Freeze Dryer

[nate77]

That is on the list for sure

Done lots of scrambled egg dishes, this is the first time I added cheese.

Didn’t have enough for another bag, so I’m going to rehydrate the remainder for breakfast tomorrow.

 

[Kdf101]

What portion sizes do you put in the bags? Do you weigh them, or just eyeball? Obviously more if it is more than one serving, but what do you use as a serving size?

 

[nate77]

What portion sizes do you put in the bags? Do you weigh them, or just eyeball? Obviously more if it is more than one serving, but what do you use as a serving size?

I just eyeball it, those are quart bags, figure enough for two, or one if you are really hungry.

 

[Quickfoot11]

After years of wanting one, the wife and I finally broke down and ordered ours today. I will try to remember to post a review of sort and how we like it. Anybody on here have one, or have any tips, tricks, etc on their use?

Eager to hear what you have to say about it! I've been wanting one for years too. I'm curious, after you've had some time with yours... Is it easy or time consuming? Simple to mold into your regular life to build up a good stash of food? Or just tedious?

 

[Kdf101]

Eager to hear what you have to say about it! I've been wanting one for years too. I'm curious, after you've had some time with yours... Is it easy or time consuming? Simple to mold into your regular life to build up a good stash of food? Or just tedious?

So far we have only done a bunch of onions, my mom bought about 50 pounds off of a truck. We have been grinding up the freeze dried onions into onion powder and then either putting it into Mylar bags or vacuum sealing them in mason jars. To this point, it is incredibly easy to use. Next up for us is carrots and then eggs. I will post follow up when we do.

 

[Quickfoot11]

So far we have only done a bunch of onions, my mom bought about 50 pounds off of a truck. We have been grinding up the freeze dried onions into onion powder and then either putting it into Mylar bags or vacuum sealing them in mason jars. To this point, it is incredibly easy to use. Next up for us is carrots and then eggs. I will post follow up when we do.

Nice. Eggs will be especially interesting. How are you prepping them beforehand? That's the type of food that would be extremely beneficial to have in an emergency. Lots of good protein and fat. Not to mention delicious with some hot sauce!

 

[Kdf101]

Well you can either cook them, scramble probably for us, and the. Freeze dry them, or freeze dry them raw. for raw you can then powder them and add water and cook.

 

[nate77]

Eager to hear what you have to say about it! I've been wanting one for years too. I'm curious, after you've had some time with yours... Is it easy or time consuming? Simple to mold into your regular life to build up a good stash of food? Or just tedious?

Not going to lie, it is more tedious than I thought going in. The biggest sticking point is knowing when the food is totally done, you can’t trust the machine. Some people just add tons of extra dry time, lots of wasted electricity, others keep weighing the food until there is no more weigh loss, weight being water. Luckily my job comes with an IR camera, so I use
option 3 scanning the tray of food for cold spots, the easiest, but most expensive option.

 

[Kdf101]

Got some carrots in right now. The prep time was a little more. Peeling then blanching them. We will see how they turn out. Definitely a learning curve with some stuff, but not too difficult to figure out. So far we are happy with it. Eggs later this week.

 

[ChrisK]

We have been freeze drying for a few years now. Just finished our 210th batch. We do everything from milk to ground beef. I think we have over 400 eggs done. Just remember that anything high in fat can’t be done. We have purchased turkeys when they are 89 cents per pound. We bake them and then freeze dry the cooked meat.

 

[Kdf101]

Started our first batch of raw eggs this evening. We will powder them and bag them when done, maybe some in vacuum sealed jars. The plan is for the next batch to be scrambled. FWIW, we have a medium 5 tray model and I got 60 eggs in it For this batch.

 

[dieselrealtor]

How do these do with meats?

I have heard if the fat is removed it is better, but what if the meat is fatty?

 

[Kdf101]

How do these do with meats?

I have heard if the fat is removed it is better, but what if the meat is fatty?

Haven’t tried any yet with ours. I hear super fatTy meat is not good, but people do allot of meat in them. We will definitely try some.

 

[nate77]

How do these do with meats?

I have heard if the fat is removed it is better, but what if the meat is fatty?

I really like ground meats, pork, chicken and beef.

Just to be safe for long term storage, I rinse the meat with hot water after cooking.

 

[Kdf101]

I learned something new about the freeze dryer tonight. I learned that it is super easy to use it as a vacuum chamber to vacuum seal the Mylar bags and even mason jars. It seals them up tight! The bags lok like something that came commercially vacuum sealed, virtually no air at all in the bags. We were considering buying a separate vacuum chamber for this, but not now!

 

[nate77]

Wife and daughter have a cup sale coming up, spent the whole weekend running candy.

Sour Apple Carmel suckers, ran 48 of them plus skittles, jolly ranchers, air heads, peeps, nerd clusters, and gummy bears.

 

[Kdf101]

We just finished a batch of ice cream sandwiches.

 

[nate77]

We just finished a batch of ice cream sandwiches.

Ice cream is fun too, I didn’t eat any since I’m doing low carb, but it looks pretty, and was a big hit at the party I took it to.

My recommendation, avoid chocolate, it bubbles really bad, must have more sugar.

 

[Kdf101]

The ice cream sandwiches basically become crunchy ice cream sandwich flavored cookies. Not bad. We did blueberries today and failed. i think next time we will freeze them first and then break them up in a blender before freeze drying. Their skin is just too thick to dry all the way in a semi reasonable time. The bananas and strawberries turned out great though.

 

[Creedmoor]

Chickens have stared laying again, scrambled eggs, ham, and cheese.

How many eggs do you think are on each tray please?