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OFF TOPIC: freeze drying food. 3-Dec-2009 At 9:06:46 PM J Qui

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Hey Robbio

I dehydrate meals also, vacuum seal them, and then freeze them. I keep a heap in the freezer, then
make my choice depending on what I feel like months later. After having conversations with
dehydrating legends, it is believed that if you can get the fluid content down below 10%, or even 5%,
then they can store for well over one year. I do eat mine by that stage....but food for thought. Also, i
tend to only get my fluid content down to 15-20%. I am happy with this.

Legume meals work really well. Firstly, if you can't be stuffed, try baked beans, they work a treat, and
rehydrate well. Otherwise, meals with chickpeas or lentil soups work well also.

Some handy hints:

Keep fat content to a minimum...it doesn't dehydrate well. Therefore, trim all meats etc.
Try and have all food material of similar size, so that they dehydrate evenly.
When checking to see if dehydrated, squeeze the chickpea (or whatever), and see how it feels when it
breaks open. If it is close to dry in the middle you are close to done.

I own an "EzyDry Snackmaker" dehydrator - you get them from Myer I think. You can purchase
additional trays to stack as high as you want. I have 5 trays with plastic inserts (so fluid doesn't drip
through) and make more meals for freezing.

Quite simply..cook your meal, serve up a portion size and weigh it. Then dehydrate it. Weigh
again...the difference is what is required when reconstituting. I vaccum bag them, then write what fluid
is required with a permanent marker...then put in a snap lock bag.

I also start my reconstituting a few hours before meal time...giving it more time to reconstitute means
that more moisture will get through, it works better for me.

Hope this helps.

Jase