On Sat, 13 Oct 2007 12:05:44 -0400, Steve Calvin
> wrote:

>* Posted in alt.cooking-chat but thought some here may find
>it useful info.
>
>
>ok, I'm getting ready to head up to our camp for deer season
>with a couple friends and needed to vacuum seal individual
>servings of chili, sausage & peppers, and stew. And I hit a
>problem and solved it. I thought I'd pass it on.
>
>The problem: getting the inside top of the bags wet/goobered
>up so they wouldn't seal properly with out wiping them off
>prior to sealing.
>
>The solution: Find a food grade tube of plastic, preferably
>flexible, around 3 1/2" in diameter and 9" or so inches long.
>
>Use: Insert the tube into the bag but *not* all the way to
>the bottom. Approximately 1/2 way so that when you scoop the
>food into the tube it falls out the tube into the bag
>without messing up the outside bottom of the tube.
>
>Pull the tube out and seal the bag with nice clean insides.
>Works great.

Steve,

We've been doing that for years but, on the cheap.
We just cut the bottom out of a 750ml yogurt container and use that.
For the really wet stuff, push the seal button before the wet gets to
the sealing strip.
You're right, it works great.

Ross.