Freeze Dried Potatoes

Lately I’ve seen more and more freeze drying folks talking about potatoes. I think I remember that once I tried freeze drying hash browns – grated potatoes, but they pretty much crumbled and by the time they got rehydrated, they became pretty gummy. The folks I’ve seen lately were freeze drying small cubes of potatoes. This may work with dehydrating too – I don’t know but it’s probably worth a try.

The other day I had enough asparagus to freeze dry but not enough to fill all four trays. I had some Yukon Gold potatoes that needed to be used so I peeled those, cubed them, blanched them, drained them well and got them into the freeze dryer. I ended up with three quarts of potatoes and one half gallon jars of asparagus.

Yesterday I tried them so I would know if I should freeze dry more potatoes.

I poured 1/4 to 1/3 of the jar into a bowl and ran a bit of warm – not hot – water over them and let them sit for about 15 minutes.

They seemed to rehydrate well with no crumbling or breaking. They were not spongy. I drained them in a hand held sieve, then blotted them with paper towels.

Next, I added a bit of olive oil and a bit of butter to a skillet, once it was hot, I added the potatoes, cooked them until they were crispy on the outside.

Yes, that’s turkey bacon. It was in our freezer so we’re using it. I don’t mind it at all.

The potatoes were so, so good. The outside was crunchy and the inside was almost like mashed potatoes. Very soft and delicious. I told Vince that I wanted to try the potatoes before making more and I will be making more. He asked how many I would like to have on the shelf. I really had no numbers in mind. It isn’t like you can freeze dry too many because they’re probably good for at least 25 years if properly stored. I started thinking about how many would I like to have. Say I wanted to serve these three times a week . . maybe more because three times a week would be for breakfast but I could add them to soups or dinners or serve them with sandwiches or burgers but I’m going to say three times a week. If I use one-third of a quart jar each time I cook them, then I would need 52 quarts to make it through one year.

I have no idea how many quarts I would get from a 10 pound bag of potatoes but I’ll share that info once I buy more potatoes and get them freeze dried and in jars.

There are things I’ve freeze dried once or twice and won’t do again and there are things I would like to have way more of them.

I’m thinking I may do way more freeze drying of fruits and veggies this summer and less canning. Canning is more labor intensive but if I worked most of the day on anything, I could easily can 30 or 35 quarts in one day. Something like the potatoes, I might could freeze 6 quarts over two or three days. The freeze drying process is slow, then the machine has to defrost. I can let it auto defrost but that takes more electricity so I usually let it defrost on its own. What I need to do is get more organized and always have four trays full and ready to go into the freeze dryer as soon as it’s ready.

I have four trays of frozen eggs ready to go into the freeze dryer. The potatoes finished Thursday mid-day. It was Thursday night before the machine was defrosted and ready to go again but eggs will probably take at least three days to freeze dry. I didn’t want to start the freeze dryer until after our storms Friday night through Sunday morning. So, as soon as the storms are done, I’ll pop those eggs in the freeze dryer. Maybe by the time they’re done, we will have gone to Sam’s and I can get more potatoes to get another batch of those done.