Make sure you have a sizable container when you defrost it, wouldn't surprise me to see well over a gallon of water come out of there.
The official freeze drying thread
- Thread starter Burt Gummer
- Start date
- Replies 462
- Views 8,977
Make sure you have a sizable container when you defrost it, wouldn't surprise me to see well over a gallon of water come out of there.
I started it day before yesterday lol. I’m guessing you’re right.
Looks like blocks of fiberglass insulation. But then I don't like watermelon.
I’m not a fan of watermelon either but this is like strong sweet watermelon flavored cotton candy. I’m a fan!
OP
Burt Gummer
May Have Shorter Meme Posting Times Than U Normies
Staff member
2A Bourbon Hound 2024
2A Bourbon Hound OG
Charter Life Member
Benefactor
Vendor
Supporting Member
Salesman of the Year
Multi-Factor Enabled
I didn’t like watermelon until I had it freeze dried
But you’re the pineapple king
OP
Burt Gummer
May Have Shorter Meme Posting Times Than U Normies
Staff member
2A Bourbon Hound 2024
2A Bourbon Hound OG
Charter Life Member
Benefactor
Vendor
Supporting Member
Salesman of the Year
Multi-Factor Enabled
I like them equally as good. That watermelon does melt in your mouth like cotton candy
Still makes me think I have put insulation in my mouth.🤮
Isn’t it the best!!!
Tech question on Candy Mode. I set my settings just like everyone on YT but the cycle ended and my trays were freezing cold where people online mentioned their trays were very hot when their cycle finished. The candy seemed to have dried correctly but due to the freezing trays the candy started grabbing moisture as soon as I took them out. How are your guys trays after candy mode ends? My settings:
Ok so I did some reading and some say the issue is if vacuum doesn’t hit below 500 mtorr the heaters won’t come on. I did a vac test and it wouldn’t go below 1650 mtorr today. I’ll start checking for a leak. In the meantime what do you guys use to Re-glue this fine engineered piece?
Last edited:
OP
Burt Gummer
May Have Shorter Meme Posting Times Than U Normies
Staff member
2A Bourbon Hound 2024
2A Bourbon Hound OG
Charter Life Member
Benefactor
Vendor
Supporting Member
Salesman of the Year
Multi-Factor Enabled
I think wI used some sort of double sided tape that @Lil D found somewhere. Some clear looking shit made by gorilla glue if I remember correctly. Far as the vacuum. I’d go ahead and change the drain valve. That plastic thing is a piece of junk.
Mine appears to be stainless or maybe chromed brass. Not plastic though.
How you like it?
The handle on ours was plastic. The ball valve corroded to the point we had to use pliers to open/close it.
A full size handled brass ball valve is much more pleasant to operate.
The strawberry banana and the huckleberry are insanely good. I ordered more.
Chriselalto
Well-Known Member
I am getting to borrow a medium size FD from a friend while they are out of country for a month.
Been anxious to try. We dont want to waste our borrow time with candy and ice cream bars.
Would the better option be to do stews, and prepared meals? Eggs are def going to be done. Milk? kinda lost on thinking of Meal type things to do.
How does everyone manage taste/flavor crossovers when FD different things in the same batch?
Been anxious to try. We dont want to waste our borrow time with candy and ice cream bars.
Would the better option be to do stews, and prepared meals? Eggs are def going to be done. Milk? kinda lost on thinking of Meal type things to do.
How does everyone manage taste/flavor crossovers when FD different things in the same batch?
I’ve done hamburgers, salmon filets w/lemon and veggies, and full breakfast skillets so far for full meals.
As for flavors I only mix fruity with fruity and savory with savory and seems ok.
Last edited:
Any type of pasta or rice basted casserole/dish seems to do well. Milk did good for me, I used whole milk. Juices tend to have too much sugar. No peanut butter, syrups etc.
You can dream up whatever you want really, just remember it needs to be low fat, lean meat, things like hamburger cook and rinse to remove fat. I use molds for sauces on things like enchiladas and cooked the beef with a little sauce and had that on one tray, the tortillas one one, cheese on one, and then the molded sauce on another. That enabled me to assemble the ingredients in the Mylar and portion it out. Lasagna and things of that nature I cooked and cut the leftovers into cubes and dried… there are a ton of ideas online too. Happy experimenting!
**PRICE REDUCED** - farm & garden - by owner - sale
For Sale: $1500.00 OBO A size medium Harvest Right home freeze dryer. Capable of freeze drying fresh food for preservation up to 25 years when sealed properly in mylar bags (sealer and supply of...
fayetteville.craigslist.org
Ive toyed with trying to pick this up to flip, but that would involve me dealing with people, and I HATE dealing with people.
So I pass it along to you fine folks in case someone’s looking for a cheaper than new option.
Finally got a chance to rehydrate a skillet meal today for lunch to test it out. It was awesome! The scrambled eggs, potatoes, Canadian ham, and peppers all were piping hot and exact textures they were before freeze drying. It took 1 1/2 cups of hot water and 5 mins steaming in the bag… stir and done. I’m a huge fan now of the meals. I’m gonna do more of these soon….We did enough for 2 adults and a dog in each bag.
Last edited:
Awesome!
How did you know how much water to add to rehydrate?
You’re supposed to weigh before drying then after and k no ow that way but this is 4 separate ingredients combined so I started with 1 cup then added another 1/4 cup after a few mins then again another 1/4 cup and it was perfect. Now I know on the other 11 meals to add 1 1/2 cups. I did a tiny sticker on each one.
Just finished more taffy, bananas, and a western ham omelette entree in the last week. We rehydrated some Salmon filets and salmon patties over rice to test and test rehydration amounts. The results were opposite of what I thought. The salmon Pattie’s were amazing! I don’t even like them before freeze drying but man these were the shizz. The salmon filets were mostly flaky and good but the trick is to put them in a bowl with boiling water and a wet paper towel over it to get them fully rehydrated. The Pattie’s did great right in the Mylar.
Last edited:
I’ve got to figure out what I want to make next. I got slack on the eggs for a week and just got the rest of those done finally. I had asked @Burt Gummer if he wanted me to make him some cooked… he likes eggs with a meat, cheese and gravy mixed together so I was going to make some of those. He said nah at first but now that I’ve made him some for his work breakfast I think he may have reconsidered. Mmm gravy lol.
I’m trying to make whole meals that are just add hot water like Mountain House. I still have to rehydrate and test the meatballs and burgers.
Rotisserie chicken does great as well. Makes killer chicken salad.
That’s what I did was the rotisserie chickens. We freeze dried the white meat and made dog food from the dark meat . We did a small amount of dark as a test but mostly white.
@hp468 got me on the Costco chicken train for sure. You can’t beat it for the price and ease. I just pulled a batch out myself over the weekend.
I made a big batch Japanese stir fry this evening and it’s hanging out in the freezer now waiting for something to run with it. Maybe 2 more chickens 😂
Just finished 3 batches of bananas back to back. Had a LOT of Smithfield’s Cole Slaw left over from a cookout so brought it home and gonna try that next. I got 4 full trays of slaw lol. After the slaw I’m going to do 8 dozen raw eggs for powder that you guys recommended.
Nope. Failed on tray reheat. Checked the plug, it looked ok. Did test, started to warm up to +13F and then started cooling down. Turned test off and back on and it warmed up nicely. Hmmm... Don't like intermittent faults. Obviously relay is not stuck open, but might be a board or a connection. Board is replaceable and I could likely repair it if I knew the issue. Looks like they used Omron relays, easy enough to obtain.
Edit to add: putting my EE hat on, an intermittent failure to activate could be caused by several, things upstream. including a failure to activate signal from the main control board. Thankfully someone was thinking and put an LED on the relays for when they should activate to help rule that out.
There is some big black box device on the relay board which makes me think DC-DC converter (why? - shouldn’t need isolation) but I’d think a power type failure would show up on all the relay circuits (cooling, pump, heater, etc).
Interestingly. More of the design of the thing becomes clearer. Though given how heavy they are shipping for repair would be a MAJOR issue, so designing for layman repair capability with hand holding would be smart.
Last edited:
I saw that. This guy is why I did burger patties and meatballs. So far so good they’re fine.
Haven't watched the above video yet, its 30 minutes which isn't too bad. The comments, however, had this bit which I found interesting:
So I ended up watching it because some of the groups I follow were mentioning that their meat tasted stale and flavorless. Course my first thought was that they likely didn’t season it lol. But someone posted this man’s video and since he addressed the fat issues I was intrigued. I don’t do raw meat cause let’s face it if the shtf we might not be able to cook but I found his comparison to the commercial products very interesting. I’d like to learn more about the rosemary he mentions also but that will have to be another day. And he mentioned trimming the meat after it’s dried… I hadn’t thought of that either.