Freeze dried beef stew

We love beef stew in this house, so I just know everyone will love freeze dried beef stew 🙂

For this batch of freeze dried beef stew, I just made a triple batch of what we’d normally eat as a family and then freeze dried the leftovers. This stew consisted of cubed beef, green beans, tomatoes, carrots, onion, and various spices and things. The stew ended up filling three freeze dryer trays, so I still had two left to fill.

For the two extra trays, I made a vegetable bullion that I will turn into freeze dried vegetable bullion powder. I’ve made this before, which you can read about here. I use the veggie bullion all the time, in all sorts of dishes.  And the best part is, I know exactly what’s in it, and “anti-caking agent” is most definitely not one of the ingredients, lol!

This batch was all pre-frozen, which does save some time in the freeze dryer. Then everything was frozen solid, I started the Ice Queen (Harvest Right Home Pro Medium). After she finished up her 15 minute cooldown to start, I started the batch.

As expected, freeze dried beef stew & veggie bullion powder both rock!

What I love about the beef stew, is that it’s a whole meal. Much like the freeze dried chili I made a while back, I’m putting this into jars. Mason jars makes it easy for us to just add hot water, wait, and eat. Right out of the jar – which means less dishes. Always a super bonus!

For the vegetable bullion powder, I broke it into pieces and put it in a blender to powder it. Turned out great! This is did not seal in jars or anything.. I split it between two containers with scoops we have and they’ll both be given to family members to use.

I put all the freeze dried stew into mason jars. I ended up with nine pints total. Five pint jars, which I’m considering single serves. And then one half gallon jar, which is a family portion. I put an oxygen absorber in each jar (I use Wallaby brand from Amazon) and then I vacuum sealed them shut. For the vacuum sealer, I have two Electric Mason Jar Vacuum Sealers – they’re not expensive, and they work really well.

How long did the freeze dried beef stew take?

The beef stew and vegetable bullion took a total of 32 hours to completely freeze dry. Actually, it took 32 hours, 6 minutes, and 41 seconds to be exact.

Definitely needed to defrost after this batch, so I did the 2-hour defrost, then opened the door to let it air out. We also had to dump the bucket we have the Ice Queen freeze dryer draining into.. it had been about 4 batches since it was emptied, lol. Hubby very kindly took care of that for me 🙂

Happy freeze drying!!

Freeze dried beef stew came out great!!! The vegetable bullion powder was also fantastic! I’m giving that away to fam since I already have maybe 2 pints or so left from my last batch of it. The Ice Queen did a great job, as usual!🧊👑😀 pic.twitter.com/9Q0xuayclx

— Buck Hills Farm (@buck_hills_farm) March 24, 2024