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Experiments in food prep:3 year old butter, 4 year old onions and green onions, and tomatos (unknown date, at least 4 years old)

submitted by totes_magotes to preppers 8 monthsAug 25, 2023 15:09:23 ago (+7/-1)     (preppers)

Canned the butter myself in 2020. Basically, you heat it up a bit, pour it into jars, shake regularly as it cools down. Tastes great, normal texture, spreads easily, does not need to be refrigerated. To be honest, the photo of the butter does not do it justice. That shit was practically a golden glowing yellow and looked amazing. Though, as to be expected from butter you've heated, when it melts it wants to separate into solids and oil especially if put in farina, oatmeal, and the like.

Onions. Freeze dried and sealed in a jar. They're onions. Nothing special. I used them in a stir fry. Tasted just fine. Could have made onion powder or minced onions from that if I wanted.

Green onions. Freeze dried. Interestingly, they turned a little brown even though they were still as crispy "fresh" as the day I canned them. I ate a couple and waited for a few hours. No stomach upset, sniffles, irritation, or explosive diarrhea so they went into the stir fry as well. These tasted just fine as well.

The tomatoes have been freeze dried and on the shelf for... I wanna say around 4 years. I honestly didn't expect them to stay on the shelf this long so I never put a date on them. I also put some in bags around the same time. The bags did NOT keep them safe and they turned into mush within months. The jars, however, were perfect for long term shelf storage. Pulling them out, they were still as "fresh" as the day they were canned. Still snapped, ground to powder, etc. They tasted fine and did not exit my ass at light speed so those went into a rice dish just fine.



Photos:

https://files.catbox.moe/444fxm.jpg

https://files.catbox.moe/vebrko.jpg

https://files.catbox.moe/79qmn5.jpg

https://files.catbox.moe/3rrm5r.jpg


8 comments block

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[ - ] TheOriginal1Icemonkey 0 points 8 monthsAug 27, 2023 18:24:20 ago (+0/-0)

I’ve bought shit tones of freeze dried foods, both bagged and canned, from the suppliers you are familiar with. I looked into the machine you have and all o saw was horrible reviews, poor service, massive downtime, oil changes, all kinds of reasons to NoT make that purchase.
Apparently I have more money than time, and I have stocked up accordingly. I’ve dated everyithing and have tried some stuff, but I’m not really worried about checking in on all of it all the time. When a sepals comes up, I buy more. I have a bit of everything. I also have bagged up and bucket Ted my own rice and beans, all different types. I’m glad you’re having fun with all this. It’s pretty cool and I hope you get things dialed in and reliable. Thanks for posting.

[ - ] TheOriginal1Icemonkey 0 points 8 monthsAug 27, 2023 18:24:01 ago (+0/-0)

I’ve bought shit tones of freeze dried foods, both bagged and canned, from the suppliers you are familiar with. I looked into the machine you have and all o saw was horrible reviews, poor service, massive downtime, oil changes, all kinds of reasons to NoT make that purchase.
Apparently I have more money than time, and I have stocked up accordingly. I’ve dated everyithing and have tried some stuff, but I’m not really worried about checking in on all of it all the time. When a sepals comes up, I buy more. I have a bit of everything. I also have bagged up and bucket Ted my own rice and beans, all different types. I’m glad you’re having fun with all this. It’s pretty cool and I hope you get things dialed in and reliable. Thanks for posting.

[ - ] TheOriginal1Icemonkey 0 points 8 monthsAug 27, 2023 18:23:36 ago (+0/-0)

I’ve bought shit tones of freeze dried foods, both bagged and canned, from the suppliers you are familiar with. I looked into the machine you have and all o saw was horrible reviews, poor service, massive downtime, oil changes, all kinds of reasons to NoT make that purchase.
Apparently I have more money than time, and I have stocked up accordingly. I’ve dated everyithing and have tried some stuff, but I’m not really worried about checking in on all of it all the time. When a sepals comes up, I buy more. I have a bit of everything. I also have bagged up and bucket Ted my own rice and beans, all different types. I’m glad you’re having fun with all this. It’s pretty cool and I hope you get things dialed in and reliable. Thanks for posting.

[ - ] Hand_Of_Node 1 point 8 monthsAug 25, 2023 15:23:38 ago (+1/-0)

Basic freeze dryers are $2500 to $4000. Are they worth it? (if civilization doesn't crash)

As for your bags, vacuum sealed mylar bags with O2 eaters, or just plastic zip locks?

[ - ] totes_magotes [op] 2 points 8 monthsAug 25, 2023 15:54:09 ago (+2/-0)

100% worth it. Even if you're not into the prepping lifestyle, you can throw your leftovers in there and eat them later. Throw them in a jar with O2 absorbers, label, put on shelf. Then you can pull it down for dinner in the future, have a quick already packed lunch or whatever you wanna do. Or you can make a whole holiday dinner ahead of time (maybe you've got a really long weekend and you're bored), freeze dry it, put on shelf and just add hot water later when the holiday rolls around. No long cooking times. But you gotta know what you can freeze dry and expect to be amazing when you pull it out and what will be "meh" or just nasty.

These bags were mylar, vacuum sealed, with lots of O2 absorbers. I've noticed that some things don't last in the bags and some do. Mushrooms and tomatoes, for example, do not. Meat, fruit, gravy, spaghetti, potatoes, onions, etc. do just fine. I'm beginning to think that the softer the food item is in its natural form, the more it needs to be perfectly sealed (like a jar). Mashed potatoes do very well in the freeze dryer, for example. So does turkey, green beans, gravies, and so on. Breads freeze dry well but rehydrating them can be iffy depending on what it is. Biscuits? Only short term and you have to break it into chunks and let it set for a while. Pancakes? Do really well. Waffles, they do okay but not as well as pancakes.

As for sealing jars, you can either get a FoodSaver (or similar) with a jar attachment or you can just put the jar in the freeze dryer chamber and plug it directly to the wall for a few seconds.

[ - ] PotatoWhisperer2 0 points 8 monthsAug 25, 2023 16:18:13 ago (+0/-0)

Kind of reminds me of what freezes well and what doesn't. Might be a link there.

[ - ] Hand_Of_Node 0 points 8 monthsAug 25, 2023 17:11:37 ago (+0/-0)

Thanks, what kind of setup did you get? Regular pump or oilless? What attachments or extras do you recommend? (like the jar attachment for a FoodSaver and such)

Most meat should be good for 10 to 15 years if it is properly freeze dried and stored in at least a 7 mil mylar bag.

Have you tried meat?

[ - ] totes_magotes [op] 0 points 8 monthsAug 25, 2023 21:39:02 ago (+0/-0)

I got a regular pump. Filtering and changing oil is such a nothing compared to the price difference between the two pumps.

I use the freeze dryer, FoodSaver (with the jar attachment as well as the marinator), mylar bags compatible with the FoodSaver, an impulse sealer for bags that can't be used in the FoodSaver, jars, and O2 absorbers.

Meat works fairly well, better if it doesn't have a lot of fat. Pork, generally great. Chicken, absolutely. Beef, yup. Hot dogs, nope, doesn't work. Sausage and other high fat meats are a bit of a mixed bag - they'll freeze dry but remain a bit greasy and they'll store for a while in bags just fine but because of the high fat/grease content, rehydrating them is a little annoying. Sausage patties, for example, pretty much have to be boiled for a few minutes but are otherwise just fine.