Freeze Dryer Novice No More
This past weekend, I received a comment on a blog article I wrote back in June 2022, 20 things I tried to freeze dry my first month. My how time flies. I can’t believe it’s almost four years since I posted about our first freeze dryer experiences.
The person who commented wrote that she was researching ahead of receiving her first freeze dryer and wanted to hear more about my experience. So, four years on, here is what I shared with her:
We love our freeze dryer.
For us, the freeze dryer has been a game changer in terms of preserving leftovers and fresh produce, especially. So much less food waste than without it, and we can really capitalize on sales and gluts of food that tend to happen seasonally.
We have a medium Harvest Right freeze dryer and I’ve chosen not to upgrade to their Pro version. For me, it’s a cost reason; I don’t have the money right now to purchase the upgrade. But I also like having more space between the shelves for those times when I really fill up my trays with foods like sliced mushrooms.
Storage and rotation is my biggest challenge.
My challenge lately has been finding the best method of storing the mylar bags for long-term and practicing rotation so we use the oldest stuff first. It’s an on-going learning process and laziness is my biggest obstacle. We store the mylar bags in totes and it’s very tempting to just keep the new food nearer to our food prep area and use it, rather than rotating with the older stuff that is out in long-term storage.
And although I’ve been far better at labelling than I ever thought I would be, we have had four bags (out of several hundred) that lost their labels. So, I’ve got four mystery bags that I’m going to have to open at some point. Labelling is essential and I suggest a sharpie marker if you’re labels aren’t sticky enough!
Moisture is the enemy of freeze dried food.
One of my key learnings has been to never bag up food when it has sat in the machine at the end of the freeze dry process. Staying too long in the machine allows the food to take back the frozen moisture. To combat this, if I come back to the machine after the process has ended, I always add more dry time, even just a couple of hours, and then cancel that final dry later when I’m next ready to bag. In the early days, I didn’t do this and a couple batches got ruined. I remember that the food felt cold as I was bagging it which meant there was moisture in it. I identified too late and the food went bad in the bag, which I only realized when I opened the bag as I was prepping my meal.
Freeze dry the food you will use, and then enjoy using it.
The most popular freeze dried ingredients in our house are mushrooms, onions, peppers, carrots and celery because when we want to throw together a quick meal, these are already sliced and ready to go straight into the Instant Pot. We keep these in jars in our kitchen and I replenish the jars from the mylar bags. A bit of meat, potatoes and broth and a very yummy stew is ready with very little prep.
I have never experimented with candy in the freeze dryer. It seems like a novelty to me and a waste of my freeze drying time when there is usually fresh food that needs preserving more urgently.
If you’re going to add the FD mushrooms, onions and peppers to a frozen pizza, put them in a mug and add a teaspoon of water before you put them on the pizza. They burn in the oven if you put them on without rehydrating them first. We buy cheap, cheese only frozen pizzas and “doctor” them to each person’s preference.
What about you?
If you are new to freeze drying, I hope these tips are useful for you and that you have fun with your new machine. Feel free to get in touch using the form below and I’d be happy to try to help.
