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Quoted: You're not using an insulator in your hatch? Quoted: Quoted: In a vacuum I can still smell those serranos, hell of a stout batch https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/30587/IMG_5734-3046312.jpg You're not using an insulator in your hatch? they don't come with those little screens anymore |
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Still fighting Mid-Batch Heater failure, I went though all the regular stuff to check. I got on some facebook groups to see if others have had this issue. Did the paperclip thermistor by-pass, also the rewiring of the trays. I checked the sensors, ran vaccum tests and heater tests. All seem to be OK. HR wants $40 to talk to their service, but I just went ahead and ordered a new relay board. I didnt feel like paying them another $40 and tell me to do all the things I just did...then tell me to buy a new realy board. My current board seems to be working correcty, but is one of the most common failure points so having a backup isnt the worst idea anyway....and maybe it will fix it? |
I make accessories for the Harvest Right. Use this link for an arfcom discount  Attached File |
| Yeah…. Cheesecake is pretty bomb-assed-especially if you have some fruit filling on it. The cheesecake dries a lot faster than the filling so you have to be careful to make sure the filling is dry if you store it or the and product will be chewy off of the machine (yum) but will end up transferring the water from the fruit topping to the cheesecake when sealed and packed for storage. This is a hard one to screw up if doing for short term gifting like Holidays-my family loved it. |
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Quoted: doing some more trays of eggs and cheese, adding milk and cheesecake this time. cheesecake is supposed to be pretty good shit freeze dried should be coming up on a 20 batch vacuum pump oil change pretty soon cheeze cake is good but be sure to slice it first 3/8", it turns hard as a rock. |
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We had a bunch of applesause that was expiring, so decided to stick it in the FD......it turned out pretty good. Attached File Attached File She's getting some chicken prepped now and will go in tomorrow morning before work. |
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Quoted: I had one before the EX stole it. They are a pita. Buy compressor oil by the 55 gallon drum if you didn’t get the oil less one. They are noisy, take 24 hrs to freeze dry stuff (an hour or more of prep time before) and prone to leak and give you trouble. Enjoy. Yours must have been a really early one. Mines four years old now, has never missed a day of work, and I'm still on my original vacuum pump and filter my oil three times before disposal (recycling). Noise? I can stand next to mine and have a cell phone conversation without issue. The old ones with the cheap base pump were pretty loud. |
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I wonder how hard is it to use? I am thinking of getting a freeze dryer but somewhat skeptical from what I hear from others. Do people tend to have lots of problems with them? I bought some of the stuff from freeze n dried, and was quite happy, but I was shocked about the price, but when seeing how much freeze dryers cost and how many problem people, I would rather be buying products rather than the actual machine. But hey if someone can navigate me and help me out (and maybe convince me to buy one), maybe I will still buy it haha |
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Quoted: I wonder how hard is it to use? I am thinking of getting a freeze dryer but somewhat skeptical from what I hear from others. Do people tend to have lots of problems with them? I bought some of the stuff from freeze n dried, and was quite happy, but I was shocked about the price, but when seeing how much freeze dryers cost and how many problem people, I would rather be buying products rather than the actual machine. But hey if someone can navigate me and help me out (and maybe convince me to buy one), maybe I will still buy it haha it's spartan simple but there's a bit of a learning curve to it, mostly with when things are really dry but you can churn stuff out pretty quickly with it. if the thing goes tits-up one day outside of warranty you still should easily be able to bag up $2700 worth of freeze dried shit (the cost of the medium, which most people buy) there's lots of freeze drying groups on facebook, if you're on there you might join one and scroll through things i've learned so far 1) pre-freeze everything beforehand 2) add extra dry time so you can take your sweet ass time getting to the machine and bagging it all up 3) do not take the machine's word on anything being dry, check yourself 4) if you think it's dry, dry it some more anyway if you've got the time, you can't over freeze dry something |
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Quoted: it's spartan simple but there's a bit of a learning curve to it, mostly with when things are really dry but you can churn stuff out pretty quickly with it. if the thing goes tits-up one day outside of warranty you still should easily be able to bag up $2700 worth of freeze dried shit (the cost of the medium, which most people buy) there's lots of freeze drying groups on facebook, if you're on there you might join one and scroll through things i've learned so far 1) pre-freeze everything beforehand 2) add extra dry time so you can take your sweet ass time getting to the machine and bagging it all up 3) do not take the machine's word on anything being dry, check yourself 4) if you think it's dry, dry it some more anyway if you've got the time, you can't over freeze dry something +1, they pay for themselves really fast. My buddy got his use out of it and did a crap ton of food, then I had it for a year and a half on a long term loan until my fire and I eeeeeasily tripled that $2700 worth of food myself. |
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Quoted: +1, they pay for themselves really fast. My buddy got his use out of it and did a crap ton of food, then I had it for a year and a half on a long term loan until my fire and I eeeeeasily tripled that $2700 worth of food myself. Quoted: Quoted: it's spartan simple but there's a bit of a learning curve to it, mostly with when things are really dry but you can churn stuff out pretty quickly with it. if the thing goes tits-up one day outside of warranty you still should easily be able to bag up $2700 worth of freeze dried shit (the cost of the medium, which most people buy) there's lots of freeze drying groups on facebook, if you're on there you might join one and scroll through things i've learned so far 1) pre-freeze everything beforehand 2) add extra dry time so you can take your sweet ass time getting to the machine and bagging it all up 3) do not take the machine's word on anything being dry, check yourself 4) if you think it's dry, dry it some more anyway if you've got the time, you can't over freeze dry something +1, they pay for themselves really fast. My buddy got his use out of it and did a crap ton of food, then I had it for a year and a half on a long term loan until my fire and I eeeeeasily tripled that $2700 worth of food myself. i'm never wondering what should go in next, i always have a line of shit waiting to go in you can't run out of ideas for these machines, the things you can't freeze dry you can almost count on fingers. good rule of thumb is that if it won't freeze solid it won't freeze dry |
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Quoted: i'm never wondering what should go in next, i always have a line of shit waiting to go in you can't run out of ideas for these machines, the things you can't freeze dry you can almost count on fingers. good rule of thumb is that if it won't freeze solid it won't freeze dry We did just open some burger patties we did back in 2021. It's been interesting on rehydrating them.... |
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Quoted: Curious as to the condition of the patties when you rehydrate them? How is the texture and do they hold together well? If you just want burgers buy fresh meat, if you want to do some to take camping or hiking they work good enough. In a emergency situation you would be very thankfull for them. |
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Quoted: How do you do mashed taters? Large flat sheet or some form of cube? How do you rehydrate? House full of tater eaters. Quoted: Quoted: doing eggs, cheese, milk and sour cream right now figuring on a run of mashed potatoes next How do you do mashed taters? Large flat sheet or some form of cube? How do you rehydrate? House full of tater eaters. just gonna fill up the trays to the top and level off, should break apart nicely and i'll do half a tray per mylar bag haven't ever rehydrated any but some warm water ought to almost instantly bring them back to life |
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There are a few mods that you can do to save you a huge headache down the road. 1) immediately replace the stock drain valve with one from the hardware store like this: Valve 2) get some silicone self fusing tape and wrap about a 2-3 inch section over each hose where the tube connects to the brass fitting (open the back of the machine and do the drain tube on both ends as well. This also includes both sides of the vacuum pump tube as well as the drain valve sections). 3) get the Y Pipe sections for the final external portion of the drain valve. (not the correct ones but something like this: Y Pipe ) This will save you a ton of headache down the road. You WILL have vacuum leaks at some point and this will prevent most of them and save many batches of food from being wasted. Get an extra set of trays and pre freeze everything. Saves you a ton of time in the machine. Anything that has fibrous flesh like pineapple or mango takes quite a while to complete but is worth it. Both of these go from fruit into straight up candy. Although I avoid pre cut/frozen stuff from costco as my machine doesnt seem to like it. Maybe too much external ice or melt/refreeze cycles that create a hard or sugary layer on the outside and causes them to gum up instead of dry out. All fruit must be ripe/ in season for best results. Trash in = Trash out. It does not magically make crappy fruit taste better. Strawberries are the most noticeable. Mediocre apples can be saved with a dash of cinnamon. Strawberry Shortcake ice cream bars are Tier 1 (Good Humor brand only) Enjoy 
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I quit sugar  but splurge on special occasions. I took some doughnuts and candy bars from work and ran them.....LoLAttached File Attached File Attached File |
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Quoted: Cooked some burgers for a run. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/102712/IMG_20240211_122914706_jpg-3125922.JPG You freeze dry burgers? |
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Quoted: You freeze dry burgers? All the cool kids do…. Raw or cooked. Burger in particular is one of the nicer meats to dry (all meats dry really well) because of the cost and how efficient it is in terms of filling the trays. You basically buy a tube of 90/10, smoosh it into the tray, press score lines in the burger, run the batch, then just break the rectangular Patties apart. They bag up nice and it’s easy for knowing portions/servings in your bag for when you mark it. Pork loin, steaks, chips, smoked ham, …. Done it all. |
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Quoted: All the cool kids do…. Raw or cooked. Burger in particular is one of the nicer meats to dry (all meats dry really well) because of the cost and how efficient it is in terms of filling the trays. You basically buy a tube of 90/10, smoosh it into the tray, press score lines in the burger, run the batch, then just break the rectangular Patties apart. They bag up nice and it’s easy for knowing portions/servings in your bag for when you mark it. Pork loin, steaks, chips, smoked ham, …. Done it all. But fat goes rancid? |
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Quoted: Retard suburbanfag here. Sell me on this I just dehydrate currently It’s just not the same animal-all of the vitamins survive the process (unlike dehydrating), and all the taste/texture returns after rehydrating. You don’t need boiling water either. It will last the rest of your life if you seal it properly and use an O2 absorber, that’s the main selling point. Downsides is that it is work to keep it cycling and get your money out of it , but you build a huge stash of food fast just by doubling up your meal prep every other day and maybe doing something easy like eggs or frozen vegetables in between. They won’t have any bible verses on the side tho, and PingPing still loves you! |
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Quoted: It’s just not the same animal-all of the vitamins survive the process (unlike dehydrating), and all the taste/texture returns after rehydrating. You don’t need boiling water either. It will last the rest of your life if you seal it properly and use an O2 absorber, that’s the main selling point. Downsides is that it is work to keep it cycling and get your money out of it , but you build a huge stash of food fast just by doubling up your meal prep every other day and maybe doing something easy like eggs or frozen vegetables in between. They won’t have any bible verses on the side tho, and PingPing still loves you! Quoted: Quoted: Retard suburbanfag here. Sell me on this I just dehydrate currently It’s just not the same animal-all of the vitamins survive the process (unlike dehydrating), and all the taste/texture returns after rehydrating. You don’t need boiling water either. It will last the rest of your life if you seal it properly and use an O2 absorber, that’s the main selling point. Downsides is that it is work to keep it cycling and get your money out of it , but you build a huge stash of food fast just by doubling up your meal prep every other day and maybe doing something easy like eggs or frozen vegetables in between. They won’t have any bible verses on the side tho, and PingPing still loves you! That sounds pretty cool I didn't know it keeps the vitamins. I may need to diversify |
| Serious question, do you guys who freeze dry food rotate through your stash regularly, or are you mostly socking food away for SHTF? Freeze drying interests me to make my own backpacking meals, and maybe for socking away, but I honestly can't imagine ripping open a bag of freeze dried turkey or pork chops for regular family dinners. |
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Quoted: That sounds pretty cool I didn't know it keeps the vitamins. I may need to diversify So, there’s a point in the pressure/temperature curve where water cant exist as a solid or a liquid and becomes a gas. These things take the food down to like 50 below and pull a vacuum on the chamber, then the shelves are heated so the food goes three that 2-3 degree window and the water gas gets sucked out. The food never gets “hot” by our standards so there are no chemical changes to the vitamin content. Then when you pack it, you put in an O2 absorber and with no water or air it can’t made changes to vitamin content or grown bacteria-it’s basically in suspended animation and is largely unaffected by storage temperatures-plenty of stories of people who had commercially packed FD food in #10 cans in garages attics in places like Georgia and it being fine decades later. If you’re serious about food storage, the cost of one of these machines is easily made back. I spent more on commercial FD from Mountain House than a machine costs before my friend lent me his and it got lost in my house fire. If I had the machine back when I got the Mountain House, I would have been able to put away foods I like rather than have to eat the way MH prepares food, which is diced/cubed for more efficient production, salted heavily for outdoor activity, and has ingredients that sometimes I don’t like…. Like mushrooms. On top of that, a freeze dryer allows you to prepare the food with seasonings you like or just raw to help avoid dietary fatigue-a charcoal grilled pork chop with redskin mashed potatoes and corn would be pretty damned good post-SHTF… |
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Quoted: Serious question, do you guys who freeze dry food rotate through your stash regularly, or are you mostly socking food away for SHTF? Freeze drying interests me to make my own backpacking meals, and maybe for socking away, but I honestly can't imagine ripping open a bag of freeze dried turkey or pork chops for regular family dinners. For me it’s not just for SHTF. I’m 10 years or so from retirement and making decent money, so it made sense to put food away cheap by today’s standards than to pay full boat in retirement…. Chicken on sale today is a LOT more affordable than going rate 20 years from now. That, and not to get morbid, but my wife is 19 years older than me-she’ll be feeding me long after she’s gone…[img]/images/smilies/smiley_smartass.gif[/ But to answer your question about just busting out a bag of freeze dried chops, I did that late last year. I invited a neighbor over to my off grid cabin to grill and opened up a Mylar bag I had done 2 or 3 years ago. He took the invitation to mean that he was bringing his own pork chops and grilling with me, so it gave us/him the chance to compare fresh to the raw that I rehydrated. Taste was pretty indistinguishable but I overcooked my chops a bit and dried them out because the color doesn’t change as much when grilling. Still damned good. I once took a can of military steaks to my parents place to grill for the family, the result was kind of the same-the family knew something about them was different but they couldn’t figure it out. They were a little overcooked but the BBQ sauce hid it. Nobody complained. One thing that is different about freeze dried food is that hard skinned fruits and vegetables tend to have the sugars sublimate to the outside of the skin. For some foods like grapes it’s awesome because it makes like a crunchy candy, but with corn you have to be careful how you rehydrate it and not throw the water away because some of the flavor goes with it. |
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Quoted: So, there’s a point in the pressure/temperature curve where water cant exist as a solid or a liquid and becomes a gas. These things take the food down to like 50 below and pull a vacuum on the chamber, then the shelves are heated so the food goes three that 2-3 degree window and the water gas gets sucked out. The food never gets “hot” by our standards so there are no chemical changes to the vitamin content. Then when you pack it, you put in an O2 absorber and with no water or air it can’t made changes to vitamin content or grown bacteria-it’s basically in suspended animation and is largely unaffected by storage temperatures-plenty of stories of people who had commercially packed FD food in #10 cans in garages attics in places like Georgia and it being fine decades later. If you’re serious about food storage, the cost of one of these machines is easily made back. I spent more on commercial FD from Mountain House than a machine costs before my friend lent me his and it got lost in my house fire. If I had the machine back when I got the Mountain House, I would have been able to put away foods I like rather than have to eat the way MH prepares food, which is diced/cubed for more efficient production, salted heavily for outdoor activity, and has ingredients that sometimes I don’t like…. Like mushrooms. On top of that, a freeze dryer allows you to prepare the food with seasonings you like or just raw to help avoid dietary fatigue-a charcoal grilled pork chop with redskin mashed potatoes and corn would be pretty damned good post-SHTF… Quoted: Quoted: That sounds pretty cool I didn't know it keeps the vitamins. I may need to diversify So, there’s a point in the pressure/temperature curve where water cant exist as a solid or a liquid and becomes a gas. These things take the food down to like 50 below and pull a vacuum on the chamber, then the shelves are heated so the food goes three that 2-3 degree window and the water gas gets sucked out. The food never gets “hot” by our standards so there are no chemical changes to the vitamin content. Then when you pack it, you put in an O2 absorber and with no water or air it can’t made changes to vitamin content or grown bacteria-it’s basically in suspended animation and is largely unaffected by storage temperatures-plenty of stories of people who had commercially packed FD food in #10 cans in garages attics in places like Georgia and it being fine decades later. If you’re serious about food storage, the cost of one of these machines is easily made back. I spent more on commercial FD from Mountain House than a machine costs before my friend lent me his and it got lost in my house fire. If I had the machine back when I got the Mountain House, I would have been able to put away foods I like rather than have to eat the way MH prepares food, which is diced/cubed for more efficient production, salted heavily for outdoor activity, and has ingredients that sometimes I don’t like…. Like mushrooms. On top of that, a freeze dryer allows you to prepare the food with seasonings you like or just raw to help avoid dietary fatigue-a charcoal grilled pork chop with redskin mashed potatoes and corn would be pretty damned good post-SHTF… But plan to spend about two grand, right? |
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Quoted: Serious question, do you guys who freeze dry food rotate through your stash regularly, or are you mostly socking food away for SHTF? Freeze drying interests me to make my own backpacking meals, and maybe for socking away, but I honestly can't imagine ripping open a bag of freeze dried turkey or pork chops for regular family dinners. i'm packing things away to have what i want, how i want it, packaged in amounts i want and eventually at a much lower cost that buying it cakes, ice cream and candy are a big bonus, same as never having to throw away leftovers again |
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Quoted: But plan to spend about two grand, right? Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: That sounds pretty cool I didn't know it keeps the vitamins. I may need to diversify So, there’s a point in the pressure/temperature curve where water cant exist as a solid or a liquid and becomes a gas. These things take the food down to like 50 below and pull a vacuum on the chamber, then the shelves are heated so the food goes three that 2-3 degree window and the water gas gets sucked out. The food never gets “hot” by our standards so there are no chemical changes to the vitamin content. Then when you pack it, you put in an O2 absorber and with no water or air it can’t made changes to vitamin content or grown bacteria-it’s basically in suspended animation and is largely unaffected by storage temperatures-plenty of stories of people who had commercially packed FD food in #10 cans in garages attics in places like Georgia and it being fine decades later. If you’re serious about food storage, the cost of one of these machines is easily made back. I spent more on commercial FD from Mountain House than a machine costs before my friend lent me his and it got lost in my house fire. If I had the machine back when I got the Mountain House, I would have been able to put away foods I like rather than have to eat the way MH prepares food, which is diced/cubed for more efficient production, salted heavily for outdoor activity, and has ingredients that sometimes I don’t like…. Like mushrooms. On top of that, a freeze dryer allows you to prepare the food with seasonings you like or just raw to help avoid dietary fatigue-a charcoal grilled pork chop with redskin mashed potatoes and corn would be pretty damned good post-SHTF… But plan to spend about two grand, right? the medium that i bought can be had regularly for $2700 but if you wait for specials or coupons from the places that sell them and you can pick them up as low as $2000 |
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Quoted: the medium that i bought can be had regularly for $2700 but if you wait for specials or coupons from the places that sell them and you can pick them up as low as $2000 Based redneck. Thank you brother Quoted: I have a feeling that my retirement hobby will be freeze drying all the things. I’ll die and leave vast horde of freeze-dried stuff. Becoming the crazy old dude everyone is scared of might be my future. The entire point of men is to make the world better |
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Quoted: Based redneck. Thank you brother The entire point of men is to make the world better If you can, spend the extra money and get the oilless pump. Yes, it’s a lot of money but filtering and changing the oil is messy and a pain in the ass on top of the work of keeping the machine running. It has to run to pay for itself, so anything you can do to make life easier pays dividends. The one I had was borrowed and lost in a fire. It may be salvageable, don’t know yet-it’s pretty ugly. Much to my wife’s chagrin, I’ll be running a freeze drier again, even if I have to go out and spend the money on a new one. My buddy got his use out of it, I ran it for close to two years, and I still see enough value to have one again. |