First Load in the Freeze Dryer

First, I’m trying to figure out a good way to keep records. I was thinking I could do a Google spreadsheet and make it shared for anyone who wants to see exactly how I did things and my notes as to what I would do differently but also for my own reference. I could put a link to the spreadsheet near the top in the right sidebar. Any ideas or suggestions as to how I might track and share my experiences. Of course I’ll write about it all here but blog posts spread out over quite a few years aren’t an easy resource. Even with tags and categories, there’s so much to sort through. I’ll see what you all have to say.

The freeze dryer definitely is not difficult to operate but there’s a learning curve as to how long different foods take, how the room temp affects the speed of drying. There’s hardly any way to ruin the food. If your cycle finishes and the food isn’t dry enough, the machine can be started and more time added.

One thing everyone said was “Get a Large machine!” I got a medium and with this first batch am wishing I had a large. The trays in the large are a tad bit bigger and there are 5 trays instead of one. Here’s what I found out:

• Two bananas and 1 small can of pineapple chunks fills one tray
• Three apples fills one tray
• One XL mango fills one tray

If it’s going to take the same amount of time to process, why not have 30% more (or more) product in there? My thoughts with getting the Medium were:

• Takes up less space (just a little!)
• Once the new wears off, I may not be running it as much and even though the Large is not a whole lot more than the Medium, if it’s not being used to the fullest extent, a Medium is fine.

If this time next year we’re still freeze drying a lot and feel the need for a second one, we can order another one.

More than just seeing how it operates when freeze drying, I want to see what we think about food that has been freeze dried and then rehydrated. Fruits we’ll probably eat in their dried state. Meats, eggs, casseroles will have to be rehydrated and then we’ll see about the flavor and texture and that will let me know if I like this thing or if I LOVE this thing!

Now, I have four trays in there. Ideally, you would put foods together that take longer to dry. Adding one tray of pineapple to every load means instead of drying for maybe 12 hours, I’ll be drying for probably 16 or 18 hours. So, I should dry a whole load of pineapple at once and I will do that but for now, I’m experimenting and wanting to try lots of different things.

Now, we have one tray of mango. As I mentioned, 1 XL mango filled up one tray.

Next tray has strawberry yogurt. This is homemade Greek style yogurt to which I added sugar and strawberries.

The plan for the strawberry yogurt is that I’ll break it apart. It will be dry and crunchy (I hope).

Next tray has bananas and some pineapple chunks. A friend told me to dip the bananas in pineapple juice and it would keep them from turning brown and be tasty. I don’t think we have to use any acidic dip on bananas, apples, peaches, etc. to keep them from turning brown but I thought I’d try the pineapple juice on the bananas. This tray contains two bananas and the contents of a small can of chunk pineapple.

What I’m most excited to try are the apples.

I read on the freeze dryer group that you could put red hot candies in the food processor, powder them, dip the apples in them and get what will taste like a candy apple! How’s that for healthy? 🙂  Live and learn . . I powdered the red hots, put it in a zipper bag, dropped each apple slice in there as I sliced and peeled it and by the time I had a few apples in there, the moisture had clumped the cinnamon powder. Next time, I’m going to put the apples in a bowl and sprinkle the powder on them.

I ate one . . maybe more than one. I took one to Vince. He wanted another. I said “I can’t wait to try these once they’re dried!” He said “I think we should eat them all just like they are!”

Everything was pre-frozen, though not frozen solid. I set the machine for 13 hours freezing and 16 hours of drying and turned it on last night. This morning I realized that we had a pretty good air leak around the gasket on the door so I had to shut it all down, adjust the door and get it going again. At this point, I think it will all be ready around noon tomorrow.