I was mortified today when my friend asked to use my bathroom. I knew it was bad, but not that bad!!!
I guess that is what happens when you have 4 boys and no maid. I think I’m putting one on my Christmas list this year!
Not only one was my friend exposed to the horror in the bathroom, but the food bomb that went off throughout the entire house. She couldn’t help but ask “what the heck are you doing,” so here is the answer to her question!
Preserving Favorite Foods!
I hate shopping, but today I did my once a year shopping and think I bought out Sams. Here are some of my favorite purchases of the day – chocolate & nuts! I’ve always wanted to preserve them so today I finally did. I can’t believe I’ve had the FoodSaver for over a year now and am just barely getting around to using it. So easy to use and very fast!
Supplies:
- Jars – Check out these size jars I found at HEB, love them! They are – Pint & Half Jars
. Whenever I make cookies I usually double the recipe, so I just need to use one of these jars to get just the right amount of chocolate chips.
- Food – Whatever you want that is shelf-stable, nothing that needs refrigeration!
- FoodSaver –
It can be any sealer, it just needs to have a port-hole to vacuum seal!
- FoodSaver Hose – You need one of these if your FoodSaver does not come with one.
- Jar Sealer Attachment – Make sure you get the one that goes with your jars! (Wide-Mouth Jar Sealer
, or Regular-Mouth Jar Sealer)
Fast Version:
1- Poor food in jars about 1/2-1 inch from top.
2– Put on lid – not the ring!
3– Attach Hoses and place Sealer over Jar.
4– Press the button – Vac/Seal
5– Wait for the lights to turn off and then remove the hose and lid from jar.
6 – You now have food for 3+ years!
In my shopping spree I came upon these jars. I never knew they existed, but I quickly snatched a few since I thought they were a perfect size for chocolate chips!
I use all wide-mouth jars because it’s easier to put food in, and I’m able to use the same lids & rings for any jar I have. My husband says I’m a little OCD when it comes to having everything the same, but I think it looks nice. Plus, who said food storage can’t be pretty too?
What Foods Can Be Vacuum-Sealed?
You can jar any food using this method as long as it sits on your shelves, nothing that needs refrigeration. So for all those foods with high oil, moisture, or sugar content this is your solution! This method can significantly increase the shelf life of foods for up to 3-5 years by doing this.
The options are endless, but here are other things you can seal:
- Chocolate Chips
- Candybars (Including Halloween Candy ;)
- Nuts
- Chips
- Raisins, Dried Apricots
- Brown Rice
- Cornmeal
- Poppy Seeds
- Seasonings
- Cookies
- Granola Bars
- Egg Noodles
- Dehydrated foods like mushrooms
Pour it into the jar about .5-1 inch from the top and you are ready to go!
*NOTE: When vacuum sealing fine powders or foods that can mess up your machine, put food into a zip-lock in the jar, squeeze as much air out, and then zip lock it before sealing. You can also try cutting a piece of paper to fit over your lid before vacuum sealing. This should help with keeping any particles from messing up your machine.
Now put the lid on, but NO ring.
Just in case you were wondering:
- Chocolate Chips – I used the 72 oz bags (4 lb 8 oz) and was able to fill 4 & 1/2 of the pint & half jars (24 oz jars) with each bag.
- Nuts – Each bag of Walnuts, Pecans, Almonds was about 32 oz (2 lb or 8 cups) and I was able to fill 5 pint size jars (16 oz jars) with each bag.
Attach All the Parts:
- Insert one end of Accessory Hose into Accessory Port
- Insert other end into port on accessory
- Twist tab on Accessory Hose while inserting to ensure a tight fit. (I didn’t have it inserted all the way the first time and it took forever to seal and then I realized it didn’t seal at all, so make sure each tube is fully in!)
- Close lid & rotate Latch
Put the lid on the jar all the way and press the Vacuum & Seal button.
When the motor and Indicator Light turn off, vacuum process is complete. It takes about 15 seconds total.
The great thing is the jar can be opened and resealed over and over again, and if you take the lids off carefully, they can be reused forever!
Note that the appliance will still go through a sealing cycle even when vacuuming an accessory. You will hear the Motor shut off and then the sealing cycle will begin.
Make sure you pull the Accessory Hose out of the lid first or else you will be pulling forever trying to tug the lid off the jar. Unless you’re a dentist, you may not enjoy that :) Had to stick a dentist joke in somewhere.
And there you go – Merry Christmas!
Don’t worry, I made my tower of chocolate chips after the kids were in bed. That would have been a trip to the hospital in about 2 seconds.
Well, I hope this helps in making sure you gain that extra 5 pounds this Christmas Season!
Here are the nuts I canned too! My next thing will be CHEETOS :)
Now off to go clean bathrooms, or maybe I’ll just ask my husband to help clean too. It’s amazing how he instantly agrees to hiring a maid when I ask for help.
Anyways, do you plan on preserving any favorite foods?
You are SOO FUNNY! I love this! When crap hits the fan, Ill be at your house eating choc chips out of a jar. you amaze me!
Awesome, I made a few extra bottles for you :)
i love it! and your blog? is that what this is? non scary ways to prepare. you are great!
Thanks! You make me so happy :) That’s a great way to sum up my blog! I
I was curious, do the nuts go rancid after time? I always freeze my extra nuts to keep them from going bad, but if vacuum sealing keeps them from going rancid, I just may have a new way to preserve things.
I use to freeze all my nuts too, but went ahead and pulled them all out and switched to this method last year. So far they’ve been great. This method will preserve the food for about 3-5 years. The freezer is still a great option and might extend longer, but I wanted more freezer space.
In case your readers are having a hard time finding these jars, Sam’s Club has them. A Moonshine distillery in Tenn sells their moonshine thru Sam’s. They look like quart mason jars, but they fool you. They are not quarts, they are smaller. I am drinking as fast as I can to save a dozen or so….
Thanks for the info, because I’ve had a hard time finding them ever since I originally bought them at HEB.
You mentioned your “once a year shopping trip”–exaggeration or do you really do that? Could you say more about your plan?
Ok, maybe I do 2 trips :) Glad you mentioned it! I actually had a post idea about that, I’ll move it up and try and get it done earlier just for you!
Thank you! I also hate to go often to the grocery store, etc. so I was intrigued by your idea. I’ll watch for your post!
I’ve been putting up food and after this post…..my vacuum canner is going to get a work out! Don’t have a food saver, so my vacuum canner works wonders. It handles powdered items as well. I stock up on Jiffy mixes as well. If you save a mix, be sure to save the instructions!
Quick question, why didn’t you put the rings on the jars after you finished sealing them?
They aren’t needed, but you definitely can put them on if you want. When I open up a jar that I’ve vacuum sealed, I put on one of the plastic lids so I don’t ever need the rings.
Plus, with the extra rings, I’m able to use them for canning.
I notice you’re using the standard metal Kerr lids full of BPA. Is there a reason you aren’t using the safe reusable Tatler lids?
Here’s a reply to my email to Ball about their lids containing BPA. Here’s what they said: “Dear Geni,
Thank you for contacting us.
Please find the additional product information you requested below:
All of our lids are BPA free.
We hope that the information provided will help you make an informed decision about your purchase.
If we can be of any further assistance, please reply to this email, or call us toll-free at 855-813-9352. Our Customer Service hours are Monday-Friday 6:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. PT, Saturday 7:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. PT.
Kassidi
Customer Service
Fresh Preserving Store
Thanks Geni! I appreciate you taking time to look into that! It’s good to see that neither lid has BPA in it!
I just found you today you are like a breath of fresh air I love to see the pics of all your friends around the stove cannig that is rare.
You are sooo sweet! Glad you stopped by! It was a ton of fun getting together with some friends and learning how to can and do some of these things!
Besides being very attractive, you also appear very knowledgeable in the storing of foods. If I may ask, how long have you been at this endeavor?
I love your style and delivery.
Gee thanks :) That’s a first! Flattery always works.
I’ve always hunted and stored food away, but I probably got a little more obsessive about the little details 5 years ago.
When you store your jars can you stack them? I thought it was bad for the lids staying sealed. I could store more, if I could stack them.
I stack all mine and they haven’t had any problems. I’ll check them when I get home and let you know if they came unsealed. I’ve had some stacked on each other now for almost 3 years now.
First, I really like your blog. I just discovered it and immediately sent a link over to my girlfriend, who I think will really enjoy it.
I do have a warning, however, about vacuum storing some of the foods that you recommended. If you store anything with a low acidity and with a moisture content above 10% in an oxygen-less environment, you run a big risk for botulism. Granola and nuts are definitely a risk. Chocolate is probably a risk as well (I’m really not sure). Dehydrated fruit can be a risk, depending on how thoroughly it’s dried (often the moisture content is at around 25%). For fruit, the LDS canneries website recommends that fruit be dehydrated enough to snap when bent in half. If you want to extend shelf life by vacuum storing these types of foods, you have to keep them refrigerated or frozen to prevent the botulism causing bacteria from growing.
Thanks for all the great content on your blog, and keep it coming.
Eric that is really interesting as I have jars of candy vacuumed sealed and never thought of the botulism issues. But I do know that botulism does grow in moist food that has no oxygen. The scary thing about that is you can’t smell or taste botulism. Another thing that botulism has grown in are baked potatoes that are baked in aluminum foil then left out and eaten as left overs. I am not afraid of it growing in my home canned jars of food because if you process it properly there is not a risk. It is when we try a untested way of canning that the problem exists. Now I’m really questioning my vacuum sealed candy. I will be investigating this for sure. Thanks.
Some things like nuts, granola, cornmeal, and brown rice can go rancid even in an vacuum sealed container. I’m not sure they would last 3 years, typically 1 year is all for items like these, because of the oil content.
I JUST finished doing this! LOL! We canned rice, grits, corn flour, barley and red pinto beans today! WOW! Now I have MORE ideas to put in jars—-I think my husband thinks I’m nuts…….OH, NUTS! I can put those in jars now too! YAY!
Thank you for sharing. My fridge is always in full condition. Maybe I’ll give it a try soon.
I would love chocolate, so I often buy a lot of chocolate and leave them in the refrigerator. That makes chocolate often hardens. I will try to preserve them using methods that you have shared above. Thanks!
Thanks for the information sealing jars with the vacuum sealer. I am considering getting one. Just trying to decide what size is best for us.You have been very helpful.