tortoise
Wild Hare
DH has been talking about a getting a home freeze drier. I want one too. But we'd like to know if it's more than an expensive toy or novelty. Does anyone have one and can share their experiences?
Does anyone have a home freeze drier?
- Thread starter tortoise
- Start date
Britesea
Sustainability Master
*raises her hand* I do! I do! I didn't use it for the longest time, because I needed to totally rearrange things in the room it was going in (not the kitchen, unfortunately- there isn't room).
So far, I have freeze-dried:
Tomatoes, sliced. I tried rehydrating one and the texture came out a little softer than fresh, but still good enough to use in a salad.
Strawberries, quartered. They tasted fantastic freeze dried, but I haven't tried rehydrating them. I'm thinking of powdering some to make a strawberry cake.
Green Beans, cut about 2-3 inches long. The taste when rehydrated was at least as good as frozen green beans.
Celery, diced. This one was fantastic; I made tuna salad and you would never know!
Green and Red Peppers, diced. I haven't tried them yet, but they smell wonderful.
Garlic Cloves, whole. I just did this because I had a bag of them in my freezer taking up space. They took a lot longer to freeze-dry than the other foods, and I ended up adding a lot of time to the end drying period. But when I tried one, they tasted pretty good- very garlicy. I haven't tried cooking with them yet.
One thing I found out from someone else is: Don't try to freeze-dry big slices of meat- they take forever to rehydrate, and end up kind of tough. You're better off using it diced or shredded. Cooked or raw is fine, but if you freeze dry your meat raw, remember that freeze-drying doesn't kill bacteria; it just makes it impossible for them to multiply in the totally dry food. Once you rehydrate the meat, you need to cook it promptly.
I am looking forward to doing more, but since each batch takes 24 hours or more, it's kind of slow compared to other forms of preserving. I like that everything is so lightweight, and I can store the foods in mylar bags with an oxygen-eater and it will stay good for years, and no broken glass if an earthquake throws everything to the floor.
I've found a Youtube channel that does experiments with freeze-drying. Here's the link to one of them:
So far, I have freeze-dried:
Tomatoes, sliced. I tried rehydrating one and the texture came out a little softer than fresh, but still good enough to use in a salad.
Strawberries, quartered. They tasted fantastic freeze dried, but I haven't tried rehydrating them. I'm thinking of powdering some to make a strawberry cake.
Green Beans, cut about 2-3 inches long. The taste when rehydrated was at least as good as frozen green beans.
Celery, diced. This one was fantastic; I made tuna salad and you would never know!
Green and Red Peppers, diced. I haven't tried them yet, but they smell wonderful.
Garlic Cloves, whole. I just did this because I had a bag of them in my freezer taking up space. They took a lot longer to freeze-dry than the other foods, and I ended up adding a lot of time to the end drying period. But when I tried one, they tasted pretty good- very garlicy. I haven't tried cooking with them yet.
One thing I found out from someone else is: Don't try to freeze-dry big slices of meat- they take forever to rehydrate, and end up kind of tough. You're better off using it diced or shredded. Cooked or raw is fine, but if you freeze dry your meat raw, remember that freeze-drying doesn't kill bacteria; it just makes it impossible for them to multiply in the totally dry food. Once you rehydrate the meat, you need to cook it promptly.
I am looking forward to doing more, but since each batch takes 24 hours or more, it's kind of slow compared to other forms of preserving. I like that everything is so lightweight, and I can store the foods in mylar bags with an oxygen-eater and it will stay good for years, and no broken glass if an earthquake throws everything to the floor.
I've found a Youtube channel that does experiments with freeze-drying. Here's the link to one of them:
milkmansdaughter
Super Self-Sufficient
Very cool. This is on our list of "want" vs "need" but is definitely something we've been looking at too!
Britesea
Sustainability Master
Ok, I just listened to one of the Epicenter Youtubes where they freeze-dried some steaks, then rehydrated them and grilled them. Of the 5 people that tried them, apparently only one found them tougher than the fresh steaks, but she still felt they were very good. So, maybe just experiment with the meats?
- Thread starter
- #5
tortoise
Wild Hare
Freeze dried strawberries are one of my favorite snacks! Just eat them!
I've nearly bought freeze dried bean powder / flakes and freeze dried sour cream powder. I would use those in my cooking.
Celery would be great to have freeze dried since it's a veggie that tends to go to waste at my house, but we like to have it on hand. Was it still a bit crunchy?
DH was reading about mechanical issues with replacing and filtering oil. He was not impressed. i was reading that they spray oil? Seems really wierd. DH has used an industrial freeze dried and said they didn't have to monkey around with oil and it didn't spray. He's now disinclined to get a Harvet Right brand because of the oil issues.
I've nearly bought freeze dried bean powder / flakes and freeze dried sour cream powder. I would use those in my cooking.
Celery would be great to have freeze dried since it's a veggie that tends to go to waste at my house, but we like to have it on hand. Was it still a bit crunchy?
DH was reading about mechanical issues with replacing and filtering oil. He was not impressed. i was reading that they spray oil? Seems really wierd. DH has used an industrial freeze dried and said they didn't have to monkey around with oil and it didn't spray. He's now disinclined to get a Harvet Right brand because of the oil issues.
Britesea
Sustainability Master
@tortoise the celery was still partially crunchy- not like fresh, but like a good stir fry. It worked fine in tuna salad. I may have soaked it a little too long in the water- I'm going to experiment with just misting the celery to see if I can get it rehydrated but not soaked?
We have a rag draped over the vacuum pump just in case it sprays because DH could see the potential for that, but so far we haven't had any issues. I've also heard that Harvest Right has awesome customer service (check out the youtube series I tagged- brian epicenter). We haven't fully replaced the oil yet; they suggested just draining out a tablespoon or so of oil after each session, to get rid of the small amount of water that may get in.
I've got more diced bell peppers in there today, as well as a tray of diced Walla Walla onions...
We have a rag draped over the vacuum pump just in case it sprays because DH could see the potential for that, but so far we haven't had any issues. I've also heard that Harvest Right has awesome customer service (check out the youtube series I tagged- brian epicenter). We haven't fully replaced the oil yet; they suggested just draining out a tablespoon or so of oil after each session, to get rid of the small amount of water that may get in.
I've got more diced bell peppers in there today, as well as a tray of diced Walla Walla onions...
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