Mr Freeze Miser - Eggs

 With the price of eggs getting higher than a Jehovah's Witness at a Willy Nelson Party we managed to catch some relatively cheap to run through the freeze dryer. The process is more labor intensive than frozen veggies but is still pretty straight forward.  While the machine is cooling down, you crack the eggs into a blender and whip them.  The trays are already placed into the vacuum chamber.  Pouring the liquefied eggs into the trays is easier than trying to carry a full tray.

After about 24 hours they come out looking kind of like a thin sheet cake.

The next task is to load this into a food processor and pulse into a fine power.  We use a dough scrapper and a square scoop. I've seen video of a person using a french fry scoop that seems to work very nicely.  I have one on the list.  

A 1/2 gallon canning jar holds 4 dozen eggs.  They made tasty scrambled eggs.

The peas that we did in the first batch were great.  Everyone said that freeze drying intensifies the flavor of things.  These smelled fresh when I started rehydrating them. Flavor wise I was very happy.  Practically no difference between freeze-dried and frozen when served as a side.  I also put some in a stew this week and you'd never know they were freeze-dried.

Mr Freeze Miser - Continued

 

 

We been able to run several batches. We managed to catch 2 pound bags of vegetables on sale. Conveniently, a 2 pound bag will fill one tray. The benefit of using frozen over fresh is that they are already blanched. It takes 24-26 hours to run a batch.  Weight after drying is 8 - 10 oz. depending on the vegetables. A 2 pound bag is about 1 1/2 quarts.

Many of the reviewer talked about how loud the pumps can be.  I decided to go with the premium oil pump over the oil-less pump because I was worried about the noise.  I have an oil-less air compressor and it's so loud it requires hearing production when it's running.  The freeze dryer itself is louder than the pump so I think I made the right choice.  I have it in the garage which is right under The Pink Monster's bedroom and she can't hear it.  

I don't really like the Harvest Fresh Mylar bags. They're flat. I've been using gusseted bags which are much easier to fill and seal. 

The sealer that came with the bundle seems to do an ok job. Time will tell. It only seals a thin line where the hair straightener we were using seals the entire top of the bag. I've been double sealing just to be on the safe side. 

Don't give me any crap about reusing lids.  This batch is only for short term storage and I just need to keep out the moisture.  The mixed vegetables in the picture came from Samuel's Clubhouse. They had absolutely no flavor when steamed.  I'm hoping that by drying them I can add them to soup and they're absorb some.

The peas are awesome dried.  They'd be great in homemade trail mix.  The drying process intensifies the flavor. 

One of the challenges is controlling the product after it's dried.  It's so light it wants to fly everywhere.  GunDog likes lima beans and was happy to help clean them up.  Some folks are using french fry scoops. My current solution is to use a square freeze container. It's working well enough for now. 

The cart is working well.  Everything is contained in one place. The drain hose is routed through a hole and into a bucket. Of course the bucket came from the grocery store deli so it was free. Extra oil, the filter, and back sealer are stored on the bottom shelf. The working height is good and it's easy to watch the process. Back to noise, I was concerned the cart would act as a sounding board and amplify the pump noise, but the pump has very good rubber free that keep that from happening. The lip of the cart blocked access to the power connectors and the drain hose so I used pieces of scrap plywood to raise it up. 

I've been using the shipping box to keep it covered. Plans are to find a grill cover or Something along those lines to protect it from the garage environment.  So far I'm pretty happy. Now we just need to make it pay for itself.

Mr Freeze Miser

We invested in a Harvest Fresh freeze dryer with the premium vacuum pump. Today's a good day to get it set up. They recommend running bread through it the first run to absorb the "new car" smell. We'll see how it goes. 

You can edit the display name on the display. So of course I named it Mr. Freeze Miser.