying in bulk can save you a lot of money in your grocery budget. And it only works if you can break down and preserve whatever you’re buying into quantities you can use before it goes bad. Buying a 5 lb cheese block is a terrible purchase if you end up throwing much of it away because it wasn’t properly stored and either dried out or grew mold. It also might not be particularly inspiring to use if it isn’t broken down into quantities you can easily use when needed. Say you buy 3 because you couldn’t pass up the deal and you just toss the 3 5-lb blocks into the freezer as-is. It’s unlikely that you’ll actually make use of that cheese because it will then require time to unthaw and work to break down before you can use it. If you buy in bulk, the goal should be to break it down immediately before freezing or putting away. This is where the vacuum sealer comes in.
Things I regularly buy in bulk and use the vacuum sealer to package it for freezing:
- Cheddar or Mozzerella Cheese (blocks, slices, or shredded)
- Specialty cheeses (Costco has good prices on feta, goat cheese, fresh mozzerella, gruyere, Dubliner, etc.)
- Sausage (italian sausage in casings or chubs, like Jimmy Dean)
- Whole poultry that I break down (chicken & turkey, you don’t have to break down, but sometimes I do)
- Other meat (pork or specific steaks)
Other regular uses of the vacuum sealer for me include:
- Prepping game & fish for freezing
- Prepping leftovers for freezing
- Freezer meals (I don’t do this a lot, but will if we’re going camping or on vacation)
Buying in bulk requires extra effort. There’s a reason people don’t do it. It does take time to prepackage things and prepare them for freezing. But, if you can get passed the inconvenience, there’s a couple of benefits that I really like about it. First, obviously the significant savings, and second, buying in bulk allows you to have a lot of things on hand. If you want to make something that you didn’t plan, you’ll have a lot more options because you just have more ingredients on hand at all times. To be an effective bulk buyer, it’s crucial that you don’t just go bananas at Costco and buy everything (as tempting as that is). There are good deals and there are not so good deals. So you need to consider the price per pound, ounce or item. And you have to focus on buying only what you use. The worst deals are the things you buy that are cheap, but you don’t use.
It’s mid November, which means turkeys are in stores. If you like turkey meat, buying some extra whole turkeys can be a great way to add quality meat to your freezer for really cheap prices. Unless you want another Thanksgiving dinner with a whole turkey (nothing wrong with this by any stretch), you’ll need to break it down. The last few years, I’ve been buying 2-3 turkeys from Costco in November and breaking them down and freezing them. This year, I got 3 organic turkeys that were $2.99/lb. Once broken down, the price per pound was just over $4/lb. That’s pretty cheap for organic meat. Plus you get all of the extras like carcasses, wing tips, necks that you can use for stock or gravy. Here are a couple of great uses for turkey meat:
- Roast or sous vide the breast meat for sandwich meat (it’s whole, clean, and $4/lb vs. the $15.99 at the deli counter for turkey breast)
- Braise the turkey legs (drumstick & thigh)
- Roast the turkey breast for a simple turkey dinner
