* 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

I'm only half fast so I had to read your post two or three times
to figure out what you were talking about. I just use an ordinary
canning funnel which is designed to fit into mason jars and
provide a decent funnel to dump stuff into. It's a cheap piece
of hardware and lasts forever. Just insert the funnel into the
top of your bag and grasp it with one hand while you dump
your food into the funnel with the other. Voila!, filled bag with
no mess at the seal area.
--
Brick(Youth is wasted on young people)