Freeze Dried Meat

[fern]

I have not purchased or tasted freeze dried meat to date. The cost is so high and so I am asking if there is value there over canning your own beyond the ease of packing it for travel? I am not even sure how many people could be fed from a #10 can if making a stew or soup? Anyone?

[Toepopper]

Um, oh, ahh, huuumm,

[WillyPete]

Basically, freeze dried is just some seriously dehydrated material. It is produced by using a fast, deep vacuum that literally freezes the moisture in the material but it does not stay put. The vacuum is so deep that the moisture evaporates out of it similar to what you see when dry ice fogs up, it's sublimating out of the material.
The vacuum system used is very complex, requires meticulous maintenance, large amounts fo power for the big motors driving the pumps and the pumps are hyper expensive anyway.
Sun drying, smoking and jerking meats are just as good as these freeze-dried specimens. Just nowhere near as expensive.

[fern]

And the taste and flavor factoring in the cost?

[WillyPete]

Sorry 'bout that, I was describing what happened instead of the rest.
Anyhoo, freeze dried does not lose any flavor, the material remains the same excepting the rapid dehydration, taste is unaffected.
Flavor's the same, it doesn't change enough to be objectionable. That's the main reason coffee producers use that process.
Seriously though, freeze dried is nothing special, don't waste your money on it.