# How do you load a vacuum bag?



## Mucho Bocho (Jul 24, 2013)

Curious how others, especially pro cooks, load food in vacuum bags? I've got a vacmaster chamber vac that I use a lot. When I work with messy ingredients (BBQ Chix, stock, eggs..), say tomato sauce I often use a rolled-up plastic flexible cutting board, place it inside the bag and open the roll, add contents, remove board and vac/seal. It leaves the sealing end pretty clean most of the time, but its not perfect, especially when working with multiple portions. Does anybody else have any good tricks for bagging up messy foods?


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## ThEoRy (Jul 24, 2013)

Roll the bag back 2 inches, insert product. For liquids, roll the bag back 2 inches place bag in appropriately sized baine marie, insert product.


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## Dusty (Jul 24, 2013)

Yup like that. Roll it up like the cuff of your sleeve. If I've got a stack of little bags to fill I'll rack them up in a dishwasher tray meant for cups.


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## Dusty (Jul 24, 2013)

A good trick for home vac machines when using liquid is to freeze it first, and just pop in a block.


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## Mucho Bocho (Jul 24, 2013)

Good points, The only issue I have with rolling back the bag is that it causes crinkles in the plastic, causing it sit irregularry on the sealing bar. Not always, but often times after sealing it leaves a small pinched place that is not sealed and will cause air to leak in over time.


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## stopbarking (Jul 24, 2013)

I've had this problem and have adopted the measure twice, cut once approach to sealing. I don't press that top down until I am damn sure I have the bag seated properly and the edges to be sealed even and flush. Sealing any braised product in with it's liquid leaves no room for error when you need the liquid for sauce when you cut the bag open for service. If you lose all your liquid sous vide or in the chamber outside of the bag then you are up a creek without a paddle. Do it once to yourself, shame on you, do it for another cook on your day off and expect to pay hell on your next shift. Plus the sealing chamber is a ***** to clean.

The glass rack method is genius. Wish I had thought of that before.


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## Mucho Bocho (Jul 24, 2013)

SBarking, Understood, i'm with yea about wasting product. I don't understand what you mean by "cut once approach to sealing" is?



stopbarking said:


> I've had this problem and have adopted the measure twice, cut once approach to sealing. I don't press that top down until I am damn sure I have the bag seated properly and the edges to be sealed even and flush. Sealing any braised product in with it's liquid leaves no room for error when you need the liquid for sauce when you cut the bag open for service. If you lose all your liquid sous vide or in the chamber outside of the bag then you are up a creek without a paddle. Do it once to yourself, shame on you, do it for another cook on your day off and expect to pay hell on your next shift. Plus the sealing chamber is a ***** to clean.
> 
> The glass rack method is genius. Wish I had thought of that before.


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## ThEoRy (Jul 28, 2013)

Mucho Bocho said:


> Good points, The only issue I have with rolling back the bag is that it causes crinkles in the plastic, causing it sit irregularry on the sealing bar. Not always, but often times after sealing it leaves a small pinched place that is not sealed and will cause air to leak in over time.



You're unrolling it before you vac right?


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