Freezer Bag Cooking: Cabelas Zippered Vacuum Sealer bags

[Ears]

Has anyone used these?? I am doing about 60 Freezer Bag meals for an Alaska trip this fall, and in searching around, found these zippered vacuum bags. I'm going to try them out this week and see how they perform rehydrating/cooking.

They make three sizes, 6x10, 8x12, and 11x16 I think. I picked up the 6x10, but be aware that the zipper and tear off end take up a couple inches. These aren't going to be big enough for my actual meals, so I'm picking up another size and I'll use these for snacks.

They are boil-safe, so I'm going to use them with a cozy and pour straight into them.

I made chili mac last night, so I'll try them out with that probably tomorrow night.

Making pulled pork, pad thai, idaho beef stew, chicken cous cous, etc etc. Coming up with 60 meals is gonna be interesting.

 

[btplass]

Never used them, but they look line they'd work awesome, especially if you're using a cozy.

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[Ears]

That's kind of what I thought. I ordered a couple of smaller cozies yesterday, and plan on utilizing nearly all my meals from homemade sources. I have a ton of elk meat that needs to get used up anyway.

I have a ton of MH breakfasts and granola, so I'll use those on this trip as well. I typically add vanilla protein powder and dried strawberries to my granola (a friend's idea), and that adds a ton to them!

I'll try to post a few pics once I get the meals vacuum sealed and try them out.

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

I just use ziplock brand freezer bags for mine but those would seemingly work fine also.

 

[Ears]

Yeah I was going to use regular ziploc, but thought these would work great as they seem to be a little stronger material, and I can vacuum seal them.

We'll see how they work.

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

Be careful vac sealing dehydrated meals if there is anything with sharp edges (which dehydrated can do) pulling the ingredients tight into the bags can poke through. I vac sealed first year doing my own meals and now I just put in quart freezer zip locks and pack a few extra bags in case any get damaged.

I do like the idea of those bags you linked for other things though.

 

[Ears]

Yep I found that out a few year ago doing lasagna for a mule deer hunt. I picked round pasta, made sure I broke everything down into a bit smaller pieces and such this time. . I can also line the inside of the bag with wax paper if I'm having problems with puncturing, I've found that works in most situations.

If they don't work, then I'll just go back to the ziplocs, haha.

 

[Ears]

I picked up the middle size and largest zippered vacuum bags. Middle size seems plenty big for any regular meal.

Last night I vacuum sealed my dehydrated chili mac and didn't have any issues with puncturing or anything (obviously it was only sealed for a short time though). Opened it up, poured directly into it, sealed it back up with the zipper and let it cook in the cozy for about 25 minutes. Came out perfect!

 

[Tod osier]

I picked up the middle size and largest zippered vacuum bags. Middle size seems plenty big for any regular meal.

Last night I vacuum sealed my dehydrated chili mac and didn't have any issues with puncturing or anything (obviously it was only sealed for a short time though). Opened it up, poured directly into it, sealed it back up with the zipper and let it cook in the cozy for about 25 minutes. Came out perfect!

It is really nice sealing your stuff, but we have never used ziplock topped vacuum bags. We do a lot of longer road trips where we seal the backcountry food before leaving and the bags are sealed for a couple months before being used. Even bags that have good seals and didn't get punctured immediately have failures along the way, so the bags are no longer watertight. Obviously, you can double bag or find the thickest bags your sealer can deal with, etc.. to try to prevent that. What we do for individual meals like pasta or rice or granola (pointy stuff) is to use a longer bag than you need and seal the food at the bottom of the bag (leaving the top of the bag puncture free no matter what). When you want to get into the food, open the bottom and shake it into the undamaged top. Even when the bag is not punctured using the unwrinkled end is nice to eat out of.

 

[Ears]

Not quite sure what you're saying here? I'll be vacuum sealing different meals over the next few months for a trip this fall. They will be kept in the freezer until shortly before I leave. Obviously if a bag fails, I will be able to tell. Once I take them out of the freezer, they will go into daily food bags with all of my other food, then sealed (normal ziploc).

Maybe I misunderstood you?

 

[Tod osier]

ot quite sure what you're saying here? I'll be vacuum sealing different meals over the next few months for a trip this fall. They will be kept in the freezer until shortly before I leave. Obviously if a bag fails, I will be able to tell. Once I take them out of the freezer, they will go into daily food bags with all of my other food, then sealed

I'm saying a couple things... First, don't count on the fact that the bag is sealed now or when you take them out of the freezer that they will be sealed when you get to Alaska. They pop in packing, transit, etc.. 60 is going to have some failures in my experience, look how thick a mountain house bag is to compare. Planning to deal with the failures that happen en route to the trip is a good idea. Second, is that a ziplock closure doesn't add all that much benefit if the bag pops (it forces you to have liquid in the area of failure). Third, just using plain bags and turning them upside down is a way to potentially deal with issues that come up. None of this is a big deal, do as you please.

 

[Ears]

Gotcha. I was misunderstanding you there a bit.

I completely agree with you, and I'm planning on failure, even though I'm hoping for none.

 

[realunlucky]

These might be a more heavy duty option

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