Economics of home freeze drying. My very limited experience

[fnfalguy]

Just pulled out the raw, breaded tenders and put one aside to rehydrate and see how it does. As expected, out of the FD they are bone dry and devoid of moisture content.


For packaging they go into 7 mil mylar bags and they sealed up with the impulse sealer that comes with the price of the dryer. A small amount of bags also are in the package as well. The sealer seems to do a good job. Much better than the approach I used for some of the 5 gallon bags I've sealed. Much more consistent.

 

[phatfarmerbob]

Ok so the raw meat and eggs ect, does freeze drying kill harmful bacteria? Could you conceivably eat it raw since it was freeze dried?

If not what’s the advantage to not cooking beforehand?

 

[fnfalguy]

You still have to cook raw foods. Freeze drying doesn’t kill the bacteria, just puts them into some sort of Han Solo type stasis. So when you rehydrate it, they will still be there and ready to do their thing.

something like freeze drying raw eggs gives you more flexibility than cooking first. You can reconstitute the egg crystals and use that to make a scrambled egg, omelette or baking. Once it’s scrambled, well, you get the idea.

as for the meat, I don’t know what would be the advantage of leaving it raw vs. cooking first. At least, I don’t know yet.

 

[holdover]

This thing is the shit for long term preps! I love it. My trigger finger is getting itchy

 

[holdover]

Great way to dispose of body's too!!

 

[fnfalguy]

Sure is

 

[phatfarmerbob]

Sure is

View attachment 106128 View attachment 106129

freeze dried seashells ....

 

[fnfalguy]

The casserole and tater tots are out after 24 hrs. The Mac and cheese isn't done yet so back in for another 12 hours. The tots are really really good as they are with out hydrating, but the one sample hydrated well. The casserole hydrated well as long as I showed some restraint with how much water I added back into it. First photo is before. The rest are after.


And the next day, the Mac and cheese is finished. Yep, those are Brussels sprouts.

I think I'm going to take a day off and do the oil change thing for the pump and take freezer inventory to see what is getting processed this weekend.

 

[fnfalguy]

And took a bit, but the Mac and cheese reconstituted. The Brussels sprout didn't survive long enough for photo. Makes for odd breakfast amuse bouche

 

[repete]

Have you tried freeze drying water? If so how much water would it take to rehydrate it?

 

[Robin]

When you reconstitute, how do you do it, how do you know how much water to use, how long does it take before it won't break a tooth?
This is all very interesting, very cool!
Robin

 

[fnfalguy]

@Robin We do measure the before and after weight to get an idea on how much water was removed and how much(ish) is needed to add back. As for how we reconstitute, it depends on what it is. As an example, the yogurt drops and ice cream sandwiches we don’t reconstitute, it gets eaten dry. same with the pineapple chunks we are currently running. The mac and cheese, we added hot water and let it sit covered and kept checking on it for progress. For the breaded chicken, we added cold water since we had to reheat the product anyway.

 

[fnfalguy]

We experienced our first “failure” today and it was the pineapple. I’m not sure if the pieces were too large or if they contained too much natural sugar. We ended up running for an initial 40 hrs and it never dried out completely, still had a chew to it. We defrosted the unit and then ran it again for another 18 hours and not much more liquid was removed. They are still extremely tasty, but not appropriate for long term storage. Off they go onto the counter top as a snack. The powder was like spiderwebs in the tray and it tastes like a pineapple sugar. Going to try it in my morning protein shake.

on to the next product.

 

[spat]

You still have to cook raw foods. Freeze drying doesn’t kill the bacteria, just puts them into some sort of Han Solo type stasis. So when you rehydrate it, they will still be there and ready to do their thing.

something like freeze drying raw eggs gives you more flexibility than cooking first. You can reconstitute the egg crystals and use that to make a scrambled egg, omelette or baking. Once it’s scrambled, well, you get the idea.

as for the meat, I don’t know what would be the advantage of leaving it raw vs. cooking first. At least, I don’t know yet.

I bet there is a big taste/texture difference between a chicken breast that was cooked then freeze dried vs one that was freeze dried then cooked.

There is a reason we generally freeze raw meat and cook it afterwards. I bet it applies to freeze drying too.

 

[Robin]

Never had a freeze dried, or partially freeze dried pineapple, but just reading about it and my mouth is watering, a lot. Now I got to find some.
Robin

 

[fnfalguy]

Here you go @Robin it’s a very small amount, but for us, it has replaced a candy bar or something similar. The stuff is quite $$ to purchase in large quantities, but after this, I get a better understanding why.

Pineapple

 

[fnfalguy]

This weekend we prepared a huge batch of pork stew with potatoes, zucchini and squash.

This is going to take some time to pre-freeze. So while waiting on that, we grabbed some Birdseye prefrozen stuff. Chicken florentine and garlic chicken. This along with some left over soup we made went in to the freeze dryer today.

 

[fnfalguy]

The items after drying look quite similar to before, except you can pulverize the acorn squash soup. We are definitely putting the machine to use.

 

[fnfalguy]

We decided to do some condiments this weekend and chose both salsa and avocado salsa.
Before going into freezer and then freeze dryer


Coming out of the dryer today and with the salsa broken into powder


And reconstituted. They taste the same as before they started the process.

 

[Robin]

That is freaking awesome!!!!!!
Robin

 

[fnfalguy]

Today's experiment was not some new version of Columbian marching powder as may appear at first glance. Rather, it was two types of proto-hummus. The speckled one was an attempt to do dried chickpeas and Chipotle peppers and sauce while the other was garlic and chickpeas. After it was reconstituted, it didn't suck. Will be able to have a nice canapés selection when the zombies show.



Next up are three trays of ham and beans and the fourth tray will be pierogies.

 

[fnfalguy]

And 10 lbs of blue cheese dried and packaged. Reconstituted beautifully.


Next up is two trays of pulled pork and two trays of Mac and cheese and a small testing amount of mustards.

Going to do some chili con Carne after that and sambal olek

 

[Drinkthekoolaid]

We just have a "hobby" type dehydrator made by Gormia....not an industrial one.
We had a couple others but this is by FAR the best we have owned.

gourmia gfd1680 premium countertop food dehydrator - 6 drying shelves - digital thermostat - preset temperature settings - airflow circulation - countdown timer - free recipe book included - 110v - Walmart.com

Arrives by Thu, Oct 26 Buy gourmia gfd1680 premium countertop food dehydrator - 6 drying shelves - digital thermostat - preset temperature settings - airflow circulation - countdown timer - free recipe book included - 110v at Walmart.com

www.walmart.com

How long will dehydrated foods last?

 

[fnfalguy]

@Drinkthekoolaid here is some info

Shelf Life of Dehydrated Foods
Dehydrated foods can either be purchased already dehydrated and professionally packaged, or you can buy a good home dehydrator and do this process at home. Buying professionally processed dehydrated foods can be fairly expensive but some types of dehydrated foods just aren’t practical to dehydrate at home (such as milk).

These foods can last as little as six months or as much as twenty years depending on the type of food and how it is processed. The more moisture that can be removed from the food prior to storage, the longer it will generally last. Also if the food contains a lot of oils, it will greatly reduce the shelf life. Keep in mind that how well the food is dehydrated and packaged will make a big difference on its shelf life.

Below are some examples of the typical shelf life you can expect for these popular types of dehydrated foods when stored at room temperature (65-72°F). At the bottom of this article you will find a complete list of the shelf life expectancy for various dehydrated and dry foods.

Type	Shelf Life	Notes
Fruit	5 Years	Can last up to 10-20 years if professionally dehydrated.
Vegetables	20 Years	Incredibly shelf stable.
Milk	20 Years	Difficult to dehydrate at home.
Eggs	10 Years	Difficult to dehydrate at home.
Meat	0.5 – 1 Year	Meats are best stored in freeze dried form.

Note: The above table details the typical shelf life one can expect with various popular types of dehydrated foods. These are meant to be an estimate and are not exact. Shelf life can vary depending on the exact type of food and the process in which it is dehydrated and packaged.

 

[Drinkthekoolaid]

@Drinkthekoolaid here is some info

Shelf Life of Dehydrated Foods
Dehydrated foods can either be purchased already dehydrated and professionally packaged, or you can buy a good home dehydrator and do this process at home. Buying professionally processed dehydrated foods can be fairly expensive but some types of dehydrated foods just aren’t practical to dehydrate at home (such as milk).

These foods can last as little as six months or as much as twenty years depending on the type of food and how it is processed. The more moisture that can be removed from the food prior to storage, the longer it will generally last. Also if the food contains a lot of oils, it will greatly reduce the shelf life. Keep in mind that how well the food is dehydrated and packaged will make a big difference on its shelf life.

Below are some examples of the typical shelf life you can expect for these popular types of dehydrated foods when stored at room temperature (65-72°F). At the bottom of this article you will find a complete list of the shelf life expectancy for various dehydrated and dry foods.

Type	Shelf Life	Notes
Fruit	5 Years	Can last up to 10-20 years if professionally dehydrated.
Vegetables	20 Years	Incredibly shelf stable.
Milk	20 Years	Difficult to dehydrate at home.
Eggs	10 Years	Difficult to dehydrate at home.
Meat	0.5 – 1 Year	Meats are best stored in freeze dried form.

Note: The above table details the typical shelf life one can expect with various popular types of dehydrated foods. These are meant to be an estimate and are not exact. Shelf life can vary depending on the exact type of food and the process in which it is dehydrated and packaged.

A freeze dryer is a little pricey for me but it's awesome.

If I get into starting with a dehydrator and using mylar bags with o2 absorbers I think I can justify that as long as I can find good food choices that will last 5-10 years.

 

[spat]

@Drinkthekoolaid here is some info

Shelf Life of Dehydrated Foods
Dehydrated foods can either be purchased already dehydrated and professionally packaged, or you can buy a good home dehydrator and do this process at home. Buying professionally processed dehydrated foods can be fairly expensive but some types of dehydrated foods just aren’t practical to dehydrate at home (such as milk).

These foods can last as little as six months or as much as twenty years depending on the type of food and how it is processed. The more moisture that can be removed from the food prior to storage, the longer it will generally last. Also if the food contains a lot of oils, it will greatly reduce the shelf life. Keep in mind that how well the food is dehydrated and packaged will make a big difference on its shelf life.

Below are some examples of the typical shelf life you can expect for these popular types of dehydrated foods when stored at room temperature (65-72°F). At the bottom of this article you will find a complete list of the shelf life expectancy for various dehydrated and dry foods.

Type	Shelf Life	Notes
Fruit	5 Years	Can last up to 10-20 years if professionally dehydrated.
Vegetables	20 Years	Incredibly shelf stable.
Milk	20 Years	Difficult to dehydrate at home.
Eggs	10 Years	Difficult to dehydrate at home.
Meat	0.5 – 1 Year	Meats are best stored in freeze dried form.

Note: The above table details the typical shelf life one can expect with various popular types of dehydrated foods. These are meant to be an estimate and are not exact. Shelf life can vary depending on the exact type of food and the process in which it is dehydrated and packaged.

I would have thought meat would be more than 6 months to a year.

That's no longer than conventional freezing.

So you're trading the extra time and expense jist for some weight/space savings and no reliance on electricity ? And you lose a lot of versatility for the ingredient in the process.

 

[fnfalguy]

@spat That's why I freeze dry the meats. Much different shelf life. Summary from website below.

Store the steak in airtight containers or Mylar bags with an oxygen absorber. Make sure to label the contents of the container as raw and record the date they were freeze dried. Most meat should be good for 10 to 15 years if it is properly freeze dried and stored in at least a 7 mil mylar bag.

 

[spat]

@spat That's why I freeze dry the meats. Much different shelf life. Summary from website below.

Store the steak in airtight containers or Mylar bags with an oxygen absorber. Make sure to label the contents of the container as raw and record the date they were freeze dried. Most meat should be good for 10 to 15 years if it is properly freeze dried and stored in at least a 7 mil mylar bag.

Ok, because the table above said 6 months to a year, and that's not any better than a freezer.

 

[fnfalguy]

Dehydrating is the shorter time frame. Freeze drying is a completely different process and shelf life.

 

[Criticalt]

How long will dehydrated foods last?

I would have thought meat would be more than 6 months to a year.

That's no longer than conventional freezing.

So you're trading the extra time and expense jist for some weight/space savings and no reliance on electricity ? And you lose a lot of versatility for the ingredient in the process.

There are advantages to dehydrating meat over a freezer.....like you said, no electricity, no freezer burn, more room on freezer.....
Meat can last longer than that chart says.....ive eaten dehydrated beef and chicken after 3 years. The trick is to cut off extra fat, slice thin, dehydrate very well and vacuum pack very well. As far as versatility..... You cant really enjoy a steak, but anything you can cook in a sauce or stew works fine.....meatballs, stirfry, stew, chili.
With all that said, the only meat we dehydrate is beef jerky which lasts about 48 hours.
We do mostly vegetables and such.