It's Here: Vacmaster VP215 Chamber Vacuum Sealer eidtion.

This is one I've been waiting for for a long time!  For the last year I've been saving up my Amazon credit card points and gift cards with the intention of buying a chamber vacuum sealer.  The Vacmaster VP215 was my first choice.  One of the primary things I was looking for was a chamber sealer with a oil vacuum pump rather than a dry piston pump, an oil pump requires some maintenance (changing the oil after a certain number of hours of use) but the payoff is that it will last much, much longer.  Last week while doing my regular price checking I saw a newer brand/model of chamber vacuum sealer called a Vac-Vida VS301 that seemed to have specs very similar to the Vacmaster VP215 but for only $625.  I seriously was considering buying one but there were a few red flags.  The first is that when running the Amazon reviews through Fakespot.com it came with an F rating for review reliability.  This is a pretty niche product and there were only 5 reviews at the time so everything could be on the up and up, but it was enough for me to take a step back and ponder things for a bit.  The other thing that caused me to hesitate is the complete lack of user reviews online, but I did see in a Reddit thread (now deleted) that the manufacture only started selling these in June so it could be that there hasn't been enough time for units to get in the hands of enough customers for user reviews to start showing up.  In any event, while I was trying to decide if I wanted to take the risk of buying an unproven chamber sealer or wait to have enough to buy my first choice a seller put up some Vacmaster VP215 chamber sealers on sale for $670.  Not Prime, but free shipping so I pulled the trigger and bought one!

So here is my new chamber vacuum sealer.  First off, this thing is HEAVY!  FedEx had the crate at 106 pounds.  Delivery was a bit unusual...first day they said it would be here I took a 1/2 day off work but they just didn't show up.  The next day I waited and waited and waited, then at 7:30 pm tracking went to the dreaded "Pending" so I figured it was delayed again so I got ready for bed (I get up at 4:30am for work), then the doorbell rang just before 9:00 pm.  f course I just go to sleep when there was a new toy sitting in a box downstairs so I decided to at least get thing set up.  I had watched a lot of videos on YouTube prior to ordering this so I knew what needed to be done in order to get the VP215 ready for use.  After unboxing and lugging it upstairs I removed the back cover, unscrewed the oil fill cap and added vacuum pump oil until it came up to just over 1/2 way on the sight glass.  Once the cap and back cover were back in place I moved it to its permanent (at least for the time being) home and plugged it in.  It was late by that time so I didn't have time to really play around but I had some slices of watermelon, honeydew melon, cantaloupe and pineapple ready in the fridge so I decided to try some fruit compression.  This process involved putting the fruit in a strong vacuum for 60 seconds then sealing it in a vacuum bag.  During the vacuum phase the pressure is so low that water in the fruit will start to boil at room temperature, this disrupts cells and when the bag is sealed and the chamber pressure goes back to normal the fruit will be compressed.  This leads to some interesting changes in texture and appearance.

As you can see in the picture, the watermelon slice that has been vacuum compressed is much darker than the one that hasn't been processed, it also has a much firmer texture and is "juicer".  The process also makes the fruit more translucent, this was most evident in the case of the honeydew melon, it ended up being clear enough that you could see your finger through it when picking it up.  The only other thing I've done since then is vacuum compress some strawberries with some of the strawberry juice I clarified recently with my Spinzall.

Some final thoughts...

The advantages of a chamber vacuum sealer over a standard edge sealer (like a Foodsaver) is that it pulls a much stronger vacuum, it allows you to seal liquids (or very wet items), you can do vacuum marinating, instant pickles and the bags are far cheaper than the textured ones required for edge sealers (Foodsaver quart bags are a little over $0.40/bag, Vacmaster 8" x 10" 3 mil bags are under $0.05/bag or less if you buy in bulk).  The edge sealers have the advantages of being much cheaper and more portable.

I've been keeping an eye out for reviews of the Vac-Vida VS301 and it has occurred to me that the layout of the vacuum gauge/indicators/control panel on the VS301 is almost exactly the same as it was on the old model of the Vacmaster VP215 when they had user selectable seal temperatures.

The Polyscience Smoking Gun

Last week I bought a new toy on Ebay that I've coveted for a while, a Polyscience Smoking Gun.  The Smoking Gun allows you add smoke to foods without adding any heat, so you can "smoke" delicate things that you don't want to cook like fruits and cheeses.  Obviously this isn't smoking in a traditional sense as there is no cooking and no penetration of the smoke in to the food, it just settles on the surface.  Two small cans of sawdust come with the Smoking Gun, hickory and apple wood, there are several other varieties available from Polyscience but they seem a bit expensive so I ordered this from Amazon which looks to be the correct grind for the gun.  Once I've had a chance to try them out I'll add the results to this post.  Other smoke sources people seem to be using are tobacco, tea and dried herbs, so many things to burn and so little time!  For my first foray in to cold smoking I used some hickory sawdust to smoke strawberries and sharp cheddar cheese...