A Beginner’s Guide To Freeze-Drying Food And Its Benefits

When it comes to learning how to be self-sufficient, things can get pretty nerve-wracking pretty fast. Spend a few hours researching how to provide for yourself all the things you need, and you can end up feeling a little incompetent. The following will attempt to remedy at least one small part of that by walking you through the basics you need to know about freeze-drying foods.

Freeze-dried foods are excellent for stockpiling for long winters or emergencies and make terrific meals for backpacking or other forms of travel. Once the food is freeze-dried, it weighs almost nothing, lasts for decades, is efficiently rehydrated, and tastes lovely. There are freeze-dried foods available at some stores, but they tend to be very expensive. If you have a limited budget or many things you want to freeze dry, an at-home approach is usually best. 

You understand that ice, a solid material, can melt into water, which is a liquid, and then turn into vapor, which is a gas, yes? Did you know that on occasion, ice can skip the water form and become vapor straight away? This is called sublimation.

Sublimation is used in the freeze-drying process to remove the water from your food. Known as a preservation technique, freeze-drying is called lyophilization by the scientific community.

Freeze Drying Is Nothing New

As early as 1200 AD, humans have been using sublimation to preserve their foods naturally. You’ve probably encountered freeze-dried foods without even knowing it. Instant coffee, for example, is freeze-dried. 

Get Yourself The Right Tool

Of course, freeze-drying is made infinitely more manageable if you have the right tool for it. Take a moment to read up on the different freeze dryer models available on the market and the unique features of each. Whenever shopping for an appliance online, check the size of the piece and the space you have. You don’t want to order something and then be shocked by how it won’t fit into your kitchen easily. 

You’ll want to, of course, read reviews. If someone has left an especially scathing review or a gloriously positive review, it’s a good idea to click on the reviewer’s name and see what other reviews they left. This will let you know if they’re very negative or hyper enthusiastic people. It’s a good idea for all areas of your life to get good at reading reviews. Because reviews have become so crucial for sales, companies have caught on, and slowly, studies are becoming less trustworthy. 

Freeze Drying Basics

You must follow the instructions associated with your freeze dryer machine, but you’ll find many of them follow the same sort of process. First, food is placed into the chamber; you’ll want to spread the food out and lay it flat for the best results. This will help give you an even freeze-dry. Of course, if you’re working on a particular recipe that suggests otherwise, that’s okay too.

When you turn the machine on, it’s going to flash freeze the food, turning the water inside to ice. Then a pump will remove air from within the chamber to create a vacuum. The low pressure inside the vacuum will turn the ice into vapor. Then a low-temperature condenser will remove the moisture from the chamber.

Once all of this is done, you will have food that has no water and is chemically stable. This method of preserving food is much healthier than some of the other chemically-based options you’ll find in typical grocery stores. Many common preservatives are dangerous to our long-term health. 

How Long Does It Last?

As long as you store your food in ideal conditions (that is, not in a moisture-heavy area), they can keep for quite some time, up to 25 years.

Do I Need A Machine? 

You can use your regular freezer for freeze-drying foods. It’s important to know, however, that this takes an extremely long time. It takes months to get food properly freeze-dried in a conventional freezer. There’s also the risk of the pressure in your freezer not being low enough to ensure the sublimation process occurs throughout your entire food evenly (meaning only the surface of thicker foods is freeze-dried). Thinner things like herbs and lettuces shouldn’t be a problem, but even something as significant as a berry might prove difficult. There’s also the consideration that not all bacteria are killed in a traditional freezer.

The above information should get you started in the world of freeze-drying your food. Again, you must read and follow all instructions that came with the particular model or machine you’re working with. It’s also a good idea to do smaller test batches if you’re unsure of your settings before tossing all your food into a freeze dryer.