My Horrible Slicing and Vac Sealing, I Feel Better Now :)

[tallbm]

I can make amazing bacon, smoked salmon lox, I've even been successful with a couple of UMAI charcuterie runs BUT I can never slice and vac seal stuff like in the stores. Here is what I produce vac sealed haha. Not bad but not close to the store packaged stuff.

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• tallbm
• Sep 11, 2018

Prosciutto sealed

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• tallbm
• Aug 3, 2017

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• tallbm
• Jun 15, 2017

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• tallbm
• Feb 27, 2017

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• tallbm
• Feb 25, 2017

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• tallbm
• Feb 25, 2017

Well somehow (really not a mystery since there is no real thing as online privacy/personal data) youtube recommended a video called "Food Industry Machines That Are At Another Level" and the image showed salmon lox being sliced perfectly by a machine!!!

Well after watching the video I no longer feel bothered that I can't get close to duplicating the sliced and packaged store bought bacon, salmon, etc. and what those products look like hahaha :D

For anyone that cares here is the video I came across. These machines are freaking amazing!!! It starts with salami and bacon (maybe prosciutto or panchetta) and such and then the salmon is at the end at like the 8:17 mark. Enjoy!

 

[SonnyE]

Not to worry, Tallbm.
What you make has something they can NEVER duplicate.
You put personal feeling and love into your cooking.

When working with our 5 year old Grand Daughter, who is naturally talented and drawn to the kitchen, She was hand mixing something we were making. I explained to her that the reason home made tastes better is because of the Love she puts into it. She liked that.

I don't necessarily try to duplicate store bought appearances. I do use a slicer to take my slabs of bacon to sliced pieces.
My slicer cost $150. The one in the video probably cost $250,000 to $500,000. And my kitchen isn't that big.
I do use this Dry Waxed Paper under my bacon because it makes it far easier to arrange and move into or out of the vacuum bags.
My wife has a cutting mat that is like a thick plastic, but very flexible. I use it as a fold-able funnel sometimes. But recently found it helpful for the bacon to use as a "slipper" to put into the bags, then slide the 1 pound assemblies of sliced bacon into the vacuum bags. It helps me keep the sealing end cleaner. But the point is to be able to get the food into the vacuum bag easier.
Also, I have these 1/4 sheet sized aluminum pans to help put the slices on as they are made. When I saw them, I was thinking of the Grand Daughters, and helping Grandma with her Christmas cookies. But in reality, I use them much more.
I lay a sheet of the dry waxed paper on a pan and arrange the slices like store made bacon is. And I set my digital scale with a tare weight of a pan with a clean sheet of the dry waxed paper. Then load up a pound-ish pile of bacon slices, fold up the ends and edges, and have a slippable inner package of a pound of bacon for the vacuum bag. (Bacon in an envelope. Sorta)
I have learned to cut my slab in half, then use the clean cut end as my starting point for slicing. Less of the end or sides going to "waste" (Beans bacon).
I'm still learning and figuring my way around chunks of meat. But some things like dry waxed paper, small sheet pans, and flexible plastic mats (Pastry mats?)
For smaller sized bag loads, there is a dry waxed paper called "Patty Paper" that is 5" x 5". It's use is designed around making hamburger patties and used as a separator between the patties.
But works for meat bagging in Vacuum bags, too. I use it in 8' x 8" Vacuum bags. And the larger in 11" x 11" vacuum bags.

But don't beat yourself up about your packaging. We all know what food ultimately turns out to be in the end...

 

[gmc2003]

Your not alone with the packaging. I've seen the machine slice lox before and it's amazing. I wouldn't want to get my fingers anywhere near those blades. Lets just say that my packaging has that hometown feel.

Chris

 

[bill ace 350]

Someone posted a tip some time back to assist in placing items in vac seal bags.

Arrange the items to be sealed on a thin cutting board, which is narrower than the bag.

Slide board into bag, turn bag and board over, remove board.

Works great. Sorry I can't credit the person who came up with this idea, can't remember.

 

[Bearcarver]

About 9 years ago, the first couple slabs I smoked & sliced & Packaged, I laid the slices out like in the stores.
That was a PITA, and it got all bent up anyway, by the time it got to the Freezer.

Sooooo------
I moved on to a way that makes much more sense to me & is Easy, and takes up less room, and keeps the Bacon in it's original shape.
I just stack the slices straight up, and stop where I want to get so much in a pack.
It uses smaller bags that way too.

BTW: It also makes it easier that I only make my slices in the 6" to 8" length range---Just right for a BLT, and the Frying pan I fry them in.

Bear

 

[Bearcarver]

Someone posted a tip some time back to assist in placing items in vac seal bags.

Arrange the items to be sealed on a thin cutting board, which is narrower than the bag.

Slide board into bag, turn bag and board over, remove board.

Works great. Sorry I can't credit the person who came up with this idea, can't remember.

I do the same thing with a Glossy Paper Plate, folded in half over the meat, slide in to keep meat from touching the inside of the bag at the sealing point. Pull out plate for next one.

I bought some of the thin flexible cutting boards just for that, but the paper plates work better, unless the item is too big for the plate, like a 5 or 6 pound Prime Rib---Then I use the Flex cutting board.

Bear

 

[zwiller]

bill ace 350 Good one. To me, there is always a trick. Might not get you 100% pro but dang close. Kinda reminds me the time you guys taught me to fold over the bag before putting stuff in it. Never heard of that until here and total game changer.

 

[bill ace 350]

bill ace 350 Good one. To me, there is always a trick. Might not get you 100% pro but dang close. Kinda reminds me the time you guys taught me to fold over the bag before putting stuff in it. Never heard of that until here and total game changer.

I didn't come up with it....

I remember seeing the folding the bag like a pants cuff in one of BearCarver's posts.

 

[jcam222]

Great and timely post!! I had my first batch sliced and vac sealed at the local butcher for $0.40 per lb. I have a sealer though and just bought a slicer off Woot highlighted here in a oost last week. I’ll be smoking about 20 lbs. of my first pastrami and another 20 lbs. of buckboard next weekend. This thread is going to be my study material for the week :) thanks all

 

[daveomak]

When I pack meats for vac pack, I put the meat in those flimsy bread sacks from W-M... then slide the bags into the vac bag... I can reuse the vac bag without cleaning because meat don't come in contact with it... the bag stays clean for sealing and I can put a few prewrapped bags of meat in one vac bag....
AND, I don't want my meats to look store bought...

 

[LanceR]

At the risk of preaching to the choir here's a few more tips.

Colder product slices cleaner than warmer product. Almost frozen meat, at what the food service industry refers to as the 'frost crust" stage, slices far cleaner than room temperature meat and does so with less stretching or tearing of thin slices.

Blade length matters. Longer blades slice with fewer stokes and changes of direction and leave a neater slice surface. I find that slicing meat is like using a Japanese style "pull saw" in that I have better control over thin slices cutting on the pull stroke.

Blade design can make a difference. Long slicing knives can be had with a "Granton edge" (Dexter seems to call this a Duo-Edge) that have a series of scalloped indentations ground into the sides of the bade to reduce the friction on the product being sliced. I have 12" smooth sided and 14" Granton sided knives and the Granton blade is my go-to knife for thin slices.

And you don't need to break the bank to get a good blade. Right now Amazon has a Granton edge 14" Mundial slicer for only $28 and free shipping if you have Prime. I has a fairly light blade so if you prefer a heavier blade you might want to look at the Dexter "Duo-Edge" 14" slicers which generally have a wide (from top to bottom) and somewhat heavier blade (at an extra $20 cost though).

Lastly, unlike some knives a slicer can't be be too sharp or have too fine an edge angle. You can sharpen one to a much finer cutting edge angle than say a paring knife that sees more use and would need too frequent sharpening if it had a really fine edge. I do all my basic sharpening on a Dexter-Russel 12" tri-stone set but my slicers and boning knives get an extra stop on a pair of antique hard Arkansas stones.

 

[SmokinAl]

A paper plate sprayed with Pam & slid into the bag works the best for me.
Then just slide the paper plate out & the meat stays in the bag.
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/the-paper-plate-method-for-vacuum-sealing.272136/
Al

 

[daveomak]

May I suggest you freeze the lox/smoked salmon on parchment before you vac pack it... then it will not crush...
THEN, release the vacuum on the bag, before you thaw it.... It will crush during thaw if you don't....

 

[LanceR]

May I suggest you freeze the lox/smoked salmon on parchment before you vac pack it... then it will not crush...
THEN, release the vacuum on the bag, before you thaw it.... It will crush during thaw if you don't....

Good thought, Dave.

We pre-freeze or partially freeze small fruit like berries, some sausage, pierogi etc before freezing, too. One advantage is that you can cut the bag open next to the seal, take out what you want and re-seal the bag.

By the way, when thin slicing cured smoked salmon or other stuff that can be a bit sticky I keep a clean, damp and lint free kitchen towel handy to wipe the blade. It tends to want to wad up the lox less as the blade shaves it.

 

[tallbm]

Thanks for all the input guys! I may have to try the plate/cutting board trick to try and load the bags. Last month my bacon batch was 24 pounds so at that point I just do whatever is fastest and live with it.

I've never been super bent out of shape about not having packaging closer to the store bought stuff BUT as I always do, I had the determination to not let it "beat me" so badly hahahhaha. After that video I was like pffft no competition so no worries.

I will still fool around with my sealing but the goal now will be to do it the quickest way while trying to keep it as easily stack-able as possible for storage :)

I rarely have a helper but when I do I will be sure to try the tricks you guys mention, especially the one about the salmon pre-freeze as that one can get all bent out of shape much more easily to me than bacon or sandwich meat slices :D

 

[Bearcarver]

A paper plate sprayed with Pam & slid into the bag works the best for me.
Then just slide the paper plate out & the meat stays in the bag.
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/the-paper-plate-method-for-vacuum-sealing.272136/
Al

That's exactly what I do, but if you use the fancy printed paper plates, you don't need to spray them with anything.

Bear

 

[HalfSmoked]

Great advice here Tallbm but what thing about who's going o see besides you and it has nothing to do with the taste and as Bear said I stack mine then place in the bag. Like his idea of rolled cuff on the bag to.

Warren

 

[tallbm]

Great advice here Tallbm but what thing about who's going o see besides you and it has nothing to do with the taste and as Bear said I stack mine then place in the bag. Like his idea of rolled cuff on the bag to.

Warren

Good point about who sees it hahaha.
I was kind of doing what Bear mentions with stacking and then putting in the bag. I sometimes get my stacks not so straight and then when putting in the bag sometimes ends fold up etc. The plate trick may help with that.
My ultimate goal is to make them as stackable as possible for the freezer but I know I'll never get it perfect I just need to now get it acceptable enough :D