You may want to own a vacuum sealer to extend the storage life of your fresh foods, but the machines are just too expensive. Is it possible to vacuum seal your food at home without a vacuum sealer? Yes! You can’t achieve a full vacuum, but you can remove most of the air from a Ziploc bag to help keep food from spoiling. Recently, an Instagram clip went viral when a baker showed how to vacuum seal fresh-baked Christmas cookies in a Ziploc bag so they will stay fresh for days and days. However, this trick has been around for a long time, and you can use it for other things besides cookies. You can even use it for chicken or beef!
Vacuum Sealing Christmas Cookies Without a Machine
In the Instagram video, Sarah Fennel, the founder of the blog Broma Bakery, vacuum seals a gallon-sized Ziploc storage bag full of Christmas cookies by sticking a straw in the corner and sucking the air out. This works but it’s not something you would want to do with chicken or meat. You may get contaminated poultry or meat juices through the straw, and, although it’s unlikely, you could introduce bacteria into the bag. So, save the sucking through the straw method, shown below, for cookies or similar items.
To use the method shown in Fennel’s video, leave a small opening in the corner at the top of the bag. Put a straw in the opening and squeeze out as much air from the bag as you can. Then use the straw to suck out the rest.
A safer method that can be used for poultry, beef, fish, vegetables, or anything else you want to vacuum seal is the straw + water displacement method. If you are careful, you can use this method for cookies and other dry foods as long as you are careful not to get any water into the bag. This technique was shown on the Rachael Ray show with guest Christopher Kimball, who was host of America’s Test Kitchen from 2000–2015.
DIY Food Vacuum Sealing Method For All Foods
The method Kimball demonstrates in the video below starts similar to the above method. He uses chicken breasts and a gallon-sized Ziploc bag:
- Place the chicken breasts or other food inside the bag.
- Seal the bag and leave a small opening in one corner.
- Put a straw in the opening.
- Squeeze out as much air as you can.
- Place the bag into a pot of water so that the part the bag is partially submerged with the opening above the water.
- Allow the water to squeeze the remaining air out of the bag.
- Remove the straw and finish sealing the bag.
In truth, you can remove a great deal of air from the bag even without a straw and by leaving only a tiny opening big enough for a straw, you can squeeze out even more. Using the water, however, will displace more air than you can by just using your hands. It’s an ingenious DIY method for vacuum sealing at home.
He uses gloves in the video but if you don’t wear gloves, make sure you wash your hands after handling meat and before you pick up and seal the bag. This will help avoid containing the outside of the bag, which could lead to cross-contamination of other surfaces.
