I'll be trying combined foods next. The Small size works here. The pictured instructions are helpful. The reading material gets you off to a good start and you can get Harvest Right App for endless possibilities!
The shelf heaters can be set to automatically control the rate of sublimation during the primary drying cycle.
I love adding powdered vegetables to soups to thicken them. It’s a great way to add nutrients without anyone noticing! You can also use powdered zucchini as a substitute for flour in baked goods; substitute 1/3 of the flour with zucchini powder.
In fact, my son’s friends often comment that they wish they could have his freeze dried meals rather than whatever they are eating!
Obviously things like ice cream and marshmallows you would want to let the freeze cycle run longer. When I'm ready to start the drying cycle, I open the door, remove the insulator, and check the temperature of the food on the trays with an infrared thermometer. As long as it's below -10F I start the dry cycle. A side note for TonyC, have you ever thought about attaching a mirror to each side of the tray rack to reflect the radiant heat back in to the trays? I've looked at some mirror finish stainless on ebay, and it looks like you could do it for about $40. Not sure if it's worth a try or not. I would think it would let you get more water out in a cycle because the radiant heat wouldn't be warming the ice on the chamber walls. Just a thought.... Edited December 16, 2015 by Pipsqueak duplicate post (log)
A freeze dryer can be used to preserve entire meals, making it easy to build up a supply of emergency food or just have meals on hand that can quickly be re-hydrated and eaten.
The bottom line regarding freeze-dried food is that hoe freeze dryers are an investment! An investment that pays you back and makes you more resilient in the process.
After buying our freeze dryer I was naturally curious as to how it "knew" when something was done, since batch times varied so much depending on what was being processed. Watching the cycle times didn't seem to tell me anything at first -- especially without a thermometer to tell me what was happening inside -- until I finally caught on that applying heat to the frozen food affected the vacuum, which provided the measure of how dry the food had become.
Collaborating with smart freeze-dry machinery manufacturers can greatly increase production reliability. Businesses must also focus on equipment servicing, spare parts, and post-sale assistance for the freeze dryer. The system will reduce downtime and maximize efficiency when properly maintained.
Without an pump isolation valve I would expect some air to flow back into the chamber through the pump resulting in the steady rise you witnessed. I saw the same phenomenon before I installed an isolation valve on my pump.
Freeze dried salsa One of our favorite things to freeze dried is our homemade salsa. It tastes much more like fresh than it does when canned. It reconstitutes very quickly and is delicious to eat as a dip or added to spaghetti sauce. We also like to sprinkle it on popcorn.
Run full system test with no food in chamber (results, 630 mTorr lowest steady reading - looking through the oil level window, some bubbling seen in oil even after an hour of pumpdown Buy Now - some "air" noises from pump)
Depending on how you want to use freeze dried food, it doesn’t have to be reconstituted. There are some freeze dried foods I like to powder in my blender or food processor and then add to other foods. These powders can be used in smoothies, soups, and baked goods.
I started by removing the 3 grocery bags that were holding the 2 thick bags that had at one time held the berries. Struck by how much it looked like a placenta - bag and all!