Category: Freeze Drying

Freeze Drying Handcrafted Large Batch Beef Pasta Sauce
Freeze Drying · Prepping · Preserving · Recipes

Freeze Drying Handcrafted Large Batch Beef Pasta Sauce

Sarah

Harvest Right is running a sale on their freeze-dryers through February 15th, 2024. If you have been thinking about getting a freeze-dryer, this is the time – prices are up to $500 off.

Harvest Right freeze-dryer sale

We had found a great sale on the large cans of tomatoes on Amazon. Then the order showed up and nearly every can was dented. It’s been a learning lesson for sure. You might save money (and often a lot) but they don’t always pack well. Amazon refunded our money because dented cans considerably lower your storage time. You want to use them up first, as soon as possible especially if the seam of the can or the lids were dented.

As I mulled over the many meals we’d be eating with like 36 cans of tomatoes, one idea I had was to make a double batch of pasta sauce and then freeze-dry it. It’s an easy sauce to have on hand. And I could reset the clock on the storage time for the tomatoes.

Now then, this is a sauce I enjoy consuming. It’s a fast-fix recipe for busy nights. It doesn’t need to be cooked all day long. A half-hour is plenty of time to simmer it. Now, why do I use canned beef? Easy. It will freeze-dry far better than fresh will, as it isn’t fatty. We pick it up in packs at Costco (the roast beef is next to the canned chicken).

New to freeze-drying? See all our posts here.

Harvest Right Freeze-dryer

We run a Harvest Right Large-size freeze-dryer on our homestead. There is another company out there now, Blue Alpine, that makes the equivalent of a Medium freeze-dryer.

Beef Pasta Sauce

Ingredients:

Directions:

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium, add onion, and saute till tender.

Meanwhile, open the tomato cans and squish each whole tomato to break up.

Add in the herbs, pepper, vinegar, tomatoes with juices, and tomato paste. Bring to a simmer, lower heat to medium-low. Let simmer gently for 30 minutes, stirring often.

Drain and break up the roast beef with a fork. Add to the sauce and heat through.

Taste for salt and your personal taste if sugar is needed (I did not add any).

It makes enough to cover 2 pounds of pasta. Made 11 cups of sauce.

Option:

Prep 2 pounds of favorite pasta, and cook till al dente. Drain well.

Toss with the sauce and proceed.

If using a long pasta such as spaghetti or angel hair, break it into thirds for easy drying.

Pasta sauce ready to be frozen, then freeze-dried.

To Freeze-Dry:

Line 2 freeze-dryer trays with parchment paper.

Divide the sauce evenly between the 2 trays. (We put 5½ cups sauce on each tray.)

Let cool down, then cover with lids and place in freezer, ensuring the trays are flat.

Freeze fully.

Place trays in freeze-dryer and do setting as usual (Harvest Right machines do auto sensing). When done, test the middle of the powder to ensure it is fully dry. If not, add another 6-8 hours.

Place each tray of dry powder into a mason jar or a mylar bag.

Add in the desiccant packet and oxygen absorber packet, and seal.

Mark on bags when produced.

Option:

Mixing with pasta will take 3 to 4 trays on a Large-size freeze-dryer.

It is best to divide it into 8 servings and measure it beforehand.

That way, you can pack it into the “MRE” style mylar bags for ready-to-go meals.

Freeze-dried pasta and pasta sauce, ready for long-term storage.

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~Sarah

Freeze-Drying The Sweet Side Of Cakes And Bread
Freeze Drying · Homesteading · Prepping · Preserving

Freeze-Drying The Sweet Side Of Cakes And Bread

Sarah

This was a fun adventure with our Harvest Right freeze-dryer. I made up 2 chocolate cakes, 2 gluten-free pumpkin breads, and 1 of my favorite sugar-free cheesecake to freeze-dry. We run on a Large size unit, with 5 trays.

With the cake and bread I replaced all the oil with unsweetened applesauce, to keep the fat content down (oil isn’t your friend in freeze-drying). The cheesecake I do is crustless, but due to the cream cheese I won’t keep it for long-term food storage. It will make a great trail snack though to take along, and as well for treats this winter at home.

How To:

For all three items bake as normal, then let cool to room temperature. I used a 9″ x 13″ pan for the cake, an 8″x4″ bread pan and for the cheesecake a standard glass pie pan.

Use unsweetened applesauce to replace the oil called for, to keep the fat content lower.

Cut into small portions, thin sticks or cubes works well. If there were crumbs, toss those in as well onto the trays.

Place the items on each freeze-dryer tray, I found one cake or bread fit perfectly on each tray. It’s OK to pack it in.

Keep each flavor separate.

I then put the plastic lids on each tray and froze till solid.

Then I sent them to the freeze-dryer, using the auto settings.

Due to the cheesecake being a more dense item, we added 10 hours extra on top of the auto setting.

This came out right and all items were ready to store.

We used glass mason jars this round, so they wouldn’t get crushed, then sealed the jars with our Avid Armor chamber sealer. Every container got an oxygen absorber and a desiccant packet added.

I’ve included the recipe I used for the cheesecake. It is super simple and tastes great. I make it sugar-free but you can make it regular of course.

Sugar-Free Crustless Cheesecake

Ingredients:

  • 2 8-ounce packages cream cheese
  • ¾ cup milk
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • ½ cup Bisquick mix or similar baking mix
  • 1 cup sucralose (or granulated sugar)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly oil a 9″ glass pie pan.

Add all the ingredients into a blender, mix on medium and then high until mixed.

Pour into the prepared pan.

Bake for 45 minutes.

Let cool fully before cutting.

Makes 1 cheesecake.

I made the chocolate cake with mixes I got on a huge sale on Amazon. Because why not? Fun and easy. Yes, I could have made it from scratch. Now then, only use cocoa powder if doing chocolate. Do not add in chocolate chips. Actual chocolate doesn’t freeze-dry. Just don’t try it!

For the gluten-free pumpkin bread I used King Arthur mixes. I am not a master of GF baking, so honestly, a mix means it’ll turn out and our youngest will love it later on.

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~Sarah

Packing Your Freeze-Dried Items Like The Pros
Freeze Drying · Prepping · Preserving

Packing Your Freeze-Dried Items Like The Pros

Sarah

It’s National Preparedness Month – and part of that is getting emergency food ready.

I had a goal for a long time, and it was to be able to pack my freeze-dried meals & ingredients in commercial grade bags, where I could seal the bags for long-term storage, with the ability to have a zipper to shut the bag back up after adding water, if I was rehydrating them in the mylar bag. I wanted a low bag, for less waste of material, for single serving meals.

In the last two years I was able to make that happen. We invested in first an impulse sealer, then a chamber sealer. No longer did I need to keep meals stored in quart freezer bags, I could prep for a year out if I wanted to – or even 10 years out.

To be able to pack meals like the commercial companies do. For the ultimate sealing, and space saving, you can have compact meals to rip open, pour in boiling water, seal and eat 15 minutes later. Dream of a prepper pantry where you can walk up to, and pull out the meals you want, made from the many FBC recipes on our TrailCooking site we have up, or that you freeze-dried yourself.

You can easily purchase the bags now, the same ones the food companies use, at affordable prices. Only a few years ago, before the rise of home freeze-drying, it was not easy to buy the bags, and the sealers.

There are two methods to do this.

One is simpler, the other is for those who want the tightest seal. and more space saving by removing as much air as possible.

In both methods we used Wallaby MRE bags. These bags can be sourced on Amazon as well in larger packs. They are made of food grade mylar bags, that are rated for boiling water to be added to them. They are short bags, wide at the bottom, forming a bowl. No reaching into a deep bag here, these are simply some of the best bags you can buy. A tip though: These are for single serving meals and you won’t want to go past 2 cups water in them, and more than 1½ cups dry ingredients.

The basic method, using an impulse sealer:

Using the bags, open each bag carefully, and widen the gusset at the bottom. Add in your meal’s dry ingredients. Since you will only be sealing the bags, and not sucking out the air, you can tuck packets in like Olive oil. Be sure to put them in a tiny ziptop sack, like a snack bag, as a barrier before putting into the bag, with the dry ingredients.

Once done, plug in  your impulse sealer, then give it to two times at the top of the bag as directed for your sealer. We go for the 2 taps, so you know it is sealed.

And that is it. Just mark the bag what is in it, date when made, and how much water to add. (Our bags came with white stickers you can write on, and put on each bag.)

For longer term storage, consider adding in an oxygen absorber and or desiccant packet with the dry ingredients.

(Our impulse sealer came with our Harvest Right Freeze-dryer.)

The Avid Armor chamber sealer method:

Last year we picked up an Avid Armor USV32 sealer. Unlike a Food Vac style sealer, these chamber sealers are designed to seal heavy duty mylar bags, especially ones with a built in zip top. They can seal both mylar and plastic bags, by changing the settings. (Ours also seals mason jars.)

Open the sealer, and place the bag in (different models may vary in directions). Ours has the bag pointing the opening to us.

The zipper is not shut on the bag.

Bag in place. Ready to seal the top and start the quick process.

It sucks all the air out of the bag, and seals the bag with a heat strip in the chamber sealer.

After removing the bag from the chamber sealer, we tap the top on the impulse sealer, as a backup seal.

Now the bag is ready to mark what is in it, the date and how much water.

It is an investment, but it is well worth it.

See it it action:

To prepare your meal:

Rip or cut off the top part of the bag, above the zipper (there is a notch on each side, which is below the impulse sealer marks).

Open the bag, so it forms a bowl form.

If you added an oxygen absorber/desiccant packet, take it out and discard. If you had stashed an oil packet, take it out and add the oil to the dry ingredients.

Add in the amount of boiling water called for, stirring the dry ingredients well.

Zip tightly and let sit for 15 minutes. Open, stir again and enjoy.

One bonus of these mylar bags is they retain heat well. In summer weather you may not need an FBC Cozy or similar to keep your food warm.

FTC Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links that give us commissions on products purchased. These items are what we used above.

~Sarah

Freeze-Dried Salsa: Making and Using It
Freeze Drying · Prepping · Preserving · Recipes

Freeze-Dried Salsa: Making and Using It

Sarah

We love our Harvest Right freeze-dyer and have had it running quite a bit this year. From carrots to pumpkin pie, to noodles and candy, we just love seeing what will freeze-dry in it.

We grow a lot of peppers, onions and tomatoes on our homestead, and yearly I water bath can at least 100 pint jars a summer as salsa. So to say the least, this project was an easy one for me try out freeze-drying. Being we did it in spring, I wanted to start slimming down jars in our pantry, knowing we would be making fresh soon. Making 5 trays worth of instant salsa used up 15 pints quickly. That’s 15 mason jars emptied and ready for this year’s harvest.

To start the process in our Harvest Right freeze-dryer, I cut 5 sheets of parchment paper (Costco rolls of it are affordable, and massive in size) to fit the trays, with paper coming up on all the sides of the metal trays. I save one paper piece and use it as a template for every time I need to do this, to save time. We do own the silicone mat liners that Harvest Right sells, and use them often, but for liquids such as this, it is far easier to have the sides lined as well. Less cleanup.

I then opened up and spread on each tray 3 16-ounce jars of salsa. If you were buying salsa this project would be rather expensive. But for me, since I produce it, it is quite affordable. Having said this – you can make fresh salsa and proceed. You would just need 6 cups salsa per tray. Do not drain it!

I covered each tray with a plastic tray lid cover and stacked them in our freezer till frozen (it took a few hours). (The tray lids are bought separately on Harvest Right’s website, but are WELL worth the additional cost, as it makes prepping so much easier. In fact we own a second set of the metal trays so we can have the next batch freezing while a batch is drying.)

Meanwhile, I prepped the freeze-dryer and got it going to chill down. It can take an hour or two for this to happen.

Once ready, we put all the trays in, closed it up and set it to go. It takes about 24 hours or so to be done.

Once fully freeze-dried, we broke it apart and bagged it up for long-term storage in mylar bags – although I always do at least one mason jar worth of product to test out and to watch for any changes. All bags have oxygen absorbers and desiccant packets added as well. We then seal the mylar bags using our Avid Armor USV32 Chamber Sealer. It pulls the air out for an efficient seal.

Mark dates, and what’s in the bag, and all done! Just store it till it’s time to use it – and salsa has so many uses besides just dipping chips in it.

Now then, lets talk about rehydrating the freeze-dried salsa!

In the picture are 3 bowls: Just out of the jar, rehydrated with boiled water and rehydrated with cool water. Both of the rehydrated bowls sat for 15 minutes, stirred periodically.

We used ¼ cup dry mix and about 6 Tablespoons water. Start with 4 Tablespoons, add as needed to get the thickness you desire.

This part I found interesting because the cold prep was far better than the hot prep.

How so?

The bowl with hot water stayed thinner, even after sitting far longer. It also mushed up a bit I felt.

The cold prep was instantly thick, and the vegetables stayed intact. It tasted exactly as the fresh in the far left bowl did. Same thickness as well.

This is a bonus as cold prep is just that much easier to do.

An easy recipe to try it in?

Here is a favorite backcountry recipe of mine (which I write about on TrailCooking) which the freeze-dried salsa works great in.

Salsa Rice

In a quart freezer or sandwich bag:

Also take:

FBC Method:

Add the freezer bag to an FBC Cozy. Add the oil and 1½ cups of boiled water. Stir well, seal tightly, and let sit for 15 minutes.

One Pot Method:

Add oil and 1½ cups water to a 1.3 to 1.5 liter pot and bring to a boil. Add dry ingredients, stirring well. Cover with a lid and turn off the flame. Let sit for 15 minutes.

In cool temperatures or at altitude, insulate the pot.

Serves 1.

Note:

At the end, I sprinkled on ¼ cup of freeze-dried cheese and stirred it in. It melted quickly.

Test

FTC Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links that give us commissions on products purchased. These items are what we used in the recipes.

~Sarah

Freeze-drying Cheese
Freeze Drying · Prepping · Preserving · Recipes

Freeze-drying Cheese

Sarah

So why freeze-dry cheese shreds? 

  • It’s portable and shelf-stable. You can carry cheese and not worry about it going bad, or going greasy and limp in the heat of summer if you are camping.
  • It melts almost instantly. Just add it to your meals, and let it sit on the hot food, or stir it in, and by the time your food is cool enough to eat, it’s melted.
  • It adds so much to recipes. Cheese hits the spot for me!
  • It’s lightweight. Carrying 1 ounce of fresh cheese and the equivalent freeze-dried cheese saves a lot of weight. Less food weight = less weight for camping and backpacking.

While you can buy commercially made freeze-dried cheese relatively easy now, it is limited in the flavors – but also you don’t know what company made the cheese. (For example, on Amazon) Cheese is similar to meat for pricing, and will be the most expensive things you purchase commercially in cans.

I highly suggest visiting a restaurant/food service store for the best choice/prices with grated cheese. You can source large bags of already grated bags for a fraction of the cost at a grocery store. They also sell large blocks of cheese for grating at home. However…I’m not too fond of Costco’s mozzarella, which is sold with grated cheese and is near the yogurt. It just doesn’t melt well, I find and gets rubbery. We often shop at Chef’s Store (which used to be Cash n’ Carry) on the West Coast.

We do not pre-freeze our cheese shreds (we pre-freeze many items to speed up the process). They freeze fast using the machine and then head into the drying cycle. It took about a day’s worth of time, although most of it was hands-off (loading the machine, checking once or twice during the cycle, and then unloading and packing up were just a short time period). You will want to add a couple of extra hours to the cycle since you are freezing the cheese first.

Cheddar cheese on a tray, waiting to go into the machine.

Freeze-dried cheddar cheese.

You won’t find freeze-dried Swiss cheese commercially. It is sold in smaller bags than the more favored cheeses at restaurant supply stores. We find it in 2-pound bags, which will fill one tray on our large freezer dryer.

Just think….fondue in a power outage? Alternatively, Swiss cheese is often the lowest sodium cheese you can buy!

Freeze-dried mozzarella cheese.

How to store:

When the machine says it is done, take a test out. We look at the food visually, then give it the finger test – does it feel dry, and snappy. Then taste it.

We store most of our freeze-dried product in mylar bags. We use the Wallaby brand bags as they make ones rated for boiling water, and are pleated at the bottom. These they call the “MRE” bags.

We add in 1 pouch each of an oxygen absorber and a silica desiccant one.

Then we seal in an Avid Armor chamber sealer, which pulls all air out. Then we seal the top with the heat sealer that comes with the freeze-dryer unit. Mark the date you made it, and what’s in it and you are done! (As you can see, a chamber sealer pulls the air out, similar to how a Mountain House Pro Pak commercial meal looks like.)

Why do we shoot photos with mason jars but store most of our freeze-dried food in mylar bags? Well, these are my gold standard. Our chamber sealer can seal mason jars (a huge bonus for sure), so we put a portion of everything we freeze-dry into a mason jar and seal it. Then, we can watch the food to make sure it was properly dried. I often keep one on hand to use in recipe development as well. The mylar bags we use for more long-term storage and I prefer to not waste the bags. Mason jars are reusable, over and over, but I don’t keep all the food in them as we live in an earthquake country.

FTC Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links that give us commissions on products purchased. These items are what we used above.

~Sarah