Freeze Drying Mistakes 9 – Filling the Trays with Liquid Before Loading Them in the Unit
It's a simple thing, but maybe easy to miss. Liquids spill. So – if you want to load up a tray of something like soup or milk, it's best to limit how far that liquid needs to travel in the tray.
Get your try in the freeze dryer, and then pour the liquid in – or load it right next to the freeze dryer and transport it inches instead of feet. Each tray will hold about a quart.
Freeze Drying Mistakes 10 – Filling the Freeze Dryer Too Full
Harvest Right Freeze Dryer работи, като издърпва вода от храната и тази вода замръзва от вътрешната страна на вакуумната камера, образувайки слой лед.
Too much food = too much ice = machine that can't finish the drying cycle.
I haven't run into this, but others have said that they needed to empty the unit, place the food in a freezer, defrost the unit, and start the cycle again. Big hassle. Load the unit right the first time and save yourself some trouble.
Freeze dry no more than 10 pounds in at one time for the mid-sized unit – 6 pounds is a better limit for high moisture foods. (Check your specific unit for recommended maximum load size.)
Freeze Drying Mistakes 11 – Mixing Food Sizes and Stacking the Food Unevenly on the Trays
This is another problem that I see regularly – people mixing different shapes and sizes of foods, and stacking them unevenly on the trays. Big chunks will still be cold in the middle (and not completely dry) long after the small bits have finished.
A photo taken with a thermal imager will clearly show cold blue spots where the food isn't completely dry. Food stacked too deeply has a heck of a time dumping that water from ice to vapor. The top layers slow down or prevent sublimation from the lower layers.
Нарежете храната си тънко и/или на дребно за най-бързо време за сушене и я разпределете равномерно върху тавите, за да предотвратите студени петна.
