Freeze Dried Tomato Soup

My theory about keeping the room cooler speeding up the freeze dryer may not have been accurate.

Tomato Soup Processing Time

It took 63-1/2 hours to process. Of course, there’s a whole lot of liquid in tomato soup so it probably isn’t a good one on which to test my theory about the cooler room.

Poor Boots .. he has to get shut in the closet when I’m messing with the food. He’s learned that there’s yummy stuff in those trays. Don’t feel sorry for him though . . it’s the closet he loves until I want him in there and it takes me maybe 20 minutes from the time I unload the trays, package the food, then drain and replace the oil for the next batch. Then I let him out of the closet while the freeze dryer defrosts.

Ice Inside Dryer

That’s from the water that comes out of the foods and it freezes on there, the inside of the barrel and then I can turn on a defrost which heats up the sides and takes a couple of hours or, if I’m not going to use it right away, I will let it defrost on its own. There’s a drain tube and the water drains into a bucket.

The tomato soup turned out perfect! Nice and crumbly. I think when I reconstitute it, I may add just a little water and a little milk. I’ll see but I’m betting it will be so good. I ended up with enough for at least four meals.

Tomato Soup

I should have measured serving sizes as I put it in the trays and then I would know . . if I’m putting enough for one or two or four servings. We can always save leftovers. I guess I’d rather put as much as I can in those mylar bags and not waste the bags, then have the leftover tomato soup for a few days.