Kerry Beal

Looks like the server got his whole hand in it!

Tonight I'm going to start the next batch. On the first tray I have the mango puree that was still a bit damp last time - I mentioned I had put it back in the deep freeze to wait for tonight's run. Some shredded cheddar. Tomatoes from my garden. Liberty greek yogurt with honey - got a couple of those old fashioned ice cube trays with the lever but made from stainless, lined them with parchment. Also added to the half empty tray are some mini marshmallows. I dipped some pieces of the larger ice cream bars in dark chocolate (with the addition of some butterfat for softness). Lots of shattering happened so made some bark with the remains.

Water was minimally fruity.

Not sure I would vent a vacuum system.

I recall thinking about this before - http://forums.egullet.org/topic/97626-will-you-still-need-me-will-you-still-feed-me/

Indeed - I'm picturing decent airline meals!

They taste fine - I do it all the time with wine or purees. As long as you pick a neutral oil you don't even taste it.

You mean to see if there is any flavour in it? I'll give it a sniff tonight before I pitch it.

Got home from work last night - Freeze-Girl had 2 hours of drying left - decided to pull everything half an hour before that as I had to work again this am. Turned off machine, opened the drain hose to allow air back into the unit. Shelves and product were warm. The bananas and ice cream bars were completely dry - the mango puree still had dampness at the center. I bunged that tray back into the deep freeze to put in on my next run to finish it off. I suspect my 1/2 inch slices were perhaps a little thicker than that! I allowed the unit to defrost overnight - this am there were a couple of litres of water in the drain bucket. Put the various things into vacuum bags with an O2 absorber and heat sealed closed. Banana slices - nice and ripe! Will be excellent as flavouring in a banana filling I think. Mini ice cream bars - think I'll dip a couple of these in some dark chocolate with the addition of 4% butter fat to soften the chocolate a bit. Standard sized neapolitan bars. Brought a few to work this am - they seem to be popular.

Further to Lior's post - if you have a cream based ganache that has a decent shelf life - replace 65% of the cream (by weight) with puree and 35% of the cream (by weight) with a neutral oil. It will look a little different as it's setting up - but it will have the same aW as your original recipe (or perhaps a bit lower because puree is not 100% water though we calculate as if it is).

I did pre freeze too - in my upright freezer. I need to get it cleaned out and defrosted so things can lie flat on the shelf to freeze - especially before I get into stuff like cream and milk.

Thinking that alcohol in the wine is likely to be removed in the process - I would assume that even frozen the boiling point of ETOH is lower than that of water - and I think the sublimation temperature would be as well. Doesn't mean I won't do the experiments though! Do need to get some dry ice or liquid nitrogen for pre freezing things for sure. Or maybe an anti griddle?

Checked on the FDer this am - still has about 1 1/2 hours on the freezing part of the cycle before the vacuum pump kicks in and the shelf heaters start to do their thing. A fair amount of condensation on the door of the unit - beginning to understand some pictures that Chocolot sent me showing one of the trays under the door! Mine now has a stainless Air Canada tray in the same location. The drying part of the cycle is set for 5 hours - but it will take much longer than that. What happens is that the pump cycles on and brings the vacuum down to a certain level. The shelf heaters then cycle on and water starts to sublimate out of the food. Eventually the pressure rises due to the additional moisture and this causes the heaters to cycle off and the vacuum pump to cycle back on. The timer resets over and over during the process. So 5 hours could be anywhere between 12 and 24 hours by the time the microprocessor is satisfied with it's readings (or the water on the condenser overwhelms the unit and you have an endless cycle of melt and freeze on the condenser).

Ok - first batch is in! A tray of nice ripe banana slices, a tray of mini ice cream sandwiches, a tray of regular sized neapolitan ice cream sandwiches and a 1 kg container of frozen Boiron mango puree cut into 1/2 inch slices. I pre cooled the FD'er for about an hour, then dialled it up to 11 hours cooling. Apparently ice cream sandwiches should be frozen to -40 C until thoroughly frozen through - if their centres are warmer they tend to puff up when the vacuum starts and it makes them ugly.

You really would need to measure the water activity to estimate the safety. Or do a study where you set pieces aside and look at them every couple of days to see when they get mouldy.

I keep mine on the counter.

It's called Harvestright - here is a link.

I know there is one of those in the lab downstairs that they don't use anymore! And I've got flasks - lots of flasks. What kind of an aspirator do I need?

Another thing to do some research about on eG is getting the tempered chocolate to remain stuck to the toffee. It is often a problem and I know we've discussed it before.

Ok - so dumb idea back at you. I thought you could take shell on shrimp - freeze dry - then fry like they do at Lotus of Siam to make the Salt and Pepper Prawns.

I already use a lot of freeze dried stuff with chocolate. I use chunks of freeze dried fruit, coffee, toffee in bark. I add freeze dried fruit powders to boost the flavour of ganaches. What I might do new is to make some centres then freeze dry them, then enrobe in chocolate. For sure I'll enrobe the ice cream sandwiches and freeze dried ice cream. I've had freeze dried whole strawberries panned in white chocolate before - panned fruits will be one thing for sure.

Got a bunch of ice cream sandwiches waiting, and waiting, and waiting...

Pretty sure the cooling isn't Peltier (compressor) - but the heaters might be. Didn't take a really close look at them.

Look like I'm out of business until I hear back from the manufacturer. I probably could run it cause the default is 5 hours - however it's back in the shop and I suspect I won't get it back until it's back together.

So - went to start things up this am - realize that there are supposed to be 2 knobs on the right side of the machine - one to adjust the freezing time, the other to adjust the vacuum time. Second knob MIA. It's back in the shop getting the side taken off to see if the knob is in there somewhere. The top knob did get broken off in the unpacking I was told and had to be replaced.