I've done fork tender brisket in a chunk, pulled, and sliced, and all were just fine. The pulled was in a bundle, and would have been easier to store in the freezer if I'd flattened and arranged the strings, but that's no biggie.

I might be missing something...I can't figure out with brisket, what's to smash?

Oh. Vegetables? I drain off most of the juice and freeze just the meat. There's a little very reduced veg stuck to the bit of remaining fat cap. If you want to freeze with a lot of vegetables and juice, a container would be easier, but you can do it using the method for soup.

Pillog: The smashing ? was about the meatloaf, since it isn't as solid as brisket.

I just wanted to know on the brisket if it kept any better sliced or whole.

I freeze meatloaf on a cookie sheet in the freezer (no topping) then vacuum seal. It works just like cilantro says.

Oh, sorry!! I'm having a weird day and kept reading "meat" but not "loaf"!

When I freeze meatloafs, I use fool pans and freezer paper. Very old fashioned, but really easy to defrost and heat up. ;)

Re the slicing or not, for me it's all about whether I sliced the whole thing before the second cook, or kept it as a chunk to be used in a different way. :) For freezing, it's, oops, unexpected plan change, toss it in the FoodSaver and throw it in the freezer, and be on my way. :)

ETA: FOIL pans. :)

Don't use a container.

You do not want air space around the food. Air space in a freezer will give your food freezer burn.

dcarch

Thanks: ci-lantro and cooper-that makes sense and easy enough to do.

dcarch7: That makes sense, too! I just remember when I wanted to food save cinnamon rolls, people said it would mash them unless I put in a container first, so wasn't sure what would get mashed.

Anyway, I already did the food saving and it worked well. I ended up putting each item in a thin plastic bag (that I've wanted to get rid of for some time-too thin to be good for much else) and then food saved. I thought it would take care of not getting food on the seal part before it was sealed.

Yes, Lizabeth. I've done that with the plastic bags, too. I lurk the meat counters in the morning for quick sale meats and need to get them processed and in the freezer pronto. Fold-over sandwich bags for raw pork chops, wrapped raw roasts in plastic wrap... that way you can get the raw food in the FoodSaver bag neatly and keep the bag dry. That works most of the time for me.

One additional way to keep the FS bags clean is to place the FROZEN item in one of those this produce bags, tie it shut, cut off the excess tail. Now cut a slit in the bag and seal.

We you are ready to eat the meal, remove it from the FS bag while still frozen and defrost in a washable contain. You bag stays clean or cleaner and can be washed and reused.

Ci and Pkramer: good tips on the use of plastic bags with the FS. I hadn't thought about being able to reuse FS bag.