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JimR

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  1. Here are a few things I do to reduce this problem. I pull my food out of the machine about 10 minutes BEFORE it turns off and beeps “complete” I do this so the food is still warm. It is easier to feel the cold or cool pieces of food. Even “cool” pieces mean that not all of the water has been removed. I also break the large pieces of food and check for a crisp break, not a bending. I take each tray, after checking for done, and immediately put the food in a gallon zip-lock bag. I remove as much air a possible and seal the bag. Each tray gets it’s own zip-lock bag. I check each bag once per day for a minimum of 2 days, usually 3-4 days. If the food does not soften up then I will package in Mylar with Ox-absorber (long term) or vacuum in Mason jars without Ox-absorber (shorter term). Note: Ox-absorbers can not work in a vacuum so don’t waste one. If you find a bag that is part or whole softening up just put all of food from that bag back on a tray and put in your freezer to be re-processed your next session. I have opened FD’ed food that I vacuumed in Mason jars 5 months later with food still crisp. Note: if you vacuum in Mason jars put a ring on jar after vacuuming tightly and check your lids once a month to make sure they are still sealed. If you have been vacuum packing in Mason jars for very long you will have noticed that sometimes the seal doesn’t last. As a side note, if you are in “food production” mode, as I am most of the time, here is how I run one session per day for many days in a row. 1. I prepare and pre-freeze my food trays. I have 4 to 8 trays, with food, in my freezer ready to put into the machine at any one time. I put one food per tray and try and mix the types of food so I don’t have too much water in the machine. My goal is to have my FD’ing session last between 18 to 24 hours. No more. This you will have to play with until you know what combinations of food to process together. 2. I start my FD’er sessions at about 4pm. After I start the machine I set the Freezing cycle to about 7-8 hours. This will have the machine go into the “drying” cycle at around 11pm. Or start later with a shorter Freezing cycle IF you have a very good pre-freeze of your trays. Warning: make sure you have closed the drain valve or you will not be happen in the morning. 3. When I get up in the morning I check the machine and see how much longer the “drying” cycle has to go to finish. If the machine shows “Drying” and the timer is below 6 hours left I set a timer or alarm after that time plus 10 minutes. This will alert me 10 minutes fore the machine turns off. For those who don’t know, after the 7 hour timer goes to zero the machine will go into a 20 minute “cooling” before it shuts the vacuum pump off and beeps “complete“. I try to remove the food 5-10 minutes BEFORE the machine shuts the pump off as noted earlier. 4. I pull the food, check for done, and if done, put each tray into Zip-lock bags as described above. 5. At about 30 minutes before I’m ready to start my next session that same day, I remove all ice/water from the chamber, including any water on the trays (top), turn machine on to pre-cool and start all over again. You can process a lot of food this way if you want to go into “production” mode, such as when produce is in season or you get a great buy on meats and other foods. One more quick note: All FD’ed food will soften after opening as the food will start to absorb moisture from the air. If I can’t use all of the food after I have opened the container (Mason jar or Mylar bag) I will take the remaining food and vacuum seal in Mason jar immediately. As usual, sorry for the long post.
  2. I have been tracking electric use for 80 plus FD'ing sessions and my average per session is $1.70 @ $0.12 per kilowatt using a Kill-A-Watt meter. One of the keys is for each session to be 18 to 24 hours. If your sessions are much more than 24 hours you are wasting electricity. The trick is put food with enough water so the machine will cycle properly but not too much water. Having to much water will cause longer, and less effiecent, drying. If you have some high water contend foods just put a few trays of that and one or two trays of food with less water (graded cheese, cooked rice, etc). With practice you will learn how much "high water" food, combined with "med" or "low" water foods to have your sessions below 24 hours. Hope this helps.
  3. Pipsqueak wrote: I saw in one of the earlier posts somebody mentioned they have a kill - a - watt meter running on their freeze dryer, but I can't Remember who it was. Have you ever checked the power factor when your unit is running? Mine runs about .4 when the heaters are off which seemed pretty low, but I didn't know what to expect. PS, I checked my Kill-A-Watt during the Freeze Cycle (no pump, no heaters) and it read 0.39. I checked it at final Drying cycle (pump on and heaters on) a got 0.7. The beginning of the Freeze cycle uses 600+ watts but will drop to 385 watts after it gets going. First part of Drying cycle (before heaters turn on) is arounfd 685 watts. When the heaters kick on it draws 1200-1300 watts. Hope this helps. To TonyC and Deryn; The difference between TonyC's temp measurement and what Deryn heard from HR "might" be the placement of the temp probe on TonyC's FD'er. Remember that the tray heaters turn on during the FD'ing process. The proble might be too close to the trays and are picking up the radiated heat from the trays and not the air temp of the chamber so it's not giving a good air temp of the chamber. Just a thought. JimR
  4. Third installment of FD’ed foods testing. Fruit Apples (fresh, sliced in wedges): Didn’t FD in one cycle. Pieces to large. The pieces that finished on first cycle dry eating very good. Rehydrated good in water (5 mins). Came back like a cooked apple. Should be great in cooking. I then used a paring, coring, & slicing tool to have slices peeled and ¼” thick. I even put them in two layers. All FD’ed in one cycle. Bananas (fresh, sliced ½“): FD’ed good in one cycle. Dry eating very good with strong flavor. Have not rehydrated as the dry eating was great. Should be great in cooking. Blueberries (frozen, whole): FD’ed good in one cycle. Dry eating had very good flavor. Put them in my cold and hot cereal with good results. Cantaloupe (Fresh, dices): FD’ed in single cycle. Dry eating good. Have not tried to rehydrate yet. A good dry snack. Cherries (fresh, whole, pitted); FD‘ed good in one cycle. Dry eating good with a chewy texture (because of the sugar). Have not rehydrated as the dry eating was great. Should be great in cooking. Also FD’ed frozen cherries from the frozen section of the store. FD’ed very good in one cycle. Put them in my cold and hot cereal with good results. Cranberries (fresh, whole): Did not FD well. Some of the berries would not FD even after two cycles. The ones that did FD have a very strong and tart flavor. It would be too much work to cut each berry in half, however, it might FD good if you ground the berries and then spread it thinly on the tray. This should be good in cooking. Grapes (fresh, halved): FD’ed very good in one cycle. Dry eating was very good. Have not rehydrated yet (don‘t know why I would). Mango (Frozen, ½” pieces): Most pieces FD‘ed good except the larger pieces. Dry eating very good. Put them in my cold and hot cereal with good results. Pears (fresh, slices): FD’ed very good in one cycle. Dry eating was very good. Have not rehydrated yet. Pineapple (Frozen, ½” pieces): Most pieces FD‘ed good except the larger pieces. Dry eating very good. Put them in my cold and hot cereal with good results. FD’ed canned pineapple slices. FD’ed in one cycle. Dry eating was very good. Should be good in cooking. Why FD canned pineapple? Prep is nothing, save almost out of date cans, or you got a good buy on them. Peaches (Frozen, ½” pieces): Most pieces FD‘ed good except the larger pieces. Dry eating very good. Put them in my cold and hot cereal with good results. Strawberries (Frozen, ½” pieces): Most pieces FD‘ed good except the larger pieces. Dry eating very good. Put them in my cold and hot cereal with good results. Misc FD’ed Foods Broth Paste (Beef & Chicken): We use a broth paste instead of the dry cubes, however, once it is opened it needs to be refrigerated.This is a way to long term storage this staple. Put dollops of paste on tray. FD’ed in one cycle. Cheese (Shredded): This was a mozzarella and cheddar mix (pizza) piled ½” thick or a little above the rim of the tray. FD’ed in one cycle. Dry eating very flavorful. Rehydated in water for 10-15 mins, drained, and set for 1 hour. Used it to make homemade pizza. Great for anything the needs melted cheese. You could also use this to make grilled cheese sandwiches. Have also FD’ed Tillamock Med Cheddar (shedded), parmesan (shedded), shedded Fiesta Mix (Mexican). All FD’ed very well. Cheese (slices): American and Tillamook Swiss. Placed separated slices 4 high. FD’ed in one cycle. Dry eating good with good cheese flavor. Rehydrated small pieces in water for 10 mins. Still have a little crunch in middle but outside was coming back good. May be try in water longer, drain, and let stand for awhile. Don’t know if FD’ed this is worth it. Ice Cream (sandwich): Good quality ice cream. Left foil wrapper on but opened. Still felt cool after one cycle. Removed foil wrapper and placed back unto FD’er (which was not turned off) for a 1 hour freezing and 5 hours of additional drying time. Sandwiches were then done. Obviously these are not to be rehydrated, but, are they great dry. Pumpkin Pie (cooked): My wife cooked a crust less pumpkin pie that has Bisquick in the filling. We cut the pie into ½” thick by 2-3” pieces. They FD’ed on one cycle. Dry eating was very good, however, the pie was very hard, but a great snack. Next time will cut into smaller bite size pieces. Have not tried rehydrating. Might work, might not. Rice (cooked, white): FD’ed good in single cycle. Have not rehydrated yet. Why FD this? Just a test. Might be useful for instant meals. Should be able to FD flavored rice. Tomato Paste: For test I put dollops of paste on tray. FD’ed in single cycle. Should be good in cooking. I purchased #10 cans for $4.39. You can use this to make Tomato Paste, Tomato Sauce, Tomato Soup, Tomato Juice. Milk (1/2 & ½): 1/2" thick ice cubes. Some thicker than 1/2". ALL 1/2" FD'ed in one cycle. The thicker cubes had frozen centers. Rehyrdated well at 1:1. You don’t get the same smooth texture but will be fine for cooking or to add a creamy flavor to dishes. Milk (Whipping Cream): 1/2" thick ice cubes. Some thicker than 1/2". ALL 1/2" FD'ed in one cycle. The thicker cubes had frozen centers. Rehyrdated well at 1:1. You don’t get the same smooth texture but will be fine for cooking or to add a creamy flavor to dishes.
  5. I'll give you may packaging reasoning. Long term (>3 or so years). Mylar with oxi absorber. Med term (>1 but <3) vacuum seal in mason jars with oxi absorbers and stored in dark place. This is to be used to refill my short term storage. Short term (<1 year) vacuum sealed in mason jars WITHOUT oxi absorber and resealed after opening and having product still left. This is used for day to day useage. I'm a believer in using what you preserve for normal cooking. Since you can use for FD'er to seal multiple jars at one time is can work very well (see my earlier post on vacuum sealing Mason jars in FD'er.) Hope this helps. JimR
  6. Peggy, I just had this problem on my 25th FD'ing session. What we determined was there was enough water in the drain pipe to slow down the creating of a vacuum. As little as 1 ounce of water will cause a delay in your mTORR display coming off xxx. Even though you have been running the Freezing mode for 6-9 hours any water or mositure in the drain tube (from the bottom of the chamber to the valve) will NOT freeze. Another reason would be the food you put in the FD'er was not completely frozen. This is important for high water foods. If not completely frozen, as soon as the pump tried to pull a vacuum the unfrozen water will be pulled from the food. Without the water in it's gasious form it will not refreeze on the sides of the chamber. My problem appeared to be enough mositure in the drain since everything else tested OK. The simple fix, if you think the drain line might have mositure, is to use a hair dryer pointed at the drain hole for a minute to remove any water. I just got of the phone with Pat at HR about this problem. Just when you think you totally understand how this thing works it throughs you a curve.
  7. Good point, let me clarify. I don't turn of the machine until I check all of the food for proper FD'ing. I leave it on just encase I want to put some or all of the food back in the machine at that time to continue to FD'ing. I might do this on things I have not FD'ed previously but most times if the food didn't finish I place that food in my freezer for later processing. You are right. You can't defrost with the machine running. Like you I let the machine defrost on it's own without turning on the "defrost cycle". If I need to "turn" the machine around as quickly as possible I turn the machine off and carefully use a hair dryer to defrost. Don't overhead the chamber walls. It takes me about 15-20 minutes to defrost this way. I also try to "time" my sessions so the food is done at a time I will be there when the machine finished. I have been awakened at 5am when the machine finished earlier than I thought it would. Since I didn't want the finished food to be left in the cold machine for many hours I got up and removed the food. That doesn't happen anymore. Got to get my beauty sleep. Since I'm retired I have the time to do this. Not directly in your area but near, outside of Butte, MT. Thanks to everyone for the feedback.
  8. Yes you are correct. When I "clean" my black gasket I completely remove it, clean the slit with a damp cloth, then clean the rounded part of the gasket, and reinstall. So far I have not had and sealing problems (yet).
  9. If the screen displays "Drying" the tray heaters are on. If the display shows "Freezing" or "Cooling" the tray heaters are not on. The "Freezing" mode will have a count down timer showing how much time is left for the "Freezing" mode. The "Cooling" mode will show a 00:00:00 timer which does not count down (or up). If you see ONLY "Cooling" with a count down timer you at the last 20 minutes (or whatever the timer shows) of drying. When this timer reaches 00:00:00 the vacuum pump will turn off and "Complete" will be displayed. The top number (990) will be the first number the display meter will show. It will take about 4 minutes to display that number and then quickly goes to 980, 970, 960, etc. If you are not watching the display when this happens you will not see that number again. It shows only for about 1-2 seconds. Remember, 990 mTORR is very little vacuum, 700 mTORR is more vacuum, 490 mTORR is much more vacuum, etc. Your machine MUST pull a vacuum of less than 500 mTORR to FD your food. When in "Drying" mode and the meter shows xxx mTORR you are pulling the most vacuum you can and this is fine. If the "Cooling" is displayed and the meter shows xxx mTORR this means your pump is not pulling any vacuum. Yes, you could "not think" about it, however, the more you know how the machine and proccess is supposed to work the more effectively you can FD your food and get the max out of it. If you're not FD'ing large amounts of foods for long term storage and only FD'ing a very favorite things you can just use all of the defaults. If done 23 sessions so far and have 100's left to do to clear our my 3 freezers and in the fall my garden.
  10. Freeze Dryer Care and Feeding. Sorry for the length of my last few posts. I’ve be told before that I give too much information. If you all think I’m posting messages that are too long please let me know and I will reduce the size of my postings. Thanks. I thought I would pass on how I care for and operate my FD’er. There are many ways to care for and operate your FD’er, this is just how I do it. Take what you think will work for you and leave what won’t. I have a check list that I follow for every FD’ing session. Mr. Mike had already posted his checklist but I’ll throw mine out too. I too have forgotten to close the drain valve and had Vacuum Pump Oil blow out of the exhaust of the pump. It’s a simple list that you all are already doing but here it is for the newbies. No reason for everybody to reinvent the wheel every time. I’ve gotten a lot of information from this forum so I’m just trying to “give back”. Freeze Drying Checklist 1. Reset Kill-A-Watt meter. 2. Turn On Freeze Dryer 30 minutes prior to putting in food. 3. Close Drain Valve. 4. Drain water from Vacuum Pump. 5. Check oil level in Vacuum Pump. Add as necessary. 6. Clean inside of door with water ONLY. 7. Put food trays in Freeze Dryer (after 30 minute cool down). 8. Put Black insulator disc in opening. 9. Close door and turn handle ½ turn. 10. Adjust Freezing cycle to desired setting. 11. Verify drain valve is closed. Freeze Dryer Shutdown Checklist A. “Complete” on screen. Open drain valve to release vacuum. DO NOT turn FD’er off yet. NOTE: Be sure drain tube is not in water. B. Remove Food. C. Test Food. D. Unfinished food either put in your freezer to run again on another drying session or place back unto FD’er and continue to process. E. If done, defrost. F. Turn machine off. G. Leave door open if FD’er will not be used right way. This will prevent odors and mold. No. 1 above notes a Kill-A-Watt meter. It will track the total time the FD’er is on and how many kilowatt/hours of electricity is used for that drying session. This allows me to keep track of my total costs to Freeze Dry food. This is not necessary for you unless you‘re a geek like me. No. 2 has the machine turned on 30 minutes prior to putting food in. I pre-freeze all food in my freezer to reduce the Freezing time from the default 9 hours to 5-6 hours for lower water content foods and 6.5-8 hours for high water content foods. Leave at 9 hour default for ice cream or unfrozen foods. The freezing of the food is a very important part of the process. If the food is not properly frozen down to -40 degs. the drying cycle will not work correctly. Your home freezer will not bring the food to the deep freezing needed. No. 4 is to drain the water from the vacuum pump before every session. I drain about one oz of oil from the pump and then replace what was drained, if needed. Sometimes I get water with the oil. I do this to maintain a consistent vacuum pump operation instead of letting the performance of the drying degrade over the life of the oil. I also monitor the “pull down” of the pump. I do this by setting an alarm so I can be at the machine when it goes from “Freezing” to “Cooling/Drying” mode. I start a stopwatch when the vacuum pump comes on and track, with a running timer, the time it takes to get to various mTORR settings. This allows me to see how well the pump is pulling a proper vacuum. Below are the mTORR tracking points and the time it took to get to that mTORR the first time with new oil. For each additional session these times will increase and that is fine. If the times are acceptable AND the oil isn’t smelling bad coming out the exhaust of the pump AND you can get to lowest mTORR set point, your pump is working fine. I got 11 sessions out of my first run of oil. I was still pulling a good vacuum but I changed it anyway. The higher water content food will get fewer sessions per oil change. This is a good reason to have extra pump oil on hand. Don’t wait until the oil needs to be changed to buy new oil. This is special oil and not obtainable everywhere at anything. Below is a link to Amazon.com for the proper oil. http://www.amazon.com/Robinair-13204-Premium-High-Vacuum/dp/B000Q5RQZG/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1401397497&sr=8-6&keywords=vacuum+pump+oil 990 mTORR = 3 mins 40 seconds 700 mTORR = 4 mins 20 seconds 490 mTORR = 5 mins 5 seconds 290 mTORR = 6 mins 30 seconds The 990 is the first number the meter will show after the air in the chamber has been removed. The meter will only show in 10’s. It will show 990 and then 980, but will not show 995. The 700 is just an in-between time. The 490 is when my FD’er goes from “Cooling” to “Drying”. This is when the tray heaters come on. When the mTORR goes back to 620, as the water from the food goes to a gas, the heaters will turn off and the display goes from “Drying” back to “Cooling”. The 290 is a point at which I know the vacuum pump will correctly operate through the complete session without “giving up” the ability to pull a deep enough vacuum to properly FD your food. During the “Drying” mode the default 7 hour timer will start counting down. Every time the mode goes from “Cooling” to “Drying” that 7 hour timer will be reset to 7 hours. When the heaters remain on long enough to zero the 7 hour timer in the “Drying” mode the machine will go into a 20 minute “Cooling” mode before shutting off the vacuum pump and displaying “Complete“. No. 6 wash inside of door with water only and dry. Wipe down the large black gasket so the door seals to the gasket. No. 10 adjust Freezing timer from the default of 9 hours to what you need it to. I recommend that when you are first starting out with your machine to leave the Freezing timer to the default 9 hours until you learn how much Freezing time it needed for each food. Shutdown A. Don’t turn off the machine until you know you will not be using it. This will keep the chamber cold and require less Freezing time if you decide to put some of the food back in the machine to finish FD’ing food that needs more time. If your drain tube in setting in any water that water will be sucked into the machine when you open the drain valve to release the chamber vacuum so make sure it is not setting in water. I would recommend that you keep a log of what you FD (type, size, preparation), times (Freezing timer setting, Cooling/Drying timer, Total time of session), which foods complete in one session and which one’s need more processing, and amount of water removed from food for that session. This information will allow you to more efficiently FD food. That way you can mix low water foods and higher water foods in one session and not overload the water removal limit of the machine, therefore not having to defrost the machine in the middle of a FD‘ing session. For foods that don’t quite finish in one cycle you might try adjusting the freezing and/or drying timers. I try to get as much food processed in one session, in the shortest amount of time. There is no reason to spend 20-24 hours to FD two apples. It will take forever to “pay” for your FD’er. For myself I have a lot of meat to process and a very large garden of veggies to process including 175 lbs of potatoes. Time and quantity is important. C. Testing the food for “doneness” by feeling the pieces of food in each tray. If any part of a piece of food feels “cold” or “cool” there is still frozen moisture in the food. Don’t take any chances. Either put it back in the machine and continue or put the tray in your freezer for processing on the next session. I recommend the later. Also take the thickest pieces per tray, break apart and check if there are any frozen centers or moisture. If most of the food on a tray is done you can remove it and just leave the pieces that are not done. Remember you can mix different foods on the same tray so if you have a few pieces from one tray and a few from another tray you can put them on the same tray to save space. Unless most of the food is not complete I will remove the “undone” pieces and place them in my freezer to be re-processed in the next session, otherwise the whole tray goes into my freezer for re-processing. One more tip: I have purchased extra trays and will prepare foods ahead of time and leave them in my freezer. That way if I come up a tray or two short for a full load I have food ready to go. All commends are welcome and let me know if I’m doing something I shouldn’t. Thanks.
  11. Using Your Fd’er as a Vacuum Chamber I have a Foodsaver vacuum machine that can vacuum seal food in special plastic bags, canning jars, and specially made vacuum sealing containers. If you have a lot of canning jars to seal food in you must vacuum seal each one individually. Some of our FD’er users have a chamber vacuum system that will vacuum seal canning jars (I believe up to 2 quarts as a time), which I believe will pull a better vacuum than the Foodsaver will. You can put 8 quarts or 10 pints on one of your trays to seal at once. I have heard of some making a multi jar vacuum sealer from an old pressure canner and hand vacuum pump, but I tested using the FD’er as a vacuum sealer for canning jars. I tested quart and pint canning jars using standard medal one time use lids and reusable Tattler lids. Both regular mouth and wide mouth. All tests used different jars except the one quart jar that failed to seal in test 1 & 2. First Test Two wide mouth pints and one regular mouth quart. All with medal lids. I pulled it to 900 mTORR. Both pints sealed but the quart did not. After three days, including bring from basement (60 degs) to the kitchen (75 degs), one of the 900 mTORR pint jar’s seal failed. After five days the other pint was still sealed. Opened the jar and it had a good vacuum. Second Test Two wide mouth pints and the failed regular mouth quart. All with medal lids. I pulled to 850 mTORR. Both pints sealed but the quart, again, did not. After the complete five days the 2 pints were still sealed. Opened the jars and both had a good vacuum. Test Three The twice failed regular mouth quart, however, this time I used a Tattler reusable led. These have a thicker seal. I pulled to 850 mTORR and the jar sealed. After the five days I opened the jar. It had a good seal. Test Four Six regular mouth quarts. Three with medal lids and 3 with Tattler lids. Pulled to 800 mTORR. All sealed. After five day test all were still sealed. Opened all of them. They all had a very good vacuum. To get to 800 mTORR only took 4 minutes and 22 seconds. Test Conclusion I would pull to 800 mTORR for all jars and lid types. You might be able to go lower then 800 mTORR. I’m going to go with the 800 but if anyone else wants to test to lower please let us know how it works. The How-To 1. Remove the shelf from the FD’er. It easily pulls out of machine, with black seal removed, and disconnect the line to the shelf. 2. Place a tray in the bottom of the chamber. Make sure the black seal is in place. 3. Place food in canning jars. Put lid on jar and screw on ring snuggly, then back off slightly. Be sure that the ring is still connected to the jars threads as the lid must remain on the jar during the vacuum process. If the ring does not keep the lid on during the vacuum cycle it may come off or not set squarely on the jar. This will be harder using the Tattler lids as they are thicker than the medal lids so be careful with the Tattlers. 4. Close the FD’ers door and close the drain valve. 5. Turn on the FD’er. It will go into the Freezing mode. 6. Adjust the Freezing timer to zero. The vacuum pump will start. 7. When the mTORR gets to the desired vacuum (I recommend at least 800 mTORR) turn the vacuum pump off by the switch on pump. Leave the FD’er on until you finished. 8. Open drain valve. 9. Remove jars and check lids for a seal. If any did not seal recheck the jar rims and lids and clean if necessary. Put failed ones back in machine (and any new ones), close drain valve, turn on vacuum pump, and reprocess. 10. Put rings on sealed jars. Place the jars in a dark place as light will degrade the food over time. Alternate How-to Do everything above except put a vacuum gauge on the T that is on the vacuum pump. Don’t turn on the FD’er, instead just start the vacuum pump manually and read the vacuum gauge on the pump. As I have stated before I use jars for short term storage (less than 1 year) without oxi aborbers as this food will be used during normal everyday cooking. For medium term storage (1-5 years) with oxi aborbers for foods that will be repackaged for normal cooking and when opened will be resealed without aborbers. Remember to place the jars in a dark place as light will degrade food over time. For long term (+5 years) I use the Mylar with aborbers. Hope I haven't confussed everybody.
  12. Second installment of FD’ed foods testing. Veggies Bell Pepper (fresh, sliced): FD’ed good but not complete in one cycle. Pieces might have been to large. Dry eating very good flavor. Rehydrated good (10-15 mins in water). Good in cooked meals. Use dry over salads as crotons. Broccoli (fresh, sliced): FD’ed good but not complete in one cycle. Problem is you can’t get the whole piece to lay on the tray, so the part on the tray is done but the part up in the air is not. Smaller pieces might fix this. Dry eating very good with strong flavor. Rehydrated well in water (10 mins) but too tough to eat. Needs to be used in cooking. Cabbage (fresh, sliced ½”): FD’ed very good in one cycle. Dry eating had very good flavor. Rehydrated to a tough texture. Must be used in cooking. Use dry over salads as crotons. Carrots (fresh, baby, some whole, some halved lengthwise); Took two cycles to complete. Dry eating good with strong carrot flavor. Rehydrated to a tough texture. Haven’t tried to cook with yet. Will try smaller pieces of sliced carrot. Cauliflower (fresh, sliced): Same info as Broccoli. Celery (Fresh, ½” pieces): One layer will finish in one cycle, otherwise will take 2 cycles. Dry eating very good. Could use as “crotons”. Rehydrated good in water (10 mins). Best in cooked meals as soups or stews. Corn (Frozen): This FD’es very good. Pour in a two pound bag onto one tray. FD’ed in one cycle. Dry eating very good. Rehydrated good in water (10-15 mins). Texture is like freezing fresh corn and thawing. Very good in cooked meals. BTW, dehydrated corn is good in cooked meals. The two pound bag reduced to 7.3 oz. Cucumber (fresh, sliced ½”): FD’ed OK. The thicker pieces needed two cycles. The ¼” pieces finished in one cycle. Dry eating good. Rehydrated to a tough texture. This item is probably only good used dry. Garlic (slices): FD’ed in one cycle. Dry eating good. Have not rehydrated yet, however, I have rehydrated dehydrated garlic with good success in cooking. The FD’ed version should be better. Green Beans (Frozen): FD’ed in one cycle. Dry eating good. Rehydrated good (10 mins) but was tough texture just like the thawed version would be. Should be good in soups and stews. One pound bag reduced to 1.9 oz., however, a 2 pound bag will fit on one tray. Green Peas (Frozen): This FD’es very good. Pour in a two pound bag onto one tray. FD’ed in one cycle. Dry eating very good. Rehydrated good in water (10-15 mins). Texture is like freezing fresh peas and thawing. Very good in cooked meals. BTW, dehydrated peas is good in cooked meals. The two pound bag reduced to 7.4 oz. Jalapenos (fresh, sliced & julien): FD’ed in one cycle. Dry eating very good. Rehydrated good in water (10 mins) but tougher than fresh. Good in cooking. Mushrooms (sliced): FD’ed in one cycle. Dry eating good. Rehydrated good in water (10 mins) but to “rubbery”. Use in cooked meals. Onions (fresh, sliced) FD’ed good with the thicker pieces with “cool” spots. Dry eating very good flavor. Have not rehydated yet but have used rehydrated dehydrated onion with very good results. Raddish (sliced) FD’ed good in one cycle. Dry eating very good. Another veggie croton. Have not rehydrated yet. May only be good dry. Tomatoes (Fresh, sliced ½”) Thought it FD’ed good but after being in a zip lock bag for 24 hours the other tomatoes started softening. The dry eating (or what I thought was dry) was very good flavor. Have not tried FD’ing thinner slices but will. The flavor of the “dry” product was fantastic and rehydrating and using in cooking would be great. You could also grind the FD’ed product to make tomato sause or paste. Tip: After the tomato test (I had the same problem with oranges). I now place all FD’ed products into zip lock bags for 48 hours. One tray per zip lock bag. I remove as much air from the bag as possible before closing the zip on the bag. If after 48 hours the product is still dry I can then, with confidence, package in Mylar and seal for long term storage or vacuum sealed in Mason jars for shorter term storage. This way any “bad” bags are separate from the good ones. It would not be ideal to put a large amount of product in a Mylar bag to only have a piece or two of food ruin the whole bag. “One bad apple ruins the whole barrel”.
  13. There is two ways of doing this. Place jars on a FD'er tray, put in FD'er (with tray shelf removed), close door, close drain valve. 1. Turn on machine, zero out freezing timer to start drying cycle (which turns vacuum pump on). If you are only sealing one set of jars (8 quarts or 10 pints) turn machine off when desired mTORR is reached on the display. Then open drain valve. If you need to seal more jars leave the machine on and just turn the vacuum pump motor off, remove jars, put more jars in machine, turn on vacuum pump motor, etc. 2. Purchase a vacuum gauge for the vacuum pump (maker of pump has them) and install it at the T on the vacuum motor. Close drain, just turn on the vacuum pump and use the connected gauge to pull your vacuum to the desired mTORR value. Turn pump off and remove jars. BTW, one of the 900 mTORR jars vacuum seal failed. All others still sealed. I'll write a full report after my testing is complete. Jim
  14. Good idea on the coffee filters. When I did both raw and cooked burgers I got no grease. I did use a very lean burger of 93/7. Don't know if that had anything to do with it. Might try putting cooked burgers on paper towels to try and remove some grease before FD'ing. Just a thought. It still is amazing how well the rehydrated burgers come out. All jars are still sealed. Will wait a few more days before opening to check amount of vacuum. I also put on the rings after vacuum sealing just incase the vacuum wasn't very deep. This should help keep the lid sealed for the most part. Jim
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