Want to support this work? Buy me a coffee :-) www.buymeacoffee.com/DanZm First 500 lbs data spreadsheet link: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ieekdk5aH_2OWLUealeOLurU9_zl03BfFEg_qhAgcaA/edit?usp=sharing Batch worksheet link: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13DCB2hXo9_ZYrhIUicLk2IrEaQGszwbaJTcEH8wJxk4/edit?usp=sharing
@@fatjellydonutglaze2230 I do this because by the time I get it out of the boiling water, drained, mixed with the other hot components, cooled, and then rehydrated using boiling water, it will be very done. (I could be wrong)
@@SchoolReports thank you for texting me back I figured the same thing I do the same I just want to make sure that we are in the same reality🤪 all that extra liquid soak up in the rice every time I make soup I keep on putting too much rice in it the rice keeps on soaking up the chicken broth it's not soup no more I enjoyed your videos👍🏻
@@kchandler4985 The divider is something I designed and 3D printed to fit our pans. Here is the design and print video if you are interested; ruclips.net/video/3KLblPCTpHk/видео.html They were printed with ABS then vapor/acetone smoothed to seal them. It would probably be pretty easy to make dividers using foamcore or cardboard and covering it with plastic wrap, for those without a printer. The pans are just some pans we bought at a local Dollar store. They were called 8x8" pans, but the bottoms are about 7x7", a perfect fit for our freeze dryer trays. Another viewer used cut some out of thick plastic (like thick cutting board) to make their dividers. (They did have a laser cutter) 😁
😊In your list of food categories that you listed above, food #4 is not listed. Would that be a Dairy/Cheese item? My husband loves your method of freeze drying but we will not be making as much as it is only the two of us ole' seniors! We have downloaded your spreadsheets and putting them to work! Thank you so much! By the way...would you share your first name please? I would like to call you by name other than "School Reports" when talking to my husband. 🤣
Thanks. Number 4 was missing in the description of 50 videos and no one mentioned it until now. (and I didn't notice it either) Corrected. We are pretty much the same number as you, I just love to cook large batches. My name is in many of the videos, sometimes twice, at the bottom of some of the photos at the open and/or close of the videos, right after the copyright symbol. 😇 All the photos are mine, but some are marked because I had used them for other purposes in the past. (former profession/hobby)
Too bad you don’t make and sell the plastic dividers, but I find that if I have something thick, like mashed potatoes, I can make a cut halfway through the potatoes and it will stay that way enough for me to break apart from the freezer. Thanks for the idea of making half pan batches and the 7” pans from Dollar Tree.
Before I made her a few dividers, my sister would wait until her pans of food were partially frozen and then make a space down the middle of the pan using a spatula. Worked for her for many months until I finally made her some dividers.
I like this series. You're doing a great job! Nice to see a face with the voice too. Funny to see chickens making appearances in the window every now and again too.
Thanks! I'll be videoing away and I'll hear - tap, tap, tap! Always makes me smile. The chickens keep pecking at the window or the door, wanting treats.
Sorry, this is my second comment for this video. But I've been curious about Minute Rice, and can't seem to get an answer anywhere on whether it's already freeze dried, or just dehydrated. Considering the packaging I suspect it's merely dehydrated. What would you do if you wanted to add rice to a recipe you're freeze drying? Would you use Minute Rice, and if so, how would you prepare it? Or would you just cook regular rice and freeze dry that?
Thanks! More comments, more better! YT "sees" the engagement and will recommend the video to more people. 😄 You are correct, Minute Rice is cooked/partially cooked (I believe it's steamed under high pressure) and dried, but not freeze dried. We have freeze dried boxes of "dry" Minute Rice to remove the remaining water for longer term storage. ruclips.net/video/lbJRIpulhD0/видео.htmlsi=cGgDIl601ZVWaa-q For rice we mostly cook our own regular rice because we think it comes out better than Minute Rice and keeps the cost down. If we're doing a recipe with rice, when we put it in depends on the recipe and how it is cooked. Example: If we were going to make some chicken and rice soup using Minute Rice we would probably freeze dry the chicken and broth part and than add the dry Minute Rice (which we had dried) when bagging.
Love your videos. Would you mind sharing the link for where you purchased the scope? I've been searching for one that size everywhere. I think you shared this before but I can't find it. Thank you!
@@BlueBabsy Oh, That makes sense! 😄 The scoop is something that I "adjusted" starting with a scoop I got from Amazon. (link in the description) This is how I changed the scoop - Food Scoop For Freeze Dryer Tray ruclips.net/video/trs26E42Zho/видео.html It could be done without a 3D printer by heating up the cut off pieces with a heat gun (could be done over a toaster or in an oven) and I was able to easily flatten them. It would then be very easy to sand them to fit the side of the scoop and glue them on.
These products you're buying at the Chef Store sure make your process convenient, but I wonder if you're really okay with the ingredients. Considering the seed oils, preservatives and other additives that many of them have, I think I'd want to make things from scratch with more wholesome ingredients instead. For example, your Trio Cheese Sauce, which is made by Nestle, has these ingredients: MALTODEXTRIN, TAPIOCA STARCH, WHEY*, SALT, SOYBEAN OIL, MODIFIED CORNSTARCH, CANOLA OIL, 2% OR LESS OF BUTTERMILK*, SUGAR, YEAST EXTRACT, EXTRACTS OF ANNATTO & TURMERIC (COLOR), DRIED CHEDDAR CHEESE (CULTURED MILK, SALT, ENZYMES)*, NATURAL FLAVORS, SODIUM CASEINATE (A MILK DERIVATIVE), BUTTERMILK POWDER*, SPICES, CITRIC ACID, DISODIUM INOSINATE, DISODIUM GUANYLATE, PAPRIKA (COLOR). *Adds a trivial amount of cholesterol. ....Actual cheese is way down the list. Same with the Ore-Ida hash browns from the last video. In fact, this is one of the main reasons (other than cost savings) that I bought a freeze dryer in the first place versus buying Mountain House, Ore-Ida and many other ready products. With a freeze dryer I can package hash browns that are nothing but potatoes, and mashed potatoes that are nothing but potatoes, butter, milk and a bit of salt. This applies to probably 95% of the packaged items in the grocery store.
First a minor correction; the hashbrown potatoes were _Idaho Spuds_ brand. A big point I try to make, but apparently not well enough, is exactly what you seem to be saying. The wonderful thing about having a freeze dryer is that everyone can freeze dry the recipes that they want and we don't have to rely on only getting what the freeze drying companies want to make. I happen to like powdered cheese sauce. A lot. In fact I've never had a homemade cheese sauce that I've liked better than the sauce that comes in the packets in boxes of Kraft mac & cheese. I would never tell anyone else that they had to eat it, but I like it. I've also had a fair number of comments on the Costco Rotisserie Chicken video telling me how bad it is for me. More chicken for me! 🤣 I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything, I'm just trying to show what I do, tell why, and show resources to back it up when I can. I wouldn't tell anyone to eat some of the junk I eat, nor would I eat some of the junk I see other people eating, but I know what I like. 😁 I'm also not going to pretend that everything I freeze dry (or eat) are healthy choices, I'm just trying to show how I dealt with each thing.
@@SchoolReports Thanks for responding. Hey, I LOVE Costco rotisserie chicken too! Not so much my wife, who prefers to spend more at "Whole Paycheck Market." Reading the label of the Costco chicken though, it doesn't seem too bad to me.
At the time we bought it, the "Best If Used By" date was 2 years later. I assume we could re-bag it in better bags and add oxygen absorbers to extend that by many years.
We have been getting our bags from packfreshusa.com/ for a few years; we get the 7mil bags. It seems like they have been having a hard time keeping the bags in stock lately. These are the ones we get the most: packfreshusa.com/quart-7x-9x3-7-mil-seal-top-gusset-mylar-bags-1000-wholesale/ And these are the 2 quart ones packfreshusa.com/two-quart-7-mil-seal-top-gusset-mylar-bags-500-wholesale/
@@YakAttack145 Yeah, it's been a bit hit and miss lately. I check every few days even though I just got a box of 1000 quart bags; I get nervous any time I get below about 1500 bags.
The short answer is: No. Never. The longer answer is: There is absolutely no need to. If you saw the making homemade course ground, ground beef video, you saw how lean it was. (This beef was cooked as part of that batch) Next, I added only about 2 tablespoons of oil and butter in a 13 lb batch, making it a VERY low fat dish. Finally, the Mountain House freeze dried ground beef info that I mentioned before.
@@SchoolReports thank you so much. I will have to go check your ground beef video. I’ve missed a couple of videos due to time constraints on my part. I always find your videos very informative and your information very reliable. I only ever use very lean meat (96% lean), but had been told that I still had to rinse it. There is so much conflicting information out there. I’m glad that there’s no need to rinse. Thanks again.
@@nancysala7769 I figure if Mountain House has freeze dried ground beef that's good for 30 years and has 15 grams of fat in a 37 gram dry serving, I should worry too much. My ground beef was probably at least 96% lean.
@@SchoolReports I cooked up three pounds of ground beef (probably at least 90% lean), drained it with a strainer over a bowl, laid it on a large cookie sheet with a paper towel, spread the ground beef out and took a couple of paper towels to blot the hamburger fat remaining. I didn't want to rinse it with hot water as I think that would take the flavor out of the hamburger meat besides wondering what to do with rinsed/fat water!! I didn't want it going down my kitchen sink drain for sure!! Our Chef's Kitchen store does not sell the powdered Trio cheese sauce but I did find a small container of powdered cheese sauce at our local grocery store. I will try it in your recipe and make a smaller batch! Thank you for taking time to share your FDing moments with us!! Keep them coming please!!
Want to support this work? Buy me a coffee :-) www.buymeacoffee.com/DanZm
First 500 lbs data spreadsheet link: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ieekdk5aH_2OWLUealeOLurU9_zl03BfFEg_qhAgcaA/edit?usp=sharing
Batch worksheet link: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13DCB2hXo9_ZYrhIUicLk2IrEaQGszwbaJTcEH8wJxk4/edit?usp=sharing
Why do you undercook the pasta
@@fatjellydonutglaze2230 I do this because by the time I get it out of the boiling water, drained, mixed with the other hot components, cooled, and then rehydrated using boiling water, it will be very done. (I could be wrong)
@@SchoolReports thank you for texting me back I figured the same thing I do the same I just want to make sure that we are in the same reality🤪 all that extra liquid soak up in the rice every time I make soup I keep on putting too much rice in it the rice keeps on soaking up the chicken broth it's not soup no more I enjoyed your videos👍🏻
I have learned so much from you. My daughter is printing me the dividers. Thank you so much!!!!
Thanks for watching!
How do you get these dividers
@@kchandler4985 The divider is something I designed and 3D printed to fit our pans. Here is the design and print video if you are interested; ruclips.net/video/3KLblPCTpHk/видео.html They were printed with ABS then vapor/acetone smoothed to seal them.
It would probably be pretty easy to make dividers using foamcore or cardboard and covering it with plastic wrap, for those without a printer. The pans are just some pans we bought at a local Dollar store. They were called 8x8" pans, but the bottoms are about 7x7", a perfect fit for our freeze dryer trays.
Another viewer used cut some out of thick plastic (like thick cutting board) to make their dividers. (They did have a laser cutter) 😁
😊In your list of food categories that you listed above, food #4 is not listed. Would that be a Dairy/Cheese item? My husband loves your method of freeze drying but we will not be making as much as it is only the two of us ole' seniors! We have downloaded your spreadsheets and putting them to work! Thank you so much! By the way...would you share your first name please? I would like to call you by name other than "School Reports" when talking to my husband. 🤣
Thanks. Number 4 was missing in the description of 50 videos and no one mentioned it until now. (and I didn't notice it either) Corrected. We are pretty much the same number as you, I just love to cook large batches.
My name is in many of the videos, sometimes twice, at the bottom of some of the photos at the open and/or close of the videos, right after the copyright symbol. 😇 All the photos are mine, but some are marked because I had used them for other purposes in the past. (former profession/hobby)
Thank you
You're welcome and thanks for watching.
Too bad you don’t make and sell the plastic dividers, but I find that if I have something thick, like mashed potatoes, I can make a cut halfway through the potatoes and it will stay that way enough for me to break apart from the freezer. Thanks for the idea of making half pan batches and the 7” pans from Dollar Tree.
Before I made her a few dividers, my sister would wait until her pans of food were partially frozen and then make a space down the middle of the pan using a spatula. Worked for her for many months until I finally made her some dividers.
@@SchoolReports great minds think alike!
I like this series. You're doing a great job! Nice to see a face with the voice too. Funny to see chickens making appearances in the window every now and again too.
Thanks! I'll be videoing away and I'll hear - tap, tap, tap! Always makes me smile. The chickens keep pecking at the window or the door, wanting treats.
Sorry, this is my second comment for this video. But I've been curious about Minute Rice, and can't seem to get an answer anywhere on whether it's already freeze dried, or just dehydrated. Considering the packaging I suspect it's merely dehydrated. What would you do if you wanted to add rice to a recipe you're freeze drying? Would you use Minute Rice, and if so, how would you prepare it? Or would you just cook regular rice and freeze dry that?
Thanks! More comments, more better! YT "sees" the engagement and will recommend the video to more people. 😄
You are correct, Minute Rice is cooked/partially cooked (I believe it's steamed under high pressure) and dried, but not freeze dried. We have freeze dried boxes of "dry" Minute Rice to remove the remaining water for longer term storage. ruclips.net/video/lbJRIpulhD0/видео.htmlsi=cGgDIl601ZVWaa-q
For rice we mostly cook our own regular rice because we think it comes out better than Minute Rice and keeps the cost down. If we're doing a recipe with rice, when we put it in depends on the recipe and how it is cooked. Example: If we were going to make some chicken and rice soup using Minute Rice we would probably freeze dry the chicken and broth part and than add the dry Minute Rice (which we had dried) when bagging.
@@SchoolReports I see. Thank you, that makes sense.
Love the shirts. ;)
Thanks. I could do a whole video just showing shirts for a few seconds at a time.
You could probably sell those dividers. 😉
Love the shirt!😂😂😂
Thanks! In our home school group, we always made sure to say "solve for x"
Third comment this video. Just a suggestion this time: How about adding a 7th category: Desserts?
Good idea!
@@SchoolReports Category 8: Candy. (Although I know you have several videos on candy already.)
@@locutus8496 I would just leave candy lumped in with desserts.
Love your videos. Would you mind sharing the link for where you purchased the scope? I've been searching for one that size everywhere. I think you shared this before but I can't find it. Thank you!
Scope?
@@SchoolReports sorry. The gray/plastic "French fry" scoop that fits perfectly on the trays.
@@BlueBabsy Oh, That makes sense! 😄
The scoop is something that I "adjusted" starting with a scoop I got from Amazon. (link in the description) This is how I changed the scoop - Food Scoop For Freeze Dryer Tray ruclips.net/video/trs26E42Zho/видео.html
It could be done without a 3D printer by heating up the cut off pieces with a heat gun (could be done over a toaster or in an oven) and I was able to easily flatten them. It would then be very easy to sand them to fit the side of the scoop and glue them on.
Do you reuse your bags
We don't/haven't reused the bags for more freeze dried food for storage, but we have used them for other uses.
These products you're buying at the Chef Store sure make your process convenient, but I wonder if you're really okay with the ingredients. Considering the seed oils, preservatives and other additives that many of them have, I think I'd want to make things from scratch with more wholesome ingredients instead. For example, your Trio Cheese Sauce, which is made by Nestle, has these ingredients:
MALTODEXTRIN, TAPIOCA STARCH, WHEY*, SALT, SOYBEAN OIL, MODIFIED CORNSTARCH, CANOLA OIL, 2% OR LESS OF BUTTERMILK*, SUGAR, YEAST EXTRACT, EXTRACTS OF ANNATTO & TURMERIC (COLOR), DRIED CHEDDAR CHEESE (CULTURED MILK, SALT, ENZYMES)*, NATURAL FLAVORS, SODIUM CASEINATE (A MILK DERIVATIVE), BUTTERMILK POWDER*, SPICES, CITRIC ACID, DISODIUM INOSINATE, DISODIUM GUANYLATE, PAPRIKA (COLOR). *Adds a trivial amount of cholesterol.
....Actual cheese is way down the list. Same with the Ore-Ida hash browns from the last video. In fact, this is one of the main reasons (other than cost savings) that I bought a freeze dryer in the first place versus buying Mountain House, Ore-Ida and many other ready products. With a freeze dryer I can package hash browns that are nothing but potatoes, and mashed potatoes that are nothing but potatoes, butter, milk and a bit of salt. This applies to probably 95% of the packaged items in the grocery store.
First a minor correction; the hashbrown potatoes were _Idaho Spuds_ brand.
A big point I try to make, but apparently not well enough, is exactly what you seem to be saying. The wonderful thing about having a freeze dryer is that everyone can freeze dry the recipes that they want and we don't have to rely on only getting what the freeze drying companies want to make.
I happen to like powdered cheese sauce. A lot. In fact I've never had a homemade cheese sauce that I've liked better than the sauce that comes in the packets in boxes of Kraft mac & cheese. I would never tell anyone else that they had to eat it, but I like it. I've also had a fair number of comments on the Costco Rotisserie Chicken video telling me how bad it is for me. More chicken for me! 🤣
I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything, I'm just trying to show what I do, tell why, and show resources to back it up when I can. I wouldn't tell anyone to eat some of the junk I eat, nor would I eat some of the junk I see other people eating, but I know what I like. 😁 I'm also not going to pretend that everything I freeze dry (or eat) are healthy choices, I'm just trying to show how I dealt with each thing.
@@SchoolReports Thanks for responding. Hey, I LOVE Costco rotisserie chicken too! Not so much my wife, who prefers to spend more at "Whole Paycheck Market." Reading the label of the Costco chicken though, it doesn't seem too bad to me.
In that case - More chickens for us! 🤣
It is definitely time to double down on food and water preps guys! Happy to offer help and advice if needed👍
Hello there. What is the shelf life of the Trio Cheese Powder?
At the time we bought it, the "Best If Used By" date was 2 years later.
I assume we could re-bag it in better bags and add oxygen absorbers to extend that by many years.
Where do you get your 2 quart mylar bags?
We have been getting our bags from packfreshusa.com/ for a few years; we get the 7mil bags. It seems like they have been having a hard time keeping the bags in stock lately.
These are the ones we get the most: packfreshusa.com/quart-7x-9x3-7-mil-seal-top-gusset-mylar-bags-1000-wholesale/
And these are the 2 quart ones packfreshusa.com/two-quart-7-mil-seal-top-gusset-mylar-bags-500-wholesale/
@@SchoolReports Thank you. I was searching them just yesterday. The only place I could find in stock was at topmylar but they are more expensive.
@@YakAttack145 Yeah, it's been a bit hit and miss lately. I check every few days even though I just got a box of 1000 quart bags; I get nervous any time I get below about 1500 bags.
@@SchoolReports yeah, I think I'm going to have to start buying in bulk.
@@YakAttack145 I'm more calm and happy with a full box of 1000 plus the open box next to it. And the other size bags, too.
Curious, did you rinse the meat to get the rest of the fat out, from sautéing, and the olive oil and butter?
The short answer is: No. Never.
The longer answer is: There is absolutely no need to. If you saw the making homemade course ground, ground beef video, you saw how lean it was. (This beef was cooked as part of that batch) Next, I added only about 2 tablespoons of oil and butter in a 13 lb batch, making it a VERY low fat dish. Finally, the Mountain House freeze dried ground beef info that I mentioned before.
@@SchoolReports thank you so much. I will have to go check your ground beef video. I’ve missed a couple of videos due to time constraints on my part. I always find your videos very informative and your information very reliable. I only ever use very lean meat (96% lean), but had been told that I still had to rinse it. There is so much conflicting information out there. I’m glad that there’s no need to rinse. Thanks again.
@@nancysala7769 I figure if Mountain House has freeze dried ground beef that's good for 30 years and has 15 grams of fat in a 37 gram dry serving, I should worry too much. My ground beef was probably at least 96% lean.
@@SchoolReports I cooked up three pounds of ground beef (probably at least 90% lean), drained it with a strainer over a bowl, laid it on a large cookie sheet with a paper towel, spread the ground beef out and took a couple of paper towels to blot the hamburger fat remaining. I didn't want to rinse it with hot water as I think that would take the flavor out of the hamburger meat besides wondering what to do with rinsed/fat water!! I didn't want it going down my kitchen sink drain for sure!! Our Chef's Kitchen store does not sell the powdered Trio cheese sauce but I did find a small container of powdered cheese sauce at our local grocery store. I will try it in your recipe and make a smaller batch! Thank you for taking time to share your FDing moments with us!! Keep them coming please!!