Hey friends. This week I shared the one freeze dried food we never run out of at our house, and the first questions in the comments were about the beef. What blend, how do you store it, does it really keep. Good questions, and the answers matter more than most people think. So this issue starts with the full recipe, settings and all.
This week's freeze dry
The food from that post is ground beef. One of you asked if we use 90/10. We use 93/7, and the lean number matters, because fat is what shortens shelf life on freeze dried meat.
Here is the full run:
- Prep: brown the beef and drain it thoroughly. For the longest shelf life, rinse the cooked meat with warm water to wash off the remaining fat. Spread it evenly on parchment lined trays.
- Settings: initial freeze at -10F. If your trays go straight into the machine without pre freezing, add 2 hours 30 minutes of freeze time. Drying temp is 120F.
- Run time: let the machine finish, then check the meat. It should be dry and crumbly all the way through. If it is not, keep going. I will run up to 24 hours of extra dry time if a batch needs it.
- Storage: airtight jars or mylar bags with oxygen absorbers.
- To use: rehydrate with beef broth or water and drain the excess, or toss it straight into soups and stews and let the pot do the work.
Season it before the run or leave it plain and season after rehydrating. Both work.
What worked this week
The post that got everyone talking was 3 people who should not buy a freeze dryer. One commenter put it better than I could: people think the machine will magically change their lives, like starting meal prepping, just because they got a new toy. The machine rewards habits you already have. Another fan told me their freeze dryer runs nonstop through the summer preserving fruits and vegetables for winter. That is the kind of house where one earns its keep. And if you missed it, the Kool-Aid tomato taste test from the garden experiment series is up too.
The freeze-dry takeaway
Lean and fully dry is what makes meat keep. Pick a lean blend, drain well, rinse off the fat, and always check for dryness after the machine says it is done. Extra dry time costs you nothing except patience.
From the comments
One of you has mashed potatoes in the freezer waiting for a turn in a freeze dryer named Hazel. Naming the machine means you are in deep, and I respect it. Another fan wants a freeze dryer for apple chips because they have four apple trees and hate watching the fruit go to waste. Four trees of apple chips would be a very good winter.
Try this before next week
Brown a pound of lean ground beef and run it with the settings above, then log it as a batch in Freeze-Dry Buddy so you have your own record of how it finished. That log is how you dial in your machine, because every unit dries a little differently.
In Freeze-Dry Buddy
The community recipe shelf is live now. When you share a recipe you have proven in your own machine and it passes review, it goes into a featured row at the top of everyone's Library with your name on it. Batch logging also works better for foods like this one: you can weigh each tray right away or after the run, whichever fits how you cook, so meat you weigh at the end still gets a clean record. New recipe cards always save as their own card too, even when the name sits close to one you already have. If you are new here, Freeze-Dry Buddy is on the App Store.
Next week I will pull another problem food from your comments and walk through the exact fix, the same way we did with peaches and now beef.