So I want to rehydrate the meat using a very slow marination process, which is going to infuse the taste on a cellular level. So that’s what I’m hoping to do. So this is why we’re doing it raw today. Now, let’s just see what we have here. So we have some steak. We have some chicken thighs, which have been cut down a little bit. There’s a lot of fat content in there. I’m a little bit worried about that. But you know, fat is flavour. We want to keep a little bit of that. We don’t want to lose it entirely.

And then, of course, we have some chicken breasts. And then I’m not sure what kind of fish this is. My assistant is not here today, but I think she got some kind of northern pike or I don’t know. I’m hoping this is not halibut because if it is, then this is going to be a really expensive freeze dryer. But it doesn’t really have a crazy fishy smell. So I’m hoping it doesn’t contaminate the rest of the meat. We’re going to do some ground beef, but I’m not too sure about that ground beef. I forgot about it last night.

And I’m not going to take a chance with it. So we’re just going to do these meats. And what I hope to do is put them in a plastic bag. With marinade, let it slowly absorb overnight, kind of like you do normally with marinade. Only this time, every single cell in the meat is going to be infused with that flavour. Now, if this works out, how I envision it to, I might have to open a pre-apocalyptic restaurant. Right now, we’re using the extra large freeze dryer from Harvest Right, which would be perfect if you’re a hunter or if you’re somebody who has a lot of animals on a homestead.

We’re probably not going to need to use all these trays today, but we’ll see how many we can put to use. So here we got our fish. I’m not too concerned about the thickness. I think we should be fine. Typically, you don’t want things too thick, like that is probably too thick. So I’m probably going to have to cut that. On the show 1923, when all the settlers are moving across the plains and they need to get themselves a cook, because these are all immigrants. They don’t know how to cook. They don’t know how to survive.

So they hire this guy to cook for them. And I don’t know where I’m going with this. All I’m saying is that cooking is important, right? You’re going to need a camp chef, somebody to make sure they’re keeping stock of the rations and the food. Because if you just leave everybody to their own devices, that’s probably not going to be good. All right, here we got some steak from a cow that I grew. The benefit of a smaller freeze dryer is that if you are just wanting to do smaller amounts of stuff, like say you made a little bit too much food and you want a freeze dryer, but you want it to be energy efficient.

So you want it to be cost effective. That’s when a smaller freeze dryer is going to come in handy. So we got things that swim, things that walk, and now things that fly, sort of. So this is the chicken thighs. And as you can see, there’s a lot of fat in here. And now, the chicken breast. I do not like the sound of this. It’s like my dog licking himself. I’m not too sure about this. It’s been sitting overnight. So let’s hope there’s no death on there. Yeah, so that’s pretty much all there is to this.

You know, this is going to allow us to preserve this meat for a long, long time while preserving the texture. But what we really want to try to master here is the rehydration process. Because freeze drying is easy, more or less. Rehydration is an art form into itself. And if you do it right, it basically makes the difference between mediocre and amazing. All right, let’s get her in here. Now, I imagine we’ll be back in around 24 hours. So see you then. Here we are a day later. We actually could have taken this out a lot sooner, but I wanted to put some extra dry time on just in case I’m always leery about meat.

The last thing you want is some unnecessary water. So we’re going to end the batch. We’re going to open the drain valve. Now, I did a little bit of research on the slimy chicken and apparently that might not be a good sign. So I don’t think I’m going to eat this chicken as a result of that. I probably could have washed it off. Honestly, you’re probably going to survive. Maybe we’ll test it on the dogs first. They have a much more hearty intestinal tract than we do. So we’ll see what happens. Maybe the dogs are going to be in for some really nice treats.

But as you can see, freeze dried well. No problems there. Chicken thighs look like they were okay. I don’t see moisture. I don’t see grease. Fish is perfect. Fish is one of the easiest things to freeze dry. And we got our steak, which looks amazing. Okay, one thing to keep in mind, and I was doing some research on this last night, freeze drying will not kill bacteria or viruses. In fact, it can actually preserve them. That’s why it’s imperative that whatever you put in there is as clean as possible. Now, that said, when you go and cook it, you’re likely going to be killing stuff if there is anything in there.

But this is the same case with any meat. So you run that risk eating meat, period. So let’s not go all botulism Betty in the comment section. So I’m going to do today, we’re going to package this in mylar with some oxygen absorbers. And then we’re going to actually make marinades, different types of marinades. We’re going to let that food soak that up overnight. So we’re going to do a long soak, and then we’re going to try it out. We’re going to see if we can make some post apocalyptic cuisine. Let’s see how it breaks. Pretty good.

It was a little, little soft, but that’s okay. This is probably one of the thicker ones. Let’s see this. Oh yeah, that’s good. That’s perfect. So when we saturate this and that marinade, it’s going to suck it all up like a sponge. It’s going to infuse it on a cellular level. The fish is actually kind of hard to break. It’s so fibrous. Okay, now let’s try the chicken thighs. Very fibrous as well. I’m not seeing much fat. Oh, I think I’ve seen a little bit. Oh yeah, there’s a little bit of grease on there. This is why you don’t do chicken thighs.

As for the botulistic chicken breast, easy peasy. Chicken breast is the way to go. So all we’re going to do is we’re going to put three or four of these in each one of these bags. There’s a certain amount of oxygen absorbers that you’re going to want. These are 300 cc. So we’re just going to throw one in each. This is not for long, long-term food storage. If it was 20 years, I’d be far more methodical with what I was doing. We want to get that in there as soon as possible. And we’re not going to seal it this time.

What you could normally do at this point is take your hair crimper and just seal that part right there. And that’s going to make it airtight. You could vacuum seal them, but vacuum sealing is not required, especially when you have oxygen absorbers. Honestly, this stuff is going to last probably forever. Mountain House says 35 years. And the only reason why they only say 35 years is they’ve only been in business so long. Freeze drying, realistically, for as far as we know, could last hundreds of years. There’s a ship that went down in the Mississippi in the 1800s.

They opened it up, and all the canned goods were still edible after 150 years. The companies, though, want food expiration dates because they know that people are going to throw their food out. And it’s like the planned obsolescence model. As I was saying, even if you’re a little leery about the meat, just give it to the dogs. People are going to be like, don’t feed your dogs up. If you’ve seen what animals eat in the wilderness, a dog’s going to know, too. A dog, they got their wits. They have a good smell. They know if something’s bad or not.

Like coyotes, they eat frickin’ deer carcass that’s been laying in the hot sun for five weeks. Karen, don’t project your own weaknesses onto the dogs. The dogs are going to survive. Karen is not. So you marinated four different types of marinade with the beef and the fish, and we rehydrated that freeze-dried meat with marinade so every cell is infused with flavor now. Yes. Much different from marinade marinade, where you’re kind of putting the marinade on top. This actually absorbed it. And they’re all nicely rehydrated. This has been in there overnight. This is really the way to go, is the overnight Ziploc bag method.

Yes. So you want to tell us again what these are? Soy boy, Greek boy, chipotle, herbengar. This one is weird. It doesn’t feel like it absorbed a lot. It thought about it. This one did. This one feels really good. And then this one did it really well, too, like maybe the higher salt content or something. I don’t know. It’s hard to say because it could just be a tougher cut of meat, too. Well, now it’s time. The moment of truth. So first we’re going to try the soy boy. It’s fishy. It’s salty. I’d say that’s a little too much.

Yeah. So I’m going to have to pass on the soy boy. What’s the next one? Herbengarlic. Very yummy. It’s not bad for fish, you know. It’s got that sweet that I like, that savory sweet, you know. Next up, Greek Despartan. I love it. You like it? I’ve had this marinade all my life. I think it would be great with chicken. I think all of this, with the exception of the soy sauce, which is a little rich for the fish, because that fish just absorbs the f*** out of everything, right? And it just got obliterated.

I mean… Yeah. Chipotle. Chipotle. Considering this will taste the same in 25 years, I mean, that’s pretty damn impressive, you know. And you really get all of that marinade in it, so… It’s like there’s a sponge of flavor, and you’re squeezing that sponge out in your mouth. Let’s try the steak soy boy. It’s a little drier. It’s very salty because of that soy. Valuation. The flavor is, yeah. Like, all the way through. It just needs a bit more moisture. This is the Greek? Why? Should be. Mmm. Were it not for the toughness, this is like f***ing awesome.

Best marinade in the world. I have high hopes for that one, because it’s thin. The thinner, the better. Chipotle. To the cowboys. Because we’re trying to demonstrate this to you guys, and this is some real talk here, we’re cooking eight different types of meats, and so we’re not getting really the full, fresh experience because we have to get it on the cutting board. The camera guys have to do some B-roll glamour shots. Then we got to get everything set up. Then we get to eat, so we’re not really experiencing it like fresh out of the pan, so…

Consider it. In fairness, it’s all right. I mean, I think, had it been in a pool of its juices or whatever, it’d be all right. There’s kind of a period of time when it’s gonna retain all that water and be the best. Let’s try that one before it gets too cool. What is that one there? Herban garlic. The dawn. The flavor’s great. It’s just the chewiness. It more or less turned out how I thought it would. It’s just a matter of mastering preparation. That’s really half the battle with freeze-dried food. All right, guys, thanks for watching.

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