# Freeze Dried Wild Game



## brisket (Mar 3, 2015)

I'm new to the freeze drying scene and wondering if anyone here has had success freeze drying wild game? Specifically I'm looking for recipes that will freeze dry well that you can rehydrate quickly with boiling water, similar to a freeze dried backpacking meal.

So far I've experimented on my chili recipe (made with elk) and a deer roast with vegetables cooked in a pressure cooker over rice. Both seemed to freeze dry well. Upon rehydration the chili was great. I didn't attempt to rehydrate the deer although I should have done so before packaging it for long term storage.


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## colorcountrygunner (Oct 6, 2009)

brisket said:


> I'm new to the freeze drying scene and wondering if anyone here has had success freeze drying wild game? Specifically I'm looking for recipes that will freeze dry well that you can rehydrate quickly with boiling water, similar to a freeze dried backpacking meal.
> 
> So far I've experimented on my chili recipe (made with elk) and a deer roast with vegetables cooked in a pressure cooker over rice. Both seemed to freeze dry well. Upon rehydration the chili was great. I didn't attempt to rehydrate the deer although I should have done so before packaging it for long term storage.


I don't own a freeze dryer (pretty spendy little tool) but I may take the plunge eventually. If you do any more wild game let us know how it works out! I'm very interested to hear!


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## DIRTYS6X6 (May 19, 2021)

Maybe you could find some help here.









Harvest Right Home Freeze Dryers - The best way to preserve food


Freeze drying at home with a Harvest Right freeze dryer is the best way to preserve food for your family.




harvestright.com


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

This is gonna be my favorite thread.

I'd like to get a freeze dryer too, especially for garden vegetables....spendy though.

I've made a number of backpacking meals using store-bought freeze dried meat. Worked ok, taste pretty good, but the shelf life was not good. I need to work on the packaging, backpacking meals are getting expensive.


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## caddis8 (Sep 10, 2007)

wyogoob said:


> This is gonna be my favorite thread.
> 
> I'd like to get a freeze dryer too, especially for garden vegetables....spendy though.
> 
> I've made a number of backpacking meals using store-bought freeze dried meat. Worked ok, taste pretty good, but the shelf life was not good. I need to work on the packaging, backpacking meals are getting expensive.


My parents have one. They love it. Strawberries, peaches, apples, tons of garden veggies, skittles, bit-o-honey, chicken, ground beef. They vaccum seal all of it, and we really enjoy it. They give their spoils to us and we appreciate it.


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## brisket (Mar 3, 2015)

colorcountrygunner said:


> I don't own a freeze dryer (pretty spendy little tool) but I may take the plunge eventually. If you do any more wild game let us know how it works out! I'm very interested to hear!


Spendy, yes. Feeding and elk you shot in 2021 to your unborn grandkids in the year 2046, priceless. 😉

Who knows, really, if I'll ever see a return on investment with this machine, but it really is the best way to preserve food long term. The plan is to keep it running 24/7 and see how it goes.


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## brisket (Mar 3, 2015)

Here's what the chili looked like coming out of the freeze drier. The color lightened and it's super lightweight and crunchy with all the water removed. Hopefully this will store long-term. I plan to open one up to eat every few months to make sure it's preserving okay.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

Since Easter is coming up put some of those Peeps or whatever they are called into it. I actually can't stand the but freeze drying them make them tolerable.


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## colorcountrygunner (Oct 6, 2009)

Critter said:


> Since Easter is coming up put some of those Peeps or whatever they are called into it. I actually can't stand the but freeze drying them make them tolerable.


They are probably so laden with preservatives that they can last indefinitely as is. No need to freeze dry.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

It gives them more of a crunchy texture instead of the marshmallow texture

Sent from my SM-J737V using Tapatalk


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

They remind me of eating styrofoam. Or packing peanuts. Really gross.

-DallanC


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## Lone_Hunter (Oct 25, 2017)

If your going to get a freezedryer, the sooner, the better, they've been going up in price. They were already spendy, now their getting ridiclous i tihnk, or at least last i looked. I've been making a crap ton of "mountain house" meals for this years hunt.

I haven't freeze dried any wild game (last year was "teh suck" ), but I can offer these nuggets in no particular order, some are obvious:


Freeze drying fruit takes a long freaking time. Too much water content to extract. Generally speaking, anything like soup, chilli, fruit, high water content, takes the longest. Keep that in mind if your prioritizing batchs.
Veggies out of the garden seem to do well
Any meat needs to be cooked ahead of time.
Try to freeze food, before putting it in the freeze dryer. This saves on processing time.
Buy extra trays to put your next batch on, so they get frozen, and ready to go for the next job. Trust me, you don't want to freeze food in a storage bag, and try and lay it out on a tray later.
Buy extra vaccum pump oil if you need it. Personally I have 3 batch's of oil. One i leave sitting out so the water sinks to the bottom, the other goes into a freezer to freeze the water, and the 3rd batch of oil is currently in use.
Freezing the oil is a great way to separate water from oil.
You can make an oil filter out of coffee filters and batting from an old pillow. The oil filters harvest right used to make looked like these home made el cheapo jobs. Now i'm glad I have it because I can referbish the filter instead of having to buy a new one.
Storage bags, i'd just stick with the harvest right bags. Buying the cheap **** off amazon will yield a punctured bag.
Run the freeze dryer longer then what it wants to. Like, 14 hours longer. Just to make sure it's dry.
Get your oxygen obsorbers off amazon, you can buy them in bulk relatively cheaply.
The realsealable harvest right bags, are deceptively larger then you think. Push the bottom out, they are folded up really tight.
You don't have to seal the bag at the top where the tear mark is. Think outside the box and seal it lower if it's not the ziplock indvidual meal bag. Get the air out.
Double seal your bags
If the food isn't stored properly, you'll know it within a week, the food inside will get mushy. If you squeeze it, and hear a dry crunch, it's good.

That's all for now, i can probably think of a bunch of other crap but out of gas.

edit:
You'll slowly go through oil over time.
Suggestions:








Amazon.com: JB Industries DVO-24 Bottle of Black Gold Vacuum Pump Oil, 1 gallon - GIDDS-2463009 : Industrial & Scientific


Buy JB Industries DVO-24 Bottle of Black Gold Vacuum Pump Oil, 1 gallon - GIDDS-2463009: Vacuum Pumps - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases



www.amazon.com













Amazon.com: FreshUs 500cc Oxygen Absorber(20 Individual Packs of 10 Packet, Total 200 Packets) - Long Term Food Storage (200, 500 CC) : Home & Kitchen


Amazon.com: FreshUs 500cc Oxygen Absorber(20 Individual Packs of 10 Packet, Total 200 Packets) - Long Term Food Storage (200, 500 CC) : Home & Kitchen



www.amazon.com


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## brisket (Mar 3, 2015)

Lone_Hunter said:


> If your going to get a freezedryer, the sooner, the better, they've been going up in price. They were already spendy, now their getting ridiclous i tihnk, or at least last i looked. I've been making a crap ton of "mountain house" meals for this years hunt.
> 
> I haven't freeze dried any wild game (last year was "teh suck" ), but I can offer these nuggets in no particular order, some are obvious:
> 
> ...


Late response, but thanks for the info! Lots of awesome tips there.

Great callout on the mushy bags, I checked mine and had a deer roast go mushy and a bag of strawberries. Not sure why.


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## brisket (Mar 3, 2015)

I made a large batch of elk chili using the recipe in the Meateater cookbook. Much different than the chili I usually make but the family really liked it. This one had beans in it. It freeze dried well:















I also made a batch of mule deer spaghetti. It seemed to work and hasn’t gone mushy yet:















So far, everything has freeze dried well with the exception of a pressure cooked deer roast served over rice noodles. I don’t know why. I’m going to give it another go this week using leftovers from dinner today.


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## brisket (Mar 3, 2015)

Lone_Hunter said:


> If your going to get a freezedryer, the sooner, the better, they've been going up in price. They were already spendy, now their getting ridiclous i tihnk, or at least last i looked. I've been making a crap ton of "mountain house" meals for this years hunt.
> 
> I haven't freeze dried any wild game (last year was "teh suck" ), but I can offer these nuggets in no particular order, some are obvious:
> 
> ...


Thanks for the tips on the oxygen absorbers and the pump oil. Much cheaper then ordering through harvest right. Just ordered some.


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