Freeze Drying Food

[freak4life]

damn...this is getting easy. found actual MRE pouches (on amazon of course) that are the 7 mil mylar and can take boiling water. i was using the thinner mylar and transferring the contents to a bowl and then adding water to reconstitute, but these pouches are the ones you can add hot water to and eat right out of the pouch. THIS is what i was shooting for when doing the camp meals. not every meal will be a single serving pouch and i found a great hack for that, too...

i use a vacuum sealer a lot and regular vacuum seal bags are not made to store food for the 25+ years you can get from a mylar bag. mylar is a thin aluminium sheet bonded to the polybag and that is what preserves the food so well and keeps heat in when reconstituting...think of the emergency mylar blankets. apparently oxygen can get into any freezer/vacuum bag over time, but with the mylar, it keeps 100% of the oxygen out for many many years...
well...i can make a meal like beef stew and freeze dry it and stick a portion in a vacuum seal bag and pull all the air out. i can then take a freeze dried dessert and vacuum seal it in another bag and so on and so on and then take those smaller bags and put them in a large mylar bag and i now have a 25+ year shelf life for the contents.
i even found the MRE heating packs (yeah...amazon again...) so that i can make actual MREs that make their own heat, so i can have some of those around for when heating water by stove is not an option for whatever reason.

TOTALLY digging this. like i had said earlier, i got my first taste of freeze dried/dehydrated food being on submarines where any fresh food was gone the first week or so of deployment and then rest of the trip was the weird food. i remember watching a cook take a small green hockey puck and toss it in a pan of water. a few minutes later, the pan was full of green beans. i hate canned green beans, but these dehydrated ones tasted good to me and they were also fun to watch puff up like those compressed sponges you add water to and they puff up to 50X their size. being underwater for months at a time...watching dehydrated green beans puff up was prime entertainment...well, that and the times i'd sneak around on the sub with a tube of super glue...watching an officer thrash around as his hand is glued to a handrail never got old!

i also spent quite a few years in the gulf and overseas working off of any boat/ship/oil rig imaginable. some were great with really good food and some were pretty nasty, only to be outdone by the nastiness of the food they served us. i cant even imagine how much more tolerable some of those jobs would have been if i had a freeze dryer back then and could toss some freeze dried snacks and stuff in my duffle bag.

guess i get a good bit of my inspiration from being in remote areas with limited or just gross food available. i also realize that most foods that we can take camping, etc are heavily processed and have a lot of chemicals and preservatives added. the freeze drying just checks a lot of boxes for me and like i mentioned earlier...even the wife is taking to this and wanting to get into the freeze dried candies and snacks. its also a fun thing for us and when we are not on the road, this is a great thing to do and it goes right along with the "overlanding" and being self sufficient thing. im not a prepper...but i do like being prepared for things and food is a necessity, so thats a couple more boxes this checks off...

While watching some videos on this I saw a video on the need for oxygen absorbing packets for long term storage.

Oxygen-Absorbing Packets - 100 cc S-19586 - Uline

Preserve freshness and extend the shelf life of packaged foods. Prevents mold and bacteria growth. Removes over 99.9% of oxygen from sealed, airtight packages. FDA compliant.ULINE offers over 42,000 boxes, plastic poly bags, mailing tubes, warehouse supplies and bubble wrap for your storage...

www.uline.com

Are you looking into using these for your long term storage?

 

[grubworm]

While watching some videos on this I saw a video on the need for oxygen absorbing packets for long term storage.

Oxygen-Absorbing Packets - 100 cc S-19586 - Uline

Preserve freshness and extend the shelf life of packaged foods. Prevents mold and bacteria growth. Removes over 99.9% of oxygen from sealed, airtight packages. FDA compliant.ULINE offers over 42,000 boxes, plastic poly bags, mailing tubes, warehouse supplies and bubble wrap for your storage...

www.uline.com

Are you looking into using these for your long term storage?

definitely. i've been using the vacuum sealer for years dry storing things like beans, rice, flour, etc and i always use the oxygen absorbers. the oxygen absorbers are just iron filings that attract oxygen and burns it up converting the iron to an inert rust that is safe to use and very effective. if you open a pack of them and leave some out for a few minutes, they will get pretty hot as they are reacting to the O2. pretty cool how they work...when i first got them, i thought they were a silica gel or something

 

[grubworm]

gotta admit...the freeze dried candies are pretty good. i think some are just novelty, like the milk duds...but some are actually really good, like the skittles. the milk dud puffed up like a piece of spray foam insulation and tastes really good. the texture is crunchy like a pork rind and it dissolves real easily. difficult to package since it crumbles so easily, but it is still interesting. i dropped a couple into my cup of coffee and it quickly dissolved and gave a slight caramel flavor. not bad, but in my opinion...its more novelty. here is the dud...tastes better than it looks...



we did a batch of orange slices and they turned out great. they are thin and crunchy and taste really good just eating them rind and all. now these have a lot of uses and can also be powdered up real easily and used for cooking. the wife is mixing the powder with icing and using that on cinnamon rolls and it is phenominal in taste. got a few slices here next to the milk dud. the slices vacuum packed real well on a lower setting so they dont get crushed. if i pull a complete vacuum, the bag cinches up too tight and crushes them and they will break and powder. they will make a good snack hiking. son-in-law is wanting to take freeze dried orange slices and soak them in vodka to reconstitute them. might be worth a try. the wife wants to add it to a cup of hot chocolate. either should should be good, i'd think.



currently running a batch of watermelon and broccoli. i have seen a lot of rave reviews about freeze dried watermelon as a snack, so im about to see for myself. its supposed to be healthy and with all the water removed, the taste should be very concentrated and intense. also got a tray of mangoes in there...fruit is always a good snack.

im sitting here drinking coffee and saw an orange slice next to me so i threw it in the coffee with the milk dud. weird...not something i would ever do again on purpose, but it did get me to thinking about how good it would be to take different ice creams and freeze dry it in small cubes that can be used as coffee creamer. the wife cant have milk, so finding a non dairy creamer she likes is hard. we have a ninja i-creamy that makes ice cream and we have been doing a lot of coconut milk based ice creams that are super good. we use coconut milk and sweetened condensed coconut milk that makes an awesome ice cream. going to freeze dry some cubes of that and see if it cant be used on trips as a coffee creamer.

i know im pretty much just doing silly stuff right now, but its a good way to learn. im figuring out the machine on junk and weird stuff and then i'll move on to the meats and stuff. the actual freeze drying is pretty easy...organization and prep are the tricky part. once a batch is done, there are 6 big trays of freeze dried items that need to be immediately packaged. this means having vacuum bags sized and ready, a big work area clear and ready for 6 giant trays and then the vacuum sealer is set where it needs to be and then i also have an impulse sealer that doesnt pull a vacuum, but is used to seal the mylar bags. mylar bags can get up to 10 and 11 ply and you will need a very good impulse sealer to seal that thick a mylar bag.

we do pretty much everything homemade. we have a mill and mill our own flour and grits and we do our best to stay away from processed stuff. not always easy to do, but also not as hard as you think. even for those who are more into canned goods, this is a good thing to have. you can take the big cans of dinty moore stew and freeze dry it and have an immediate MRE to take camping. some folk on the youtube vids use mainly canned goods for freeze drying. one guy took canned beans and freeze dried them and then bagged them in portions and then added instant rice to the bag and now he has beans and rice MRE.

the real benefit will be realized when we find seasonal items on sale, like avocados, where we can purchase them in bulk and freeze dry them and have them all year around and not pay the high prices when they are out of season and imported. same for any fruit or vegetable. i really am amazed at the taste...most freeze dried things taste just as good as fresh when reconstituted. lots of rave reviews on avocados and guacamole being freeze dried and tasting good as fresh years later.
i also saw a vid where a woman has fruit about to go bad and so she freezes it and then later blends it and makes fruit bars. a very healthy snack that also saved money by not throwing it away.

 

[grubworm]

the wife sent me to the store yesterday evening to get celery. that only means one thing...she's about to cook her red beans! she's also fixin' to head to savannah in a few days, leaving me at home unsupervised...which also means only one thing...SPAM time!

the wife and i met almost 6 years ago and she was a petite redhead that ate very healthy and i was an average (yet smart and charming) bachelor with my oldest son living with me at the time and both of us eating with impunity. my son and i were known for our giant homemade burritos that were loaded with every un-healthy ingredient imaginable and then topped with cheese, sour cream and a dallop of hot sauce. when done right, these burritos were too big to fit on a plate and we had to eat them off of serving trays...

time passed, he went off to college and i married the cute redhead and gradually my diet became unrecognizable. SPAM became a distant (yet, still fond) memory and bean sprouts and vegetables replaced the once celebrated burritos. sure, she was getting me healthier...but at what cost!?
i eventually got her to allow SPAM on our camping trips and since it was now allowed into the house once again, a couple cans here and there might have gone missing when she went shopping or went to get her nails done. i think she started suspecting something when she would be gone for the day and returned home to find the trash was taken out and the crime scene...i mean kitchen...was spotless. no evidence...no crime
we continued playing the cat-and-mouse game of "where did the SPAM go"? all was going well until a few months ago when i got tagged with a gall stone and went to the hospital. of course the doctor was no help by exclaiming his brilliant observation of "its because of his diet!" i immediately saw the look in my wife's eyes and i already knew what was coming...

so...pretty much all of this to say that i'm eating SPAM this weekend!!!!!

this is a freeze drying thread, so guess what's going into the dryer next! yep! i did check and there are vids about SPAM being freeze dried successfully. one vid was a guy in hawaii who freeze dried tofu and SPAM and had great results.
like i said, the wife is heading out for a few days and that means i can focus on my freeze dried meals. i'm definitely doing a tray of her red beans and of course a tray of SPAM and then the other 4 trays will be various chicken and beef meals. so, for anyone following this and maybe interested in freeze drying...i'll have some good data on actual meats and meals. i ordered some organic brown rice and i will be using that in my rice dishes and going with very lean cuts of beef since fats do not freeze dry well. i researched "instant rice" and found that it is rice that is precooked a good bit and then dehydrated. freeze dried rice is different...its fully cooked and then freeze dried to remove all the water and it is more nutritious and will reconstitute with hot water, whereas instant rice still needs to be be cooked in boiling water for a few minutes to finish it off. so...using freeze dried rice in an MRE meal is the way to go.
my MRE pouches are arriving from amazon today and this weekend will strictly be freeze drying entrees for the MRE pouches.

i've been thinking about SPAM lately and i really like how it tastes with rice and scrambled eggs for breakfast. what if i freeze dry the SPAM and then powder it up and sprinkle it like a seasoning? i could dust (heavily) a baked potato with it or try the powder with the eggs and rice. i remember back when bacon bits were popular and everyone was buying the jars of that and sprinkling it on baked potatoes and salads, etc. i might be on to something here.

well...i have the wife's jeep fueled up and i have her packed...all i do now is wait...

 

[freak4life]

the wife sent me to the store yesterday evening to get celery. that only means one thing...she's about to cook her red beans! she's also fixin' to head to savannah in a few days, leaving me at home unsupervised...which also means only one thing...SPAM time!

the wife and i met almost 6 years ago and she was a petite redhead that ate very healthy and i was an average (yet smart and charming) bachelor with my oldest son living with me at the time and both of us eating with impunity. my son and i were known for our giant homemade burritos that were loaded with every un-healthy ingredient imaginable and then topped with cheese, sour cream and a dallop of hot sauce. when done right, these burritos were too big to fit on a plate and we had to eat them off of serving trays...

time passed, he went off to college and i married the cute redhead and gradually my diet became unrecognizable. SPAM became a distant (yet, still fond) memory and bean sprouts and vegetables replaced the once celebrated burritos. sure, she was getting me healthier...but at what cost!?
i eventually got her to allow SPAM on our camping trips and since it was now allowed into the house once again, a couple cans here and there might have gone missing when she went shopping or went to get her nails done. i think she started suspecting something when she would be gone for the day and returned home to find the trash was taken out and the crime scene...i mean kitchen...was spotless. no evidence...no crime
we continued playing the cat-and-mouse game of "where did the SPAM go"? all was going well until a few months ago when i got tagged with a gall stone and went to the hospital. of course the doctor was no help by exclaiming his brilliant observation of "its because of his diet!" i immediately saw the look in my wife's eyes and i already knew what was coming...

so...pretty much all of this to say that i'm eating SPAM this weekend!!!!!

this is a freeze drying thread, so guess what's going into the dryer next! yep! i did check and there are vids about SPAM being freeze dried successfully. one vid was a guy in hawaii who freeze dried tofu and SPAM and had great results.
like i said, the wife is heading out for a few days and that means i can focus on my freeze dried meals. i'm definitely doing a tray of her red beans and of course a tray of SPAM and then the other 4 trays will be various chicken and beef meals. so, for anyone following this and maybe interested in freeze drying...i'll have some good data on actual meats and meals. i ordered some organic brown rice and i will be using that in my rice dishes and going with very lean cuts of beef since fats do not freeze dry well. i researched "instant rice" and found that it is rice that is precooked a good bit and then dehydrated. freeze dried rice is different...its fully cooked and then freeze dried to remove all the water and it is more nutritious and will reconstitute with hot water, whereas instant rice still needs to be be cooked in boiling water for a few minutes to finish it off. so...using freeze dried rice in an MRE meal is the way to go.
my MRE pouches are arriving from amazon today and this weekend will strictly be freeze drying entrees for the MRE pouches.

i've been thinking about SPAM lately and i really like how it tastes with rice and scrambled eggs for breakfast. what if i freeze dry the SPAM and then powder it up and sprinkle it like a seasoning? i could dust (heavily) a baked potato with it or try the powder with the eggs and rice. i remember back when bacon bits were popular and everyone was buying the jars of that and sprinkling it on baked potatoes and salads, etc. i might be on to something here.

well...i have the wife's jeep fueled up and i have her packed...all i do now is wait...

So, she doesn’t read OB?

 

[Sparksalot]

So, she doesn’t read OB?

I've met @grubworm and his missus. I'm sure she knows what's about to happen.

 

[grubworm]

So, she doesn’t read OB?

I've met @grubworm and his missus. I'm sure she knows what's about to happen.

she never has checked out OB...she's married to me, so she knows i talk smack...she just doesnt know how much

in all seriousness though, i know she cares and limits my junk food out of love, so i do respect and appreciate that...HOWEVER, as a former commercial diver, i have been hurt pretty bad and had several near death accidents offshore. if THAT hasn't taken me out, i'm pretty sure a little overindulgence in SPAM and other junk food isn't going to do me in, either. i don't want to discourage her caring and at the same time, i like my not-so-healthy junk foods. its a fine line we walk...

but YES...i will be freeze drying AND consuming SPAM this entire weekend!

 

[freak4life]

i got a start on those red beans...
down here in the swamps, food is a big deal and many meals take HOURS to cook. she started off cooking down onions on low heat in a giant magnalite pot. after 30-40 minutes she'll add a little celery and bell pepper. in cajun cooking, they call that the "trinity"...most dishes like gumbo, red beans, jambalaya, etc all start this way. the beans and water are then added and set to boil a while and then simmer for hours. the beans get pretty soft and then she'll take a potato masher and start mashing up some of the beans which thickens the mix and gives it a creamy texture. serve it over rice and you have a damn good meal. i had that, spinich salad and fresh bread when i got home. if a cajun woman likes you...get ready to do some serious eating!

this is the kind of food i get on the daily and explains why i shun fast food and going out to eat. also explains why i'd rather go thru the process of freeze drying my own food versus buying mountain house and other brand dehydrated meals. might also explain the weight gain and the gall stones...

like i explained earlier, freeze drying takes the food to -30 degrees in a sealed chamber and then places it in a vacuum and starts heating it. something about being that cold and then heated in a vacuum pulls out the water in such a way that the food item is pretty much 100% preserved after having all the water removed. freezing the trays of food to be freeze dried helps speed up the process. instead of going from room temp down to -30, the dryer now only has to go from 32 degrees down to -30. i didnt pre-freeze the beans or the rice, so they went in the chamber last night starting at room temp and now at 4am, the freeze cycle is still going. just having the chamber reach -30 isnt enough, the food needs to be frozen solid at that temp, so it does take some time. once -30 is reached, then the vacuum pump comes on and the warmers on each tray turn on and depending on the type of food and water content, it might take anywhere from 12 to 30 hours to completely freeze dry. its all automatic, so once you stick in the trays and close the door...you can go do whatever until its finished.

i spread the beans out pretty thin in the tray so they will dry a lot faster and the rice being a little dry already and fairly porous, should dry fairly quick as well. i expect these to be done by late evening. i have a new tenant moving into one of my buildings, so i'll be in town today and that means that i might as well hit the grocery store and get what i need for my dishes that i will freeze dry this weekend.

i've lived all over the US and traveled the world a good bit and that has really influenced how i cook. i've eaten some awesome dishes from around the world and i always go home and try to copy them. without recipies and direct knowledge of how that particular meal was cooked...i just give it my best guess. i end up with my version, which is usually a fusion of several different cultures. i really love southwest and i have my version of it using corn, black beans and various types of peppers. i know if i made my version of "southwest" and took it to some natives of new mexico...they would slap me. same here. cajuns are very proud of their food and a lot of the recipes they have are passed down from generations. i come along and put my spin on things and i get what is called "the stink eye". basically a dirty look for desecrating their culture!

so with that said, i'll go over my processes on here, but probably skip my actual recipe since it is a hodge-podge of who knows what that is probably only going to be appreciated by my tastebuds. i know this because the wife will rarely eat my cooking. she's polite about it, but i'll notice out of the corner of my eye that her unfinished plate is slowly working its way toward the trash can.

the wife hates SPAM, but she did like my one dish pretty well. i cut up SPAM into a bunch of small pieces and sear it in a big pot. after its seared, i'll add a few cans of blackeyed peas and a big can of rotel tomatoes and let that simmer. i'll spice it up with powdered jalapeno, chili powder, garlic, salt, cumin, cayene pepper and a little sugar. after that simmer for 30 min or so, i'll mix in some rice and serve it up. i do that dish out camping a lot. that is also a dish i will be freeze drying this weekend.

Does the unit have a blue tooth connection in order to notify you upon completion of the cycle?

 

[grubworm]

Does the unit have a blue tooth connection in order to notify you upon completion of the cycle?

no. im not sure exactly how the unit senses things, but apparently it constantly senses the moisture content and adjusts time accordingly. basically, no two batches go for the same amount of time. i think in the past, the units just went for a set amount of hours no matter what, and then at the end you could check and add more time if needed.
if i know im not going to be around when i think the batch is going to be ready...i can either just let the machine go and once its finished, if no human intervenes, the unit automatically goes into deep freeze cycle to protect the freeze dried items OR you can go in before the start and add extra time. if i think the batch will be done around noon but i know i wont be home until 5, i can set an extra 6-7 hours and it will just continue to dry, which doesnt hurt the food at all and then when i get home i can pull it and package it.
so no, no notifications. kind of surprises me since everything is bluetooth now, but its not that much of a deal

 

[grubworm]

the beans and rice turned out really well.
not that much of a learning curve with this...started using it the day after i got it and havent stopped since and everything has turned out great.
i picked up chicken and a giant pork loin to freeze dry. i'll use half in dishes where i'll freeze dry the entire dish and portion in meal size servings in mylar pouches and the other half of the meat i'm going to season and cook sous vide THEN freeze dry it so it can be ready to use meat when i need it.

easy stuff. i really do like this type of food storage and even if all i did was make my own MREs for camping with it, i'd get it just for that.
i get its not for everyone, but for anyone interested and sitting on the fence about it...pretty sure you'd like it and use it lot more than you would have imagined.

 

[grubworm]

its about to happen....



i am wondering though...freeze drying gives a 20-30 year shelf life, but since SPAM already has a shelf life of 100 years...will my freeze dried SPAM be good for 20 years or 120 years??

 

[Ethan N]

its about to happen....

View attachment 270480

i am wondering though...freeze drying gives a 20-30 year shelf life, but since SPAM already has a shelf life of 100 years...will my freeze dried SPAM be good for 20 years or 120 years??

I would have to assume 20 years, solely because you are removing it from its packaging.

 

[grubworm]

currently have a batch of bananas freeze drying. it took a little over 30 bananas to fill the 6 tray with slices. i bought a banana slicer on amazon...sounds a bit hooky buying a banana slicer, but it is a lot quicker than cutting with a knife AND, most importantly, it ensures consistent slices so they all dry out evenly. these are great for long trips boondocking where regular bananas would go bad fairly quick. these make incredibly good snacks and can be added to cereals, etc.




working on meats to do later today. fats do not freeze dry very well, so the less fat...the better.
for the SPAM, i did a pan sear on some and the other i boiled for a few minutes to open up the meat a bit and to release some of the fat. i'll see which works best. the chicken is already lean and the pork loin i sliced into medallions and cooked them sous vide (vacuum sealed in a bag and cooked in water at 145 degrees for 3 hours) this released a lot of the fat while keeping the meat tender. after sous vide, i just pull the bag and cut a corner so the collected fats can pour away and then i freeze the bag until i am ready for it. usually want to freeze meats for 48 hrs prior to freeze drying because it speeds up the process of the machine taking it down to -30.

here is a bag i opened that had the pork loin cuts into slices with just salt added. some bags i'll add different seasonings to. i'll have a bag of mexican seasoned pork for times i'm doing burritos. like i said, i sous vide the pork slices and then open the bag and drain off the fat, then freeze the slices and transfer to the freeze dryer later on. i also bought a giant box of ice cream sandwiches to freeze dry for a snack/dessert. i bought a giant box of the ice cream sandwiches at sams for $12 and these are the giant FAT sandwiches. i see online where there are just a few pieces of freeze dried ice cream sandwiches going for $7 a bag. it might be half of a regular size sandwich. that is a pretty high mark up.
so for meats, i'll do them all cooked first so everything i take on trips will be cooked already. you can freeze dry raw meat and add water to it and then cook it like regular meat, but i prefer to have everything pre-cooked and all i have to do is add hot water and eat it. most meat will be incorporated into the dishes i cook...stew, potato and ham casserole, pork loin with rice and broccolli, etc. i will have just plain meat in pouches as well in case i want to do something different with it. instead of worrying about a frozen pack of chicken or a thawed bloody pack of chicken in the chest...i will have a nice dry pouch of freeze dried meat that can sit in the cabinet for years and be good to go whenever i need it.
the wife and i do some pretty long hikes and i really dont like carrying food. sandwiches get warm and fruits get mashed...so making my own MREs will solve that.

 

[grubworm]

the bananas are done and vacuum sealed with O2 absorbers...
i LOVE dehydrated bananas. when they are dried in a dehydrator, they shrink a bit and seem to get compacted where they are dense and crunchy. the freeze dried version doesnt shrink the banana slice, but removes the water in a way where the slice ends up dry, but since it doesnt shrink, it has more of a foam or cork feel to it. the taste is good, but the texture is lighter and less dense than the dehydrated bananas. these that are freeze dried retain more nutrients and will last longer since they are completely dried. one thing i have noticed, is that fruits freeze dried are wanting to absorb moisture out of the air a lot more. i did watermelon pieces the other day and they were absolutely phenomenal...only problem is that the wife left the lid off the jar and in no time, they absorbed moisture from our humid air and turned sticky and gummy. pretty off-putting.
i'm sure these bananas would do the same if i didnt keep them sealed well.
yeah, im just droning on here in the case that someone is reading and will eventually get a freeze dryer. i watched a lot of youtube channels on freeze drying and nobody had this info out there. its not a show stopper for me at all, i would expect dehydrated foods to want to absorb moisture in order to reach equilibrium with its environment. definitely reinforces the idea that good sealing containers and O2 absorbers are an absolute must when storing these type of items.
kind of like working with wood...if i take a piece of furniture from west texas where the air is dry and soul sucking...and then bring it to my house here in the hot and humid swamps, the piece of furniture will absorb moisture trying to reach equilibrium with the surround air and cause problems.

 

[Sparksalot]

the bananas are done and vacuum sealed with O2 absorbers...
i LOVE dehydrated bananas. when they are dried in a dehydrator, they shrink a bit and seem to get compacted where they are dense and crunchy. the freeze dried version doesnt shrink the banana slice, but removes the water in a way where the slice ends up dry, but since it doesnt shrink, it has more of a foam or cork feel to it. the taste is good, but the texture is lighter and less dense than the dehydrated bananas. these that are freeze dried retain more nutrients and will last longer since they are completely dried. one thing i have noticed, is that fruits freeze dried are wanting to absorb moisture out of the air a lot more. i did watermelon pieces the other day and they were absolutely phenomenal...only problem is that the wife left the lid off the jar and in no time, they absorbed moisture from our humid air and turned sticky and gummy. pretty off-putting.
i'm sure these bananas would do the same if i didnt keep them sealed well.
yeah, im just droning on here in the case that someone is reading and will eventually get a freeze dryer. i watched a lot of youtube channels on freeze drying and nobody had this info out there. its not a show stopper for me at all, i would expect dehydrated foods to want to absorb moisture in order to reach equilibrium with its environment. definitely reinforces the idea that good sealing containers and O2 absorbers are an absolute must when storing these type of items.
kind of like working with wood...if i take a piece of furniture from west texas where the air is dry and soul sucking...and then bring it to my house here in the hot and humid swamps, the piece of furniture will absorb moisture trying to reach equilibrium with the surround air and cause problems.

View attachment 270505

You’re about ready to open a storefront, Grub’s Grub.

 

[grubworm]

You’re about ready to open a storefront, Grub’s Grub.

ha! well...that does have a ring to it!

like i said earlier...we have friends that own shops in baton rouge and they want us to sell the freeze dried candies in their shops on consignment. i dont particularly feel like it, but the wife and her daughter said they would do it, so that is why i got the 2nd unit, so they can go play with that and i'll just stick to my stuff.

i am digging this, though. those dried eggs are really good...makes me want to go camping just so i can use them. i have my FIRST batch of SPAM in the freeze dryer at this very moment...if it turns out well, i will have the first ever spam, rice, & egg breakfast MRE...
i've looked and i cant find a single MRE with SPAM in it...

 

[Dave in AZ]

@grubworm I have enjoyed your thread, but don't have a freeze dryer so haven't commented. However, I love cooking and also individual meal prep, so enjoy this.

After your experience, can you say which unit you recommend?

Here is a guy I watch on YouTube you might not have seen, he does sausage mostly but also has a freeze dried playlist, Eric at 2guysandaCooler:


Keep on posting, you're making a great resource that others will use for years.

 

[grubworm]

@grubworm I have enjoyed your thread, but don't have a freeze dryer so haven't commented. However, I love cooking and also individual meal prep, so enjoy this.

After your experience, can you say which unit you recommend?

Here is a guy I watch on YouTube you might not have seen, he does sausage mostly but also has a freeze dried playlist, Eric at 2guysandaCooler:


Keep on posting, you're making a great resource that others will use for years.

thanks! appreciate the comments AND the encouragement!

yeah, that gelato looks really good. i have seen where people are freeze drying the small bite size (dollop) of yogurt, ice cream, jello, etc. i haven't gotten to that yet...but i did get those ice cream sandwiches that i'll be drying here shortly...

as far as freeze dryers go, harvest right pretty much has the market. they are by far the most popular and most used. there is a newer company called stayfresh, but i couldnt find all that much info from actual users, so i went with harvest fresh. i went with the large unit since i knew i would be freeze drying for camp trips as well as home use and figured i'd be doing stuff for family as well. first week i got it, the wife and step-daughter went nuts having me do a bunch of different candies. i still managed to get some of my stuff in the dryer, but i quickly realized that some runs will take 30+ hours. if you dont pre-freeze the food first, it takes the machine a lot longer to hit the -30 degree temp going from room temp than it would if the food was already at freezing. after hearing how they want to make all these freeze dried candies, i just went on and ordered the harvest right XL in stainless that is huge and has double the capacity of the large. that one will be for me and the wife can have the large to play with. one thing with the large and XL...they are big and require a dedicated 20A circuit. i ran one for my large and now i'll be back up in the attic with a fish tape running another circuit.

appreciate the link...i have watched a lot of youtube freeze drying vids and hadnt seen this guy yet. pretty much every channel i've watched has had something useful to offer. i did see where sausage is tricky and one guy freeze dried a weenie and the best it did was get to consistency like a slim jim...kind of like a gummy jerky. thats why i sous vide the pork, to pull out a lot of fat, and i boiled the slices of SPAM hoping it would open up the meat, rid some of the fat and hopefully help it freeze dry properly.

 

[grubworm]

ABSOLUTELY NAILED IT!

just finished my first batch of freeze dried meat...
the chicken alone is worth getting a freeze dryer! like i said earlier...i cooked the chicken breast sous vide and that pulled out a lot of fat and juices right there. same for the pork loin.
when i pulled the chicken out, it looked pretty normal except that it is super light and feels like a piece of styrofoam. you can break off a piece and it tastes like a crunchy chicken cracker. i just boiled a batch of egg noodles and had the pot of hot noodle water still on the stove, so put a piece of the chicken in the hot water and it reconstituted immediately. less than five seconds in the water and i pulled it and it tasted like fresh chicken right out of the pan. same texture and taste as fresh chicken. this is going to be great for MREs. same for the pork loin. i also did pieces of ham, and they were great. they taste really good eating the pieces dry and they also reconstitute good as fresh.

i also did the SPAM and it turned out excellent. i was afraid of the fat content, but not a problem. i seared one batch and mashed the grease out with a paper towel and the second batch i boiled for a bit. not sure if any of this helped as i didnt use a regular piece as a control...will have to do that next time.

anyway...freeze dried meat is pretty easy to do and extremely tasty when reconstituted. i did two pouches of chicken, each pouch having 2 breasts, and after freeze drying, the 4 chicken breasts weigh 10 oz. i just saw a site online that has 6 (2 ounce) pouches of freeze dried chicken for $70.

the run i just did had 7 pounds of pork loin, 4 pounds of chicken breast, 1 can of SPAM, left over ham i had in the freeze and i did a full tray of celery. (the wife uses celery a lot, but always runs out so i freeze dried a lot so she'll have it). vacuum sealed it all and i'm good to go! if i was doing this batch for long term storage, i would use mylar pouches and oxygen absorbers.

this meat is freaking amazing! i also have some whole dishes made up and freezing right now...did beef stroganoff, a pork, rice and broccolli in cream of mushroom sauce dish, ham rice and blackeye peas and a couple other casseroles to try and see how well they freeze dry.
the pic below is all the meat vacuum packed and ready to eat adding hot water only, no additional cooking needed. probably have over 2 weeks worth of meat for the wife and i out camping...and it is light as a feather and needs no cold storage.

 

[grubworm]

for anyone interested...i can say that this is time consuming. not a terrible thing if you plan it right, but definitely not something you can do in a hurry. i have heard where freeze drying pickles is a big deal and the wife saw some freeze drying vids on tik-tok where they sold freeze dried pickle chips faster than they could make them. so im doing a pickle batch to see if the hype is earned. i sliced up some big fat kosher dills and then did a tray of hot and sweet chip pickles and then TWO jars of pickled okra. im kinda rooting for the okra to turn out good. anyway...i didnt pre-freeze this mess and just went straight into the freeze dryer with it. it took 9 hours for the pickles in the trays to reach a solid -30 degrees. pre-freezing would have probably saved about 3-4 hours of that time, but i was tired and ready for bed so i just went with it.

got up at 4:20am and saw that the freeze is completed and the unit kicked on the vacuum and heaters. probably about 12-16 hours left to go. turns out OK, though. i put the trays in right as i went to bed and if i was punching a clock still...i would just go to work as the unit continues to operate and probably by the time i'm ready for bed again, the stuff should be done and then i can package the dried stuff and stick in a fresh batch and start all over again.

the only thing that is relatively quick are candies. skittles, for example, does NOT go thru the actual freezing process like i thought it does. i did end up freezing my first batch of skittles like i would regular food and it didnt mess anything up, they turned out right anyway, but i did waste a lot of time freezing them when i didnt need to. candies are different and since they dont have much moisture, there is no need to freeze them. all you do is pour skittles in the trays and put inside the dryer and go to "candy mode" where the heaters heat the candy to 145 degrees and then pulls a vacuum on them and since the sugar is soft from the heat, it expands in the vacuum. took about 45 minutes to get the candies to temp and in the case of skittles, about 10-20 minutes under vacuum and they were done. other candies might take a bit longer, but usually an hour will get most of it where it needs to be.

i went and bought another freezer and a bunch of trays so i can make casseroles and stuff like that and then freeze it on the trays and then go straight into the dryer when ready. saves a lot of time and makes the process a lot more fluid.

ive been freezing foods all my life and up until now, was the main way i knew to preserve food in bulk. i lived in the country as a kid and we always stocked up on frozen foods...meats, veggies, tv dinners, etc. i know i have had a LOT of food ruined from freezer burn and just getting buried and forgotten about...especially in chest freezers. after tasting how good the freeze dried chicken turned out, i will probably just freeze dry all my bulk meats now. i can easily get 15 years shelf life and the food retains pretty much all of its nutrition and does not need refridgeration...which means i will no longer be dependent on electricity...which we lose all the time down here. hurricane ida hit us 2 years ago and we were without power for over a month. people with full freezers had to run generators constantly and a lot of them gave away their frozen foods or had giant cookouts where they cooked it all at one time. i'd much rather have my stuff freeze dried in a bunch of mylar bags and stored on a shelf in the pantry where i can use it as i need it. to me, thats the whole point of having bulk food...

freeze drying is definitely going to be a game changer when camping. the wife cooks at home and i cook on our trips. we generally basecamp and stay gone hiking and exploring all day and usually get back to camp at dark, tired and worn out. the last thing i want to do is cook a big meal and then deal with clean up and all that. (damn...now i understand how i got bagged with that...) anyway, all i have to do now is boil water to have a great meal and clean up is little more than throwing away the mylar bag and washing my Spork. (i usually just wipe it off on my pantleg)
the really smart move is getting the wife to cook extra while at home and i can freeze dry that and use it as our camp meals. the wife will like it since its her cooking and i like it since i didnt have to cook it. i see nothing but wins here...



hummm...guess trump has a freeze dryer, too!