Home made freeze dried and jerky treats
Feb 21, 2012 9:29:54 GMT -5
lefertmama and silentdook like this
Post by Sherry on Feb 21, 2012 9:29:54 GMT -5
Thanks josiesmom!
Sherry,
MAKing freeze dried at home is a breeze. As long as you have a frost free freezer, space and patience. Basically it boils down to take whatever meaty item you want as long as it is lean, slice it thin and small. One inch square by 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick is best. lay out flat on wax paper. place on a cookie sheet and put it in the freezer - do NOT cover it! I suppose you could hasten the process by rolling the thin pieces between layers of paper towels with a rolling pin, or press between nesting pans. But I simply put the sheets of meat pieces int he freezer and ignore them. Depending on the frost free unit you have and the leanness of the meat generally about 10 days to two weeks will yield pieces that have significantly shrivelled and now have the consistency of saddle leather. PERFECT!
I home air dry too in my broiler oven. Same premise, but the meat can stay in strips one inch or so wide, no more than 1/4 inch thick (1/8 thick is best). hang on rack, set oven to 150 BAKE and leave it. Put a shallow pan or aluminum foil in the oven floor to catch any drippings. Generally overnight or around 12 hours the strips are dried just right!
If you get ground turkey, ground veal, ground chicken (low fat ground meat) and mix them together these can be pressed into ice cube trays to only HALF full. Put in the frost free freezer and forget for a couple weeks or longer until the cubes are shrunken and leathery. slice a couple to check for interior doneness or slice them all to speed up the freeze drying!
Ice cube trays work well too if you are limited on space for the meaty sliced pieces, it just takes a little longer because the trays don't let the air circulate as much.
Commercial freeze dried is o.k. but expensive and done using vacuum to speed up the process. But the slow way works just as well, is MUCH easier on the pocket book and yields meats that YOU know the sources!
Theoretically, this slice and dry could be applied to whole prey and would likely yield some tastey treats - I just can't bring myself to do the slicing....
Cheers,
Kim
Sherry,
MAKing freeze dried at home is a breeze. As long as you have a frost free freezer, space and patience. Basically it boils down to take whatever meaty item you want as long as it is lean, slice it thin and small. One inch square by 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick is best. lay out flat on wax paper. place on a cookie sheet and put it in the freezer - do NOT cover it! I suppose you could hasten the process by rolling the thin pieces between layers of paper towels with a rolling pin, or press between nesting pans. But I simply put the sheets of meat pieces int he freezer and ignore them. Depending on the frost free unit you have and the leanness of the meat generally about 10 days to two weeks will yield pieces that have significantly shrivelled and now have the consistency of saddle leather. PERFECT!
I home air dry too in my broiler oven. Same premise, but the meat can stay in strips one inch or so wide, no more than 1/4 inch thick (1/8 thick is best). hang on rack, set oven to 150 BAKE and leave it. Put a shallow pan or aluminum foil in the oven floor to catch any drippings. Generally overnight or around 12 hours the strips are dried just right!
If you get ground turkey, ground veal, ground chicken (low fat ground meat) and mix them together these can be pressed into ice cube trays to only HALF full. Put in the frost free freezer and forget for a couple weeks or longer until the cubes are shrunken and leathery. slice a couple to check for interior doneness or slice them all to speed up the freeze drying!
Ice cube trays work well too if you are limited on space for the meaty sliced pieces, it just takes a little longer because the trays don't let the air circulate as much.
Commercial freeze dried is o.k. but expensive and done using vacuum to speed up the process. But the slow way works just as well, is MUCH easier on the pocket book and yields meats that YOU know the sources!
Theoretically, this slice and dry could be applied to whole prey and would likely yield some tastey treats - I just can't bring myself to do the slicing....
Cheers,
Kim