Freeze Drying - The Next 50 Batches - Batch 578 - Sausage Gravy (Canned) and Mushrooms (canned)
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
- Freeze Drying The Next 50 Batches - 551 to 600
Freeze dryer batch #578 Chef Mate Country Sausage Gravy, canned, and Mushrooms, canned.
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Freeze Drying The Next 50 Batches - 551 to 600: docs.google.co...
Batch worksheet link: docs.google.co...
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Before buying a freeze dryer, perhaps research to find out more about the downside of the machine; some people have problems with their machine and it's big and heavy and hard to return!
When trying to decide what to freeze dry you can start by asking why.
Start by asking yourself this question. Why are you freeze drying food? Knowing this should help you decide what you should freeze dry first.
I'm freeze drying because:
Just to freeze dry leftovers?
You want to make your own food for camping/backpacking?
For if/when the SHTF?
For a short term emergency?
You have your own garden and want to freeze dry the food?
You love Costco but don't have a family of 6?
You are good at finding the food sales but only have 1 freezer?
When you cook homemade chili just for yourself you make 10 gallons? Because you have 3 full freezers and are worried about power outages?
If I knew then what I know now, I would have freeze dried things in a different order. Or maybe not, because I started freeze drying because we had 3 full freezers, I was thinking of getting another one, and I decided I should buy a walk-in freezer instead. I started looking into walk-ins and realized they were expensive to buy (even used ones) AND expensive to own and operate. Then I found out Harvest Right was making home sized freeze dryers. One of my first thoughts was "I like Mountain House!" I have used their food for backpacking almost 45 years and we even kept some in our travel trailer, for just in case.
Freeze dried food will stay fresh for many years and be ready and waiting when you need it.
We do videos showing how we are using our Harvest Right Freeze Dryer to freeze dry food for long term storage. (We have the medium size machine that we got in August of 2017) We talk about how to load and unload the freeze dryer, how to know if the food is dry, is it better to freeze dry raw food or cooked food, and do a few taste tests. Freeze dried food is also great for prepping or just for camping and snacking!
Want to support the channel? Buy me a coffee :-) www.buymeacoffee.com/DanZm
If you are thinking of buying a freeze dryer, please consider supporting us by purchasing through our affiliate link. It helps us and costs you nothing! affiliates.harvestright.com/995.html
Before buying a freeze dryer perhaps research to find out more about the downside of the machine; like with any big machine, some people say they have had problems with their machine and it's big and heavy and hard to return!
Batch worksheet link: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13DCB2hXo9_ZYrhIUicLk2IrEaQGszwbaJTcEH8wJxk4/edit?usp=sharing
Freeze Drying: The Next 50 Batches 551 to 600 docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SeVFOmCqhu75fg96E9lAjUXsK9zJotiZ_HKhzQ0dAXA/edit?usp=sharing
You should make and sell those dividers! I would buy some! I love your tips. I've been using the DT pans and weigh everything until no loss like you do. I bought the pans before I bought the FD.
That's 2 of us.
I would definitely buy your divider
I like them too
Thank you! I’m learning a lot from you!
Wow! Thanks!
😀 😛 🐸 ❤️ 😋
I’m trying to understand what my FD temperature should be close to end of dry. should i see the temperature going up?
The short answer is yes - The food temperature should be up to the set drying temperature for at least a few hours before it is done.
Do you thermometers in your food? Not required, but helpful.
Thermometers are NOT required for freeze drying, but for me, I consider them to be the second most important tool (after the scale) for freeze drying. There is a temperature probe built into the machine, but only one (more on the X-Large machine), and it's on the bottom of the second tray from the bottom. It's sandwiched between the heater pad and the rack itself. It can not tell me the temperature of the food, only the temperature of the heater; good enough to know the temperature of the heater for controlling it, but tells me almost nothing about the food.
Right here is an example of the temperature differences in different areas of one batch - ua-cam.com/video/qDuB_T8gIm8/v-deo.htmlsi=DRje1cshNRwWz-t1&t=541
As some (most) foods dry, they really became like super light fluffy insulation. The top and bottom layers can be very warm, yet there can still be a layer of ice through the middle. The machine's temperature probe will often say that it's very warm, not knowing about the ice center layer.
I never use the thermometers to tell me if the process is done. (they can't) I use them to tell me it's NOT done. I know that might not sound like a difference for some people, but if there is still any cold area in the food and therefore the process CAN NOT be complete yet, even though the freeze dryer firmware is telling me it is. I use a scale (weight) to check for moisture.
Thank you for your perspective on giving longer rehydration times for certain foods... I think your theory of moisture first being in between the cells then absorbing into the actual cellular structure makes good sense. My husband n I prefer to precook most of our FD foods for long term storage, except for those we could eat raw anyway. That way - even if cooking or rehydrating later was not an option - the food would be able to provide immediate calories and nutrition. Your channel is a true treasure trove for information about both food and equipment details that are not presented elsewhere. Thank you so very much!💯🙏
I am with you 100% on the precooking of most foods. (if needed) We are doing a small amount of raw meats for specific future uses, but for the most part we also want things to be edible right out of the bag. So many foods are good dry. I had one commenter say that I should be leaving all my chicken raw because I'm destroying all of the nutrition by cooking and freeze drying. But then what? It's not edible! I'm not a fan of raw chicken; I am a fan of Costco Rotisserie chicken! 🤣
Canned goods last quite awhile longer than dates on cans. So is freeze drying going to last longer?
One advantage is that freeze dried food is lighter. We use very little canned foods (we use mostly fresh or frozen foods), and I'm not a fan of carrying cans of food on a hike.😁 Nutrition tends to be better with freeze dried from fresh or frozen food over canned. Most people are just looking for additional ways to keep/use food.
Also, personally, I'd trust freeze dried food over canned food after 20 years. (I know that the science may not agree - canned can last a very long time)
Are you sure the Clear Jel is moisture free? Maybe add it on top of food before freeze drying?
That would probably be the best practices method. 😇
How do you cut your parchmemt paper rolls to the correct width?
I used a chop saw! 🤣 Our price per piece is around 2 cents.
Cutting Parchment Paper for our Freeze Dryer Trays ua-cam.com/video/1fKKvZ8gDtQ/v-deo.htmlsi=7PiUtIC87ykx6Zu0
Cutting More Parchment Paper for our Freeze Dryer Trays ua-cam.com/video/td9lV6ftWhQ/v-deo.htmlsi=w5qa3n4kjfgTUkXA
Might be a weird question, but does the water that comes out after the defrost, smell like what you freeze dried?
That's actually a good question. 👍
The melt water coming out of mine usually has an odor that reminds me of _REALLY_ old, melted, stale ice from the freezer that has picked up flavors and odors from whatever has been in the freezer. Perhaps with a hint of whatever was just been freeze dried. 😁
@@SchoolReports interesting, thank you!
Where can I buy a parchment paper cutter?
Thanks so much for watching and commenting!
This is how we do our parchment: Cutting More Parchment Paper for our Freeze Dryer Trays - ua-cam.com/video/td9lV6ftWhQ/v-deo.htmlsi=oOunUIVRqP3xZ0pA
QUESTIONS/SUGGESTION? What would be the best way to freeze dry (fully cooked) Quinoa? Even though I would prefreeze it first, I'm pretty sure that after it's sublimated, that it's so light that it might fly around in the chamber.. ANY SUGGESTIONS on how to proceed with this?
If you're really concerned you could cover the trays with paper towels, like I did with this cheese Freeze Drying Your First 500 lbs of Food - Batch 10 - Cheese, Shredded ua-cam.com/video/Amsgh2gDazQ/v-deo.html
We haven't found anything light enough to move. I honestly don't think there would be any problem with freeze drying quinoa, and nothing should be moving in the freeze dryer while freeze drying. Once the freeze dryer in under vacuum, there is no air to move anything. (Except when opening the drain valve and letting the air back in)
@@SchoolReports Thanks you.. i'll give that a try
@@SchoolReports Thank you so much. I have a boat load of Quinoa, and just saw this web site that sells all kinds of FD foods.and one of them was fully cooked Quinoa.. get this.. 1 cup.. $33.00. I almost fell of my chair. I'll be FD'ing lots of fully cooked quinoa.
@@jeffrichards2011 $33 for 1 cup! Seriously?! We're in the wrong business.
This week Chef'Store has 40 lb boxes of raw Boneless skinless chicken breast for $49.60, and frozen corn for $4.99 for 5 lb bags and a few other good sales. We (my sister's machine and mine) just finished 20 lbs of corn and we'll be doing the chicken soon.
@@SchoolReports
I'm FD'ing everything I can get my hands on.
Did you add the touch-screen cover? Or is that something the machine comes with?
It's just something I added after someone (sister!) saw dust on the screen and wiped it off while a batch was running, not knowing it was a touch screen, and canceled the freeze drying. Oops.
@@SchoolReports hadn’t thought of that! :)
Love the idea, going to add one to ours when we get one!
@@joebolling And, to be fair, she did say _oops!_ 🤣
@@SchoolReports 😆
Do you number your trays to keep track when moving them around and weighing?
Yes, and because each of my trays have a different weight, from 739 grams up to 750 grams.
Hello. It is ok to freeze dry can mushrooms? I have two 5 pounds cans. Thank you!
I'm not sure if I'm understanding your question. In this video I _did_ freeze dry canned mushrooms and they did great.
Here is another video showing a rehydration test of them - Rehydrating a Few Test Mushrooms from Batch 578 ua-cam.com/video/Rai8QfW1uwM/v-deo.htmlsi=ohiUenwEBuVfbZ5_
I am Sorry. I did ask something you were totally doing. I meant do I “have” to freeze the mushrooms prior? My apologies.
@@SchoolReports Sorry about misunderstanding. My question is. Can I put the canned mushrooms directly into freeze dryer or is it necessary to freeze first? Again ,Thank you
🤣 That makes more sense! Good question. No, they do not have to be prefrozen before putting them in the freeze dryer. I'm not sure if anything _has_ to be prefrozen before putting it in the freeze dryer.
With my older machine I do have to prefreeze liquids because on the older machines the rack is tilted and liquids would pour off the back of the trays. I just got into the habit of prefreezing almost everything, and it does speed up the overall freeze drying process in the machine.
@@SchoolReports I appreciate you. I have learned so much like many others here. Thank you.
my freeze dryer went into starting a batch without trays trying your method to let the chamber get cold? what am i doing wrong. I usually just put food in that IS pre frozen and select not frozen to make sure it freezes good. but now i after trying to attempt to wait to let chamber get cold for hours it started a batch and now i got to dry chamber and wait abit to restart a batch...any ideas?
I'm sorry, I don't think I know the answer to how to get around this one. It sounds out like you might have the firmware version that has the choices for "non liquid vs liquid" and then "pre-frozen vs non frozen" My version is before this one and my sister's machine is after this one. Hopefully someone will know the answer for how to get that version cold and will post an answer here.
That versions manual (if I've got the correct version) says that:
Material that is pre-frozen should be placed in the freeze dryer after it is
cooled. To accomplish this, power on your freeze dryer. After pressing “Start,”
select “Non Liquid” or “Liquid” then run the “Pre-Frozen” cycle. The chamber
of the freeze dryer will cool for 30 minutes. At the end of 30 minutes the
screen will prompt you to put the food into the unit and close the drain valve.
***** Once it says "Pre-Freeze complete" does it shut off the refrigeration unit? Because this is were we would just wait a while longer until it's actually cold, if it's still running the cooling, before pressing continue.******
Check the pinned comments of this video for more info from other users trying to get their machines cold enough for ice cream. ua-cam.com/video/wq7Xz8xfPsY/v-deo.html At least one upgraded to the newer version firmware and that made it work for them.
@@SchoolReports My software version doesn't have a choice for liquid and non liquid, but it does have option for frozen or not frozen. I do think your technique is good, if I can simly figure out how to pre cool the chamber first. Great video, Thanks for the response. ...
@@mossymaple Which software version do you have?
@@SchoolReports At the moment I started the not frozen cycle and it doesn't display the version. But I think I figured out how to get it to freeze chamber without starting a batch. Lol
I simply didn't push the close drain continue button. It still on the screen ..lol... but when the chamber gets down to at least zero. I will load trays and push the continue button that warns you to make sure drain valve is closed before proceeding. Thanks for your responses. .. I'm in between getting to the store to buy organic eggs to dry and had two #10 CANS OF PEACHES. 4 trays of peaches But they're in light syrup... I prefer any canned fruits to be in water. I don't know how this will turn out with light syrup. ... and one tray of my mother in laws ham and bean soup..
@@mossymaple Perfect! That's exactly what my sister does with her machine. After it's cold and she loads the trays in, she lets it wait a while longer before pressing the continue button, until the thermometers she puts in the food tell her the food (prefrozen) is also very cold.
Ham and bean soup - Yum!
When we did some #10 cans of light syrup peaches, we just drained them one time, and drained and lightly rinsed them one time. We liked the drained but not rinsed ones better. Someone suggest that we should have freeze dried it syrup and all, we haven't tried that. We mostly do fresh peaches because we have access to low cost ones, but I thought the canned ones were good.
I would like to freeze dry some morel mushrooms..but need to find someone to go into the woods for me lol
😁 We had a great crop of them one year in our front yard, after having a load of bark put on the yard.
Where did you purchase the dividers you used in the pan for freezing?
Thanks for watching and commenting!
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. The file is on Thingiverse. www.thingiverse.com/thing:3848619
The dividers are designed to fit the pans we got at a Dollar Tree store. The different batches of pans that we have bought (over the past 20 years) have had slightly different side slopes, which would require a slight change in the divider shape. That's why some of our pans have an "X" on them. I've just updated the Thingiverse listing to include a new version of the divider that is slightly narrower at the bottom to fit more of the pans. (I hope!)
Another viewer used cut some out of thick plastic (like thick cutting board) to make their dividers. (They did have a laser cutter)
I'm planning to try to figure out how to make a good, usable (1/2" thick) divider without using a printer. (For those odd people who don't have a few 3D printers)
Clarification on the 2 1/2 pans per tray; it only works IF the divider is the thickness I use. (or thicker) The freeze dryer trays actually fits about 1/2" less than 2 1/2 pans; that's one reason I made the dividers that thick, and to fit the magnets.
For those without a 3D printer, here's my best ideas for getting some 3D printed dividers. Lots of areas have Maker's places with people that would love to do it for you.
Or, better yet, some schools have 3D printing labs. Check with a the local charter school that has junior high or high school age students. I taught 3D Design and Printing for 3+ years at a local 6th - 8th grade charter school. We loved it when we could find/were given a real-world project with a real need.
Another viewer cut some out of thick plastic (like thick cutting board) to make their dividers. (They did have a laser cutter)
I'm still hoping to figure out how to make a good, usable (1/2" thick) divider without using a printer. (For those odd people who don't have a few 3D printers)😁
If you said you already know it’s all dry, why do you add two more hours?
I should have said "believe" or "think" because of past experience, not that I KNOW because of empirical evidence. The checking with the additional 2 hours is to get the PROOF that it IS dry. Until I have proof it's still unknown.
@@SchoolReports Thank you! 🙏🏼
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. The file is on Thingiverse. www.thingiverse.com/thing:3848619
We bought our pans at the Dollar Tree store, I have a picture of the pans on the Community page. They were called 8x8" but the bottoms are about 7x7", a perfect fit for our medium freeze dryer trays. (Turns out they have them online too www.dollartree.com/cooking-concepts-square-cake-pans-75-in/10065 ) The different batches of pans that we have bought (over the past 20 years) have had slightly different side slopes, which would require a slight change in the divider shape. That's why some of our pans have an "X" on them.