Freeze dryer/drying

[Amish Heart]

We had to replace our board. It was a pain.
Running green beans still. I have alot of beans.
Filled the dehydrator with elderberry for my favorite cousin's daughter. She uses the powder to make a tonic for her mom.

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

I thought sugared rhubarb in the dehydrator was good. Its even better freeze dried. No breaking a tooth on it. If you like sour candies, rhubarb makes a good substitute.

 

[Chesney Richardson]

I have peppers in mine right now but gonna try making snacks for my daughter from match stick cukes squash and zucchini later

 

[Neb]

It is freeze dryer season for us now that things have cooled a bit.

We are running our second batch (sliced onions) now.

I believe someone mentioned 5hey strain rhe oil after each batch.

So The Princess has tasked me with buying more oil.

Can anyone offer some advice on what brand of oil I should get AND how much we should have on hand?

Thank you!

Ben

 

[Amish Heart]

Harvest Right sells the oil. I just bought another bottle of it, found it at Atwoods. I filter the oil when I empty it and reuse it lots of times.

 

[montanabill]

if you look at the various facebook sites they wil tell you many things.....some even true. I have been using HR oil and Napa Auto Parts oil, the napa oil is called high vacuum vacuum pump oil.. the sources say only use HR food grade oil or else. I tend to not overload my FDer so I don't suck a lot of water in and I run 5 or more loads depending on how the oil looks in the sight glass then dump it into my big container to keep for dire times... The napa oil is 2/3 the price of HR oil.

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

You filter the oil and keep reusing it, up to 100x.

I filter mine, every 5 batches even though its supposed to be 20-30 batches according to HR for the new freeze dryers. My freeze dryer gives me the message on completion of batch 20. It's the original standard pumps that needed the oil filtered every batch.

It's really simple to do, so doing it more often isn't a big deal to me. Don't confuse frequent oil filtering with actually changing the oil for new oil.

I use robinair from Napa as it's all I can get. There is another brand, Black Gold that has passed the sneeze test as well.

Phil at 4800 feet, has a video where he tests and compares the oil ect.

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

(PS) I don't know how much oil to have on hand, either. Right now I have a gallon. I am thinking of another gallon. I think the trick is trying to figure out when the oil can't be filtered anymore. HR is very stingy with that information so I think we have to make our best guess and err in favor of the pump. I have a feeling an actual vacuum pump dealer may have a reasonable answer.

 

[Neb]

(PS) I don't know how much oil to have on hand, either. Right now I have a gallon. I am thinking of another gallon. I think the trick is trying to figure out when the oil can't be filtered anymore. HR is very stingy with that information so I think we have to make our best guess and err in favor of the pump. I have a feeling an actual vacuum pump dealer may have a reasonable answer.

Yup.

I should research the pump specs.

Ben

 

[Amish Heart]

Let me know if anyone finds out how many times you can use the filtered oil. So far, that's what I've been using. The color hasn't changed, and it looks clean.

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

I have completed 54 loads. After some, the oil has been cloudy and that is why I filter it so often. My oil is clear after filtering, but has turned amber colored.

 

[Neb]

I have completed 54 loads. After some, the oil has been cloudy and that is why I filter it so often. My oil is clear after filtering, but has turned amber colored.

Does it still perform as we well?

Ben

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

Knock on wood, it is running just fine.

I have just found a maintenance site that says to filter the oil every batch if running continuously and every 5 for moderate use. It says to change the oil every 2-3 months for moderate use and once a month for heavier use. So, I checked, and my machine does say to change the oil every 20 batches. Silly me, I read it as filtering.

I would consider myself to be a heavy user. I start a new batch the morning of every third day after an overnight defrost. I also make sure its clean. It looks like an oil change every 5 -6 weeks is in order. At 600 ml per change, you can calculate how much oil you want to keep on hand.

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

We had those steaks last night.

Not good.

I was mistaken about how long they would need to rehydrate. I delayed dinner waiting for them to take up water. I kept weighing the larger steak. Before the dehydration it was 14 oz. We had a couple of potatoes in the oven as well as a casserole that were at risk of being over done. At each check I could feel the parts of the steak surrounded by fat was stiff, not floppy. There were areas not surrounded by fat that did feel right.

I called the rehydrate when the steak was 12 oz. They both came up to 140 degrees F very fast! Lack of water may explain that.

The small parts that were floppy were decent. But most of the meat with fat was miserable to cut with a steak knife. I had to resort to dipping small chunks in my onion soup to eat much of it.

The Princess had to cut off 1/3 of her steak that she just couldn't cut. Nit being willing to throw most of her steak away she put in a container and covered it with onion soup.

So I call this first attempt a massive failure.

Next time....

Cut off the fat!
Rehydrate over night.

I will probably miss the fat.

Would smearing butter or bacon grease on them before grilling help?

All suggestions are appreciated.

Ben

The well marbled steaks with the thick fat streaks aren't going to freeze dry well. Fat doesn't freeze dry.

I have been learning the hard way that freeze dryed foods need a long time to rehydrate. Try putting them in a baggy and sucking the air out. Using the onion soup to rehydrate might help it along and poking holes with a fork before freeze drying it as well.

You broke a cardinal rule that says food for the freeze dryer shouldn't be more then a 1/2" thick. I refuse to have thin meat as well. It's a work in progress, but I think 1" steaks are possible. I have 1" thick burgers figured out.

 

[lilmissy]

Steak is something you must cut off the fat. We fd steak tips and rice with mushrooms. Hubby loves it. He just cuts a good steak in pieces and pulls off the fat. We use that to cook but not to fd. Matter of fact he just had some tonight for dinner.

 

[montanabill]

I cube my steaks as we mainly plan on using it for hearty soups. I cut all the fat off.
I have done slices of ham and packed them away.
When I run both freeze dryers at once I have to have a window in the bedroom sized room cracked or it gets hot and triggers a warning on the display. i also have a small fan pointed right at the pump since it gets quite warm..

 

[Neb]

The well marbled steaks with the thick fat streaks aren't going to freeze dry well. Fat doesn't freeze dry.

I have been learning the hard way that freeze dryed foods need a long time to rehydrate. Try putting them in a baggy and sucking the air out. Using the onion soup to rehydrate might help it along and poking holes with a fork before freeze drying it as well.

You broke a cardinal rule that says food for the freeze dryer shouldn't be more then a 1/2" thick. I refuse to have thin meat as well. It's a work in progress, but I think 1" steaks are possible. I have 1" thick burgers figured out.

The Princess hates to waste so she had the steak we didn't eat Saturday. She covered them in onion soup in the fridge. She reported they quite good ( today Monday) !

So we will try again and give a food long soak.

After I remove the fat.

Ben