DIY Freeze Dried Recipes

[makholstein]

Have had our freeze dryer for about a year and am trying to find some good recipes for camping meals anybody else have a freeze dryer and favorite recipe??

 

[Cameron.25]

I cant help ya with a recipe but was wondering which freeze dryer you got?

 

[makholstein]

I cant help ya with a recipe but was wondering which freeze dryer you got?

From my research Harvest Right is the only company making "home use" freeze dryers right now so that's what I have.
I have done lots of fruits and veggies as snacks/cooking ingredients including morels and huckleberries and absolutely love it. As for meals I'm still learning but so far steak and noodles with hard boiled eggs have been great as well as pre made breakfast burrito filling.

 

[Cameron.25]

Thats awesome, i really wanna get one too someday and when i looked into it that was the only viable option i found too. Just wanted to see if you had a different one by chance. If you dont find much for recipes id probably try to copy some simple commercial freeze dried meals that you like based off the ingredients they list if i was you, using wild game meats if you had any.

My in laws have a small farm with way more fruit, veggies and chickens than we all can go through so we would definitely put a freeze dryer to good use, needless to say im jealous!

 

[makholstein]

Thats awesome, i really wanna get one too someday and when i looked into it that was the only viable option i found too. Just wanted to see if you had a different one by chance. If you dont find much for recipes id probably try to copy some simple commercial freeze dried meals that you like based off the ingredients they list if i was you, using wild game meats if you had any.

My in laws have a small farm with way more fruit, veggies and chickens than we all can go through so we would definitely put a freeze dryer to good use, needless to say im jealous!

Sounds like you could make great use of one! If you do go to buy one check local stores they are usually cheaper than buying direct and you get all of the perks of buying direct (warranty, support, etc.) I paid $300 less locally than buying direct and I didn't have to wait 10 weeks.

 

[Cameron.25]

Thanks for the tip, good luck finding some recipes!

 

[seanu21]

I didn't even know this was a thing, but now its on my list of "stuff I want." I've been thinking about making my own backcountry meals for hunting. We tried dehydrator once and wasn't a big fan.

 

[spudgunr]

Chicken fajitas; cooked chicken rehydrates WONDERFULLY and pretty much instantly. Then you can go to GFS and get a few bags of their roasted peppers and onions and dehydrate those. Throw in a tortilla, add some cheese, and you have a hot meal ready as soon as you add hot water (wont even need to be boiling for these items). Any time I find a good deal on premade cooked chicken fajita I pick it up and freeze dry it; I should have gotten a lot more last time I found a deal for $3 a pound.

Eggs rehydrate back into scrambled liquid egg; just need to be cooked (which I havent had luck with cooking in titanium while camping; maybe I should find a little non-stick skillet so I can have some success.

Biscuits and gravy, or at least, gravy. The biscuits still end up crunch after rehydrating, but the gravy turns out pretty well as good as fresh. I have another 12lbs or so of sausage in my freezer to make gravy with. I thought I'd save time and buy GFS / sams gravy; YUK! I will definitely be making it from scratch for drying.

 

[spudgunr]

Chicken fajitas; cooked chicken rehydrates WONDERFULLY and pretty much instantly. Then you can go to GFS and get a few bags of their roasted peppers and onions and dehydrate those. Throw in a tortilla, add some cheese, and you have a hot meal ready as soon as you add hot water (wont even need to be boiling for these items). Any time I find a good deal on premade cooked chicken fajita I pick it up and freeze dry it; I should have gotten a lot more last time I found a deal for $3 a pound.

Eggs rehydrate back into scrambled liquid egg; just need to be cooked (which I havent had luck with cooking in titanium while camping; maybe I should find a little non-stick skillet so I can have some success.

Biscuits and gravy, or at least, gravy. The biscuits still end up crunch after rehydrating, but the gravy turns out pretty well as good as fresh. I have another 12lbs or so of sausage in my freezer to make gravy with. I thought I'd save time and buy GFS / sams gravy; YUK! I will definitely be making it from scratch for drying.

Oh, I totally forgot BBQ; shelf life may not be super long due to the fatty meat, but well smoked pulled pork works great. Who needs BBQ sauce when you have a nice moist well seasoned and smoked pulled pork? Eat as-is or add to other items. Bring some buns and eat it as a sandwhich, throw in a tortilla, on its own, whatever.

I did steak and it didnt turn out great. Now granted, this particular steak started off pretty tough, so I am willing to give it another go. Steak does take quite a while to rehydrate, several hours minimum. I did it raw though, so maybe cooked steak would be better? I have not tried that.

 

[strousek]

Chicken Cordon Blue Pasta is by far the most amazing FD meal we make. We use bowtie pasta for ours but you can use any pasta.

One Pot Creamy Chicken Cordon Bleu Pasta

Classic chicken cordon bleu flavors combine with creamy pasta in this easy one pot meal. Perfect for a weeknight, it's sure to be a family favorite!

www.thechunkychef.com

Any kind of soup or stew does great. We make shrimp, chicken and Cajun sausage jambalaya that is great on a cold night after a hunt.

We love making grilled cheese and cutting them into small 1" squares. FD some good tomato soup and put the grilled cheese in after rehydrating kind of like a crouton of sorts.

Yogurt parfait are super easy. FD whatever fruit you like, blueberry strawberry raspberry, add to FD vanilla yogurt and some store bought granola. Reconstitute with some cold creek water on a hike and a perfect breakfast.

Keep this thread going and post some success and fail recipes. We have yet to have anything come out terrible. Chicken, shrimp and small steak chunks come out great in any recipe we have tried.

 

[Read1t48]

Following! In-laws just got a Harvest Right

 

[drew12]

Looking to revive this... Chicken Tortilla soup has been my favorite so far. Shredded chicken, taco seasoning, kidney beans, black beans, corn, diced tomatoes, diced green chiles, chicken broth, and water. Cook on the stove and fill the trays. Once dried, add minute rice to the mylar bag along with your serving of soup, PHENOMENAL!
Would love to hear other recipes! We are still new to the freeze drying and definitely in experimental mode.

 

[mountainman406]

Anyone have more recipes to add? I'm looking to get one of the Harvest Right units in the next few weeks.

 

[bpurtz]

Anyone have more recipes to add? I'm looking to get one of the Harvest Right units in the next few weeks.

I bought a Harvest Right last year - I don't necessarily think you need a specific recipe - if you make a meal that you like, just run it through the machine.

The one recommendation I would make for meals is to choose meals that are moist when you are done with the preparation - like chili or stew - I like hearty preparations and often double the meat when I make chili or stew.

Meals that are dry like broiled chicken won't rehydrate very evenly. I did some pan fry meals that were delicious when I ate them immediately after preparation, but lost a little "fresh texture" after freeze dry and rehydration. Even with those meals, I think they were generally better than the Mountain House and usually I just made the meal a little more soupy than when it was a fresh pan fry.

I really love the granola and fruit - pineapple is awesome, blueberries (blueberries need to be pierced), raspberries, apples, pears. Mix your granola, fruit, and some powdered milk and you have the Mountain House/Backpackers Pantry Blueberry & Granola meals.

A couple other snacks that are pretty good that I doubt many guys get to enjoy in the backcountry are guacamole and hummus.

 

[Live4thedai]

Chicken fajitas; cooked chicken rehydrates WONDERFULLY and pretty much instantly. Then you can go to GFS and get a few bags of their roasted peppers and onions and dehydrate those. Throw in a tortilla, add some cheese, and you have a hot meal ready as soon as you add hot water (wont even need to be boiling for these items). Any time I find a good deal on premade cooked chicken fajita I pick it up and freeze dry it; I should have gotten a lot more last time I found a deal for $3 a pound.

Eggs rehydrate back into scrambled liquid egg; just need to be cooked (which I havent had luck with cooking in titanium while camping; maybe I should find a little non-stick skillet so I can have some success.

Biscuits and gravy, or at least, gravy. The biscuits still end up crunch after rehydrating, but the gravy turns out pretty well as good as fresh. I have another 12lbs or so of sausage in my freezer to make gravy with. I thought I'd save time and buy GFS / sams gravy; YUK! I will definitely be making it from scratch for drying.

How do you re-hydrate the biscuits? New to this.

 

[Dirtscoots]

Ice cream I use it in my oatmeal in the mornings. Toss it in my coffee and just snack on it as a treat. As far as recipes I just cook twice as much as my family can eat about every meal I get a chance to and freeze dry left overs

 

[Western_hunter87]

Anyone have more recipes to add? I'm looking to get one of the Harvest Right units in the next few weeks.

recipes is anything you want. its just small details that make the big difference like you don't wanna to enchiladas with a tortilla freeze dried. your better off make a rice bed with the enchilada ingredients then adding to a fresh tortilla when rehydrated.

 

[JoeB]

Most fruits we have tried are good and make great snacks. My favorites are apple slices, pineapple, strawberries and peaches. My wife makes me some protein bars that are good. She blends up some fresh strawberries and yogurt and protein powder then adds strawberry cheerios. Freeze them in bar molds then freeze dry them. Tasty and light weight. Chicken is also a great freeze dry item. We stop in Sam’s and pic up rotisserie chickens shred them off the bone and freeze dry. Easy quick meat. And rehydrates good. We use it in casseroles and soups. Most soups do great and rehydrate easily. Chicken soup and chili are my favorites. Icecream bars make good lightweight snacks and freeze dry easily too

 

[Dirtscoots]

Cheese makes a good snack too. My son did mangos the other day they were really sour edible but not worth the hassle lol. It could be we don’t know what we are doing and they were not ripe too.