paper wrap or vaccum seal

[jdf]

Plastic wrap and paper here.
Lasts for years for us if any make it that long by accident.

 

[Brittany Chukarman]

The local butchers wife taught my wife how to hand wrap really tight. We buy a roll of poly wrap from Costco and use commercial butcher paper and roller/cutter. Shes fast and does a really great job. I'm terrible at it with my arthritic hands. If for some reason I have to do it I use a chamber vac sealer and have very few seals fail if I clean the bag before sealing. 4 mil bags work well.

 

[Addicting]

I Vac seal, I prefer it. Both ways are good.

 

[Boarmaster]

I vac pak everything except burger that we put in the tubes.

 

[OntarioHunter]

One reason I have found why seal machines eventually fail is the heater and sealing bars get dirty. The white label paint on the bags will cook off onto the heater/sealer bars and then the machines have difficulty getting enough suction to trigger the sealer or the seal bars don't cook evenly. Keep the paint cleaned off and the machines will start sucking and sealing properly again. Also, as I said above, some brands of bags/rolls are a lot better than others.

 

[npaden]

I keep threatening to get a chamber vacuum sealer machine but haven't been able to justify the price or the the space for one.

I've used both paper and the food saver type bags over the years and am using the food saver bags right now. As mentioned by others, one nice thing is that now that we use the sous vide on a regular basis you can just drop the food saver bags right in there.

 

[Wild Bill]

One of the most overlooked mistakes when packing meat is packaging it wet. Patting the meat dry/tacky with a paper towel before packaging will help prevent freezer burn.
I switch between plastic wrap/freezer paper and the vacuum sealer. If I am packing whole muscles its usually plastic and freezer paper, if I am packaging some precut steaks its usually vacuumed.

 

[AustinL]

We wrap in paper and our meat stays good for as long as it lasts.

One other thing to think about is what exactly is freezer burn. It occurs as moisture is pulled from the meat. This is much more of an issue with a traditional “frost free freezer as the freezer pulls moisture from the air to keep frost from building this action accelerates freezer burn.

 

[ND_Hooligan]

Chamber type vacuum sealer for me. Bought it about 5 years ago and haven't looked back. Since seeing and using mine I've had 4 other friends buy them as well and every one of them are extremely happy with their purchase. Had 3 expensive suction type sealers over the years, which all burnt out, and also had issues with bags opening up in the freezer. Chamber type eliminated all of these problems. Also works great for making individual meals to take hunting which can be easily heated up by inserting in boiling water.

 

[Archelk]

We completely hate freezer paper packed meat. The reason behind this is the mess made during thawing! Nothing like my vacuum sealed bags!

 

[FlatlanderAZ]

I like to wrap with plastic then paper. Except burger. I smash 1lb burger balls flat in a vac bag. This way they are easy to stack in the freezer and defrost really fast.

 

[bigtee]

Get you a good vacuum sealer and be done with it. Vacuum sealers remove all of the excess air which is what allows the bacteria to build up and spoil the meat. Freezer paper will still keep meat for a little while but it does not compare to vacuum sealing the meat.

 

[Deleted member 20812]

I just cooked up a mule deer neck roast from 2018, wrapped in freezer paper. Miraculously, it wasn't spoiled or freezer burned.

 

[Pucky Freak]

Using proper technique, plastic-, then paper-wrapped lasts a really long time. I sponge excess moisture off the cut, wrap in plastic but not excessive so the air bubbles can escape, and then tightly wrap the paper and secure with a piece of butcher tape. Hard to switch to vacuum when this method works so well for me. I do have a vacuum sealer but I find that if I somehow poke the tiniest hole in the bag (bone edge, storing, organizing freezer, etc) it fills up with air and the meat gets freezer burned really bad.

 

[Pucky Freak]

I also don’t grind up all my burger right away. I package “grind pile” meat in 2 lb packages that gets partially thawed and ground 6-12 months after harvest to have fresher burger, especially if any suet is getting added.

 

[MThuntr]

Experiment with vacuum sealer (Nesco VS-12) and 4mil thickness bags with my antelope trim. Of the 5 bags I vacuumed; 1 failed for an unknown reason, 1 failed because I dropped it on concrete basement floor, and 3 survived so far. This is temporary storage until I decide when I want to grind but I'll definitely double wrap. Discounting the fact I dropped one, a 20% failure rate has me definitely back to wrapping with plastic wrap then freezer paper.

 

[Tiredofthebickering]

I also don’t grind up all my burger right away. I package “grind pile” meat in 2 lb packages that gets partially thawed and ground 6-12 months after harvest to have fresher burger, especially if any suet is getting added.

Doing this as well this year. Ended up doing something similar last year inadvertently (ground up a bunch of my "stew meat" pile as needed) and was really happy with it.

 

[rwc101]

The only drawback I've found to plastic+paper are my poor wrapping skills.

 

[Deleted member 20812]

I also don’t grind up all my burger right away. I package “grind pile” meat in 2 lb packages that gets partially thawed and ground 6-12 months after harvest to have fresher burger, especially if any suet is getting added.

I do the same.

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

I plastic wrap + freezer paper steaks and then vac seal cuts I know with be tossed in the Sous vide.