Thanks so much for watching and commenting! I hadn't seen this video in a while; it sure was quiet. 🤣 I need to make more like this for people who are already comfortable making/doing things. Most of my newer videos have incessant talking to try to answer all the questions I get if I don't tell _everything_ point-by-minuscule-point. (I think that this shirt goes a long way to explain why. - ua-cam.com/video/8kjkox2ymmw/v-deo.htmlsi=Zzm0gC_BBw4OYfL5&t=262 :)
THANK YOU for NOT talking !!! It's sooo much easier to follow the recipe and directions when they're aren't any stories of ie: "aunt Martha made this for every family yada yada etc." Or when the same thing is repeated over again.There is one utuber that I would like to watch but she never shuts up ! It's a shame, so distracting. Anyway I will definitely make this today to FD. :)
Thanks for watching. I mostly only pre-weigh the liquidy items (soup, stew, milk, etc.) that I'll want to get back to the same consistency when I rehydrate it.
Great! Please let us know how it works out for you. Did you see the very long _Beef Stew_ video? ua-cam.com/video/jQqnWFslrlw/v-deo.htmlsi=urY7TEqvSMEyxdrG A lot more details!
Thanks. If I ever start making them to sell, I'll have to sell the pan with them because it seems like every time we bought a batch of pans they were a tiny bit different.
its nice to see you make stuff and freeze dry it but people that click on freeze drying videos want to see the re-hydrating. we want to see if the end result is worth the investment. we want to know if the flavors and textures made it through, what worked and what might not work so well.
I'm trying to add more rehydrating and/or taste testing to the end of the freeze dry videos. I'll try to add a short video of rehydrating the stew soon.
Making an Acrylic Disc Front for a Harvest Right Freeze Dryer ua-cam.com/video/erH1VDqNi80/v-deo.html If your freeze dryer is like our 2017 machine, the opening is not quite round and that would make it difficult to make a disc for some one else's machine. (I just checked my sister's new machine and it's round) For my first test piece I cut a very accurate circle out of a piece of foamcore and it had gaps of 1/8"+ (3mm +) around the edge. Adding Front Seal Insulation To A Harvest Right Freeze Dryer ua-cam.com/video/LA1sHVUqKts/v-deo.html The metalized film bubble stuff is used for shipping cold stuff. (I think it may have been this kind, ipcpack.com/products/box-liners/ but there are lots of brands. I just used what I had.) We got our bubble stuff when it arrived wrapped around some frozen food, (a cake, I think) with frozen cold packs, from Harry & David. I saved it knowing that a use for it would show up. And Voilà!
Hi, this video defines one of the first things I'll make as soon as my unit arrives. I wonder if you could tell me where to get those small trays you use and if I'm right the 3D printed divider file. That was brilliant thinking. Thanks, I think I'll binge watch a few more episodes now.
The pans are just some pans we bought at a local Dollar store. We have 20 - 30 of them; some are 10+ years old. They were called 8x8" pans, but the bottoms are about 7x7", a perfect fit for our freeze dryer pans. The divider is something I designed and 3D printed to fit one set of our pans. (If you notice some of our pans have an X on them; these are the ones that the dividers do not fit) They were printed with ABS then vapor/acetone smoothed to seal them. It would probably be pretty easy to make dividers using foamcore or cardboard and then covering it with plastic wrap, for those without a printer. This is the Thingiverse link www.thingiverse.com/thing:3848619 And here is the design and print video ua-cam.com/video/3KLblPCTpHk/v-deo.html The printing starts at about 4 :15 ua-cam.com/video/3KLblPCTpHk/v-deo.html
Thanks for watching! No issues with oil, so far. However, I'm not worried, because commercial companies like Mountain House has freeze dried ground beef that's good for 30 years and has plenty of fat. (15 grams of fat in a 37 gram dry serving. I worked it out once, and I think it worked out to about 93% lean before freeze drying) mountainhouse.com/collections/freeze-dried-meats/products/ground-beef-10-can I use weight to check to see if the food is completely dry. I show this a lot in my current video series. I don't know of any method I would trust to make sure the water has been removed other than the weight check method. I'm probably a bit neurotic when it comes to water activity levels in the food for storage. (I can't find the science paper I'm looking for right now because I'm changing computers and not all the drives are installed yet, but if I remember correctly, for safe long term storage the water content needs to be below 4%. (or 2%) I just always aim for as close to 0% as I can get) I'm using the fact that the weight of the trays of food should stop dropping when all of the water has been removed. When the weight loss stops, (no more water to remove) they should be dry. I don't bag the food with still water in it. Even with the type of meter that I would consider using, ( www.weberscientific.com/water-activity-meters-novasina ) I STILL wouldn't trust it, because it's still only checking a small sample size/location on the tray. By using the extra drying time method, I'm essentially able to test the entire load at once. If I could find a meter that could check the entire tray at once, I would get it. (If it were somewhat affordable)
You've done a bit of adapting there - tell us about the door cover in place of the shield that use to be provided by HR & the extra silver seal you that appears to be around the rubber gasket area - at least it looks like there is something different there.
Thanks for watching. This is the acrylic disc front ua-cam.com/video/erH1VDqNi80/v-deo.html and this is the front seal insulation ua-cam.com/video/LA1sHVUqKts/v-deo.html
Rehydrating a Cup of Beef Stew - Freeze Dried in 2018 - ua-cam.com/video/a1CuXgKTxog/v-deo.htmlsi=2sKHlG_6_gvuxF2A Rehydrating 5+ Year Old Beef Stew - Freeze Dried in 2017 - ua-cam.com/video/LXYNU5MQGJY/v-deo.htmlsi=fcN3FVcfEHqv_u9K Rehydrating Beef Stew - ua-cam.com/video/1cpXgaW7a4c/v-deo.htmlsi=8Jb3s5BOXFqhq0H5 Rehydrating Freeze Dried Beef Stew - Homemade vs Mountain House - ua-cam.com/video/w_p5j5oyX5M/v-deo.htmlsi=AUlZHm-mUzFdkI5A Rehydrating play list - ua-cam.com/play/PLXAehi0jnS92YA7nc_BrDHxXOVUWJCd49.html
Thanks for watching. The divider is just something I designed and 3D printed to fit our pans. Here is the design and print video if you are interested; ua-cam.com/video/3KLblPCTpHk/v-deo.html They were printed with ABS then vapor/acetone smoothed to seal them. It would probably be pretty easy to make dividers using foamcore or cardboard and covering it with plastic wrap, for those without a printer. (no 3D printer? 😢) Another viewer used cut some out of thick plastic (like thick cutting board) to make their dividers. (They did have a laser cutter) 😁
Thanks for watching and commenting! I don't actually know the exact time for this batch. (I didn't used to write down the time data until a lot of people asked) The time data is only applicable if all the variables are the same. And there are *_a lot_* of variables. These other Beef Stew batches took about 48 hours(+or-) Beef Stew in batches 605, 606, 607, 608 ua-cam.com/video/jQqnWFslrlw/v-deo.htmlsi=_SPfH9b9Y6HaoiXv I generally do 10 pounds in each batch. I did upload the batch times for the _"500 lb in 50 Batches in 100 days"_ video series and those batches ranged from about 29.5 hours to about 53 hours. (Not counting the batches that started as "dry" before starting) Most are well over 35 hours. My machine is from mid 2017. If you are interested, you can see the 50 batch series data here: First 500 lbs data spreadsheet link: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ieekdk5aH_2OWLUealeOLurU9_zl03BfFEg_qhAgcaA/edit?usp=sharing
The short answer is - it depends! These _Beef Stew_ batches took about 48 hours(+or-) Beef Stew in batches 605, 606, 607, 608 ua-cam.com/video/jQqnWFslrlw/v-deo.htmlsi=_SPfH9b9Y6HaoiXv There are so many variables to the dry times; type of food, water content, sugar content, temperature of the food when loading, ambient temperature of the room, how much food in a batch, more than one kind of food in a batch, food volume, how tightly it's packed, thickness on the tray, how well it contacts the tray, how porous the food is, how the food was sliced (this made a huge difference with citrus and pineapple), how clean the vacuum oil is (if it's an oil pump), and I'm sure there are more including the ones you mentioned - the weather - temperature and humidity make a difference! Oh, and of course, which model, year, and firmware it is. The newer machines are maybe 10 or 15% faster. I've considered telling people, when asked "how long did that batch take?" that it was 32 hours. And then explain that if you adjust the conditions just right, that every batch COULD be run in 32 hours. 🤣 My longest batch times have been 70+ hours - blueberries or pineapple. I had people tell me that they are doing batches in 20 ish hours too. I have no idea what the "batch" was, but they are not like my batches. Did you see my series of videos - 100 Days: The First 50 Batches - Freeze Drying 500 lbs of Food? ua-cam.com/video/AZJWMTAPDOc/v-deo.html In this video series one of my goals was to do about 10 pounds per batch. The batch times for these 50 batches range from about 29.5 hours to about 53 hours. (Not counting the batches that started as "dry" before starting) Most are well over 35 hours! You can see the data here: First 500 lbs data spreadsheet link: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ieekdk5aH_2OWLUealeOLurU9_zl03BfFEg_qhAgcaA/edit?usp=sharing
I have a picture of the pans in a post over on the community page. ua-cam.com/users/SchoolReportscommunity (a couple months ago) We got them at Dollar Tree; they also have them online. www.dollartree.com/cooking-concepts-square-cake-pans-75-in/10065 They blocks come out of the pretty easily most of the time. We started spraying them with a bit of non-stick cooking spray to help them come out easier, like in this video - ua-cam.com/video/Rc0CrgUZq6g/v-deo.html
I only have 5 1/2 years of personal experience with OUR freeze dried items, so I only KNOW it's good for about 5 1/2 years. Commercial companies give their food a 25-30 years shelf life.
The short answer is: Sorry I don't really know. The long answer is: Sorry I don't really know, but with 2 cup blocks of stew and a full freeze dryer with 20 cups total it would probably be in the 45 hour range. (+ or - 10 hours) I've considered telling people, when asked "how long did that batch take?" that it was 32 hours. And then explain that if you adjust the conditions right, that every batch COULD be run in 32 hours. Otherwise it's kind of like asking how long does it take to go from my city to the next city over. The only good answer is: That depends... I hardly track the total times anymore because it's an almost worthless, ballpark number, except the freeze time and final dry which depend mostly on food type. It's done when it's done. 99% will somewhere between 18 hours and 70 hours. Even if I load the freeze dryer the same way, with the same amount of the same food, for two consecutive batches, the total time can still be a few hours different. All I can do is generalize about total freeze dry time because there are so many variables to the dry times; type of food, water content, sugar content, temperature of the food, ambient temperature, how much food in a batch, more than one kind of food in a batch, food volume, how tight it's packed, thickness on the tray, how well it contacts the tray, how porous the food is, how the food was sliced (this made a huge difference with citrus and pineapple), how clean the vacuum oil is (if it's an oil pump), and I'm sure there are more.
The pans are just some pans we bought at a local Dollar store. We have 30+ of them; some are 10+ years old. They were called 8x8" pans, but the bottoms are about 7x7", a perfect fit for our freeze dryer trays. The divider is something I designed and 3D printed to fit our pans. They were printed with ABS then vapor/acetone smoothed to seal them. It would probably be pretty easy to make dividers using foamcore or cardboard and then covering it with plastic wrap, for those without a printer. This is the Thingiverse link www.thingiverse.com/thing:3848619 And here is the design and print video ua-cam.com/video/3KLblPCTpHk/v-deo.html The printing starts at about 4 :15 ua-cam.com/video/3KLblPCTpHk/v-deo.html
You could but it wouldn't be quite the same results. Even Mountain House makes and cooks their stew before drying it. By cooking all of the ingredients together, it gives it a chance for the flavors to meld. And I needed to make it this way because we were also having it for dinner.
@@SchoolReports There is also the issue of its not possible to perfectly freeze dry and reconstitute. it is always "different" when re-hydrated. no exceptions. and almost always more delicate/fragile when re-hydrated IE the food falls apart if manhandled too much when re-hydrated. SO the less steps from re-hydration to eating the better the end result. a lot of this actually comes from the freezing process versus the de-hydrating process but it also is a factor. IE try FREEZING all the ingredients and then make stew using them. it won't be quite as good as using the fresh ingredients. some things freeze better (beans beef) some things not to well (potato's) I don't know for sure but I "suspect" if you tried FD'ing the individual ingredients and then tried to make a stew with them you would end up with more a mash than a stew.
Thank you for this video. May I ask where you got the clear round disc that you put in the opening of your freeze dryer? Ours came with nothing as they've stopped including the "pillow".
Thanks for checking out our video. It's a tight fitting disc I cut out of Acrylic. (I used 0.075" thick acrylic (1.9mm thick) I would probably use 1/8" (3mm +) next time) The disc seems to work better than the pad that came with the freeze dryer for lowering heat transfer. I'm basing this on the fact that the front of the door does not get as cold with the plastic disc in place as it did with pad. (I'm assuming they decided that nothing was needed in the opening?) I love how good of a job it has done and have not experienced any downside yet. And it's better for monitoring the freeze drying items too. Here is a video of making it: ua-cam.com/video/erH1VDqNi80/v-deo.html
@@SchoolReports - Thank you, I'll watch the video. Our door drips moisture most times. I do like that the food inside the freeze dryer can still be seen with your clear disc. Great idea!
@@ilovecharleston Great! We also added some silver bubble wrap around the front seal to help stop ice forming in the little gap between the seal and the front case. ua-cam.com/video/LA1sHVUqKts/v-deo.html
I would say it's a 8 or 9. It comes out about the same as if it had just been frozen and then thawed. As with most rehydrating, time is your friend; plan for as much rehydrating time as possible.
Sorry I don't really know, but with 2 cup blocks of stew and a full freeze dryer with 20 cups total it would probably be in the 45 hour range. (+ or - 10 hours) I've considered telling people, when asked "how long did that batch take?" that it was 32 hours. And then explain that if you adjust the conditions right, that every batch COULD be run in 32 hours. Otherwise it's kind of like asking how long does it take to go from point A to point B. The only good answer is: That depends... I hardly track the total times anymore because it's almost worthless, just a ballpark number, except the freeze time and final dry which depend mostly on food type. It's done when it's done. 99% will somewhere between 18 hours and 70 hours. Even if I load the freeze dryer the same way, with the same amount of the same food, for two consecutive batches, the total time can still be a few hours different. All I can do is generalize about total freeze dry time because there are so many variables to the dry times; type of food, water content, sugar content, temperature of the food, ambient temperature, how much food in a batch, more than one kind of food in a batch, food volume, how tight it's packed, thickness on the tray, how well it contacts the tray, how porous the food is, how the food was sliced (this made a huge difference with citrus and pineapple), how clean the vacuum oil is (if it's an oil pump), and I'm sure there are more.
I prefreeze most things because 1) it saves a lot of freeze dryer time, 2) I do have the older, tilted machine which means I can't pour liquids into the trays in the machine, 3) I make very large batches of food when I cook so I may have 5 freeze dryer loads from a single batch, 4) prefreezing slightly lightens the load of ice in the freeze dryer 5) by prefreezing in the small trays I have pre measured quantities when I do the final bagging 6) we do have a lot of freezer space available. Sometimes we have as much as 10 or 15 batches worth of food prepped and waiting in the freezer for their turn in the freeze dryer.
@@KC-nb3mm It saves about 2 to 5 hours of freeze time in the freeze dryer, but more importantly it allows me to prep and freeze foods when I have time to work on them.
Could you freeze dry 2 trays of beef stew and 2 trays of chicken pot pie at the same time? I know you wouldn't because you prepare in bulk, but I haven't got a freeze dryer yet so was just wondering? :)
Absolutely you can mix things in a batch. When experimenting with new things I've had as many as 8 different things in at the same time. I just try to do batches with similar dry times together. And maybe not things like pickles or jalapenos and lemon mousse in the same batch. (Chocolate, lemon, and cranberry mousse coming soon. It's really, really good!)
I prefreeze things in the other pans because: 1) it saves freeze dryer time, 2) I have the older, tilted machine which means I can't pour liquids into the trays while they are in the freeze dryer, 3) I make very large batches of food when I cook so I may have 5 freeze dryer loads (or more) from a single batch, 4) prefreezing slightly lightens the load of ice in the freeze dryer 5) by prefreezing in the small, 2 cup pans, I have pre measured quantities when I do the final bagging 6) we have a lot of freezer space available. We have had up to 15+ batches of prefrozen items waiting for the freeze dryer
Good stuff! Thanks for the detailed reply. I’m ordering a freeze dryer tomorrow. Unfortunately it’s gonna take up to 10 weeks! But better late than never. Thank you.
@@joelmarcy8027 10 weeks! Wow! When we got our (almost 4 years ago) we ordered it on July 31 and received it on August 10, and even with that wait, I wanted to drive over to Utah and pick it up. I figured with 2 drivers, there and back in under 3 days. Didn't do it. (10 weeks; all of June, all of July, half of August. Sorry, now I'm just being mean.) We have loved our machine. Which one are you getting?
Wait so why go through all the trouble of making it the way you did instead of adding all the cooked products together? Wouldnt it have been better to make a legitimate beef stew at this point? Nice video btw
By cooking all of the ingredients together, it gives it a chance for the flavors to meld. And I needed to cook it all the way - we were having it for dinner; I just made extra. I don't know what "make a legitimate beef stew" means. This is more or less how I've always made beef stew. Up until the part where it goes into the freeze dryer this is the way I been making beef stew for 20 or 30 years, including freezing it in those same square pans.
Want to support this work? Buy me a coffee :-) www.buymeacoffee.com/DanZm
We have started putting our videos up at rumble.com/user/SchoolReports
Showing vs talking, what a pleasant surprise. I really appreciated this format a lot.
Thanks so much for watching and commenting! I hadn't seen this video in a while; it sure was quiet. 🤣 I need to make more like this for people who are already comfortable making/doing things.
Most of my newer videos have incessant talking to try to answer all the questions I get if I don't tell _everything_ point-by-minuscule-point. (I think that this shirt goes a long way to explain why. - ua-cam.com/video/8kjkox2ymmw/v-deo.htmlsi=Zzm0gC_BBw4OYfL5&t=262 :)
THANK YOU for NOT talking !!! It's sooo much easier to follow the recipe and directions when they're aren't any stories of ie: "aunt Martha made this for every family yada yada etc." Or when the same thing is repeated over again.There is one utuber that I would like to watch but she never shuts up ! It's a shame, so distracting. Anyway I will definitely make this today to FD. :)
Thanks. On most of them I do yack a lot! 😁 (but just what I'm doing, not family stories)
3.3 ounces of your stew makes 2 servings when reconstituted with 1 and 3/4 cups boiling water. Very tasty.
Wow! Thanks for trying this out.
Love how you divided it in pan for pre-freeze.
Also loved how you wrote the weights.
Thanks for the tips!
Thanks for watching.
I mostly only pre-weigh the liquidy items (soup, stew, milk, etc.) that I'll want to get back to the same consistency when I rehydrate it.
What is neat about freeze drying Beef stew verses canning it, is you can go ahead and add your thickening with freeze drying.
I just learned that recently.
In my freeze dryer now--thank you for a good recipe!
Great! Please let us know how it works out for you.
Did you see the very long _Beef Stew_ video? ua-cam.com/video/jQqnWFslrlw/v-deo.htmlsi=urY7TEqvSMEyxdrG A lot more details!
should let it sit over night in the fridge. the sauce marinate into the vegetables. then freeze dry it.
Wow!
Awesome video, thanks,,you need to make more of those dividers and sell them, thanks again
Thanks.
If I ever start making them to sell, I'll have to sell the pan with them because it seems like every time we bought a batch of pans they were a tiny bit different.
its nice to see you make stuff and freeze dry it but people that click on freeze drying videos want to see the re-hydrating. we want to see if the end result is worth the investment. we want to know if the flavors and textures made it through, what worked and what might not work so well.
I'm trying to add more rehydrating and/or taste testing to the end of the freeze dry videos. I'll try to add a short video of rehydrating the stew soon.
Thanks 😊
Looks very good making it in the morning.
Thanks!
That actually looks good. Ty
How did you make that clear insert and bubble wrap around gasket. I can see the benefit of keeping the door and seal from sweating.
Making an Acrylic Disc Front for a Harvest Right Freeze Dryer ua-cam.com/video/erH1VDqNi80/v-deo.html
If your freeze dryer is like our 2017 machine, the opening is not quite round and that would make it difficult to make a disc for some one else's machine. (I just checked my sister's new machine and it's round) For my first test piece I cut a very accurate circle out of a piece of foamcore and it had gaps of 1/8"+ (3mm +) around the edge.
Adding Front Seal Insulation To A Harvest Right Freeze Dryer ua-cam.com/video/LA1sHVUqKts/v-deo.html
The metalized film bubble stuff is used for shipping cold stuff. (I think it may have been this kind, ipcpack.com/products/box-liners/ but there are lots of brands. I just used what I had.) We got our bubble stuff when it arrived wrapped around some frozen food, (a cake, I think) with frozen cold packs, from Harry & David. I saved it knowing that a use for it would show up. And Voilà!
Hi, this video defines one of the first things I'll make as soon as my unit arrives. I wonder if you could tell me where to get those small trays you use and if I'm right the 3D printed divider file. That was brilliant thinking. Thanks, I think I'll binge watch a few more episodes now.
The pans are just some pans we bought at a local Dollar store. We have 20 - 30 of them; some are 10+ years old. They were called 8x8" pans, but the bottoms are about 7x7", a perfect fit for our freeze dryer pans. The divider is something I designed and 3D printed to fit one set of our pans. (If you notice some of our pans have an X on them; these are the ones that the dividers do not fit) They were printed with ABS then vapor/acetone smoothed to seal them. It would probably be pretty easy to make dividers using foamcore or cardboard and then covering it with plastic wrap, for those without a printer.
This is the Thingiverse link www.thingiverse.com/thing:3848619
And here is the design and print video ua-cam.com/video/3KLblPCTpHk/v-deo.html The printing starts at about 4 :15 ua-cam.com/video/3KLblPCTpHk/v-deo.html
Could I buy a couple of the divider tools from you? Do you sell them? My wife and I just bought a medium FD. We’re excited to get going.
Excellent video! Thank you !! Currently waiting on my order for my first home freeze dryer !!!!
Thanks. We've had ours for 3 1/2 years (and closing in on 400 batches) and have really loved what it does for us.
@@SchoolReports that is great !!!! So happy to hear this !!!
Cutco, good man!
Very interesting video and nice ideal weighing before freeze drying. Have to get one of these
Thanks. I try to remember to weigh things when I'm putting it in the pans so I don't have to do it while trying to load the freeze dryer.
Hello, thank you for making this video. I was wondering if you have any issues with oil? do you use a moisturizer meter ?
Thanks for watching!
No issues with oil, so far. However, I'm not worried, because commercial companies like Mountain House has freeze dried ground beef that's good for 30 years and has plenty of fat. (15 grams of fat in a 37 gram dry serving. I worked it out once, and I think it worked out to about 93% lean before freeze drying) mountainhouse.com/collections/freeze-dried-meats/products/ground-beef-10-can
I use weight to check to see if the food is completely dry. I show this a lot in my current video series.
I don't know of any method I would trust to make sure the water has been removed other than the weight check method. I'm probably a bit neurotic when it comes to water activity levels in the food for storage. (I can't find the science paper I'm looking for right now because I'm changing computers and not all the drives are installed yet, but if I remember correctly, for safe long term storage the water content needs to be below 4%. (or 2%) I just always aim for as close to 0% as I can get)
I'm using the fact that the weight of the trays of food should stop dropping when all of the water has been removed. When the weight loss stops, (no more water to remove) they should be dry. I don't bag the food with still water in it.
Even with the type of meter that I would consider using, ( www.weberscientific.com/water-activity-meters-novasina ) I STILL wouldn't trust it, because it's still only checking a small sample size/location on the tray. By using the extra drying time method, I'm essentially able to test the entire load at once. If I could find a meter that could check the entire tray at once, I would get it. (If it were somewhat affordable)
@@SchoolReports thank you
You've done a bit of adapting there - tell us about the door cover in place of the shield that use to be provided by HR & the extra silver seal you that appears to be around the rubber gasket area - at least it looks like there is something different there.
Thanks for watching. This is the acrylic disc front ua-cam.com/video/erH1VDqNi80/v-deo.html and this is the front seal insulation ua-cam.com/video/LA1sHVUqKts/v-deo.html
I would like to see how to rehydrate
Rehydrating a Cup of Beef Stew - Freeze Dried in 2018 - ua-cam.com/video/a1CuXgKTxog/v-deo.htmlsi=2sKHlG_6_gvuxF2A
Rehydrating 5+ Year Old Beef Stew - Freeze Dried in 2017 - ua-cam.com/video/LXYNU5MQGJY/v-deo.htmlsi=fcN3FVcfEHqv_u9K
Rehydrating Beef Stew - ua-cam.com/video/1cpXgaW7a4c/v-deo.htmlsi=8Jb3s5BOXFqhq0H5
Rehydrating Freeze Dried Beef Stew - Homemade vs Mountain House - ua-cam.com/video/w_p5j5oyX5M/v-deo.htmlsi=AUlZHm-mUzFdkI5A
Rehydrating play list - ua-cam.com/play/PLXAehi0jnS92YA7nc_BrDHxXOVUWJCd49.html
Why can't I see your replies for the questions - same questions I would ask. I hit the view reply button and nothing shows up
Sorry. I don't know. I'd guess it's a UA-cam issue. (It took me 3 tries to see this question just now.)
👍👍👍👍👍
As always a good video but could you please tell us at the end of drying tell us the total time and what the end mTorr is.
Do you have a link to the divider that you used?
Thanks for watching.
The divider is just something I designed and 3D printed to fit our pans. Here is the design and print video if you are interested; ua-cam.com/video/3KLblPCTpHk/v-deo.html They were printed with ABS then vapor/acetone smoothed to seal them.
It would probably be pretty easy to make dividers using foamcore or cardboard and covering it with plastic wrap, for those without a printer. (no 3D printer? 😢)
Another viewer used cut some out of thick plastic (like thick cutting board) to make their dividers. (They did have a laser cutter) 😁
Update of this? How it traste today?
Here's some 4 year old stew being rehydrated; still perfect. ua-cam.com/video/a1CuXgKTxog/v-deo.html
whats the expiration date on something like this?
I only have only had mine for 3 1/2 years. Harvest Right says "Up to 25 Years" and Mountain House freeze dried foods are good for up to 30 years.
What kind of beef was this, the cut?
I'm not sure. The cut we use the most is Tri Tip, but whatever is lean and on sale is what we end up using.
How many hours did it take to freeze dry?
Thanks for watching and commenting!
I don't actually know the exact time for this batch. (I didn't used to write down the time data until a lot of people asked) The time data is only applicable if all the variables are the same. And there are *_a lot_* of variables.
These other Beef Stew batches took about 48 hours(+or-) Beef Stew in batches 605, 606, 607, 608 ua-cam.com/video/jQqnWFslrlw/v-deo.htmlsi=_SPfH9b9Y6HaoiXv
I generally do 10 pounds in each batch. I did upload the batch times for the _"500 lb in 50 Batches in 100 days"_ video series and those batches ranged from about 29.5 hours to about 53 hours. (Not counting the batches that started as "dry" before starting) Most are well over 35 hours. My machine is from mid 2017.
If you are interested, you can see the 50 batch series data here: First 500 lbs data spreadsheet link: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ieekdk5aH_2OWLUealeOLurU9_zl03BfFEg_qhAgcaA/edit?usp=sharing
Great job, how long to freeze dry?
The short answer is - it depends!
These _Beef Stew_ batches took about 48 hours(+or-) Beef Stew in batches 605, 606, 607, 608 ua-cam.com/video/jQqnWFslrlw/v-deo.htmlsi=_SPfH9b9Y6HaoiXv
There are so many variables to the dry times; type of food, water content, sugar content, temperature of the food when loading, ambient temperature of the room, how much food in a batch, more than one kind of food in a batch, food volume, how tightly it's packed, thickness on the tray, how well it contacts the tray, how porous the food is, how the food was sliced (this made a huge difference with citrus and pineapple), how clean the vacuum oil is (if it's an oil pump), and I'm sure there are more including the ones you mentioned - the weather - temperature and humidity make a difference! Oh, and of course, which model, year, and firmware it is. The newer machines are maybe 10 or 15% faster.
I've considered telling people, when asked "how long did that batch take?" that it was 32 hours. And then explain that if you adjust the conditions just right, that every batch COULD be run in 32 hours. 🤣
My longest batch times have been 70+ hours - blueberries or pineapple.
I had people tell me that they are doing batches in 20 ish hours too. I have no idea what the "batch" was, but they are not like my batches.
Did you see my series of videos - 100 Days: The First 50 Batches - Freeze Drying 500 lbs of Food? ua-cam.com/video/AZJWMTAPDOc/v-deo.html
In this video series one of my goals was to do about 10 pounds per batch. The batch times for these 50 batches range from about 29.5 hours to about 53 hours. (Not counting the batches that started as "dry" before starting) Most are well over 35 hours! You can see the data here: First 500 lbs data spreadsheet link: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ieekdk5aH_2OWLUealeOLurU9_zl03BfFEg_qhAgcaA/edit?usp=sharing
So how do you figure out how much water to add based on weight?
I weigh my water. I could also use a measuring cup because with water, grams and milliliters are the same.
What pans do you use to pre-freeze the stew? Did it come out easily? Where do you buy these pans? Thanks!
I have a picture of the pans in a post over on the community page. ua-cam.com/users/SchoolReportscommunity (a couple months ago)
We got them at Dollar Tree; they also have them online. www.dollartree.com/cooking-concepts-square-cake-pans-75-in/10065
They blocks come out of the pretty easily most of the time. We started spraying them with a bit of non-stick cooking spray to help them come out easier, like in this video - ua-cam.com/video/Rc0CrgUZq6g/v-deo.html
How long will this keep?
I only have 5 1/2 years of personal experience with OUR freeze dried items, so I only KNOW it's good for about 5 1/2 years. Commercial companies give their food a 25-30 years shelf life.
Approximately how long did the prefrozen stew take to freeze dry? Cheers for the video
The short answer is: Sorry I don't really know.
The long answer is: Sorry I don't really know, but with 2 cup blocks of stew and a full freeze dryer with 20 cups total it would probably be in the 45 hour range. (+ or - 10 hours)
I've considered telling people, when asked "how long did that batch take?" that it was 32 hours. And then explain that if you adjust the conditions right, that every batch COULD be run in 32 hours. Otherwise it's kind of like asking how long does it take to go from my city to the next city over. The only good answer is: That depends...
I hardly track the total times anymore because it's an almost worthless, ballpark number, except the freeze time and final dry which depend mostly on food type. It's done when it's done. 99% will somewhere between 18 hours and 70 hours.
Even if I load the freeze dryer the same way, with the same amount of the same food, for two consecutive batches, the total time can still be a few hours different. All I can do is generalize about total freeze dry time because there are so many variables to the dry times; type of food, water content, sugar content, temperature of the food, ambient temperature, how much food in a batch, more than one kind of food in a batch, food volume, how tight it's packed, thickness on the tray, how well it contacts the tray, how porous the food is, how the food was sliced (this made a huge difference with citrus and pineapple), how clean the vacuum oil is (if it's an oil pump), and I'm sure there are more.
What size pot did you need for the entire contents when heating?
For this batch we used our medium pot, 24 quart.
Where did you get your trays and that blue divider from?
The pans are just some pans we bought at a local Dollar store. We have 30+ of them; some are 10+ years old. They were called 8x8" pans, but the bottoms are about 7x7", a perfect fit for our freeze dryer trays. The divider is something I designed and 3D printed to fit our pans. They were printed with ABS then vapor/acetone smoothed to seal them. It would probably be pretty easy to make dividers using foamcore or cardboard and then covering it with plastic wrap, for those without a printer.
This is the Thingiverse link www.thingiverse.com/thing:3848619
And here is the design and print video ua-cam.com/video/3KLblPCTpHk/v-deo.html The printing starts at about 4 :15 ua-cam.com/video/3KLblPCTpHk/v-deo.html
SchoolReports okay, thx.!
Couldn't you FD all the ingredients and than when you rehydrate them make the stew?
You could but it wouldn't be quite the same results. Even Mountain House makes and cooks their stew before drying it. By cooking all of the ingredients together, it gives it a chance for the flavors to meld. And I needed to make it this way because we were also having it for dinner.
@@SchoolReports There is also the issue of its not possible to perfectly freeze dry and reconstitute. it is always "different" when re-hydrated. no exceptions. and almost always more delicate/fragile when re-hydrated IE the food falls apart if manhandled too much when re-hydrated. SO the less steps from re-hydration to eating the better the end result. a lot of this actually comes from the freezing process versus the de-hydrating process but it also is a factor. IE try FREEZING all the ingredients and then make stew using them. it won't be quite as good as using the fresh ingredients. some things freeze better (beans beef) some things not to well (potato's)
I don't know for sure but I "suspect" if you tried FD'ing the individual ingredients and then tried to make a stew with them you would end up with more a mash than a stew.
Thank you for this video. May I ask where you got the clear round disc that you put in the opening of your freeze dryer? Ours came with nothing as they've stopped including the "pillow".
Thanks for checking out our video.
It's a tight fitting disc I cut out of Acrylic. (I used 0.075" thick acrylic (1.9mm thick) I would probably use 1/8" (3mm +) next time) The disc seems to work better than the pad that came with the freeze dryer for lowering heat transfer. I'm basing this on the fact that the front of the door does not get as cold with the plastic disc in place as it did with pad. (I'm assuming they decided that nothing was needed in the opening?) I love how good of a job it has done and have not experienced any downside yet. And it's better for monitoring the freeze drying items too. Here is a video of making it: ua-cam.com/video/erH1VDqNi80/v-deo.html
@@SchoolReports - Thank you, I'll watch the video. Our door drips moisture most times. I do like that the food inside the freeze dryer can still be seen with your clear disc. Great idea!
@@ilovecharleston Great! We also added some silver bubble wrap around the front seal to help stop ice forming in the little gap between the seal and the front case. ua-cam.com/video/LA1sHVUqKts/v-deo.html
Where did you get the clear insulated cover for freeze dryer?
I made it myself. It's a tight fitting disc I cut out of Acrylic. Here is the video of it: ua-cam.com/video/erH1VDqNi80/v-deo.html
Do you have your recipes posted anywhere? I was scared how soup might turn out. It's time to buy one now!
It is in the description.
The mre chicken stew I use to eat in the 90s you could eat without heating. Was better tga chunky soup chicken flavor
How did it reconstitute?(on a 1-10 scale if you feel generous😁)
I would say it's a 8 or 9. It comes out about the same as if it had just been frozen and then thawed. As with most rehydrating, time is your friend; plan for as much rehydrating time as possible.
@@SchoolReports thanks! Im saving up right now to get a Freeze drier, your Videos are really helpfull.
Hello, can you remember or give a rough guess on how long these took in the freeze dryer?
Sorry I don't really know, but with 2 cup blocks of stew and a full freeze dryer with 20 cups total it would probably be in the 45 hour range. (+ or - 10 hours)
I've considered telling people, when asked "how long did that batch take?" that it was 32 hours. And then explain that if you adjust the conditions right, that every batch COULD be run in 32 hours. Otherwise it's kind of like asking how long does it take to go from point A to point B. The only good answer is: That depends...
I hardly track the total times anymore because it's almost worthless, just a ballpark number, except the freeze time and final dry which depend mostly on food type. It's done when it's done. 99% will somewhere between 18 hours and 70 hours.
Even if I load the freeze dryer the same way, with the same amount of the same food, for two consecutive batches, the total time can still be a few hours different. All I can do is generalize about total freeze dry time because there are so many variables to the dry times; type of food, water content, sugar content, temperature of the food, ambient temperature, how much food in a batch, more than one kind of food in a batch, food volume, how tight it's packed, thickness on the tray, how well it contacts the tray, how porous the food is, how the food was sliced (this made a huge difference with citrus and pineapple), how clean the vacuum oil is (if it's an oil pump), and I'm sure there are more.
@@SchoolReports Yeah that's brilliant thank you!
Question, why do you freeze before hand? What’s the difference? Thanks :)
I prefreeze most things because 1) it saves a lot of freeze dryer time, 2) I do have the older, tilted machine which means I can't pour liquids into the trays in the machine, 3) I make very large batches of food when I cook so I may have 5 freeze dryer loads from a single batch, 4) prefreezing slightly lightens the load of ice in the freeze dryer 5) by prefreezing in the small trays I have pre measured quantities when I do the final bagging 6) we do have a lot of freezer space available. Sometimes we have as much as 10 or 15 batches worth of food prepped and waiting in the freezer for their turn in the freeze dryer.
@@SchoolReports Brilliant thank you! You have the most well put together channel out here in this community! How much time do you save?
@@KC-nb3mm It saves about 2 to 5 hours of freeze time in the freeze dryer, but more importantly it allows me to prep and freeze foods when I have time to work on them.
Excellent video! I put this one in the saved file. What size freeze dryer is this?
Thanks! We have the medium freeze dryer with the original vacuum pump.
How many servings per tray? :)
I put 5 cups (2 two cup pieces and 1 one cup piece) on each of the freeze dryer trays.
Could you freeze dry 2 trays of beef stew and 2 trays of chicken pot pie at the same time? I know you wouldn't because you prepare in bulk, but I haven't got a freeze dryer yet so was just wondering? :)
Absolutely you can mix things in a batch. When experimenting with new things I've had as many as 8 different things in at the same time. I just try to do batches with similar dry times together. And maybe not things like pickles or jalapenos and lemon mousse in the same batch. (Chocolate, lemon, and cranberry mousse coming soon. It's really, really good!)
Why did you freeze it first?
I prefreeze things in the other pans because: 1) it saves freeze dryer time, 2) I have the older, tilted machine which means I can't pour liquids into the trays while they are in the freeze dryer, 3) I make very large batches of food when I cook so I may have 5 freeze dryer loads (or more) from a single batch, 4) prefreezing slightly lightens the load of ice in the freeze dryer 5) by prefreezing in the small, 2 cup pans, I have pre measured quantities when I do the final bagging 6) we have a lot of freezer space available.
We have had up to 15+ batches of prefrozen items waiting for the freeze dryer
Good stuff! Thanks for the detailed reply. I’m ordering a freeze dryer tomorrow. Unfortunately it’s gonna take up to 10 weeks! But better late than never. Thank you.
@@joelmarcy8027 10 weeks! Wow! When we got our (almost 4 years ago) we ordered it on July 31 and received it on August 10, and even with that wait, I wanted to drive over to Utah and pick it up. I figured with 2 drivers, there and back in under 3 days. Didn't do it. (10 weeks; all of June, all of July, half of August. Sorry, now I'm just being mean.)
We have loved our machine. Which one are you getting?
Nice one, thank you.
How long will it last?
Harvest Right (and most freeze dry companies) say up to 20 to 30 years. We've only had ours for 4 years, so that's as long as we know for sure.
Have you ever freeze dried flour?
No I haven't. But, I guess that would be a way to make sure there's no moisture in it for storage.
@@SchoolReports im thinking that too bit ive yet to see it anywhere.
Wait so why go through all the trouble of making it the way you did instead of adding all the cooked products together? Wouldnt it have been better to make a legitimate beef stew at this point? Nice video btw
By cooking all of the ingredients together, it gives it a chance for the flavors to meld. And I needed to cook it all the way - we were having it for dinner; I just made extra. I don't know what "make a legitimate beef stew" means. This is more or less how I've always made beef stew. Up until the part where it goes into the freeze dryer this is the way I been making beef stew for 20 or 30 years, including freezing it in those same square pans.