Freeze Dried Biscuits and Gravy are awesome! If you have not done them before, they are something you need to work into your rotation. Follow this recipe with your #traydividers from www.freezedryingsupplies.com and you have a rock solid recipe every time!
I love that you do this. I feel safer trying it myself and being on a limited budget I really can't afford to waste food. So you are a blessing to me. Thank you!!
Instead of frying sausage or ground meat, try baking it in a colander. Use a stainless colander and put it in a pan to catch the grease and fat that drains.
I grind my own special pork sausage to use. Use whole pork loin from costco and trim off all the fat first. Then I cut it up into cubes and grind it using a hamburger plate. Then I add my own sage sausage seasoning to ground pork and grind again for the 2nd time. Then I grind for the 3rd time to really incorporate the sausage seasoning evenly into the pork. This way you have a lean sausage. It cooks great and freeze dries perfectly without basically any fat, so it should store for 25+ years in mylar bag with oxygen absorber.
This is what I think I'll do. We buy from a local butcher plus we make beef, turkey and chicken sausage (we raise the beef and chickens). Great thinking.
I am relatively new to the freeze drying thing but B&G was one of the first things I tried. I did everything pretty much like Brian did but I used Pioneer brand dry sausage gravy mix instead. Cooked the sausage and rinsed it then mixed it into the prepared gravy. When I packaged it I put the biscuits in the pouch with the gravy. I weighed everything before and after, divided it into portions by weight and figured my water to add. It turns out great. The Pioneer mix is well seasoned and a bit spicy, no need for extra seasoning.
Just took my sausage gravy out of the freeze dryer using your technique, OMG! It’s amazing!!! I made 5 large trays and plan to do another 5 large trays this weekend. I didn’t do biscuits too, only the gravy! Can’t sing your praises loud enough!
REALLY like when you do the side by side. Gives us a leg up on people who are buying some type of long term food. Decided to give freeze dried B&G packets as holiday gifts. 👍
Pork sausage is traditional, but I'm sure you could season ground chicken or turkey to make the sausage. The lack of fat should make it alot more long term stable. I feel most of the flavor will be in the gravy anyway so the lean meat will soak up that flavor. Might be another test batch to see if it's a winner. Can't wait to get a freeze dryer for myswlf.
I am going to try this with the turkey sausage crumbles from Jimmy Dean and Pioneer County gravy mix. I am in the middle of making a two week supply of freeze dried foods I can give to the inlaws for Christmas. They are still asleep and not getting prepared. I was scratching my head trying to figure out what other breakfast options to provide. Now I have a new recipe. Thanks!!
I like how you always reiterate that this is simply YOUR recipe, and are not telling people that "this is the way" like so many RUclips posters do with any topic. You also minimize the trolls who will want to criticize just about anything on YT just to stir things up. We are anxious to try this recipe to take camping with us.
Brian, I would like to see a sous vided sausage set up in terms of storage. When cooking sausage in a sous vide set up, the sausage has much more of the fat rendered put than if you were to cook it traditionally. Especially with something like this, it wouldn't matter that it gets over cooked, which is better controlled in sousvide anyway. You can just drain everything once you're done, and there's binders for fat such as maldextrose, which makes fats able to be freeze dried without added flavor or worry about what you're consuming. Sous vide also ensures that sausages aren't undercooked, or that none of the end products will have the same fat content you'd expect otherwise.
Love the comparison! There is no way I'm going to rinse my sausage! I would rather can it, if it can't be freeze dried with all the grease intact. I dont even drain it. When i make the gravy, i mix the flour into the cooked sausage to make a roux, add whole milk, let it thicken, you're done. Nobody worries about the fat in sour cream or cream cheese or cheddar cheese when freeze drying. Biscuits are loaded with fat. If animal fat isn't exposed to oxygen, it should be just fine.
This was what I was wondering as well. Right after getting the sausage completely lean he used whole milk adding fat right back in. Is there a difference? Have you freeze dried your recipe with all the fat?
I love Chipped Beef I grew up on it and sadly my mom does not make Chipped Beef anymore and she does not cook at all and I have been eatting can foods or TV Dinners and going out to eat. XD
Thank you so much for this video!! We will be trying this for sure with our Harvest Right! We actually had chicken and dressing with gravy for dinner tonight that was freeze dried and we really enjoyed it!
Thank you for all of your videos! We bought a freeze dryer at the beginning of April. We were able to buy one at a local store so we did not have to wait for a delivery. When we started the dryer we did the set up the way the company said to do it, meaning we did the test run and then 1st run with bread. Both of these worked just fine. Then we tried to do a run with chicken and could not get it to get past the vacuum freezing stage. We did do some adjustments on the dryer like the sealing of the oil demister like your video showed. Also putting sealing tape around the crimps on the hoses. We ended up contacting Harvest Right and going thru all of the trouble shooting for leaks. We were able to get up and running after sealing with silicone the top wire connections on the freeze dryer. We have now done a ton of freeze drying; chicken, chicken and rice , broccoli, carrots, fried rice, steak, taco spiced hamburger and a lot of scrambled eggs. Going to try some scrambled hamburger and gravy. Thanks for al the tips!
I would drain off the grease from the sausage and put it in the freezer. Then you can add a little bit of it after you rehydrate and go to heat it so you get that fat back in. I realize that means you have to be able to keep it frozen or refrigerated, but it doesn't have to be kept frozen, it just needs to be under 40º, which unless you're totally without any refrigeration can be done. You don't need a ton. A quart of grease/fat (mix with bacon fat, too) will go a really long way.
Learned to boil the hamburger and sausage for almost everything. Spaghetti, sloppy Joe's, and now for fd. I learned this in a cooking class, boils out the nasty fat, then seasonings and food oil can be added if needed. I will be freezing drying homemade chili this week.
I've found that ham works very well for a protein in freeze drying, and frankly I think it tastes better than sausage after rehydrating and still gives you that salty, smoky meat flavor you want with biscuits and gravy.
I've found fresh sausage from pork loin makes a very lean mix that might even need a bit of added fat to be palatable. I'll keep the MH and other survival brands for long term storage but 3-5 years is plenty for foods I made, enjoy and am rotating regularly.
The mountain house made my blood sugar jump up when I ate it. I like every thing else about it. The mre meals that I had in the air force were very bad when freeze dried meat was involved. this was 40 years ago.
When I make a diner style hot dog chili dog sauce I use the old method of boiling the hamburger meat to get the right texture. Perhaps boiling the sausage would do the same and allow the grease to float to the top and be poured off. You would simply have very small pieces of meat versus chunks but it may actually be better. You could pan fry to finish it up after you pour the water out so that you can control the amount of oil/grease.
I would make a delish white gravy, powder it. Separately do bacon and sausage crumble. Then biscuits separately. Then combine in bags in a good ratio. That way the powdered gravy will immediately soak up the bulk of the liquid and then contribute to rehydrating other ingredients
I dehydrate bone broth including pork. . I will freeze dry it when my freeze dryer arrives. I always skim off all fat. I think if you add a little bone broth powder to the mix it will add back any flavor you rinse off.
I wonder if turkey sausage would give you a longer shelf life? I've been looking at turkey bacon as well to FD for long term. I know it's not as great as the real deal, but if it gets you a longer shelf life, why not. Keep up the great work.
Have you heard from Harvest Right about your order? Mine was supposed to be 5 to 7 week delivery. It's been six and I haven't had any correspondence from them.
Thanks so much for your videos. I have purchased items from you and I’m so excited to use them. My FD will be delivered tomorrow!!!!! Keep up the great videos! I feel like I will have a great start to my FD ventures.
Thank you for the video. Looking at the Avid Armor, did you still add an oxygen absorber? Second question, you talked about making more to fill the last tray. Can you run a batch without filling all the trays if you do not have enough to fill all trays?
I guess I’m too lazy. I just go to Costco, get a couple of #10 cans of sausage gravy and a box of frozen biscuits. Cut up the biscuits, throw it all into the freezer dryer and BAM, freeze dried B and G.
could you add some scrambled eggs in there?? Folks on an aerobic sewage system or on a septic tank might want change the method of draining the fat off.
I have a bunch of the Mountain House meals. I got them free as a reviewer (can't say the name of the program rules etc..) anyway my favorites so far are the Italian Style Pepper Steak and the Mexican Style Adobo Rice and Chicken. Absolutely Delicious. I want to like the scrambled eggs and bacon but its hard to reconstitute properly. definitely try the others though WOULD LOVE to see your take on a home made version of those !! the directly are BAD however. example the pepper steak says 1.5 cups water. Don't do this. never seems to come our right or gets cold before its right 9 minutes my ass. takes more like 20 SO ONE SINGLE cup of boiling water. one cup only mr vasille. just one cup. stir seal it up I tend to want to shake it don't the zip lock seals give out and you end up WEARING IT. trust me. my keyboard is wearing a bunch of the eggs still :-( anyway let it 100% absorb that water 10-15 minutes. its going to clearly look like it needs more water. that's fine. NOW reboil your water and slowly add in more water until you get the consistency you want. it more fully absorbs doing it this way AND it gets heated back up again as you add that last half cup sometimes even more than half a cup. NOW its properly reconstituted AND piping hot! soooo delicous. wish they were not so damned expensive. $10 a pop is a LOT but compared to thousands of dollars that I just don't have ....... Grrrrrrr I would love to see a recipie for home made versions of those two above. they were both absolutely delicious.
It would also be nice to compare the sodium content. It seems salt is Mountain Houses’ go to seasoning. Great video. My freeze drier is on order and I think I’ll have to do several biscuits and gravy meals.
As an alternative to Mt House Biscuits and Gravy, I really like Peak Refuel Biscuits & Sausage Gravy. They cost a little bit more but you get real whole biscuits and the flavor is so much better than the Mt House.
I am so thankful for you and your family, all that you have invested for the benefit of others. I hope you receive a good reward for all the hard work! I would love to make this recipe, but the milk products available to me at this time do not agree with me. Do you think I could use milk alternatives? OBVIOUSLY I am very new to this, and have my first batch of freeze dried goods running as I type, strawberries and pineapple! Thank you!
@@thefreezedryingcommunity Thank you for your quick response! You have been such an inspiration. Your solutions for food preservation have been an answer(s) to prayer! God bless you and your family!
I tried freeze drying precooked sausage patties. The result was DON"T DO IT. The freeze dryer was coated with fat from supposedly precooked sausage. Apparently those precooked sausage patties are mostly fat.
How do you calculate how much water to add to a package of homemade freeze-dried food?? Also, do you always use hot/boiling water? Or is that dependent on the dried food (i.e., fruit, etc..)
Figure out portion size or better yet use our dividers from www.freezedryingsupplies.com weigh before and after freeze drying and the difference is the weight amount of water removed. Divide that by the amount of portions. You don't have to use boiling water on everything. Heat does not change things in most cases but gives a desired temperature on some foods.
I think you will be ok for a shorter term product. I have not had good luck with half and half or heavy whipping cream. Some say having the oil and fat are fine for long term, I tend to try and eliminate it as much as possible.
How would it be to simmer the cooked sausage crumbles in water for a bit instead of rinsing them off in the sink? That way you could save the broth, skim off the fat, reduce it down and use it to flavor the gravy instead of rinsing the flavor down the drain. Also, rinsing sausage fat down the drain seems like it would be bad for the plumbing.
I am still new to vac sealing, but if the seal is compromised, its very noticeable when the bag has been vac sealed. If there is oxygen being introduced through a leak or puncture and oxygen absorber is not going to help. Just my two cents.
Vacuum sealing does not remove 100% of the oxygen, there is oxygen still remaining in small pockets around the items inside that package. An oxygen absorbers is a chemical reaction, so it actually consumes the oxygen, but leaves the other components of breathable air behind. My understanding is that an O2 absorber removes more oxygen than vacuum sealing.
I noticed you used the Mylar bag with the sealer. But when you look up the sealer they only offer the nylon clear bags. Does it matter the thickness of the Mylar bag when sealing?
I love this one. What a great simple filling meal with a lot of calories if you need it. Or even if you don't need it. What about just leaving out the things that don't need to be freeze dried? Why not leave the dry ingredients dry and then mix it all together at the time you are ready to eat it?
@@thefreezedryingcommunity Today I bought a new Harvest Right FD. The bottom has rust on it. The screws are rusty. Is that normal? Should I return it? It will rot my table it will sit on.
Try cooking the sausage in a basket in an Instant Pot. The sausage will cook and the grease will drain to the bottom. Then rinse the sausage in the basket. Most of the fat will be gone.
One way to make it store longer is freeze dry the biscuits and gravy all combined, and freeze dry the sausage separately. That way you can long term store the basic meal and then circulate the sausage through a shorter storage time frame.
My freeze dryer is being delivered tomorrow! I make a vegan sausage gravy with TVP, veggie broth, cashews and cornstarch. How do you think that would freeze dry? Has anyone tried it?
Do you still need to use an oxygen absorber with the avid armor vacuum sealer? I didn't see that you put one in before you used the vacuum sealer machine.
So I ordered the dairyland oil before seeing your video from 7 months ago. My freeze dryer is set to ship in 8 weeks. Just so I don’t mess up, I should NOT use the dairyland oil in my Premier pump right? I should use the Robanair one? Also, I’m a little nervous about setting it up and getting going. Is it easy, or is there a video I should watch first? So nervous I’m going to mess up the machine. Thank you💛
Brian, would you clarify? In the video you said "two portions of gravy and biscuits weighed 5.35 oz." You were trying to match Mtn. House quantity. And you matched their quantity of water. But you only packaged one portion of gravy and one portion of biscuits in each mylar bag. So did you use two bags to make the same quantity as Mtn. House? So you use 1 1/2 cups to rehydrate 2 portions.
Yep sorry that wasn't very clear. I used 2 portions of the dividers with 1.5 cups It will vary a good amount from different recipes and biscuits used, but this at least gives a good baseline.
Freeze Dried Biscuits and Gravy are awesome! If you have not done them before, they are something you need to work into your rotation.
Follow this recipe with your #traydividers from www.freezedryingsupplies.com and you have a rock solid recipe every time!
Just ordered mine! These look super helpful. I wish you sold the trays on your site too.
I love that you do this. I feel safer trying it myself and being on a limited budget I really can't afford to waste food. So you are a blessing to me. Thank you!!
Instead of frying sausage or ground meat, try baking it in a colander. Use a stainless colander and put it in a pan to catch the grease and fat that drains.
Great idea! Thank you!
That's a good idea.
I grind my own special pork sausage to use. Use whole pork loin from costco and trim off all the fat first.
Then I cut it up into cubes and grind it using a hamburger plate.
Then I add my own sage sausage seasoning to ground pork and grind again for the 2nd time.
Then I grind for the 3rd time to really incorporate the sausage seasoning evenly into the pork.
This way you have a lean sausage.
It cooks great and freeze dries perfectly without basically any fat, so it should store for 25+ years in mylar bag with oxygen absorber.
This is what I think I'll do. We buy from a local butcher plus we make beef, turkey and chicken sausage (we raise the beef and chickens). Great thinking.
Yep! I love to make my own sausage. It tastes better and it's not swimming in the fat.
Thank you! This is an awesome idea!!
I am relatively new to the freeze drying thing but B&G was one of the first things I tried. I did everything pretty much like Brian did but I used Pioneer brand dry sausage gravy mix instead. Cooked the sausage and rinsed it then mixed it into the prepared gravy. When I packaged it I put the biscuits in the pouch with the gravy. I weighed everything before and after, divided it into portions by weight and figured my water to add. It turns out great. The Pioneer mix is well seasoned and a bit spicy, no need for extra seasoning.
Thank you! We use pioneer mix and was really hoping we could use them.
Wonder if it would be better to just straight up leave the pioneer mix as is ,just freeze dry it. Then it would be cooked once.
Turkey sausage freeze dries great! No fat to worry about. I actually use frozen turkey patties from Jimmy Dean or Johnsonville. So good!
I’m going to try it.👍
Just took my sausage gravy out of the freeze dryer using your technique, OMG! It’s amazing!!! I made 5 large trays and plan to do another 5 large trays this weekend. I didn’t do biscuits too, only the gravy! Can’t sing your praises loud enough!
REALLY like when you do the side by side. Gives us a leg up on people who are buying some type of long term food. Decided to give freeze dried B&G packets as holiday gifts. 👍
Pork sausage is traditional, but I'm sure you could season ground chicken or turkey to make the sausage. The lack of fat should make it alot more long term stable. I feel most of the flavor will be in the gravy anyway so the lean meat will soak up that flavor. Might be another test batch to see if it's a winner. Can't wait to get a freeze dryer for myswlf.
I am going to try this with the turkey sausage crumbles from Jimmy Dean and Pioneer County gravy mix.
I am in the middle of making a two week supply of freeze dried foods I can give to the inlaws for Christmas. They are still asleep and not getting prepared. I was scratching my head trying to figure out what other breakfast options to provide. Now I have a new recipe.
Thanks!!
I like how you always reiterate that this is simply YOUR recipe, and are not telling people that "this is the way" like so many RUclips posters do with any topic. You also minimize the trolls who will want to criticize just about anything on YT just to stir things up. We are anxious to try this recipe to take camping with us.
Brian, I would like to see a sous vided sausage set up in terms of storage. When cooking sausage in a sous vide set up, the sausage has much more of the fat rendered put than if you were to cook it traditionally. Especially with something like this, it wouldn't matter that it gets over cooked, which is better controlled in sousvide anyway. You can just drain everything once you're done, and there's binders for fat such as maldextrose, which makes fats able to be freeze dried without added flavor or worry about what you're consuming.
Sous vide also ensures that sausages aren't undercooked, or that none of the end products will have the same fat content you'd expect otherwise.
Killer tip on binders, thanks! I have some research and experimenting to do now
@@seansweikow5453 same!
I second this
What temp would you Sous vide at?
Love the comparison! There is no way I'm going to rinse my sausage! I would rather can it, if it can't be freeze dried with all the grease intact. I dont even drain it. When i make the gravy, i mix the flour into the cooked sausage to make a roux, add whole milk, let it thicken, you're done. Nobody worries about the fat in sour cream or cream cheese or cheddar cheese when freeze drying. Biscuits are loaded with fat. If animal fat isn't exposed to oxygen, it should be just fine.
This was what I was wondering as well. Right after getting the sausage completely lean he used whole milk adding fat right back in. Is there a difference? Have you freeze dried your recipe with all the fat?
I use chipped beef instead of sausage . It adds great flavor and is already low fat.
Thats interesting, ill have to look into that.
I have a problem with chipped beef ... I was in the Army! 😂
O nooooo SoS
I love Chipped Beef I grew up on it and sadly my mom does not make Chipped Beef anymore and she does not cook at all and I have been eatting can foods or TV Dinners and going out to eat. XD
@@Hi9-Knight It's gotten REALLY expensive to buy chipped beef. We ate it as a kid b/c it was cheap. No longer.
Thank you so much for this video!! We will be trying this for sure with our Harvest Right! We actually had chicken and dressing with gravy for dinner tonight that was freeze dried and we really enjoyed it!
Thank you for all of your videos! We bought a freeze dryer at the beginning of April. We were able to buy one at a local store so we did not have to wait for a delivery. When we started the dryer we did the set up the way the company said to do it, meaning we did the test run and then 1st run with bread. Both of these worked just fine. Then we tried to do a run with chicken and could not get it to get past the vacuum freezing stage. We did do some adjustments on the dryer like the sealing of the oil demister like your video showed. Also putting sealing tape around the crimps on the hoses. We ended up contacting Harvest Right and going thru all of the trouble shooting for leaks. We were able to get up and running after sealing with silicone the top wire connections on the freeze dryer. We have now done a ton of freeze drying; chicken, chicken and rice , broccoli, carrots, fried rice, steak, taco spiced hamburger and a lot of scrambled eggs. Going to try some scrambled hamburger and gravy. Thanks for al the tips!
I would drain off the grease from the sausage and put it in the freezer. Then you can add a little bit of it after you rehydrate and go to heat it so you get that fat back in. I realize that means you have to be able to keep it frozen or refrigerated, but it doesn't have to be kept frozen, it just needs to be under 40º, which unless you're totally without any refrigeration can be done. You don't need a ton. A quart of grease/fat (mix with bacon fat, too) will go a really long way.
You should try smoked paprika instead of regular paprika. It's a night and day difference in flavor.
I would add sage and thyme
I love these videos! I got the freeze dryer because my parents died of Covid 8 months ago. So I am learning how to use it.
Can't wait for the review on the chamber vac
Great video just getting into the freeze drying. I’m gonna watch more of your videos before I purchase a freeze dryer.
Awesome! Thank you!
Learned to boil the hamburger and sausage for almost everything. Spaghetti, sloppy Joe's, and now for fd.
I learned this in a cooking class, boils out the nasty fat, then seasonings and food oil can be added if needed. I will be freezing drying homemade chili this week.
know this is a year old I went to resturant depot, they have pre-made gravy in gallon can also they have frozen biscuits freeze dried perfect.
I've found that ham works very well for a protein in freeze drying, and frankly I think it tastes better than sausage after rehydrating and still gives you that salty, smoky meat flavor you want with biscuits and gravy.
Cool. I'll try that on my next batch
So u made me buy one 🤣🤣🤣
That's what I'm telling my Husband!!!
He will probably like it as much as you will!
I've found fresh sausage from pork loin makes a very lean mix that might even need a bit of added fat to be palatable. I'll keep the MH and other survival brands for long term storage but 3-5 years is plenty for foods I made, enjoy and am rotating regularly.
The mountain house made my blood sugar jump up when I ate it. I like every thing else about it. The mre meals that I had in the air force were very bad when freeze dried meat was involved. this was 40 years ago.
My husband and I have done homemade chilli and homemade chicken and noodles.
When I make a diner style hot dog chili dog sauce I use the old method of boiling the hamburger meat to get the right texture. Perhaps boiling the sausage would do the same and allow the grease to float to the top and be poured off. You would simply have very small pieces of meat versus chunks but it may actually be better. You could pan fry to finish it up after you pour the water out so that you can control the amount of oil/grease.
Can always add butter later when you reconstitute it. I always add butter when I do it for a meal but not with freeze drying!
I would make a delish white gravy, powder it. Separately do bacon and sausage crumble. Then biscuits separately. Then combine in bags in a good ratio. That way the powdered gravy will immediately soak up the bulk of the liquid and then contribute to rehydrating other ingredients
I dehydrate bone broth including pork. . I will freeze dry it when my freeze dryer arrives. I always skim off all fat. I think if you add a little bone broth powder to the mix it will add back any flavor you rinse off.
I wonder if turkey sausage would give you a longer shelf life? I've been looking at turkey bacon as well to FD for long term. I know it's not as great as the real deal, but if it gets you a longer shelf life, why not. Keep up the great work.
Great ideas! I just did some ground turkey and it did well.
Great video. I’m about 2 weeks out before my medium dryer arrives 😃
Have you heard from Harvest Right about your order? Mine was supposed to be 5 to 7 week delivery. It's been six and I haven't had any correspondence from them.
Thanks so much for your videos. I have purchased items from you and I’m so excited to use them. My FD will be delivered tomorrow!!!!! Keep up the great videos! I feel like I will have a great start to my FD ventures.
Love learning from u. I have to save money to get a freeze dryer as a fixed income rules seems. Cant wait to start doing this.
Thank you for the video. Looking at the Avid Armor, did you still add an oxygen absorber? Second question, you talked about making more to fill the last tray. Can you run a batch without filling all the trays if you do not have enough to fill all trays?
I guess I’m too lazy. I just go to Costco, get a couple of #10 cans of sausage gravy and a box of frozen biscuits. Cut up the biscuits, throw it all into the freezer dryer and BAM, freeze dried B and G.
How is that gravy compared to homemade? How about cost?
could you add some scrambled eggs in there??
Folks on an aerobic sewage system or on a septic tank might want change the method of draining the fat off.
if you compare them you should do an all in one bowl taste test for homemade since that’s how these packaged ones are made
You're making me hungry. Every episode the food looks great and can't wait till I can afford to get a freeze dryer.
Love my Avid Armor. Ordered my Harvest Right 6 weeks ago and haven't received it yet.
I have a bunch of the Mountain House meals. I got them free as a reviewer (can't say the name of the program rules etc..) anyway my favorites so far are the Italian Style Pepper Steak and the Mexican Style Adobo Rice and Chicken. Absolutely Delicious. I want to like the scrambled eggs and bacon but its hard to reconstitute properly. definitely try the others though WOULD LOVE to see your take on a home made version of those !!
the directly are BAD however. example the pepper steak says 1.5 cups water. Don't do this. never seems to come our right or gets cold before its right 9 minutes my ass. takes more like 20
SO ONE SINGLE cup of boiling water. one cup only mr vasille. just one cup.
stir seal it up I tend to want to shake it don't the zip lock seals give out and you end up WEARING IT. trust me. my keyboard is wearing a bunch of the eggs still :-(
anyway let it 100% absorb that water 10-15 minutes. its going to clearly look like it needs more water. that's fine. NOW reboil your water and slowly add in more water until you get the consistency you want. it more fully absorbs doing it this way AND it gets heated back up again as you add that last half cup sometimes even more than half a cup. NOW its properly reconstituted AND piping hot! soooo delicous. wish they were not so damned expensive. $10 a pop is a LOT but compared to thousands of dollars that I just don't have ....... Grrrrrrr
I would love to see a recipie for home made versions of those two above. they were both absolutely delicious.
Thats the best video ever... that looks amazing.
It would also be nice to compare the sodium content. It seems salt is Mountain Houses’ go to seasoning. Great video. My freeze drier is on order and I think I’ll have to do several biscuits and gravy meals.
Can you add some powdered butter in the mylar bags before sealing?
Another great idea. Thanks! :)
Give them a try! They are great
Could you drain the sausage into a container and chill it to remove the grease? There's a lot of flavor in that liquid.
Ive been wondering about this one for awhile now. Tanx 👍
No problem 👍
As an alternative to Mt House Biscuits and Gravy, I really like Peak Refuel Biscuits & Sausage Gravy. They cost a little bit more but you get real whole biscuits and the flavor is so much better than the Mt House.
Thanks for sharing!
I am so thankful for you and your family, all that you have invested for the benefit of others. I hope you receive a good reward for all the hard work! I would love to make this recipe, but the milk products available to me at this time do not agree with me. Do you think I could use milk alternatives? OBVIOUSLY I am very new to this, and have my first batch of freeze dried goods running as I type, strawberries and pineapple! Thank you!
We have been using milk alternatives for a couple years now. Oat milk or unflavored soy milk does the best.
@@thefreezedryingcommunity Thank you for your quick response! You have been such an inspiration. Your solutions for food preservation have been an answer(s) to prayer! God bless you and your family!
I have been looking all over for this tray dividers. Can you point me into the right direction.
Www.freezedryingsupplies.com
Storing for more than 3-5 years, does the biscuit and gravy become non-eatable or just loose some of the flavor/quality?
Did you add an absorber when you vacuum sealed the meal? It didn’t show that in your video and wondering whether you need to do that or not
I do both oxy absorber and seal
Have you tried turkey sausage? It has less fat
When is this recipe book coming out?
Your guess is as good as mine😂 It's a whole lot of work, it's started but i'll have to run out of other things to do
Try using turkey sausage. Good flavor and way way way less grease
What size of mylar bags did you package that up in?
What about paper towels instead of using water to get rid of the grease?
I tried freeze drying precooked sausage patties. The result was DON"T DO IT. The freeze dryer was coated with fat from supposedly precooked sausage. Apparently those precooked sausage patties are mostly fat.
uh oh- i put a couple trays of sausage patties (precoooked) in just a few minutes ago!! Got them from Costco.
So, you don't need an oxygenator when you use a vacuum sealer?
just started and found you - good video. how about some price comparison?
What kind of moisture detector do you recommend?
How do you calculate how much water to add to a package of homemade freeze-dried food?? Also, do you always use hot/boiling water? Or is that dependent on the dried food (i.e., fruit, etc..)
Figure out portion size or better yet use our dividers from www.freezedryingsupplies.com
weigh before and after freeze drying and the difference is the weight amount of water removed. Divide that by the amount of portions. You don't have to use boiling water on everything. Heat does not change things in most cases but gives a desired temperature on some foods.
But what if you used turkey sausage? Think it would last longer?
It's about fats and oils not necessarily about meat type. This is my opinion, others have differing opinions
So would it be okay to use half and half for the gravy? Fairly new at FD'ing and am unsure if the half and half would freeze dry ok
I think you will be ok for a shorter term product. I have not had good luck with half and half or heavy whipping cream. Some say having the oil and fat are fine for long term, I tend to try and eliminate it as much as possible.
How would it be to simmer the cooked sausage crumbles in water for a bit instead of rinsing them off in the sink? That way you could save the broth, skim off the fat, reduce it down and use it to flavor the gravy instead of rinsing the flavor down the drain. Also, rinsing sausage fat down the drain seems like it would be bad for the plumbing.
Do you include an O2 absorber before you use the vacuum sealer? If you don’t, do you think adding one would extend your estimated 3 year shelf life?
Since the chamber removed all oxygen I dont see why adding a absorber would make any difference.
I am still new to vac sealing, but if the seal is compromised, its very noticeable when the bag has been vac sealed. If there is oxygen being introduced through a leak or puncture and oxygen absorber is not going to help. Just my two cents.
Vacuum sealing does not remove 100% of the oxygen, there is oxygen still remaining in small pockets around the items inside that package. An oxygen absorbers is a chemical reaction, so it actually consumes the oxygen, but leaves the other components of breathable air behind. My understanding is that an O2 absorber removes more oxygen than vacuum sealing.
I noticed you used the Mylar bag with the sealer. But when you look up the sealer they only offer the nylon clear bags. Does it matter the thickness of the Mylar bag when sealing?
@@jennifertucker5907 yes thicker is better. Clear is not recommended for long term storage due to light affecting the food.
I love this one. What a great simple filling meal with a lot of calories if you need it. Or even if you don't need it. What about just leaving out the things that don't need to be freeze dried? Why not leave the dry ingredients dry and then mix it all together at the time you are ready to eat it?
Is your gas stove a Whirlpool? I am looking for a gas stove to buy. TIA & thank you for the videos. Your subscriber.
I believe it was a Maytag
@@thefreezedryingcommunity Today I bought a new Harvest Right FD. The bottom has rust on it. The screws are rusty. Is that normal? Should I return it? It will rot my table it will sit on.
Great video
That chamber vacuum sealer looks a bit shallow. Do you know of one that'll vacuum package a whole chicken? Say 8" deep?
I believe Vacmaster makes one that the chamber is bigger
Longer shelf life if you use less oily Turkey Sausage.
Be yummy to add some butter powder ro it also
Butter Powder?
Was the recipe for this posted somewhere?
If the fat was left in, how long would it last in storage? The biscuits have a lot of fat in them as well...
I stack my trays pretty full. Even when I do not, I have NEVER had a large load finished in
how old is your software/ machine?
Try cooking the sausage in a basket in an Instant Pot. The sausage will cook and the grease will drain to the bottom. Then rinse the sausage in the basket. Most of the fat will be gone.
Cool idea Sue! Thanks for sharing
Basket? Is that as one thing you can purchase for the the instapot or just a metal basket you found that works?
I am SO doing this!
Is there a link to the written recipe?
One way to make it store longer is freeze dry the biscuits and gravy all combined, and freeze dry the sausage separately. That way you can long term store the basic meal and then circulate the sausage through a shorter storage time frame.
Great idea
My freeze dryer is being delivered tomorrow! I make a vegan sausage gravy with TVP, veggie broth, cashews and cornstarch. How do you think that would freeze dry? Has anyone tried it?
Do you use a oxygen absorber when sealing with the machine
You do not need to use OA with the vacuum chamber
Do you still need to use an oxygen absorber with the avid armor vacuum sealer? I didn't see that you put one in before you used the vacuum sealer machine.
Yes, I recommend still using one
How about using turkey sausage. Less fat not anymore expensive
is it possible to freeze the gravy in portions before freeze drying if you dont have seperator trays?
you can put it in ice cube trays or silicone molds
Have you brought out some of your freeze dried food 2-3 years later to see if it’s still in good condition? Would love to know how that works.
Many times. I like to rotate older food out for use
Can you do a video all about keto things
Brian, where did you get your strainer that you used for rinsing the sausage?
I can't remember, it has been around for awhile.
Since you used the vacuum sealer, did you use an oxygen absorber.
Thanks!
So I ordered the dairyland oil before seeing your video from 7 months ago. My freeze dryer is set to ship in 8 weeks. Just so I don’t mess up, I should NOT use the dairyland oil in my Premier pump right? I should use the Robanair one? Also, I’m a little nervous about setting it up and getting going. Is it easy, or is there a video I should watch first? So nervous I’m going to mess up the machine. Thank you💛
No dairyland in the premier. Use robinair or JB black gold
I noticed you used a vacuum sealer. Are you no longer using oxygen absorbers?
I have a question: can i freeze. Dry canned food from the store?
Yes, but most cannedfood will last a very long time on its own
Have you done a comparison with Thrive Life.?
Just mountain house and backpackers pantry so far
Good gravy! Why would you waste freeze drying nasty biscuits when they are so easy to make and much tastier?
Where can I learn more about that vacuum sealer? Do you have a link to the one you use?
For the Avid Armor USV32 chamber vacuum sealer go to: avidarmor.com?aff=43
use the coupon code-- livelifesimple --for 10% off your purchase
@@thefreezedryingcommunity Thank you! Worked like a charm---appreciate the discount! Can't wait for it to arrive.
Cost comparison
I guess you haven't done your thoughts on the sealer yet?
Brian, would you clarify? In the video you said "two portions of gravy and biscuits weighed 5.35 oz." You were trying to match Mtn. House quantity. And you matched their quantity of water. But you only packaged one portion of gravy and one portion of biscuits in each mylar bag. So did you use two bags to make the same quantity as Mtn. House? So you use 1 1/2 cups to rehydrate 2 portions.
Yep sorry that wasn't very clear. I used 2 portions of the dividers with 1.5 cups
It will vary a good amount from different recipes and biscuits used, but this at least gives a good baseline.