You’ll have to decide whether the pros outweigh the cons. For me personally, none of the cons outweighed the pros. The high price tag is an investment in my ability to preserve food for long periods of time for me and my family without relying on others. The noise doesn’t bother any of us and it’s like white noise.
The food and pharmaceutical industries crucially rely on freeze drying for the long-term storage of products. This method enables businesses to preserve product quality, extend shelf life, and improve stability.
The best choice I ever made when it comes to long-term storage food is getting a freeze dryer. I didn’t always think that. It was far more work than I imagined and the maintenance on the machine is annoying when it needs it.
I have one of those hand held heat guns (inexpensive from HF), but I was afraid of accidently burning the insulation. My gun gets very hot! I do the same technique with a fan, shock the ice and listen for the cracks as it separates from the chamber wall.
Nor is it affordable for all of our extended family to eat gluten-free for the holiday meals. This challenge has been easily remedied with my freeze dryer.
The unit can also connect to and communicate the freeze dryer cycle data to a nearby PC through an ethernet cable.
You can count on me sticking around to talk about the food side of things! My wife looked at me a little oddly when I got the freeze dryer, but now she's a fan too. I'm discovering things that it can do that I hadn't expected, such as making low carb snacks.
After buying our freeze dryer more info 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.
Use a professional shipping service that specializes in handling industrial machinery. Ensure the dryer is properly secured and protected to prevent any damage during transit.
12 Posted September 16, 2015 You've given me an idea. I have the parts at the shop to use an actual filter head and a spin on filter. I could have a bracket laser cut and powder-coated that would hold the filter/head assembly horizontal which would allow it to completely drain and the outside of the filter would stay clean.
Then I just have to take rolls and a gluten-free pie for my son. It’s much less stressful on everyone, and my son get more info doesn’t feel that he’s being deprived of having traditional holiday foods.
Cooked eggs can be freeze dried, but they tend to be rubbery when reconstituted. If you want to freeze dry cooked eggs, I recommend slightly undercooking them and then rehydrating them with boiling water. It will finish cooking them without making them rubbery.
Monitoring the FDer internal temps and once I see -40F I start the dry cycle, except for high sugar content food which I give an extra hour. I'm still experimenting with Ice cream and a few fruits to determine optimal freeze time to get the best results. The cooling cycle ends up much shorter.
Freeze dried Skittles are a favorite in my family. They end up with a crunchy texture. Other candies have a crunchy exterior and an airy interior.