They need to be mixed. The fat in the yolks when left intact makes it almost impossible for the freeze drying process to complete. When you mix them into a scrambled mixture, you’re releasing the fats and letting them become easier to lyophilize. It’s a word. I promise.
You don’t want to slop eggs all over the place. So putting them on the tray and then putting them in the freeze dryer straight away will not work. I don’t care how steady your hands are. Sliding your tray into the shelves is not always steady either. Sometimes you hit the lips in the back and have to adjust the trays to get them in. That’s more movement you’re putting on liquid eggs.
If you do any of that with a raw egg mixture that hasn’t been prefrozen, you’re asking for a mess. Trust me. It isn’t pretty.
So, the best way to do it is to find a flat space in your freezer. I have two upright freezers full of food (I’m working on emptying them!) and there’s no room on those shelves. The bottom pull out freezer of my fridge inside the house has drawers and they’re obviously full. I have a family to feed, people! Full freezers are a necessity.
So, when left to my own resources, I found out that one of my trays will fit underneath the drawer in my bottom freezer. Crazy, right? But let’s be honest, when you need space and you can’t compromise and you don’t have room for anything else anywhere, you do what you gotta do.
This is the space in my freezer I’m talking about. You can see where my stuff is piled in the top shelf and the pull-out drawer. Is that broccoli? I’m going to freeze dry it!
The lighting isn’t good and this is with a flash and a ton of lights glowing in there. One of the drawbacks of a pull out freezer.
Once that’s in place and I’ve mixed the eggs really well in the measuring cup, I squeezed the full cup into the small space and poured the egg mixture into the tray. Then I refilled the cup and did it again. The eggs settled into the tray and I slowly closed the drawer.
Obviously, I prayed the whole time that the drawer wasn’t going to knock the tray over. Can you imagine if eggs spilled all over the place? Shudder. That’s a mess, I’m just not interested in dealing with.
Once I opened the drawer three hours later, I was able to pull out the tray without worrying it was going to spill everywhere. If you’re not sure if that’s long enough, then leave it in as long as you need to. I’ve gone overnight before. You do what you gotta do.
I can then freely store the frozen trays anywhere I want, stacked up or otherwise, in the other freezers while I do the next tray.
I would only do eggs if I had another load already in the freeze dryer so I’m not wasting time doing the trays of eggs.
That glossy dark coloring is evidence that they’re still wet, but frozen. I like how you can kind of see the egg shapes in there. Once they’re all ready, I put them onto the shelves in the freeze dryer.
Then there’s the final dry which is essentially the same thing, but with a time associated with it as it gets closer to being finished.
For eggs, I don’t press pre-frozen when the option comes up. I select not frozen, but I definitely select the liquid option. These eggs were dangerously liquid when they were unfrozen.
The reason this saves time is because the pre-frozen setting demands 30 minutes of pre-freezing. I’m not the biggest fan of waiting for anything. I figure eggs frozen solid aren’t going to thaw in the 30 minutes it will take during a normal session to freeze. Your choice how you go forward, though. Harvest Right recommends pre-freezing and I’m not one to tell others to buck the rules. I do that on my own.
I do roughly two dozen large eggs on each tray, because that’s about four and a half cups. The eggs take approximately 28 hours to go through the freeze drying process in the freeze dryer. This DOES NOT include the time in your freezer.
Press your hand along the top of the eggs and feel for any cool spots before you pull it out of the freezer dryer. This will tell you if it’s finished the freeze drying process or not. You can also run your hand along the bottom of the pan to feel for the same thing. Any cold spots or even spots where you’re not sure means you need to keep the drying process going.
To continue your batch, you would put everything back in (trays and the cover), close the door, close the drain valve, and then press MORE DRYING TIME on the screen of your freeze dryer. It will give you an hour to let the vacuum pump cool and then it will start up a default of two more hours to dry. You can add or subtract time as you see fit on that screen.
Freeze Dried Meal RecipesI used these metal spatulas to cut them out. Cutting down, I created a cut out line and then lifted up the large chunks of freeze dried eggs and put them into a Mylar.
As I added more and more, I crunched the wafers into powder which makes more room in the bags. I generally put half a tray’s worth into a quart Mylar bag.
You can see I didn’t put a liner in these trays. It’s a liquid and can just go under the liner which would make things difficult when you’re trying to bag them.
Wow, planning on freeze dried food storage options can be kind of overwhelming. Life can sometimes be a little bit of a battle! And it’s not always between the classic Good vs. Evil. Often times it’s just with being SO human! I make check lists….and yes, I do sticky notes. You try to be organized and then things just get busy!
If you’re new to this I need to let you know, freeze drying can be addictive. The machines are expensive, so I know I want to keep mine working for me around the clock as much as possible–that keeps me busy. So, you do need to think ahead, create good habits and routines so that when distractions come along, you’re alerted that something is missing.
Bonnie told me right in the beginning to always put your Oxygen Absorbers in the Mylar bags FIRST! If you don’t develop that habit and a definite routine of packaging your items, you WILL sometimes forget or second guess yourself and end up having to open up the bag just to double check. Been there, done that! Ugh!
So, now I always write on the bag first in permanent Sharpie, usually on the side where it’s been sealed commercially (then you know it won’t permeate the Mylar). Then I put in the oxygen absorber before any food goes in.
If they are Mylar Zip Seal Bags (which I prefer), you can fill them full, then zip close. This helps hold them flat for sealing. Zip seal bags that you seal from the bottom are best, but they don’t seem to be available right now. Maybe everyone is building their freeze dried food storage!
After I’ve finished filling them all, I seal them with the Harvest Right Impulse Sealer that comes with the machine. My husband takes over from there putting them into the nice yellow/black Costco storage containers and labeling them. (You cannot buy these bins online).
For now, I’ve just labeled what is in each container, but I’ll organize each bin in categories of: Meats, Veggies, Fruits & Berries, Candies & Desserts, etc. I noticed that Bonnie has one labeled “READY TO EAT” –I love that!
In case you didn’t know, Mylar bags are NOT mouse-proof! Yes, I learned that the hard way too, and so did Bonnie recently. Costco’s storage containers are virtually mouse-proof, they are a heavy duty plastic and they stack! They also go on coupon about every 6 months, so ask and they’ll let you know when. ($2 – $3 off each one is great!). Freeze dried food storage is a huge way to save money in the long run, but it has definite costs initially.
Early on, I had a problem with my HarvestRight Freeze Drier but customer service was amazing in helping to resolve it! They sent me some complimentary gallon Mylar bags and oxygen absorbers for my trouble. I noticed that they were 900cc and the ones with my quart Mylar bags were 300cc. Knowing absolutely nothing about them or their sizes, I figured I better learn!
These little packets are basically filled with iron! Really, they are! They look similar to the little silica packets you find in shoe boxes, but they are completely different.
As oxygen and moisture touch the iron inside the packet, the iron oxidizes (or rusts) inside the packet and forms iron oxide. As that forms, it pulls out the oxygen and produces nitrogen. Ultimately, nitrogen keeps food from spoiling, keeps mold from growing on dairy items and reduces browning of fruits and vegetables. Amazing little critters!
They range from 20cc to 2000cc. A size 300cc can remove 300cc of oxygen. Generally, you can expect to use a 300cc absorber per gallon of food. But something like flour is very dense compared to say, chopped freeze dried onions, so a 200cc packet would work for the flour. Don’t use Oxygen absorbers with sugar or salt–they’ll get rock hard!
It seems that HarvestRight knows their stuff and they do a little bit of over-kill to make sure our foods are well cared for, so I’m okay with sticking with 900cc for gallon and 300cc for quart.