I’ve had the Harvest Right freeze dryer for 6-1/2 years now. During the summer, it runs probably 80% of the time – day and night. This time of year, there’s not a lot to freeze dry but if I find something on sale – bell peppers, zucchini, fruit, etc., I’ll get enough to fill the freeze dryer and run a load or two. We’re still eating figs that I freeze dried from our trees in Texas and we are very thankful to have those. Through the years, I’ve freeze dried lots of fruit – apples, bananas, cantaloupe, strawberries, blueberries, watermelon, and probably others I’m forgetting. One year one of the grocery stores in Texas had sweet potatoes for some ridiculous low price and we bought several cases of them. I made probably 50 small jars of freeze dried sweet potato pie filling. We still have a lot of it. Vince isn’t as crazy about sweet potato pie as I am so I have pints of blueberry, apple, pear and peach pie filling. I will make pies in the small cast iron skillets and sometimes I’ll make one for him and make a sweet potato pie for me.
Up until yesterday, freeze dried eggs were my favorite thing to freeze dry. I whip them up like a scrambled egg but don’t add anything to them, freeze dry them and either crumble them with my hands or put them in the blender and vacuum seal the powdered eggs in jars. When it’s time to eat them, I will add a bit of water and they make the best eggs. To me, they have a better texture than fresh eggs. I also love them in egg bites.
My new favorite thing to freeze dry is ground beef. I had never even thought about freeze drying it and I was watching a video the other day and they casually mentioned freeze drying ground beef. The lady said she had browned 6 pounds of ground beef to freeze dry. The husband asked if they had enough freeze dried hamburger patties. Why haven’t I thought about that?
I happened to have 6 pounds of ground beef defrosting in the freezer so I made three small hamburger patties, and freeze dried them raw. I cooked the rest of the ground beef – til it was done but not brown. It took just a bit over a days – 29 hours I think it was, from start to finish. I had not put any seasonings or anything in the meat but once it was dried and I started putting it in jars, I tried a bite and I couldn’t stop eating it. I think it would be great in pasta sauce, on pizzas, on some kind of sub type sandwich, in soups, chili, on top of baked potatoes. I’m going to freeze dry more and season it and add garlic and onions.
I only made three patties because I wanted to see what Vince thought about them before I did more. Yesterday I showed it one. It looked like shoe leather (I’ll take a picture next time) but was light as a feather. I think Vince was apprehensive about trying it. Since I had freeze dried it raw, it had to be cooked.
I first soaked it in water that was just a bit warmer than room temp. It took maybe 5 minutes for it to be completely rehydrated and there was a bit of blood in the water. I showed it to Vince and he said “If you didn’t know, you would think it was fresh ground beef!” It was almost a bit like magic. I seasoned it and fried it in a skillet. Vince said he would not be able to tell the difference in that and a regular hamburger.
I am so happy to be able to do this. We love hamburgers and it seems that often we want to make them but there’s no ground beef defrosted, or I’ll defrost the ground beef to make hamburgers and then, since we like to cook them outside, it will rain or be too windy or too cold and I’ll make meatloaf or something from the ground beef. It will be so nice to be able to grab a few freeze dried patties, soak them for a few minutes and cook burgers.
Also, when we go to my uncle’s, I try to bring food in jars so we don’t have to shop there but can eat meals without going out. Hamburgers will be something I can add to our meals there. I am surprised I never read or heard about anyone doing this before and that I never thought of it.
I have six more pounds of ground beef defrosting. I’ll probably get it in the freeze dryer Wednesday evening. I’m going to add the seasonings, onions and garlic this batch and make it into crumbles. I’ll get more defrosting and make more patties probably Friday. I’ll take photos! I’m going to make them small – slider size – so they will fit into wide mouth jars. I will vacuum seal them, pop the seal open, take out however many we need, and reseal the jar til the next time!
Cynthia says
What type of freeze dryer do you use? I’ve been considering purchasing one, and it seems yours is a good one!
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Mine is a Harvest Right. I bought it not long after they came out and it has been a good one. It is a lot of work and to justify the cost, you have to keep it running. I think a lot of people get them, realize it’s a lot of work to prep the food to go into the freeze dryer, then get it out and process the food for storage, then have a place to keep everything but it really is worth it if that’s something that matters to you and you have the time to do it.
Diane says
: I’m curious how much electricity the freeze dryer uses a month. Does it end up being worth it when you buy food at a good price? Or is it not any cheaper but freeze drying for the convenience of having a stocked up pantry?
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Freeze dried food is pretty expensive so I can’t imagine that it would cost less to buy it plus, if I’m freeze drying foods I’ve grown or purchased from a farmer, I’m more confident about the quality. For instance, I freeze dried probably 50 or more dozen eggs when we had chickens. Those are good for longer than I’ll be around. Harvest Right used to have (and may still) a blurb about the cost of running a machine. You would have to consider the rate you pay for power vs. the rate they are quoting. Another thing to consider is that the machines put out a lot of heat and need to be in a well vented room. When I’m running the freeze dryer (in the basement) during the summer, it helps keep the basement comfortable because it’s so cool down there. When I was running the machine in the sewing room in the summer in Texas, even with the a/c on, it was hot in there. I believe we used a lot more a/c in Texas, not because the machine used more energy but because it took more energy to keep the room cool. On the other hand, it keeps the rooms warm during the winter.
I can’t give you much more info because we had solar panels in Texas and here so we don’t usually have a bill to pay. If I’m running it every day, we don’t send much power back but the only time during the summer when I’m not running the freeze dryer almost non-stop is when we’re out of town and we aren’t using much power for anything then.
A freeze dryer who doesn’t use solar might could help you more than I can.