This year's Mother's Day present was a set of Foodsaver
canisters and a roll of bags for the Foodsaver I gave
Mom last year.

If you have one, you may be interested to know that
Bed, Bath, and Beyond has been doing a clearance sale
on the canisters at $10 for the set of three, which
used to be $20.

I don't consider these to be very useful, except for
foods which oxidize like roasted coffee beans and
for marinating meat, which is the main reason to get
them. At $10, you may as well buy a set if you have
the machine. You might not be able to buy them
a year from now. I'll bet they cut into sales of
the bags, which at $20 per roll are rather pricey.

On May 9, 4:39*pm, Mark Thorson > wrote:
>
>
> the bags, which at $20 per roll are rather pricey.
>
>
If you have either of their 20% off coupons or a $5 off one item
priced $15 or higher is a nice savings on the rolls, cannisters or
even the machine itself. For the machine I'd use a 20% off coupon
though.

On May 9, 4:39*pm, Mark Thorson > wrote:
> This year's Mother's Day present was a set of Foodsaver
> canisters and a roll of bags for the Foodsaver I gave
> Mom last year.
>
> If you have one, you may be interested to know that
> Bed, Bath, and Beyond has been doing a clearance sale
> on the canisters at $10 for the set of three, which
> used to be $20.

I'll BET they are made in China!

John Kuthe...

John Kuthe wrote:
>
> On May 9, 4:39 pm, Mark Thorson > wrote:
> > This year's Mother's Day present was a set of Foodsaver
> > canisters and a roll of bags for the Foodsaver I gave
> > Mom last year.
> >
> > If you have one, you may be interested to know that
> > Bed, Bath, and Beyond has been doing a clearance sale
> > on the canisters at $10 for the set of three, which
> > used to be $20.
>
> I'll BET they are made in China!

Probably so, but I don't think that's a big issue
for an item made entirely out of plastic. It's
not like frozen fish or cat food, where you'd be
taking a big risk. I'm not aware of any scandals
involving plastic (except when it's used as an
additive in baby formula or cat food). On the other
hand, there was a scandal with Chinese drywall.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Ch...ll_controversy

On Sun, 09 May 2010 14:39:20 -0700, Mark Thorson >
wrote:

> This year's Mother's Day present was a set of Foodsaver
> canisters and a roll of bags for the Foodsaver I gave
> Mom last year.
>
> If you have one, you may be interested to know that
> Bed, Bath, and Beyond has been doing a clearance sale
> on the canisters at $10 for the set of three, which
> used to be $20.
>
> I don't consider these to be very useful, except for
> foods which oxidize like roasted coffee beans and
> for marinating meat, which is the main reason to get
> them. At $10, you may as well buy a set if you have
> the machine. You might not be able to buy them
> a year from now.

You need a machine for those things? One more item to store.

> I'll bet they cut into sales of the bags, which at $20
> per roll are rather pricey.

I dunno and I don't care either. Seems like a colossal waste of money
to me. Novel idea for some: don't buy so much and store less.

--
Forget the health food. I need all the preservatives I can get.

On Sun, 09 May 2010 14:39:20 -0700, Mark Thorson >
wrote:

>This year's Mother's Day present was a set of Foodsaver
>canisters and a roll of bags for the Foodsaver I gave
>Mom last year.
>
>If you have one, you may be interested to know that
>Bed, Bath, and Beyond has been doing a clearance sale
>on the canisters at $10 for the set of three, which
>used to be $20.
>
>I don't consider these to be very useful, except for
>foods which oxidize like roasted coffee beans and
>for marinating meat, which is the main reason to get
>them. At $10, you may as well buy a set if you have
>the machine. You might not be able to buy them
>a year from now. I'll bet they cut into sales of
>the bags, which at $20 per roll are rather pricey.

That's great, thanks Mark for posting this. I have a few canisters and
have been wanting more. And I have a 20% off coupon. Yippiee!!!

koko
--

There is no love more sincere than the love of food
George Bernard Shaw

www.kokoscornerblog.com
updated 05/09/10

sf wrote:
>
> On Sun, 09 May 2010 14:39:20 -0700, Mark Thorson >
> wrote:
>
> > This year's Mother's Day present was a set of Foodsaver
> > canisters and a roll of bags for the Foodsaver I gave
> > Mom last year.
> >
> > If you have one, you may be interested to know that
> > Bed, Bath, and Beyond has been doing a clearance sale
> > on the canisters at $10 for the set of three, which
> > used to be $20.
> >
> > I don't consider these to be very useful, except for
> > foods which oxidize like roasted coffee beans and
> > for marinating meat, which is the main reason to get
> > them. At $10, you may as well buy a set if you have
> > the machine. You might not be able to buy them
> > a year from now.
>
> You need a machine for those things? One more item to store.

Yes, you need a machine for them, but the machine is extremely useful. I
don't use the Foodsaver containers though, I use their large mouth jar
sealer attachment which vacuum seals regular Mason canning jars with the
regular canning lids. They work very well for vac sealing coffee beans
and also for marinating smaller items like chicken tenders.

>
> > I'll bet they cut into sales of the bags, which at $20
> > per roll are rather pricey.
>
> I dunno and I don't care either. Seems like a colossal waste of money
> to me. Novel idea for some: don't buy so much and store less.

Well, buying in smaller portions generally costs more per serving than
buying in larger portions. When you have a refrigerator / freezer
running anyway, it doesn't cost more to keep it full of frozen stuff.

Cooking for one just isn't practical either, so I find it eminently
practical to cook in 8-10 serving batches and then vac bag and freeze
the extra portions for future meals. The frozen vac bagged meals are
microwavable or boil-in-bagable and never suffer from freezer burn. I
still have a couple servings of thanksgiving dinner left in my freezer
ready for a quick meal.

Real BBQ take a long time tending a smoker to make, so making small
portions isn't very practical and would also be a waste of a lot of
charcoal / wood fuel for the smoker. BBQ freezes very well, so you can
do a large batch, portion, vac bag and freeze and have great BBQ in
minutes year round.

Additionally, being one of the main cooks for various events my dive
club holds, the Foodsaver vac bags are extremely useful for events where
most of the cooking needs to be done in advance and reheated at the
event. For one four day houseboat outing the club did, I smoked jerk
pork and chicken a couple days before the trip and then vac bagged and
froze them. We also had a taco night on the schedule, so the taco meat
was prepared, vac bagged and frozen as well. Other pre-made munchies
such as stuffed jalapenos got the vac bag and freeze treatment as well.
All the items were defrosted and reheated on the boat and received rave
reviews.

Foodsaver baggers are also useful for sealing camping, outdoor activity
meals and emergency supplies into waterproof packages. You can even seal
stuff like family photo albums into the bags, so they are both protected
from the slow decay when exposed to air, as well as protected from
disasters that may cause flooding.

So, the bottom line is that for a lot of people, a device like a
Foodsaver is a very practical item.

On Sun, 09 May 2010 19:05:17 -0500, "Pete C." >
wrote:
>
>So, the bottom line is that for a lot of people, a device like a
>Foodsaver is a very practical item.

Exactly! I live alone, so foods tend to go bad on me or get stale. I
use the FoodSaver containers for coffee beans, ground coffee,
pretzels, seeds and nuts, cookies, and pretty much anything else that
can go stale and does not require refrigeration. I keep a small
portion out for use and vacuum the rest.

In the freezer, I use the bags for butter (freeze before vacuuming),
hot dogs (I tend to stock up when things are on sale), steaks and
chops, and other things which are perishable and can be frozen (like
pine nuts, which are too expensive to allow to get rancid).

Barry in Indy