Freeze Drying Digest

[TJAnonymous]

Hello folks! I am starting a thread all around freeze drying. I am BRAND NEW to this subject. In fact, I'm doing my first run - the bread run - as I type this...

I'd love tips, tricks, and support for Q&A, along with what DOESN'T freeze dry (or rehydrate) well.

 

[Smokerbill]

I don't have a freeze dryer but watching with interest.

 

[Sally PB]

following!

 

[WthrLady]

Well of course I'm here.
I am currently running 4 trays of shredded cheeses, one pound per tray (4 cups each)
and a tray of un-iced, blueberry pop tarts, cut into soldiers.

 

[WthrLady]

Hello folks! I am starting a thread all around freeze drying. I am BRAND NEW to this subject. In fact, I'm doing my first run - the bread run - as I type this...

I'd love tips, tricks, and support for Q&A, along with what DOESN'T freeze dry (or rehydrate) well.

Do not do high fat items as they CAN go rancid faster - cook rinse and drain meats
Chocolate is considered high fat 0 water, and does NOT freeze dry.
I am not a fan of COOKED and then reconstituted eggs, they're rubbery.
I have NOT tried raw egg yet, too many customers and no spare eggs to play with.
When you rehydrate it, do not force it.
If it's raw and you are reconstituting it, do it with cool water.
If it has been cooked and you are reconstituting it, you can do it with warm/hot water.
Freezing full trays in a freezer, then the freeze dryer saves you time.
Fill trays with liquids AT the freeze dryer using a pitcher.
Ice cream sandwiches cut into pieces are fun.
Silicone molds are great for portioning, fill, freeze, pop them out and place pieces on the tray-. ( I get mine on sale at hobby lobby, they're pink, in the cake row. 4 1/3 cup squares per mold, and then there is one that has 24 squares on it that hold a good amount of ice cream, to fill with soft ice cream and make ice cream bites.
I've already bought a second set of trays, two sets of silicone liners, and spacers to stack the trays, and a set of lids, which I really haven't bothered too much with.
Weigh the food before freeze drying and again after, and then you'll know how much water to add to get it back to normal, divide more to get per serving.
Some foods need divided reconstitution, like powders. You add some water to make a paste, then more to make soup etc. Don't and you get clumps.

 

[WthrLady]

If you wake up and it's been beeping for who knows HOW long, go ahead and SKIP opening the valve and add a couple/few more hours of drying time to get those trays warm and dry again.
If the trays have gone cold, when you pull the food out it will immediately start to condensate on the food - which you don't want.
At the end of this extra dry time, open the valve, then the door and check each tray for wet spots, cold spots, chewy spots, add more time again if you need to, shut valve and door.
You can use a infrared thermometer to look for cold spots.
I don't do candy, so I can't help there, but there are new settings in the computers for that.
Some items expand like mad and should NOT be dried - like jams, jellies, liquid sugar items that are like, and honey. DON"T do honey-sticky explosion.
Pure cream is another. Not only is it high in fat, but their is enough air in it that it 'bubbles' everywhere and makes a huge mess.

 

[WthrLady]

make sure your chamber is 100% dry before you get things going again to avoid getting water in your pump
I secure my hose to my mop bucket with a giant bull clip, flipping up the handles on the clip and running the hose through the loops in the handles. This keeps my hose far from the bottom of the bucket as it drains. When it's done draining I pour out all water to avoid siphoning water up the hose upon opening the valve.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Well of course I'm here.
I am currently running 4 trays of shredded cheeses, one pound per tray (4 cups each)
and a tray of un-iced, blueberry pop tarts, cut into soldiers.

How do you pick what to freeze dry? Just experimenting?

 

[TJAnonymous]

Do not do high fat items as they CAN go rancid faster - cook rinse and drain meats
Chocolate is considered high fat 0 water, and does NOT freeze dry.
I am not a fan of COOKED and then reconstituted eggs, they're rubbery.
I have NOT tried raw egg yet, too many customers and no spare eggs to play with.
When you rehydrate it, do not force it.
If it's raw and you are reconstituting it, do it with cool water.
If it has been cooked and you are reconstituting it, you can do it with warm/hot water.
Freezing full trays in a freezer, then the freeze dryer saves you time.
Fill trays with liquids AT the freeze dryer using a pitcher.
Ice cream sandwiches cut into pieces are fun.
Silicone molds are great for portioning, fill, freeze, pop them out and place pieces on the tray-. ( I get mine on sale at hobby lobby, they're pink, in the cake row. 4 1/3 cup squares per mold, and then there is one that has 24 squares on it that hold a good amount of ice cream, to fill with soft ice cream and make ice cream bites.
I've already bought a second set of trays, two sets of silicone liners, and spacers to stack the trays, and a set of lids, which I really haven't bothered too much with.
Weigh the food before freeze drying and again after, and then you'll know how much water to add to get it back to normal, divide more to get per serving.
Some foods need divided reconstitution, like powders. You add some water to make a paste, then more to make soup etc. Don't and you get clumps.

Wow... A lot to unpack here.

1. Eggs, meats, and produce are the biggest reasons why I bought it. Especially for ham. I need a good way to preserve ham chunks beyond just the freezer.

2. Silicone molds - yes, I've seen these in Hobby Lobby a gazillion times. What are you using them for though? Juice? Yogurt?

3. Extra stuff - I want to order another set of pans, along with lids... But HR is sold out at the moment. Wondering if anyone has used knock off brands as an alternative?

4. Weighing before FD - this is a great idea but I can also see me skipping this step. Simply because I don't want to deal with the hassle and mess of pulling out the scale and figuring out what to put the food in, in order to weigh it, then remembering to write it on the bag or somewhere I can recall it later.

 

[TJAnonymous]

make sure your chamber is 100% dry before you get things going again to avoid getting water in your pump
I secure my hose to my mop bucket with a giant bull clip, flipping up the handles on the clip and running the hose through the loops in the handles. This keeps my hose far from the bottom of the bucket as it drains. When it's done draining I pour out all water to avoid siphoning water up the hose upon opening the valve.

I have my hose draining into the bucket too. I would dump it before using the FD again simply because I don't want water just sitting in the bucket. Knowing my luck, my granddaughter would get into it...