My Harvest Right freeze dryer should be here in the next month. Naturally, I want to add a lot of meat to my preps, and that will be the freeze dryer's main duty. But what else should I be freeze drying?

Your cat.

In all seriousness, whatever you can get cheap, or leftovers.

If I had one, I'd prob cook 2x the amount I needed each night, and freeze dry left overs.

Here's my running list of things I've thought up. I've freeze dried a lot of these, some great, others pretty meh.

I didn't add any notes but maybe this will get you inspired. Also, fats last several years. Rancidity is caused mostly by light and oxidation, so oxygen absorbers and mylar removes pretty much all of that.


Freeze Dried Ideas

[  ] Baby foods (individual fruits and veggies for purees)
[  ] Apple fries
[  ] Orange chips
[  ] Green bean strings
[  ] Banana chips
[  ] Chicken pot pie casserole
[  ] Watermelon balls
[  ] Chili
[  ] Instant soups, homemade
[  ] Berry yogurt parfait
[  ] Pizza crackers
[  ] Fajita mix, chicken peppers onions, rehydrate and add tortilla
[  ] Mixed fruits with  oat meal
[  ] Just add water healthy smoothies
[  ] Chicken salad
[  ] Greek salad
[  ] Green machine powder (cucumber, celery, apple, spinach, kale, ginger)
[  ] Beet chips
[  ] Cauliflower rice
[  ] Mirepoix
[  ] Tomato "croutons" for salads
[  ] Zucchini noodles
[  ] Salsa
[  ] Zucchini pickles
[  ] Pizza sauce
[  ] Hummus
[  ] Shrimp Scampi
[  ] Shrimp chowder (dried milk, potatoes, carrots, celery, corn, onions, bacon, fish flavor)
[  ] Dinner complementary instant packs
[  ] Fried rice - mushrooms, bell peppers, carrots, peas, green onions, celery. Add to single serve mylar pack, hydrate and add to rice with fresh egg
[  ] Stir fry vegetables
[  ] Pot roast
[  ] Chicken pot pie stew
[  ] Chicken Carbonara
[  ] French onion soup
[  ] Loaded potato soup
[  ] Chicken Alfredo
[  ] Just chicken
[  ] Quinoa
[  ] Capers
[  ] Beef Bourguignon
[  ] Scrambled eggs, raw
[  ] Instant pie fillings
[  ] Pulled pork sloppy joe
[  ] Hash browns
[  ] Beef pasta marinara
[  ] Calzone veggie packs (spinach, green peppers, mushrooms, onions, black olives and tomatoes)
[  ] Pizza topper packs (veggie and meat combos)
[  ] Peach cobbler
[  ] Just rice
[  ] Greek chicken and toppings for rice. Artichokes, roasted red peppers, Kalamatta olives, Greek seasoning, spinach
[  ] French toast liquid (raw eggs, milk, vanilla, salt sugar cinnamon)
[  ] Sheppard pie
[  ] Scalloped potatoes
[  ] Ham potato soup
[  ] Yakitori chicken
[  ] Birria torta meat
[  ] Paella
[  ] Strawberry spinach Banana apple Peach
[  ] Vegetable broth powder
[  ] Quick Chicken Piccata



Freeze Dried super smoothie
[  ] Strawberries
[  ] Apple
[  ] Banana
[  ] Ginger
[  ] Spinach
[  ] Peach
[  ] Blueberry

Green machine smoothie
[  ] cucumber, celery, apple, spinach, kale, ginger

Instant tomatoe juice smoothie v8 clone
[  ] Tomato sauce
[  ] Celery
[  ] Carrot
[  ] Beets
[  ] Spinach
[  ] Parsley


Instant freeze dried fried rice helper
[  ] Mushrooms
[  ] Bell peppers
[  ] Scallions
[  ] Carrots
[  ] Peas
[  ] Celery
[  ] Cooked shrimp


Next up:
Mixed mushrooms, peppers, onion
Chicken chow mein
Sauces, red and Alfredo
Chicken Tikka malasa

Brownie bites
Kale, Blueberry, kefir
Biscuits and gravy
Chicken pesto pasta
Breakfast skillet
Beef stew
Ham bean soup

we have been using ours mainly for milk and eggs from our chickens and goats

we also have been doing a lot of shredded cheese. It take a bit less time too.



I'm going to do breakfast sausage patties too. I also want to do more meat but the wife is against it since she cans meat. I have to show her the way as she does not trust it


I did hear on a pod cast not to do raw red meat as it caused someones HR to start rusting. Not sure of the specifics
We have also had good luck with breakfast potato's (pre cooked) and homemade soups.

we have been shredding raw zucchini and also free drying that too. It makes good has browns.

Mine has been full of peaches for a week straight.

I do a lot of bulk chicken breast from Sam's and agree it does great. I package in pint mylar bags and my wife loves to be able to easily rehydrate and then add to a salad

@GunBacon You cooking your chicken breast first?

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We are on onions now.  We are getting a load like this every couple days.  Garden is booming.

Really wish I had another FD.

For beginners, go to Walmart and get a couple big bags of frozen veggies (mix veggies, corn -- I think it is a 5-lb bag).  Run a couple of those and get other frozen veg because the work is done for you (peeling, chopping, blanching).  After a couple of weeks, you will have it down and you could do it in your sleep.  After that, I started in on potatoes, carrots, eggs, etc.  I still keep enough commercially frozen veg in the freezer to run a load just in case.

Trying breakfast sausage now and it my be an epic failure
Soggy at 24hrs

Sliced thin and put up for another 24hr
We shall see today

We are going to go get a big order of biscuits and gravy from Cracker Barrel and try a run of that!

Fats and fatty foods don't FD well, I suspect most restaurant Bs&G have a lot of fat. Long term storage would be a big concern. Making homemade let's you control the fat.

But if you're just making it for a camping trip or something, give it a shot!

Understand and you are right.  We thought we'd do it the easy way first then if we liked it, make our own.  Watched Retired at 40 do some and he did just that, controlled the fat/grease.

meat, fruit, yogurt, eggs, and milk when others are stock piled.  ice cream sandwiches when you need the sweet....

You can add “more dry time”
I know people that regularly do 40+ hour runs.

They came out crunchy with a slight softness. But I have to clean it as it all has a greasy film over everything including the door.

I bought 8 lbs of low-fat Pattie’s to try next.

I may be eating breakfast sausages for all meals if this does not work out, but I hear Pattie’s work better

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Thanks for the input guys.

Mine too. Bought a bushel of peaches. On my last load now.

Also do eggs, veggies, fruit. Going to start doing whole meals next.

I do! I season all meats and then vacuum seal.

I then sous vide chicken breast at 145 for 2 hours, immediately dunk them into an ice bath, let it chill for 30 minutes, take them out of the vacuum pouches, dice into cubes, then freeze dry. It sounds like a lot, but once you have the flow down it's a significant time saver with consistent results.

Sous vide make it stupid easy to get it cooked exactly correct everytime, and you never end up with dry, stringy, or chewy breasts.

Do the onions taint the subsequent batches??  Is there any carry over that you can tell??

Thanks
Doc

There can be odor carryover. Plan accordingly. Onion odors and flavors aren't a problem on your chicken etc. Not so pleasant on your strawberries...

I’ve heard this many times, but we did apples after 4 straight loads of onions and they had no onion taste that I could tell

I did apples 2 loads after garlic (chicken after garlic), I could taste the garlic on the apples. It was subtle but it was definitely there.

Well I just learned something new!

Chop the apples and use them in dressing/stuffing.  My husband is Danish and if we stuff anything, it always includes apples and prunes in the stuffing.  He does a stuffed pork tenderloin -- very tasty.

Thanks! Was going to ask if store-bought frozen foods might be a good entry point.

Easiest foods to start out with are frozen veggies, rotisserie chicken, pulled pork, turkey breast and lean hamburger.  Pack all in mylar bags with O2 absorbers or vacuum sealed mason jars.  Our favorite garden produce is peppers (all types), raw okra (seasoned), asparagus and onion.  Store what you like to eat, your stockpile will build slowly but will last for 30 years stored and packaged properly.

Skittles.

Seriously they are awesome.

My wife does gift baskets at christmas time full of our homemade jam, honey,freeze dried fruits from our trees, and some candies like skittles. Lots of hard work into all of them. What is the most requested item? Frickin freeze dried skittles.

Lots of people have reported that they pay for their machines by selling skittles at farmers markets.

Excellent post. Thank you.

My machine arrived yesterday, but I was too wiped out after a 14-hour day to put it together. I will probably get it up and running tonight, if I get out of work at a reasonable hour.

I can already see the logistical challenges developing. I think what I'll do is prioritize the bulk storage of meat initially. I'll keep you guys updated as I figure all this out.

When you do meat, try one batch where you make taco meat. Turns out amazing and is so great for a quick meal in a pinch. We package it into 2 serving portions and use it during a busy weekday night.

Awesome. Will do.

One thing I didn't really appreciate before is the logistical challenges that arise. The time it takes the machine to run is highly variable. Further, once it's done, you need to seal the food immediately. Then it takes a couple hours (of waiting) to get the machine ready for the next batch. If you don't want any downtime, you need to have stuff ready to go, etc.

It's not exactly rocket science, but it's a little more complex than I expected.

I just recently received my freeze drier and ran my first batch last night…

Is the temp supposed to stay very cold the entire time? It went down to freezing temp (-10 I think I saw at one point) and later when I came back in the pressure was down very low (around 300 mT) but the temp was sky high! I saw it get up to about 130 degrees on the display yet it still looked like there was ice on the walls within the freeze drier?

It it supposed to swing between freezing and hot temps throughout the cycle? Or stay freezing the entire time?

The food is frozen and then targeted heat is applied directly to the food to create sublimation, which is a process by which the moisture leaves the food as a gas. The drum around the trays is still super cold and the moisture-as-a-gas “sticks” to the drum as ice.

What you describe is a machine running properly.

I often don’t read/follow directions but figured it was a good idea with the shiney new freeze dryer.

Recommend test batch.


Next batch is store bought veggies, hash browns and fresh onions.

I foresee quite the learning curve going forward.

Sams club Idaho Spuds will revolutionize your breakfast game. And they make an epic freeze dried meal, cook up ~20 eggs with a bit of milk and cheese, dice up 3 ish pounds of cooked ham.

On 2 trays put all the cooked eggs, another gets ham, the final gets 5 cups of Idaho spuds hashbrowns. Or mix them all together in a large mixing bowl. I separate it all out as I precisely measure each ingredient when packaging.

FD it, separate into 10 mylar bags, epic breakfast for a busy morning or camping.

How do you know how much water to put back in? I was thinking to weigh the trays before and after. Is there an easier/better way?

The general method is weigh the food before and after and divide that difference by number of packages. For this particular method that doesn't work as the hashbrowns are already dehydrated.

All you do is weigh everything but hashbrowns before and after and then add 1/2 cup water to that (specifically 1/2 cup because if you add 5 cups hashbrowns and make 10 servings each serving gets 1/2 cup hashbrowns and the instructions call for an equal part water for rehydration)

Another thing I've done is weigh the amount of water that collects after a cycle has defrosted and divide that by how ever many packages you did. It stands to reason that that is pretty much how much water has been removed so just put that amount back in lol

We went out on the lake this weekend and beached and had a cook out.  I took the opportunity to use my Kelly Kettle and try some Lasagna we recently freeze dried.  I was disappointed with the results.  It just did not soak the water back up like I'd hoped it would.  It would keep you from starving, but it wasn't very desirable.
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Did you pour hot boiling water into a mylar bag seal it and keep it threre for 5-10 minutes?

I did.

Perhaps more water would have done the trick?

Possibly.  That was my first try of it and it wasn't under ideal conditions.  We agreed we would try to perfect it at home so maybe we can get it to work out in the wild better.

ETA:  Water was standing in bottom of back and we would stir occasionally, but still lots of hard chunks.

Ah that is probably why. Surface area is a bitch.
That is why soups and stir frys do so well, lots of small bits easy to penetrate abd soak.
Chop it up next time to smaller pieces.

Seems like sound advice.