Hint pickle chips pour off liquid, fill jar with water, soak 24 HR in frig. If not enough salt removed try putting raw potato in to absorb salt. I do that if I over salt a stew. Maybe?????
Don't waste the pickle juice! It's good to drink for energy, OR you can remove pickles from it and simply add other raw vegetables to be pickled for storage at room temperature -- cauliflower, carrots, extra garlic cloves or whatever!
Thank you Brian - I love your experiments - it helps me make choices of what to dry and what not to dry. And you reminded me that I need to do some more mushrooms. For ling term I only do the white meat chicken both cooked and some raw. The dark meat has too much fat and is hard to trim it all - too bad to because the dark meat is my favorite. I do have to scold you a bit though. Please use a cutting board for that knife - save your counters and save that knife. Just finished 20 pounds of potato's the other day and now have a gallon of lean sausage gravy going with a quart of milk on the 5th tray. Should be done later tonight. Next is 7 dozen scrambled eggs. Eggs do very well. Then powder them. I always direct new people I come across that have just gotten into freeze drying to your channel. You sir are the best source for information about freeze drying on You Tube. Thank you again for that.
How do you use scrambled egg powder? I hate taste of breakfast eggs, but have 36 rescue hens... One youtuber said.you get more nutrients from egg white by FRYING IN PAN first a little and THEN scrambling. He also recommends fasting (breakfast 3-4 p.m.) and up to 4 eggs per day depending on your size.
After he said he let the pan run dry, I guessed that was why the pie didn't work out quite as well. I think that's why it started to darken as well. If it hadn't run out of water, I think that would have been a major success.
Most of the liquid in the chicken tray is it’s own juices. When I buy a rotisserie chicken I serve hubby and I our favorite parts. Then I pick the bone sans refrigerate the meat. The bones and skin and the lovely juices from the container go into a pot of water, and simmer overnight for an amazingly delicious chicken bone broth. If you’re still concerned about the chicken fat in the broth, refrigerate the broth. Th fat sits on the surface nd is easy to scoop off, especially when chilled. I’ll be ordering a freeze dryer today. I will be trying to freeze dry bone broth, the same way you did milk. I’ll freeze it first. It would be amazing to be able to make my own broth for a powdered soup base.
Great experiments. Thanks for the info. Another thing you can do with your mushrooms is to put them out in the sunshine for about an hour before freeze drying. The gills absorb a crazy amount of vitamin D.
This channel just keeps getting better, so informative & entertaining. I’m praying hard about being able to get a Harvest Right Freeze drier. Ty for your time & knowledge - God bless
Gotta say man, keep praying but start saving up for it. Mine came in about three weeks ago and it's been running non-stop. At first I was afraid I was gonna have buyer's remorse, but then after actually using it I fell back in love with it lol! Truly, do what you can to get it when you're able to. You're gonna love it!
@miguelfilo962, I prayed and at the same time saved for months for my freeze dryer. When I finally saved enough to buy it, and was deciding if I should go ahead and purchase it- I unexpectedly received a check in the mail for all but $100 of it!! It was some sort of settlement check from a previous employer. I knew nothing about a lawsuit. God DOES answer prayers!
So you freeze dried them all together in the same freeze drier at the same temperature….? Does fd-ing the garlic with other items make them all have a garlic taste?? I’ve watched many videos and people say that garlic makes the machine smell, etc. , but of course you’re going to clean the machine between your batches and that fixes that, so was just really wondering about whether the garlic would permeate into the other food you had in there…
I noticed a few videos that you had done that you freeze the foods first before you freeze dry . My question is why cook the Italian lasagna first since it comes frozen
I have ordered a freeze dryer and am trying to learn all I can prior to it arriving. Thank you for your videos. I have been typing your recipes so that when the time comes I will be ready. Thank yo again for your help.
We bought a whole case of mushrooms. We chopped some and sliced some. Both work well but I prefer the sliced. The chopped is great for soups and casseroles. The sliced worked well for stir fry. So great to have mushrooms as needed. You are right they go bad in a week otherwise.
We always freeze dry our garlic! The way I bring my garlic back to life is to take a small amount of boiling water and it reconstitutes within a few minutes! Or I put it into my mortar and pestle to grind only what I need at that time. Otherwise the powder tends to clump together from the moisture in the air! I love your video's!!! Thank you!
I keep leftover mushrooms that are getting a bit old in my regular freezer. I have a separate coffee grinder for spices and dried items. I pulverize the mushrooms and use them in soups and gravies. They add a great flavor and also work well to thicken whatever I'm cooking. The freeze drying would probably make it even better. I could see making dried mixes such as mushroom/onion, onion/garlic, and mushroom/cheese.
I’m new to your channel and to freeze drying. Thank you for all the great information! I heard of freeze drying the pumpkin pie, but they cut it into small bite sized pieces and then ate them as a snack that way! Something new to try perhaps! Thank you again for having all this great information out for the rest of us.
Thanks for all the videos man! Ive been watching for a year and got my freeze dryer a month ago. Ive been making a list with all the stuff u do and you have saved me alot of money not having to do my own experiements! I to am semi-Retired at almost 40!! Btw..knives r cheaper than cutting boards it seems..wear em out and resharpen
Congrats on the semi retirement! I find myself not retired! Not because i need to work, but i love the doing youtube and i can't seem to just fully relax. 😂 Enjoy 1/2 retirement, i think i'm in the same boat
Try using the freeze dryer to rehydrate the olives and garlic, put them in a water bath run a vacuum cycle until the water starts bubbling then release the vacuum
We have a ton of produce this year from out garden, but in all the FD videos I have seen, no one is freeze drying purple hull peas. Can they be freeze dried???
Rotisserie chickens are great! So are the scalloped potatoes and frozen fruits and veggies. We get checked out pretty quickly at our Costco here, even when very busy. But, yeah - we spend a ton lol
I freeze dried a lot of the rotisserie chicken. It has a strong flavor but reconstitutes great in soups. I also did the lasagna and found that the best way to reconstitute it for hiking trips was simply mixing with hot water. Yeah, it changes the texture but still tastes great!
that's right and so it makes more sense to me to have ingredients that are essentially already cooked except for boiling water like any sort of instant noodle soup and just make yourself lasagna texture soup with the cheese in a separate packet if you like to be sprinkled on like parmesan
I just bought a freeze dryer! Can't wait to get started! Thank you for all the videos! I watch you all the time and joined group on facebook a while back.
Congrats! It's simple to use and with the Facebook group, you can learn just about anything. Also you can find out if something is worth freeze drying before putting in the time and/or effort
@@thefreezedryingcommunity that definitely helps. Thank you for the tip. That will help me a lot. My mind is running wild with ideas lol. I need to right them down with reference links in the group. And start preparing for when the freeze dryer gets here in January 🙃
If you have some type of power like solar panels that allows you too run a small 3qt instant pot using the steamer basket... It would probably re-hydrate even the lasagna and pumpkin pie very well..
I've done multiple bags of the peeled garlic. My absolute favorite way to freeze dry the garlic is to blend it to a minced consistency (with enough water to cover in blender) then freeze dry. I'm not a big fan of the Costco garlic whole freeze-dried as it turned rock hard.
If you really want Costco Rotisserie Chicken,... Then I would suggest buying to Costco Rotisserie Chicken that is packaged. No grease! It is fantastic! Get creative with it too! I use it for emergency food obviously, but also dog treats. Yes, my dogs are spoiled. Lol
Ever thought about doing wedding cake? wonder how that'd even work since people liked to save a slice to eat a year later or could even do up 25yrs anniversary. just spit ballin' but new to this freeze drying idea at home.
Why did you cook the lasagna before freeze drying it? I thought the lasagna was already cooked and all we had to do was reheat it. Could that have been what made the cheese a little tough after freeze drying or what caused the burning when recooking the lasagna? Love your videos, they have helped me a lot!
Those of us considering buying the freeze dryer and are new to it would benefit from more details :) like when you say you leave your garlic on the counter for a long period of time…like 20 years?! Or 3 months or 2 years or what?? How long would you store that greasy lasagna? Because 2 year food storage still counts but it’d be nice to know what you believe we could count on. Love your videos, thanks so much!
I jadehydrate my sunrooms as of now , but freeze dry as soon as mine comes .I powder some the shr[ms and keep in a jar, just sprinkle some in soup, stews, gravy , casserioles[ anything really, gives that flavor, most people really like, and what did you Put in it ?, good extra flavor too
I would say freeze dry it raw and then use your steamer to reconstitute and cook since the lasagna is probably precooked before they freeze dry it and sell it to you
I love rotisserie chicken too! And, our new Harvest Right freeze dryer arrived, so we are trying to figure it out. But I look for the chicken with the MOST juices in the bottom of the container. Only some of it is fat. Most is delicious chicken juices. What I love to do with them is the first night, I serve my hubby a chicken breast, and I have a drumstick, I skin and debone the chicken. I put the skin and bones and all of the lovely juices into a pot, cover with water and simmer for about 24 hours. Check it from t8me to time and add water to replace any that is lost to evaporation. You can cook it in a crock pot if you have one. If I have the ends that I cut off of onion, celery, carrots, I toss them in to simmer too. This makes the best bone broth! You can use it for soup, gravy, any recipe that calls for chicken broth. Or just drink it! Now you can address the fat. It rises to the top. When you refrigerate the broth, the fat firms up and it is easy to scoop off the top. Broth from rotisserie chicken is lovely, rich and darker brown than you are used to. The chicken was seasoned at the store, and the skin nice and dark brown, the seasoning and lovely flavor are part of the broth. And it is much more flavorful than broth from chicken that was raw before being boiled. We are having a hard time understanding why the veggies we have been trying to freeze dry still have moisture, but once we can figure out what we are doing wrong, I would love to freeze dry my broth! It old be fantastic to have my own homemade broth in powdered form to add to my cooking whenever I want it! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experiences with freeze drying with us! Please do make some chicken broth! Even if you don’t freeze dry it, you can have some of the best chicken soup you will ever eat!
I wonder what would happen if the lasagna was freeze dried raw, then rehydrated and cooked. Thanks for the video. Trying to scrounge up 4k to get one of these units and will definitely use the affiliate link!
@samr1338 He did appreciate feedback and 2 yrs ago, he didn't have quite so many. Way to come to the conversation late in the game, though. Crisp high five.
I appreciate your videos so much Brian. You are helping me decide to purchase a fd. I need to justify the purchase and your videos are so informative. I love your experiments, start to finish, especially through the rehydrating phase. You are helping so many of us get into freeze drying and I thank you for that.
The Costco pumpkin pie has a huge cult following. Personally, I don’t see the charm....but surely think it’s cool that they continue to provide it and never increase the price. Go, COSTCO! (I’m headed there tomorrow for a food saver! Yay!)
I think for $6, i'm not going through the trouble of baking a pie. I think that is most of the hype for folks. I heard that Costco loses money on certain items (chickens, pie) in order to bring people into the store.
Our a freeze dryer arrives in two weeks! Very excited! I would like to say I love your channel and you have really done a great job in teaching everyone! I have a question; have you ever tried to freeze dry a hard boiled egg?
One thing to consider.... steaming in the basket for as long as you did took a bit of energy to pull off. Granted right now.... probably negligible. But if you were dealing with grid down and utilizing a finite fuel source I think the pot with sauce not only worked out the best flavor wise... but faster without having to bring the water to a steam / boil etc.
I love the butter garlic rotisserie chicken at Walmart ~ for only 5 bucks, Oh man i make so much stuff out of it Chicken salad, tacos, sandwiches ect list goes on. Shoot i can't even buy and whole chicken. Season it and cook it for less than 5 bucks NO WAY and Its instant eating ! with some bread. IT LAST 3 days eating on it , 2 times a day for me for lunch and dinner > Glade they do this
Question; Could you, mix your own, pumpkin pie filling, (unbaked) freeze it, then freeze dry it, crush it into a powder, then, rehydrate it, put it in a pie shell, and make a pie with it? I keep thinking, it would be easy to know how much water, because, if you do just 1 pie worth of filling, you can weigh it before freezing, then, after. Subtract the after weight from the before weight, and that should be how much water you add back. Anyway, I think if anybody can figure out how to make pue work, it's you. 😁👍
Hi, I just found your channel while looking for a way to fix vacuum issues when everything has been checked. When I saw this video I wondered if you've ever freeze dried chicken (or anything) with the bone in (such as chicken wings, legs, etc.)? Just wondering if bones can be done and if not what the reason would be.
If I may ask, what other types of mushrooms have you put through the freeze dryer? Have you tried morel mushrooms? Lions Mane, Miatake or anything else. I specialize in providing wild mushroom varieties from my home state of Michigan. So I'm always looking for better ways to preserve and reconstitute them. So I can get as close to the original texture, density and flavor. As well as preserving the highest density of nutrition. Thank you
Please bear with me on this as I do not own a freeze drier but it is on the short list of need to have. Why do you have to cook the Lasagna first? Why couldn't you freeze dry it as is and cook it after you reconstitute it? I find your channel very informative.
@@thefreezedryingcommunity any new results? I microwave that lasagna per instructions and it is GREAT. (10 min full power with slit 14 minutes power 5 without plastic i think?) Like someone said...small chunks.. Sometimes ice (on top of liquid, at least), helps solidify fat to remove.
Costco chickens are $4.99 here in Washington. I have probably canned 15 or so of them. I am unable to throw a chicken carcass away anymore, and 2 will make 7 qts of stock in the crock pot. I ran one of those 3lb bags of garlic through my salad shooter and then dehydrated it at low heat. Unbelievable!!! Super strong!!!
I've tried Costco pumpkin pie and Sam's Club pumpkin pie. Numerous times the Costco pumpkin pie was gritty and watery. I prefer the Sam's pie.These pickles at Costco are awesome.
I've freeze dried just the chicken breasts of Costco's because I was worried about the fat in the other pieces. Do you worry about the smell from onions or garlic that may stay inside your freeze dryer and then permeate other foods?
I wonder how the mushrooms will do if you powder them like garlic and onion? To use as a flavoring. We love mushroom sauce but the kids don’t like the texture of the shrooms.
Thanks for the great video! It was really interesting to see those Costco favorites freeze-dried. I also liked seeing the various ways you were using to rehydrate these.
Glad I found this group as I am considering buying a large FD. I use a lot of chicken broth, is there a way to FD the chicken dripping to use as a broth?
Hey there, i use a ton of chicken stock too. I just can mine, and freeze dry other things instead. If you're freeze drying broth then I'd boil it down as much as possible to get rid of a lot of the extra water before freeze drying it.
I found a bone broth recipe. So I put all the bones from 2 or 3 chickens in my instant pot, add the vegetables and seasoning and cook it up.(Try not to add salt, because you can always add it later) Strain the liquid (throwing away the solids) and put it into a few jars in my refrigerator. Once it has cooled and "jelled" I spread it on the trays and freeze it, then into the freeze dryer it goes. When it comes out, it is puffy like foam. It powders easily. The flavor is intense and concentrated. (It always tastes salty to me even though I don't use very much of it).
Instead of a steamer, which for the foods that need to be moistened longer tends to overcook them, what about using a cool water fogger, as in a cool water room humidifier?
I am still waiting for my freeze dryer that was supposedly going to be here two weeks ago at the latest. I've been watching videos and searching for accessories, etc. in preparation. I have and will never sign up with FaceBook so it really sucked to see the big group was on that horrible platform. Though I now nothing about the new site option, I am excited to see there is an alternative now!
@@carolclarkson4859 - Hi Tom. I can't wait! Even with so much time waiting, I still have yet to buy at cart for it and some other accessories I'd like to have. I need to clean out my one-car garage and make room for a freezer. Have you been using a freezer or just letting the machine do it. I have seen most recommend freezing first, but with the newer machines see mixed ideas on that. Thanks.
That's good planning - I watched all I could while waiting for mine to show up back in Dec 2018. Back then delivery was only 3 weeks. Now it's 10 to 12 weeks out. Sign of the times. I went with a large dryer and oil less pump. Run it almost 24/7 and try to get 3 to 4 batches per week in. Even after 2 years and having done a ton of food, I still watch new videos about freeze drying. I still learn new things both good and bad. I love my freeze dryer - and yes I've had a few issues to over come but it's been the best prepping tool I own. I'm sure you'll enjoy yours as much as I do mine. Keep in mind that any mistake you make has been done by everyone else. We all go through the learning curve. But it quickly gets very easy and fun. Remember your food safety rules - bacteria can survive the freeze drying process and will still be in the foods 20 years later. Personally I clean and disinfect the chamber and rack before each batch. But I'm a bit OCD. I hope you've selected a good area for your work station - they are designed to operate between 35 and 85F and don't do well in hot environments. Most people go with the medium dryer simply because of the power requirements for the large. Being an electrician I ran my own new circuits. Feel free to reach out if you have questions - I'll try to help. Stay safe my friend.
@@jerrysmith372 Many thanks for your response! That is so cool that you have a large and so much experience with it. And being an electrician is definitely an added bonus. I am in a relatively modest home without an ideal spot for it. I have a one-car, detached garage that has an A/C window unit. I have also had a medium sized fan running in there and it hasn't been a problem when I plug my electric pressure washer into an outlet on that building. I'm hoping the power out there is sufficient for not only my medium freeze dryer, but also a freezer, in addition to the A/C and fan, etc. It's not the most ideal spot due to the fact that I'd have to walk between the house and garage with the trays, but if I get a freezer it would have to be in the garage and there is no issue bring solid trays back to the house. So with all of your experience to you think I should no worry about buying a freezer that my trays will fit in and simply let the Harvest Right do that part of the job? It is very kind of you to offer to help out a beginner like me. Thanks again!
@@livemusic I can't speak for your current power situation in your garage without doing an inspection. Any qualified electrician could give you an assessment and tell you if you need to upgrade your available power. That alone can be a can of worms if your main service panel is already maxed out. Best to leave it to an electrician to look at your situation. I can tell you that I live in the desert southwest and have my dryer in my garage - I had to design and build a custom cooling system using a bathroom ceiling fan mounted in the wall to bring cool air from the house and ducted through the machine then back to the house for return air. Just to keep the internal cabinet temperature at or below 85F. Doesn't sound like you could do anything like that. I have heard of some using an AC unit and ducting cool air through their machine - certainly raises your power costs per batch. I don't have freezer space to pre-freeze any of my loads so my dryer does all the work of freezing and drying. Your medium dryer will run on standard 15 amp household outlet. But I'd have to know what size barker is already feeding your garage before I could even hazard a guess if you could run everything safely. You could set up your work station and try running the dryer - your AC unit should be on a different circuit (at least that's how I would have run it) If the two circuits are separate you should be OK - If not - you may not have enough to run both dryer, pump and AC unit. You'll need all of that 15 amp outlet circuit just to run the dryer and pump with nothing else on that circuit. (in my opinion) If I were setting up your power to your garage I would have put it on a 40 amp 220 volt breaker at the main to a sub panel in the garage. That would give you plenty of power to run everything you would want baring things like an electric welder. Ask around - maybe you can find someone to asses your panel and power needs for free. Best would be a card carrying IBEW electrician. Call your power company and see if they could send someone out to look it over - that could be at no charge. Just thinking as I'm writing. Tell them what you want to do and they can tell you if you can. A few years ago I wanted to put in a Generac whole home backup generator run off my natural gas line - the gas company told me I would need a larger incoming line put in at my expense - the additional $10K killed that idea. Personally I still think I could have done it. Stay in touch - I'll be here. Let me know if I can help answer any more questions. I'll do the best I can.
Our favorite way to do the pumpkin pie is to slice it into Thin strips which can be used like biscotti to dip in your coffee yum
Yum!
That sounds delicious! Awesome idea!
I cut my lasagna into cubes prior to freeze drying then rehydrate as I would spaghetti with meat sauce. One of my favorite dishes to to freeze dry.
Good idea. It does seem like small portions freeze dry and rehydrate better.
I freeze my applesauce on a cookie sheet and cut it into cubes as well before freeze drying. I can even overlap the cubes on the pan
I think if you're in a SHTF scenario, you're going to be pretty stoked about ANY of these outcomes and glad you did so!
Hint pickle chips pour off liquid, fill jar with water, soak 24 HR in frig. If not enough salt removed try putting raw potato in to absorb salt. I do that if I over salt a stew. Maybe?????
Don't waste the pickle juice! It's good to drink for energy, OR you can remove pickles from it and simply add other raw vegetables to be pickled for storage at room temperature -- cauliflower, carrots, extra garlic cloves or whatever!
Thank you Brian - I love your experiments - it helps me make choices of what to dry and what not to dry. And you reminded me that I need to do some more mushrooms. For ling term I only do the white meat chicken both cooked and some raw. The dark meat has too much fat and is hard to trim it all - too bad to because the dark meat is my favorite.
I do have to scold you a bit though. Please use a cutting board for that knife - save your counters and save that knife.
Just finished 20 pounds of potato's the other day and now have a gallon of lean sausage gravy going with a quart of milk on the 5th tray. Should be done later tonight. Next is 7 dozen scrambled eggs. Eggs do very well. Then powder them.
I always direct new people I come across that have just gotten into freeze drying to your channel. You sir are the best source for information about freeze drying on You Tube. Thank you again for that.
I have been missing out for many years of never doing mushrooms. Not anymore, i'm on board finally.
@@thefreezedryingcommunity Is there a reason you avoided mushrooms? Like is there a food safety issue or just simply a mushroom aversion?
How do you use scrambled egg powder? I hate taste of breakfast eggs, but have 36 rescue hens...
One youtuber said.you get more nutrients from egg white by FRYING IN PAN
first a little and THEN scrambling.
He also recommends fasting (breakfast 3-4 p.m.) and up to 4 eggs per day depending on your size.
Respectfully a Brilliant idea for the steamer for the pumpkin pie
After he said he let the pan run dry, I guessed that was why the pie didn't work out quite as well. I think that's why it started to darken as well. If it hadn't run out of water, I think that would have been a major success.
Most of the liquid in the chicken tray is it’s own juices. When I buy a rotisserie chicken I serve hubby and I our favorite parts. Then I pick the bone sans refrigerate the meat. The bones and skin and the lovely juices from the container go into a pot of water, and simmer overnight for an amazingly delicious chicken bone broth. If you’re still concerned about the chicken fat in the broth, refrigerate the broth. Th fat sits on the surface nd is easy to scoop off, especially when chilled.
I’ll be ordering a freeze dryer today. I will be trying to freeze dry bone broth, the same way you did milk. I’ll freeze it first. It would be amazing to be able to make my own broth for a powdered soup base.
Yeesss. Great for home made freeze dried ramen and chicken noodle soups!
Great experiments. Thanks for the info.
Another thing you can do with your mushrooms is to put them out in the sunshine for about an hour before freeze drying. The gills absorb a crazy amount of vitamin D.
This channel just keeps getting better, so informative & entertaining.
I’m praying hard about being able to get a Harvest Right Freeze drier. Ty for your time & knowledge -
God bless
Gotta say man, keep praying but start saving up for it. Mine came in about three weeks ago and it's been running non-stop. At first I was afraid I was gonna have buyer's remorse, but then after actually using it I fell back in love with it lol! Truly, do what you can to get it when you're able to. You're gonna love it!
They have a real easy layaway plan. That's how I bought mine several years ago
If you want a freeze dryer you have to work for it. Not pray for it. They accept cash, not prayers.
@miguelfilo962,
I prayed and at the same time saved for months for my freeze dryer. When I finally saved enough to buy it, and was deciding if I should go ahead and purchase it- I unexpectedly received a check in the mail for all but $100 of it!!
It was some sort of settlement check from a previous employer.
I knew nothing about a lawsuit.
God DOES answer prayers!
So you freeze dried them all together in the same freeze drier at the same temperature….?
Does fd-ing the garlic with other items make them all have a garlic taste??
I’ve watched many videos and people say that garlic makes the machine smell, etc. , but of course you’re going to clean the machine between your batches and that fixes that, so was just really wondering about whether the garlic would permeate into the other food you had in there…
I noticed a few videos that you had done that you freeze the foods first before you freeze dry .
My question is why cook the Italian lasagna first since it comes frozen
You’re killing that knife!
I wish that I could rewind to 6 years ago when I had money to buy a Freeze Dryer. In all of my prepping I never knew about these.
:(
I love the olive idea... To rehydrate with vodka!
Just Finished a batch of mushrooms and they turned out great!! now I need to head to Costco and try the rest of these items.
I have ordered a freeze dryer and am trying to learn all I can prior to it arriving. Thank you for your videos. I have been typing your recipes so that when the time comes I will be ready. Thank yo again for your help.
Same here..I’m excited!
I'm new to the freeze dried world. This stuff is really good. I'm jumping into this both feet.
We bought a whole case of mushrooms. We chopped some and sliced some. Both work well but I prefer the sliced. The chopped is great for soups and casseroles. The sliced worked well for stir fry. So great to have mushrooms as needed. You are right they go bad in a week otherwise.
We always freeze dry our garlic! The way I bring my garlic back to life is to take a small amount of boiling water and it reconstitutes within a few minutes! Or I put it into my mortar and pestle to grind only what I need at that time. Otherwise the powder tends to clump together from the moisture in the air! I love your video's!!! Thank you!
I did not think about using the bamboo steamer. Thank you!
it's very helpful for certain foods
Applied for your group on MeWe. I haven't been accepted yet. I just got a fd and am excited to get started. You're a great teacher to learn from.
I prefer sams you can checkout all your items from your phone.What do you recommend for a new guy to freeze drying?
I keep leftover mushrooms that are getting a bit old in my regular freezer. I have a separate coffee grinder for spices and dried items. I pulverize the mushrooms and use them in soups and gravies. They add a great flavor and also work well to thicken whatever I'm cooking. The freeze drying would probably make it even better. I could see making dried mixes such as mushroom/onion, onion/garlic, and mushroom/cheese.
I’m new to your channel and to freeze drying. Thank you for all the great information! I heard of freeze drying the pumpkin pie, but they cut it into small bite sized pieces and then ate them as a snack that way! Something new to try perhaps! Thank you again for having all this great information out for the rest of us.
Thanks for all the videos man! Ive been watching for a year and got my freeze dryer a month ago. Ive been making a list with all the stuff u do and you have saved me alot of money not having to do my own experiements! I to am semi-Retired at almost 40!!
Btw..knives r cheaper than cutting boards it seems..wear em out and resharpen
Congrats on the semi retirement! I find myself not retired! Not because i need to work, but i love the doing youtube and i can't seem to just fully relax. 😂 Enjoy 1/2 retirement, i think i'm in the same boat
to steam, if you have a spaghetti pot with an insert, use that to hold the basket and steam it that way...
Freeze dried mushrooms are the best! We use them to make the canned mushroom soup or white sauces!
mushrooms do so great.
Costco sporadically sells freeze dried healthy shitake.
Try using the freeze dryer to rehydrate the olives and garlic, put them in a water bath run a vacuum cycle until the water starts bubbling then release the vacuum
I love “cheat” foods for freeze drying. Been doing this since 2015. My FD book is almost done!
Love to get one
We have a ton of produce this year from out garden, but in all the FD videos I have seen, no one is freeze drying purple hull peas. Can they be freeze dried???
I want a freeze dryer so bad
Rotisserie chickens are great! So are the scalloped potatoes and frozen fruits and veggies. We get checked out pretty quickly at our Costco here, even when very busy. But, yeah - we spend a ton lol
Costco has hand pulled rotisserie chicken breast and it's awsome freeze dried.
Famous Dave Sweet Heat are awesome freeze dried my favorite
Yes, Costco's Pumpkin Pie is so Yummy, and a good price.
Great video.😊
Garlic salt with Himalayan salt is soooo good!!
You can powder your salty pickles and put on pop corn!
Really need to rinse pickles, possibility even several times prior to FD. That's what I do when dehydrating pickles otherwise they are too salty.
Thanks. I was very curious on how to bring the food back to life.
I love this channel..gonna join the facebook group and binge on your videos, very informative
I freeze dried a lot of the rotisserie chicken. It has a strong flavor but reconstitutes great in soups. I also did the lasagna and found that the best way to reconstitute it for hiking trips was simply mixing with hot water. Yeah, it changes the texture but still tastes great!
that's right and so it makes more sense to me to have ingredients that are essentially already cooked except for boiling water like any sort of instant noodle soup and just make yourself lasagna texture soup with the cheese in a separate packet if you like to be sprinkled on like parmesan
That is a brilliant idea using a steamer!
I just bought a freeze dryer! Can't wait to get started! Thank you for all the videos! I watch you all the time and joined group on facebook a while back.
Congrats! It's simple to use and with the Facebook group, you can learn just about anything. Also you can find out if something is worth freeze drying before putting in the time and/or effort
@@thefreezedryingcommunity thank you for the tip. Will definitely look through the posts. While I wait through the 8-10 weeks 👍
Use the search magnifying glass on the group as well. It will take you to specific threads you are looking for
@@thefreezedryingcommunity that definitely helps. Thank you for the tip. That will help me a lot. My mind is running wild with ideas lol. I need to right them down with reference links in the group. And start preparing for when the freeze dryer gets here in January 🙃
@@lainey1227 homemade raw dog food for my dogs especially for when I am gone.
I buy the large jar of minced garlic at Costco and freeze dry it. It is amazing and no cutting or peeling!
Great idea!!
Be careful if it's from China, have heard bad things about their garlic
Mushroom,s sautéed and raw are awesome!
Oh wow. Sauteed next!
If you have some type of power like solar panels that allows you too run a small 3qt instant pot using the steamer basket...
It would probably re-hydrate even the lasagna and pumpkin pie very well..
Instapot for the win.
have to sign up for MEWE, I refuse to use Facebook, Thanks for the info.
Awesome. Glad we can accomodate.
I was SUPER stoked when I heard this as well! Been over on MeWe for a bit now, got tired of Facebook's issues.
I've done multiple bags of the peeled garlic. My absolute favorite way to freeze dry the garlic is to blend it to a minced consistency (with enough water to cover in blender) then freeze dry. I'm not a big fan of the Costco garlic whole freeze-dried as it turned rock hard.
If you really want Costco Rotisserie Chicken,...
Then I would suggest buying to Costco Rotisserie Chicken that is packaged. No grease! It is fantastic! Get creative with it too! I use it for emergency food obviously, but also dog treats.
Yes, my dogs are spoiled. Lol
I didn't know that you can freeze dry such different things all together
Ever thought about doing wedding cake? wonder how that'd even work since people liked to save a slice to eat a year later or could even do up 25yrs anniversary. just spit ballin' but new to this freeze drying idea at home.
Why did you cook the lasagna before freeze drying it? I thought the lasagna was already cooked and all we had to do was reheat it. Could that have been what made the cheese a little tough after freeze drying or what caused the burning when recooking the lasagna? Love your videos, they have helped me a lot!
Can’t wait for mine to be shipped
Good luck. I got mine 3 weeks ago. It was 5 weeks late
The idea to rehydrate the lasagna with tomato sauce is genius!
can't take credit, my wife is the mastermind behind that😃
@@thefreezedryingcommunity note to self
"why didn't I think of that" goes far I read in an elderly article.
I think it will be interesting to turn the lasagna into powder and then use it as a topic seasoning or burrito seasoning
i use an egg slicer for mushrooms strawberries etc
👍
Those of us considering buying the freeze dryer and are new to it would benefit from more details :) like when you say you leave your garlic on the counter for a long period of time…like 20 years?! Or 3 months or 2 years or what?? How long would you store that greasy lasagna? Because 2 year food storage still counts but it’d be nice to know what you believe we could count on. Love your videos, thanks so much!
I jadehydrate my sunrooms as of now , but freeze dry as soon as mine comes .I powder some the shr[ms and keep in a jar, just sprinkle some in soup, stews, gravy , casserioles[ anything really, gives that flavor, most people really like, and what did you Put in it ?, good extra flavor too
I would say freeze dry it raw and then use your steamer to reconstitute and cook since the lasagna is probably precooked before they freeze dry it and sell it to you
Yes, I was also of the understanding that the lasagna’s come already cooked.
I love rotisserie chicken too! And, our new Harvest Right freeze dryer arrived, so we are trying to figure it out. But I look for the chicken with the MOST juices in the bottom of the container. Only some of it is fat. Most is delicious chicken juices.
What I love to do with them is the first night, I serve my hubby a chicken breast, and I have a drumstick, I skin and debone the chicken. I put the skin and bones and all of the lovely juices into a pot, cover with water and simmer for about 24 hours. Check it from t8me to time and add water to replace any that is lost to evaporation. You can cook it in a crock pot if you have one.
If I have the ends that I cut off of onion, celery, carrots, I toss them in to simmer too. This makes the best bone broth! You can use it for soup, gravy, any recipe that calls for chicken broth. Or just drink it! Now you can address the fat. It rises to the top. When you refrigerate the broth, the fat firms up and it is easy to scoop off the top. Broth from rotisserie chicken is lovely, rich and darker brown than you are used to. The chicken was seasoned at the store, and the skin nice and dark brown, the seasoning and lovely flavor are part of the broth. And it is much more flavorful than broth from chicken that was raw before being boiled.
We are having a hard time understanding why the veggies we have been trying to freeze dry still have moisture, but once we can figure out what we are doing wrong, I would love to freeze dry my broth! It old be fantastic to have my own homemade broth in powdered form to add to my cooking whenever I want it!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experiences with freeze drying with us! Please do make some chicken broth! Even if you don’t freeze dry it, you can have some of the best chicken soup you will ever eat!
Dehydrate the broth and powder it in a blender
I wonder what would happen if the lasagna was freeze dried raw, then rehydrated and cooked. Thanks for the video. Trying to scrounge up 4k to get one of these units and will definitely use the affiliate link!
I really enjoy your videos. I also noticed the silver book in your background plus a few other great books😉
I liked the video but every cut on the bare counter made me cringe. Like fork tines on teeth. Like chewing aluminum foil.
I was going to say the same thing until I saw your comment. Lol.
Cutting boards are so cheap!!!!
Yes, stop killing that knife edge on that beautiful granite
He has 177k followers don't think he cares, lol.
@samr1338 He did appreciate feedback and 2 yrs ago, he didn't have quite so many. Way to come to the conversation late in the game, though. Crisp high five.
The pumpkin pie is our favorite!!!
I appreciate your videos so much Brian. You are helping me decide to purchase a fd. I need to justify the purchase and your videos are so informative. I love your experiments, start to finish, especially through the rehydrating phase. You are helping so many of us get into freeze drying and I thank you for that.
Great to hear!
The Costco pumpkin pie has a huge cult following. Personally, I don’t see the charm....but surely think it’s cool that they continue to provide it and never increase the price. Go, COSTCO! (I’m headed there tomorrow for a food saver! Yay!)
I think for $6, i'm not going through the trouble of baking a pie. I think that is most of the hype for folks. I heard that Costco loses money on certain items (chickens, pie) in order to bring people into the store.
Will you use food saver for fd'ing?
I haven't opened mine yet.
Our a freeze dryer arrives in two weeks! Very excited! I would like to say I love your channel and you have really done a great job in teaching everyone! I have a question; have you ever tried to freeze dry a hard boiled egg?
I have and there is a video. I didn't have very good luck with a whole egg, but you could be ok with chopped for an egg salad sandwich
Probably next week getting a FD,n thank you so much
I’m new to your channel and I really enjoyed EVERYTHING you taught us! Thank you👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
New to your channel. I been looking at buying a Freeze Drier for about 5 yrs now. Thanks for sharing
i suggest using an "egg slicer" for the mushrooms.
Love it. Thanks
Thanks for the idea
every time i went to costco id get 4 chickens and freeze dried them. might have to try the pie.
Costco pumpkin pie is the best prepared pumpkin pie!
One thing to consider.... steaming in the basket for as long as you did took a bit of energy to pull off. Granted right now.... probably negligible. But if you were dealing with grid down and utilizing a finite fuel source I think the pot with sauce not only worked out the best flavor wise... but faster without having to bring the water to a steam / boil etc.
BEST PICKLES EVER!
I love the butter garlic rotisserie chicken at Walmart ~ for only 5 bucks, Oh man i make so much stuff out of it Chicken salad, tacos, sandwiches ect list goes on. Shoot i can't even buy and whole chicken. Season it and cook it for less than 5 bucks NO WAY and Its instant eating ! with some bread. IT LAST 3 days eating on it , 2 times a day for me for lunch and dinner > Glade they do this
Question; Could you, mix your own, pumpkin pie filling, (unbaked) freeze it, then freeze dry it, crush it into a powder, then, rehydrate it, put it in a pie shell, and make a pie with it? I keep thinking, it would be easy to know how much water, because, if you do just 1 pie worth of filling, you can weigh it before freezing, then, after. Subtract the after weight from the before weight, and that should be how much water you add back. Anyway, I think if anybody can figure out how to make pue work, it's you. 😁👍
I did that and it worked great.
Hi, I just found your channel while looking for a way to fix vacuum issues when everything has been checked.
When I saw this video I wondered if you've ever freeze dried chicken (or anything) with the bone in (such as chicken wings, legs, etc.)? Just wondering if bones can be done and if not what the reason would be.
The ground garlic was garlic powder. What you had in the the other jar was granulated garlic. Two different spices.
Are you on Rumble yet?
If I may ask, what other types of mushrooms have you put through the freeze dryer? Have you tried morel mushrooms? Lions Mane, Miatake or anything else. I specialize in providing wild mushroom varieties from my home state of Michigan. So I'm always looking for better ways to preserve and reconstitute them. So I can get as close to the original texture, density and flavor. As well as preserving the highest density of nutrition. Thank you
Thank you for your Awesome Videos!!!
This is off topic, but do you by chance know what paint colors you used for your cabinets and wall?
And the oil or grease can be saved from meat for lard or tallow to cook with.
you should try planting rehydrated garlic
I freeze dry list of mushrooms. Only problem us my son eats them as fast as I dry them
Still exploring the freeze dried idea. On the chicken, could you can the grease/fat to be used for flavoring when the chicken is rehydrated?
Please bear with me on this as I do not own a freeze drier but it is on the short list of need to have. Why do you have to cook the Lasagna first? Why couldn't you freeze dry it as is and cook it after you reconstitute it? I find your channel very informative.
Meat...needs to have grease removed....and cheese..... it becomes rancid.....
Longterm. It also rehydrates better...cooked
Did you pre-wash the mushrooms?
Very informative. Thank you
Very welcome
What if you freeze dried the lasagna before cooking? Would that address the grease problem (from the cheese not being baked)?
I think that's a great idea. I will give it a try on my next go round
@@thefreezedryingcommunity any new results?
I microwave that lasagna per instructions and it is GREAT. (10 min full power with slit
14 minutes power 5 without plastic i think?)
Like someone said...small chunks..
Sometimes ice (on top of liquid, at least), helps solidify fat to remove.
Costco chickens are $4.99 here in Washington. I have probably canned 15 or so of them. I am unable to throw a chicken carcass away anymore, and 2 will make 7 qts of stock in the crock pot. I ran one of those 3lb bags of garlic through my salad shooter and then dehydrated it at low heat. Unbelievable!!! Super strong!!!
I've tried Costco pumpkin pie and Sam's Club pumpkin pie. Numerous times the Costco pumpkin pie was gritty and watery. I prefer the Sam's pie.These pickles at Costco are awesome.
Our Costco does them great...depends on the bakers, I think.
I think it was consumer affairs did a side by side taste test and sams club won on their pumpkin pie over Costco.
I mean consumer reports lol
LOVE the shirt! 👏🏼
I've freeze dried just the chicken breasts of Costco's because I was worried about the fat in the other pieces. Do you worry about the smell from onions or garlic that may stay inside your freeze dryer and then permeate other foods?
If i do garlic or onions i follow up with a cycle of food that will pair with it. (meats, rice, casseroles, soups)
@@thefreezedryingcommunity Good to know, thanks.
Mewe is a subscription 4.99 a month or 29.99 annually
I wonder how the mushrooms will do if you powder them like garlic and onion? To use as a flavoring. We love mushroom sauce but the kids don’t like the texture of the shrooms.
Thanks for the great video! It was really interesting to see those Costco favorites freeze-dried. I also liked seeing the various ways you were using to rehydrate these.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Glad I found this group as I am considering buying a large FD. I use a lot of chicken broth, is there a way to FD the chicken dripping to use as a broth?
Hey there, i use a ton of chicken stock too. I just can mine, and freeze dry other things instead. If you're freeze drying broth then I'd boil it down as much as possible to get rid of a lot of the extra water before freeze drying it.
As long as you remove as much fat and oil as possible.
I found a bone broth recipe. So I put all the bones from 2 or 3 chickens in my instant pot, add the vegetables and seasoning and cook it up.(Try not to add salt, because you can always add it later) Strain the liquid (throwing away the solids) and put it into a few jars in my refrigerator. Once it has cooled and "jelled" I spread it on the trays and freeze it, then into the freeze dryer it goes. When it comes out, it is puffy like foam. It powders easily. The flavor is intense and concentrated. (It always tastes salty to me even though I don't use very much of it).
@@denisecampbell1735 how long will it store for since it has the chicken fat in it?
been wondering about fd broth
Can't wait to watch this video when I get home. I did the pie but have been wondering about the chicken.
Great video. Are you getting ready for thanksgiving on this video?
No. I thought about a thanksgiving video. The freeze dryer is ideal around the holidays when everyone is sick and tired of leftovers.
And the lasagna is precooked. All you need to do is thaw enough to cut in portions for freeze drying
Instead of a steamer, which for the foods that need to be moistened longer tends to overcook them, what about using a cool water fogger, as in a cool water room humidifier?
I am still waiting for my freeze dryer that was supposedly going to be here two weeks ago at the latest. I've been watching videos and searching for accessories, etc. in preparation. I have and will never sign up with FaceBook so it really sucked to see the big group was on that horrible platform. Though I now nothing about the new site option, I am excited to see there is an alternative now!
Worth the wait. You will be happy to get it.
@@carolclarkson4859 - Hi Tom. I can't wait! Even with so much time waiting, I still have yet to buy at cart for it and some other accessories I'd like to have. I need to clean out my one-car garage and make room for a freezer. Have you been using a freezer or just letting the machine do it. I have seen most recommend freezing first, but with the newer machines see mixed ideas on that. Thanks.
That's good planning - I watched all I could while waiting for mine to show up back in Dec 2018. Back then delivery was only 3 weeks. Now it's 10 to 12 weeks out. Sign of the times.
I went with a large dryer and oil less pump. Run it almost 24/7 and try to get 3 to 4 batches per week in. Even after 2 years and having done a ton of food, I still watch new videos about freeze drying. I still learn new things both good and bad. I love my freeze dryer - and yes I've had a few issues to over come but it's been the best prepping tool I own. I'm sure you'll enjoy yours as much as I do mine. Keep in mind that any mistake you make has been done by everyone else. We all go through the learning curve. But it quickly gets very easy and fun. Remember your food safety rules - bacteria can survive the freeze drying process and will still be in the foods 20 years later. Personally I clean and disinfect the chamber and rack before each batch. But I'm a bit OCD. I hope you've selected a good area for your work station - they are designed to operate between 35 and 85F and don't do well in hot environments.
Most people go with the medium dryer simply because of the power requirements for the large. Being an electrician I ran my own new circuits.
Feel free to reach out if you have questions - I'll try to help. Stay safe my friend.
@@jerrysmith372 Many thanks for your response! That is so cool that you have a large and so much experience with it. And being an electrician is definitely an added bonus. I am in a relatively modest home without an ideal spot for it. I have a one-car, detached garage that has an A/C window unit. I have also had a medium sized fan running in there and it hasn't been a problem when I plug my electric pressure washer into an outlet on that building. I'm hoping the power out there is sufficient for not only my medium freeze dryer, but also a freezer, in addition to the A/C and fan, etc. It's not the most ideal spot due to the fact that I'd have to walk between the house and garage with the trays, but if I get a freezer it would have to be in the garage and there is no issue bring solid trays back to the house. So with all of your experience to you think I should no worry about buying a freezer that my trays will fit in and simply let the Harvest Right do that part of the job? It is very kind of you to offer to help out a beginner like me. Thanks again!
@@livemusic I can't speak for your current power situation in your garage without doing an inspection. Any qualified electrician could give you an assessment and tell you if you need to upgrade your available power. That alone can be a can of worms if your main service panel is already maxed out. Best to leave it to an electrician to look at your situation.
I can tell you that I live in the desert southwest and have my dryer in my garage - I had to design and build a custom cooling system using a bathroom ceiling fan mounted in the wall to bring cool air from the house and ducted through the machine then back to the house for return air. Just to keep the internal cabinet temperature at or below 85F.
Doesn't sound like you could do anything like that. I have heard of some using an AC unit and ducting cool air through their machine - certainly raises your power costs per batch.
I don't have freezer space to pre-freeze any of my loads so my dryer does all the work of freezing and drying. Your medium dryer will run on standard 15 amp household outlet.
But I'd have to know what size barker is already feeding your garage before I could even hazard a guess if you could run everything safely.
You could set up your work station and try running the dryer - your AC unit should be on a different circuit (at least that's how I would have run it) If the two circuits are separate you should be OK - If not - you may not have enough to run both dryer, pump and AC unit. You'll need all of that 15 amp outlet circuit just to run the dryer and pump with nothing else on that circuit. (in my opinion) If I were setting up your power to your garage I would have put it on a 40 amp 220 volt breaker at the main to a sub panel in the garage. That would give you plenty of power to run everything you would want baring things like an electric welder.
Ask around - maybe you can find someone to asses your panel and power needs for free. Best would be a card carrying IBEW electrician. Call your power company and see if they could send someone out to look it over - that could be at no charge. Just thinking as I'm writing. Tell them what you want to do and they can tell you if you can.
A few years ago I wanted to put in a Generac whole home backup generator run off my natural gas line - the gas company told me I would need a larger incoming line put in at my expense - the additional $10K killed that idea. Personally I still think I could have done it.
Stay in touch - I'll be here. Let me know if I can help answer any more questions. I'll do the best I can.