Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire freeze dried elk chops

I'm experimenting. I hadn't tried this before. I thawed and sliced some good elk roasts into 3/4" chops and freeze dried them. Then I reconstituted one by soaking it in water for about 1/2 hour. Then I BBQ'd it. It looks over done but that's just the color it turned on the grill. It wasn't overdone at all. The taste is great, but glory BE! it's tough. I need to do some more research.

Freeze Dried them, how?

Based on the photos I am going to guess a Harvestright freeze dryer.

We have a freeze drier. HARVESTRIGHT
We've dried bushels of fruit and veggies but I'm just starting to learn how to do meat. Meat can be dried either raw or cooked. If done raw, it must be cooked before use. This was my 1st try at it raw.

Interesting, thanks.

Diced and tossed in with some freeze dried veggies and rice or noodles that would make a nice backpacking meal.

Harvestright is the only US maker of home sized freeze driers. They're located in Salt Lake.

Thinking that would be a tough cut of meat regardless of how it was cooked from the looks of it. You may not be doing anything wrong.

My parents got one recently...no idea why.

I was just going to try and make some meals for backpacking...any insight is helpful.

Thanks!

For that it would have to be cooked before drying. This is raw.

I know some of the guys here have freeze driers. Has anyone done some raw vs cooked for comparison?

round roasts. Not as tender as some but not the toughest by any means.

My wife makes trail meals using one, but they've all been cooked as far as I know.

We don't have a freeze dryer but one of her friends in LDS and gets her access to one at a Bishop Pantry. I will ask her if she has ever ran anything raw through there, but if not she will probably want to buy one to run that experiment.

Tag

Is freeze drying raw meat safe?

Very. All the bugs go dormant when dried. They'll stay that way for years, then reactive when it's reconstituted. It's exactly like it was before you froze it so it needs to be cooked.

Interesting. I was just going to cook everything, then freeze dry.

I need to do more research.

Appreciated!

Maybe soak in milk overnight to tenderize?

How tough were they going in?

Have you tried any other chops from the elk that haven't been freeze dried?

WTF.

We've done lots of fruit in ours - apples, peaches, nectarines, apricots, cherries, blackberries, etc. They come out great. When you eat it, it's a little dry and tasteless, but as soon as it gets wet in your mouth, you get a big burst of flavor. Cantaloupe works well, watermelon not so much.
Grapes, blueberries and other small skinned fruits need to be cut or poked with holes or the water can't escape. I've found that a tiny screwdriver works very well. Pit sweet cherries before drying. You need to cut them to let water out anyway so using a pitter takes care of that.

My wife did some raw cauliflower and broccoli. She likes them but I thought they were nasty. Cucumbers aren't so good, either.
Tomatoes are very good. After drying, we put them in a blender and turned them to powder. Store them in a glass jar and use them to sprinkle over salads, etc. They have very good flavor that way. If you bag them sliced, just a little water will make them very good very fast.

Warning: when you take stuff out of the drier, store it IMMEDIATELY or it'll start absorbing water. FD tomatoes will be damp in 30 min if you don't get them in bags or jars. And, that's here in the high desert. In a humid climate, it'll less time than that.