I love that I get recipes from your channel as well as FDing tidbits, tips, and tricks - whether those recipes FD well or not. My favorite thing is that I don’t have to have as many epic fails because you spare me that experience often! 😁
@@coramdayo I'm not sure what the pressure is for the instant pot, I just cube them add some water and close the valve and set the timer. Then I turn the knob to vent when the timer goes off. 👍
I agree. I have been watching for a couple of months. We just ordered ours so I hope to feel fairly confident in trying these things by the time it gets here.
Really appreciate your advice. Tried to order through your site. Kept getting errors that our browser is to old. Sorry we couldn't support you that way. You are a true inspiration! We will definitely have to try these when ours is delivered!
We are new to freeze drying also. I have so many cherries now that I'm working on. I didn't get to do a garden this year. First time in about 6 years. Very upset about that, but so anxious now to have the plan in place for when I do it next year and need to store all the foods. This is really great. Your video's are great!!! Thank you so much!!
Been freeze drying since September. I’ve been keeping mine running 24/7 with seasonal produce, looking forward to trying other things. Love your channel lots of good info and out of the box combinations.
My FD is on the way. I am watching your videos and some others. With you doing everything it shows how I could buy in bulk now. It's just me and my mom. I am excited to start FDing. Thank you. I wish I could have started years ago.
I just started thinking about doing this boy was I glad to find your videos! Think I'll join your other groups too. Thanks for all your hard work putting all thins information together. Sure makes it easier for a beginner like me!!😊
Great post, thank you. After freeze-drying, I powder the product in the food processor. The resulting mashed potatoes take up way less space and are beautifully smooth!
I enjoy your videos and appreciate what you do. You were four for four today and that earned you my subscription!! Saving up money to buy a freeze dryer so in a few months I am going to get my preservation on. CHEERS!!!
Rehydrate those mashed taters with beef or chicken stock to match whatever you're serving them with. Milk would probably work, too, if you want extra creaminess.
Newbie here. I have potatoes! Now i know what to do tomorrow. The freeze dryer will rest tonight. I did 20 lbs. of pears this week. I got my fd back in May as an anniversary gift. 🎉
I am loving my tray lids from your store. Finally I'm not finding loose food in my freezers. The lids keep everything contained. I couldn't remember if I needed to blanch raw potatoes before I threw them into the freeze drier. Thanks as always for a great video.
Just received a shipment from your store yesterday - just in time as my freeze dryer arrives on Friday!!!! Super excited to try the mashed potatoes - something I’m interested to store for long term!! Thanks for the video Brian!
@@benatkinson418 if it was the "Congratulations you won, please call..." Then it has to be, the post is over a year old and the pic doesn't match the official account
You should do a freeze dryer showdown video where you run the same thing through both freeze dryers at the same time. Some of the old timer freeze dry folks don’t believe the new machines are faster lol one guy in a Facebook group claimed the new machines were not faster but rather the freeze dry nubies just weren’t putting that much on their trays. I love to see the debate settled
Its coming! My old JB Vacuum Pump just died and i'm waiting for a new pump. I just ran identical loads in both to see for myself. There was a 6 hour difference. If i still had the old software in my older model it would have been even longer. I think one of the big differences is the guts of the new one. It gets much colder. It was -70 today. I was using the premier pump on both units.
Interesting video. I'm surprised the potato salad turned out well for you. I tried it and I thought the texture was terrible. I haven't tried raw potatoes yet, but I'll put that on the list to do. Mashed potatoes have been awesome for me. Scalloped potatoes were so-so, but your idea of crisping them in the air fryer (or maybe an oven since I don't have an air fryer) is intriguing. Thanks for sharing!
I am second guessing my results a little. I feel like the potato salad was not a fair assumption since it was only 95% done. The texture was complete for me, but i'm not sure that long term storage would work. The need for substituting mayo for yogurt or avocado is definitely a must. I may have to make a redemption video in the future for the tater salad.
You may want to consider making supplies available for more than just Harvest Right freeze drying machines. The configurations of the trays are different for other brands. I would start with the parchment and then the silicone mats to see how that goes as some of the other vendors don't offer those items for their machine.
We offer some products for others. Making new sizes in most of the products requires new tooling (a huge expense) and the lack of demand does not make sense for some products.
Loved this as I grow potatoes and just bought my first freeze dryer :) I was really surprised the scalloped and potato salad worked - great job! So if you were to redo the scalloped, would you reconstitute it in a pan with water & do the air dryer or still do the steamer process then air fry it for crispness? :) thanks for sharing your experiments!
I think the best bet is low and slow in water in a pan, then if you want the crisp of the cheese and the sides of taters, throw it in the air fryer or back in the oven.
Thank you so much for all the information and help. We just purchased our fd and definitely need all the help we can get. I was wandering about the mashed potatoes... do you have to rehydrate with water or can you mix a little warm milk in too? Also, when you purchase a frozen dinner, for example a Hungry Man... it will have 3 departments or so. Can I use one of these trays to put on the tray and make an entire meal at once? I know these are pretty basic questions... sorry about that. Thank you again.
Try dividing the mashed potatoes, it allows more exposure to the air... or vacuum, less substance the water must travel through to escape and thus faster and more thorough drying. Same with the potato salad and scalloped potatoes.
How about putting the scalloped potatoes in a casserole dish with milk & butter? Even in a SHTF situation that could be done in a solar oven or a cast-iron oven over hot coals.
We got our Harvest Right medium dryer this past Monday and I’m wondering if anyone has tried using devices in the trays. I have a very short Instant Pot rack that I’d like to put under my commercially prepared pickled beets to get them to dry quicker. What about the thin BBQ racks that are used for fish and vegetables? As long as the food doesn’t hit the shelf above I’d think it was OK. Any ideas for something to put a tiny batch of gravy in? Thanks for your help.
Brian thanks for the tater based video today ( yup I’m from Idaho 😊). I did however miss the “de-traying” which I know you skipped due to time constraints. Keep up the good work !!
My apologies. I got out of town for a little bit and just needed to get the video finished up so i didn't skip a week.😲 I will do them as part of my normal routine though. Happy FD'ing
@Retired at 40- Live.Life.Simple. So happy the mashed potatoes did well. I think that means that mashed sweet potatoes should also work. Great job thinking of the air fryer! I'm still going thru your videos but have you done raw French fries or macaroni & real cheese?
No freeze dryer; BUT, have you considered pouring the gravy into the cubes by pouring the gravy into a measuring cup then pouring the gravy from the measuring cup into the cubes? Less spilling than when you use a ladle.
All of these potato dishes were awesome but I don't think I would put the mayo in the potato salad till after rehydrating it then add mayo. Reason is tempeture control on the mayonnaise could make you sick but that's pretty cool to know how to store potatoes in this many ways. Ty 😊
If you use a ricer for your mashed potatoes after they are rehydrated, they will come out smooth. The more you whip potatoes they produce more starch and get a little bit gluey.
I'm intrigued by the potato salad. I'm sure the store bought has mayonnaise (or the equivalent in oil and eggs). Do you think the best way to do homemade would be to put in all ingredients except the mayo, then use thinned mayo to reconstitute, like you did with the tuna salad?
I wondered about that I’m most interested in freeze-drying potatoes raw in slices or even in fries slices and doing a mashed potato it’ll be interesting to see how they turn out
The blanched potato slices are perfect. They come out every bit as professional as from companies like Augason farms. I'm starting to do some trays of mashed potatoes for long term storage. The slices can be casseroles or au gratin potatoes.
Thank you Brian - Very good show today and really good results. I had to laugh a bit when you commented about using a cutting board. I have to admit I did mention it on your last video. Good job today. I know it's an extra step but I like to throw my blanched vegetables in an ice bath to stop the cooking. It helps them stay a little crisper. Not sure what kind of potato salad you used. I would be concerned with ones that had a Mayo base. I don't think Mayo freeze dries well. Am I wrong about that? Today as a mater of fact I plan to cook up 10 pounds of potato's and pass them through my ricer then freeze dry them. I've never done it this way before. But I think they will be great. A few weeks ago I did a gallon of lean sausage gravy that turned out nicely. One experiment I want to try is making up a cheese sauce and powder it. It would be good on vegetables I think. I'll start with just a quart and if it goes like I think, I'll make a gallon. Thank you for all your work - you have the best information about freeze drying on the web.
I had lots of comments on the counter😂 You would definitely want a yogurt or similar sub for the mayo. I guess i didn't think about that because i don't tend to do mayo in my day to day cooking anyway. I'll add it to the description.
So how did the riced freeze dried potatoes turn out? That seems like the perfect method, no worries about fats, and you can add milk and butter when you reconstitute them.
Good video and lots of good info. I use shallow silicon molds at times, good to know the deeper ones work as well. Was the gravy canned from the store, made from a powder, or home made? I am mostly curious about the fat (issues with FD stock).
@@live.life.simple. Thanks...powdered mix does seem a low oil/fat think that would work well for the longer term. I think that the stackers are a great idea. Sorry you are not shipping to Canada.
Your sliced blanched potatoes could be used to make scalloped potatoes from FD state or reconstituted. From FD state would be just like the boxed meals.
Tks, I know this is over year old, but was searching for how to make instant mashed potatoes I wanted to freeze dry potatoes so I just have to mix them with the water
This video inspired me to freeze dry mashed potatoes. How long did it take to freeze dry your mashed potatoes? I am going on 50 hours on my batch right now (Medium HR).
Thanks for the Videos! How long should a few trays of Potato salad take? I keep having to add time on my cycle because they still seem cold and a bit moist. The cycle is going on 50hrs, granted the salad was not prefrozen and i filled the machine to capacity . I am not sure if that will just be the case no matter what because the Mayo is so oily.
I.m doing potatoes today plus some pickled jalapeno slices, I did thin sliced and waffle cut potatoes and blanched them, this is my first real batch and I may have doe it wrong I'll see, I cut off all the extra freeze time and dry time I pre fropze everything the way the owners manuals says to do. I didn't pile my thin cut potatoes as high as it looked like you did yours, I'll try doing more per tray next time . the machine did not give me the option of pre frozen or unfrozen I don't know why, I will have to call Harvest Right and see if they eliminated that with the new software. Thanks
For the scalloped potatoes, I would add milk or water and then bake. This is how you make the store bought boxed scalloped potatoes and I bet this would work.
Using my dehydrator I dry potatoes alone of course. When I want them I assemble and cook in oven. Couldn't you do the same thing with freeze dried? You could have freeze dried taters freeze dried onions freeze dried cheese etc. Would only have to add milk prior to cooking. I think the result would be way better. Just a thought.
Maybe for the scalloped potatoes if you had just freeze dried the raw potato slices, and then used them to make scalloped taters. Then just used the cream to rehydrate the potatoes by sitting a few minutes before cooking.
Is the purpose of freezing prior to FD to decrease freeze drying time and save space on the trays? Haven’t purchased one yet just doing research. Seems pretty loud so I anticipate it would be best to have in an area away from bedrooms if a light sleeper; space becomes a issue. Thanks for the info.
Yes you want it away from where you sleep. Not only is it loud, it puts off some heat. Also, you'll need a dedicated 20 amp circuit & a 20 amp plug for the large freeze dryer (most house circuits are 15 amp & have 15 amp plugs). You can put a 20 amp breaker on the circuit you'll be using, switch out the plug where you'll have your machine, then just make sure nothing else is running on that circuit while you're freeze drying
Thanks for the helpful video. We are going to try raw, cubed potatoes from our garden. Do you know if any charts that tell how much of a food product to put on each tray? For example, 2.5 pounds of ground beef per tray, etc. that would be helpful and speed up the learning process. Thanks and God bless.
I've taken foods out that I wasn't sure if they were completely done. I saw you add more dry time after the process was done. My screen just goes back to "start or customize". How do you add time once you have opened the valve and released pressure?
Don’t tap on done . Just release the valve then open the door check the items . The screen should give the option more dry, press close valve and it gives two hrs more, or press up button to add more time than two hours. Check out school reports on how to tell if done
