The everything about food thread.

[Wulf202]

The salt is bad but what's worse is the servings. Naturally they purposefully try to confused people by having servings sizes that looks like a month or two months or three months of food, but if you look at the calories in said servings they are crazy low. They taste ok though. Personally I'd buy a bunch of on sale canned goods. Cheaper, more variety and much, much easier to make. Only downer is you gotta have the space for it.

Agreed, lost a huge post where I broke this all down.

If you want something with weight and space savings get life boat rations.

[Inconel710]

If you want long shelf life food, give this a look - http://www.shelfreliance.com/

I tried some of it at the Self Reliance Expo and the taste was awesome. The best/worst part is you're buying ingredients, not ready to eat meals. You can mix things up more, but you're losing the convenince of Mountain House.

[Bad Dog]

Great idea Wulf202...I've got some lifeboat rations on order.

[BushMasterBoy]

I like large bags of rice! Goes good with rabbit, grouse, fish etc. Stores fairly easily and is a great provider of carbohydrates. Large bags of oats is good too! Oats is a quick easy breakfast.

[Bad Dog]

Does anyone know if it's practical to set up a home freeze drying operation, or is it even possible?

[Wulf202]

Does anyone know if it's practical to set up a home freeze drying operation, or is it even possible?

yes to both. ill post some links later.

basically you need a vacuum pump. and a chest freezer

[Sled_Dog]

yes to both. ill post some links later.

basically you need a vacuum pump. and a chest freezer

Bump, very interested in this.

[Wulf202]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlywGYcY-tA

I've messed around with this a bit. He does an excellent job of explaining this in layman terms with basic equipment.

You can find higher quality vacuum pumps on craigslist along with pressure gauges. If you want help making the copper bits let me know.

[Sled_Dog]

Thanks for posting this, I didn't even realize it could be done as a practical matter. I'm trying to think of how to scale this to home use. Also, when and how much heat to apply seems to be as much art as science.

[Wulf202]

From other projects i've read about the dry ice/alcohol/water cooler isn't necessary for most foods, you can simply put it in a very cold chest freezer with the space reduced and the thermostat tripped out.

Also it would be easier to double up the copper tubing and be able to valve one out and turn the other on for thawing also preventing loss of vacuum.

As far as applying heat; there is formula to it. Check out the charts here
https://256.makerslocal.org/wiki/DIY_Freeze_Dryer
http://science.howstuffworks.com/inn...ze-drying2.htm

Before I get too much farther into it i need a new meter for my thermo couples actually 2 meters and I'd like to find a way to get a hygrometer into the food.