Making, Freeze Drying, and Rehydrating Meat Loaf

Making, freeze drying, and rehydrating meat loaf. Making 32 mini meat loaves; a little less than 1 lb each.
This is part of our Freeze Drying The Alphabet from A to Z series.

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As an Amazon Affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases from the links provided. By clicking on the links, you can explore the products and tools I use.
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PackFreshUSA
We have been buying oxygen absorbers and 7 mil Mylar bags from PackFreshUSA since early 2018. During all that time (1000's of bag and oxygen absorbers, and about 6 year before before we added this affiliate link) we have been happy with the products and service we have received from them.
Use the discount code "SchoolReports5" to get 10% off your first purchase when using the link.
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Harvest Right - If you are thinking of buying a freeze dryer, please consider supporting us by purchasing through our link. It helps us and costs you nothing!
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Before buying a freeze dryer, perhaps research to find out more about the downside of the machine; some people have problems with their machine and it's big and heavy and hard to return!

When trying to decide what to freeze dry you can start by asking why.
Start by asking yourself this question. Why are you freeze drying food? Knowing this should help you decide what you should freeze dry first.
I'm freeze drying because:
Just to freeze dry leftovers?
You want to make your own food for camping/backpacking?
For if/when the SHTF?
For a short term emergency?
You have your own garden and want to freeze dry the food?
You love Costco but don't have a family of 6?
You are good at finding the food sales but only have 1 freezer?
When you cook homemade chili just for yourself you make 10 gallons? Because you have 3 full freezers and are worried about power outages?

If I knew then what I know now, I would have freeze dried things in a different order. Or maybe not, because I started freeze drying because we had 3 full freezers, I was thinking of getting another one, and I decided I should buy a walk-in freezer instead. I started looking into walk-ins and realized they were expensive to buy (even used ones) AND expensive to own and operate. Then I found out Harvest Right was making home sized freeze dryers. One of my first thoughts was "I like Mountain House!" I have used their food for backpacking almost 45 years and we even kept some in our travel trailer, for just in case.

Freeze dried food will stay fresh for many years and be ready and waiting when you need it.
We do videos showing how we are using our Harvest Right Freeze Dryer to freeze dry food for long term storage. (We have the medium size machine that we got in August of 2017) We talk about how to load and unload the freeze dryer, how to know if the food is dry, is it better to freeze dry raw food or cooked food, and do a few taste tests. Freeze dried food is also great for prepping or just for camping and snacking!

Music: Hungarian Rhapsody No 2 by Liszt

[sarahgordon]

Just found your site and have enjoyed your teachings. Thank you for your time and sharing your knowledge. Always looking for ways to improve our food thru freeze drying.

[debrasonner]

Where did you get your insert for the freeze dryer?

[iasimov]

"Hungarian Rhapsody" is an interesting musical selection for this production but for making meat loaf I would have used Two Out ofThree Ain't Bad.

[eileenplyler]

Just ordered a Harvest Right freeze dryer and am anxious to begin using it. Thank you for your many videos. As a Pepper for many many years, your videos convinced me I needed this. Just wish I had one during my backpacking years. Thanks for the excellent videos!

[glendawolfe]

What temp did you bake them dand about how long. Thanks. Going to try this recipe out this weekend.

[sugetoosty]

Shouldn't you weigh it after cooked? That's how you'll rehydrate it, right? Brilliant slicing it!

[jerrysmith]

Thanks Dan - now you just need some beef gravy to go over that meatloaf.

[sugetoosty]

Also, do you put a desiccant in with the O2 absorber? With the fat, how long do you think it will last? Newbie here.

[shaynastarkweather]

What would you describe the texture of the freeze dried meatloaf as? More like a cracker or hard crouton?

[TearDrop]

Just curious, have you experimented with rehydrating with flavorful liquids instead of just plain water?
Thanks

[halfcrazyoldchristianredne]

My impulse sealers are still back order, so I am making do with an iron, the heat sealer on my chamber vac isn't quite hot enough for the bags I use lol. Where do you get your bags?

[EyesC.]

Good morning. Do you remember what kind of hamburger you used? I have a ton of 85% in my freezer. Not sure if it would work. I know I need to 95% to work better, but curious if I could do it using a rack to drain the grease off? Btw: do you sell your acrylic disks? Thank you!

[IgoOutlateAtnight]

Meatloaf looks awesome! Any rough estimate how long this might last if stored with O2 absorbers in sealed mylar?

[henryknox]

Everything was fine until I saw the Mickey Mouse plate.