Dehydrated vs Freeze dried

[goofball]

Is it just me or does it seem a bit odd to have food that requires one to add water to. I have seen these long term food storage products and wonder if they are a good idea. I am still in the early stages of my storing but am at the point I need to start collecting stuff that will last long term.

Has anyone had any experience with these products. Would you recommend them or do you have other ideas that work better.

[BenRaines]

We use both freeze dried and dehydrated food products. What is important is to store enough water to mix the foods. It would be difficult to store all products in current state where they will be needed versus dehydrated or freeze dried.

Perhaps a combination of both.

Ben Raines

[Iggy]

Dehydrated - if done at home and done properly and then stored properly will last much longer than canned or frozen.

Freeze dried will last even longer. Plus they take less room to store.

It is easy to use dehydrated foods on a daily basis. I toss some extra peas, carrots, potatoes, onions, red bell peppers and mushrooms into a can of ready to eat soup. Just a teaspoon of each, let it sit for about 1/2 hour in just enough boiling hot water to barely cover, then heat and eat. The soup is heartier and more flavorful with the additions. I buy the store brand of soup as it is the cheapest, then add to it. The soup I get has a lot of extra liquid- I drain some off into a measuring cup, nuke it to boiling, add the dehydrated veggies and let them soak till they are mostly reconstituted.

I also add dehydrated veggies to chicken noodle soup. Makes it even better in my opinion! You can quite often buy a case of chicken noodle soup on sale- there is more than enough liquid per can to reconstitute your veggies.

To dehydrate veggies- buy the frozen veggies when they are on a real good sale. Quickly thaw by putting them in a colander, and running cold tap water on them. Drain and pat dry if they are wet. One bag (16 oz.) should fit per tray of your dehydrator. Once they are dehydrated, package up in an air tight container or vacuum seal in a seal-a-meal. I do 1/4 tray per package.

All frozen veggies are already blanched - just quick thaw them in running water, drain and pat dry.

Some grocery stores sell the not so fresh mushrooms, green/yellow/red bell peppers, etc. at a reduced price. Buy them up, slice/dice and dehydrate! They don't need to be blanched. Do it right away before the veggies mature too much!

Same with onions. Chop or dice them up and then cut some netting (from the fabric store) to fit the trays, then set your dehydrator up in the garage. DO NOT DO IT IN THE HOUSE - the fumes could kill you, your small children or pets. It killed the mice in the walls of my shed!!! Nearly killed me when I did it in the house.

[crytsprospect]

I have a dehydrator... I dry meat and fruit it is really nice but freeze dried stores well . You have to see what your family will eat , try items because having alot of food storage no one wants to eat isn't a good thing either.

Both are excellent for your longer term storage. However, Freeze Dried or dehydrated foods are not recommended by me for 72 hour kits. You simply cannot pack enough water or filter enough water to make this a viable option for a 72 hour or a survival kit. MRE, Ration bars or even canned food is a better option for 72 hour kits ... IMHEO

[crytsprospect]

Word knows :} you are so right about 72 hr kits. The rule about 72 hr kits is keep it simple. My son brings MRE's home from drill some are so very good. They are dehydrated or freeze dried but have a cool water heating system.... the whole thing is awesome.

[KuriChan]

I am fairly knowledgeable in this particular subject because I have been selling freeze-dried food (mostly to LDS families) for over a year and a half now. Freeze-dried is much better than dehydration because the dehydration process involves removing most of the water from the food through extreme heat (causing a grape to become a raisin) which changes the flavor and cooks out several vitamins etc. Freeze-drying is a special process that simply takes out the water and oxygen (leaving everything intact) and lasts much longer.

[goofball]

Thanks for the info. I have found it very useful. I am one of those building up the supply slowly but surely.

I have not heard of cool water heating system. What does that do for the food.

[bcguy]

What exactly is freeze dried?

[KuriChan]

It is a special process that, instead of cooking out all the moisture like in dehydration, you actually pour liquid nitrogen into the food you make which takes out the water and oxygen. Because all the water and oxygen is out, obviously nothing can grow, decompose, etc inside. Since nitrogen is about 70% of our atmosphere, you know it is completely harmless. None of the nutrients, taste, or anything is affected by the process. All you do is add water and its like it never happened... proven up to 40 years so far with the special style we do.