I'll give your questions a shot....someone else may chime in with a different opinion:

cookies - you can try flash freezing them flat first, then vacuum sealing but you may have better results if you freeze them in a hard sided container - even in a food saver bag they could be crushed by other items while stored in the freezer - stacked on top of each other may result in less breakage

hamburgers - form, flash freeze on a baking sheet, can overlap in the FS bag

Salisbury steak - line with foil a shallow casserole suitable in size for the amount of food, put food in lined casserole dish, freeze, remove when frozen with foil, fold foil over to seal, then put in FS bag big enough to hold the foil package

taco meat - I would not keep taco meat in the refrigerator longer than 3 or 4 days, if you want to keep it longer, just vacuum seal and freeze some of the amount.

Teresa

I freeze cookies first. (And chicken breasts, pork roast, hamburger patties, casseroles and everything else. If the surface is frozen, liquid won't come through and you get a good seal with the bag. The color is also retained, for instance with hamburger patties, because you didn't suck all the air out first. If you seal those before freezing, they'll turn dark inside the bag.) Then I vacuum seal the items flat (no overlapping.) When I want to thaw something and retain its shape (like cookies), I take it out of the bag or cut open the bag before they thaw so there's no damage (to the cookie.) As long as we're talking cookies here, another thing I like to do is make the cookie balls, freeze and vacuum seal so I can bake them from a frozen state. There's nothing better than warm cookies, especially if it's only as many as you're going to eat.

I keep an empty shelf in the freezer for half sheet pans just for freezing food that will be getting sealed.

I don't vacuum seal delicate items like croissants or soft breads. Instead, those go into freezer bags and are eaten fairly soon.

For things like Salisbury Steak, I tend to freeze the entire dish, usually in something kind of flat. I like to use pie plates, which I have a lot of just for this purpose, or rectangular glass baking dishes. When it's frozen, I'll put the whole thing in a vacuum seal bag and stow it in the freezer with instructions (written on the bag with a Sharpie) for defrosting, baking or reheating.

One trick is to seal everything so it doesn't mash together by leaving a little space between everything in the bag. When it's sealed, there'll be enough space for the bag to fill in the ''spaces'' and you won't have a big congealed blob when you take it out to use.

I hope this helps. You'll figure out what's working for you pretty quick!

Ok, here is my 2 pennies:

Cookies: Freeze them first flat and tehn pack flat.
Burgers: Shape, freeze solid and pack flat, side by side.
Salisbury steak: I freeze mine in a tuperware container, square shaped, and "pop" it out and into a FS bag for sealing.The same for other stews and soups.

Soft breads: Again, freeze first and soft vac pack.

Freezing the items flat does help save space in the freeze and a pre-wrap with those thin plastic produce bags make cleaning a FS bag easier.

Hope this helps.

Peppi

I don't have a food saver....but I sure freeze a lot of things.
Sitting food in the very dry air of a freezer, uncovered, even for a few hours removes moisture into the air inside of the freezer. They's why you have a food saver, so the food is protected from even the little bit of moisture robbing air inside a sealed plastic, freezer proof plastic bag.
If I am freezing hamburger patties, I separate them with squares of parchment or foil and stack, then I wrap the whole stack in saran and then in foil and finally put into a freezer bag. I can pop off a couple of patties and re wrap and they will keep for easily 6 minths with no loss of color. What causes the darkness in the center of a package of ground beef is the absence of oxygen....and that's a good thing! It has to do with the formation and transformation of a hemoglobin produce within the raw meat. Certain things happen when an animal is slaughtered.
To maintain freshness it is best to allow as little air around the item as possible. If you had a freezer that would go to minus 20 and flash freeze your meats that you had previously glazed with water....that's different. But a home freezer at zero degrees won't do the job fast enough to maintain moisture.
To freeze cookies, I lay in a flat container with a lid, and put parchment between layers, cover tightly and freeze and then transfer to bags if I am keeping them for longer than a month.
And if you open the bag before you thaw, you are losing moisture which will make the cookies crumbley.
Thaw on the counter at room temp and allow lots of time for the moisture to equalize.
Linda C

Linda is absolutely right about losing moisture in food by letting it sit in a freezer. That's why you'd never freeze anything for a few hours; that will form ice crystals which you don't want. The question had to do with vacuum sealing, and I've found it's best to only leave food in the freezer for as long as it takes to firm. For some foods that's 10 minutes; others could take 30 minutes if they have a lot of moisture. Some moisture is lost, which is what allows you to vacuum seal without pulling too much moisture from the food, since that is often what prevents the bag from sealing. There's a fine line; you'll have to figure out where that is for your particular freezer. The less time you leave it in the freezer, the better off your food.

To maintain freshness it is best to allow as little air around the item as possible. Of course; that's exactly what the vacuum sealer is for.

I freeze hamburger patties first, because beef that has turned dark just looks nasty to me (not fresh). I've personally never had a loss of moisture in the meat by doing this to the point I can vacuum seal it (15-20 minutes in the freezer). Again, I just don't want the juices to run into the machine. When I throw them on the grill after they've been thawed, at least they look appetizing enough to eat! No one I know wants to eat a grey, nasty looking hamburger patty.

Again, with cookies, because they are vacuum sealed there is no moisture loss as there is no oxygen for ice crystals to form. Even if you cut the end off the bag to allow a little air into it, then simply fold it under the food while it thaws, there's no moisture loss. Opening the bag first keeps the food from being compressed as it thaws, so instead of a dense compact cookie due to lack of oxygen, you'll have one that expands a little and becomes more...uh, ''normal'', for lack of a better word, because of the air. I've eaten things from my freezer that were vacuum sealed as long as a year before and experienced no losses of flavor/color/moisture. That's why my vacuum sealer has paid for itself in a short amount of time; it's in the cost of food that's no longer thrown away. They're especially great for small households, just for that reason. In fact, I'm on my second one in 7 years, since I wore the first one completely out.

When I was designing my kitchen, I realized the vacuum sealer was one of my most used appliances. Because it gets used at least 4-6 times a day, we never throw out food any more!

Thanks -- all this info helps so much. I am off to bake more CC cookies and tomorrow I'll buy 6lbs of ground beef from Costo to start cooking (and vacuum sealing).

Thanks again.