Vacuum Food Dehydration

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James_Johnson

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Jul 4, 2016
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Bulverde, Texas
I want to purchase a vacuum pump and vacuum chamber and experiment with it for two reasons. One of them is food dehydration. I've done some research looking for anyone that has done this before and find very little. Wondering if anyone here has experience and what kind of useful information there might be. Thanks in advance.
 
I want to purchase a vacuum pump and vacuum chamber and experiment with it for two reasons. One of them is food dehydration. I've done some research looking for anyone that has done this before and find very little. Wondering if anyone here has experience and what kind of useful information there might be. Thanks in advance.
What we did was to dehydrate our veggies in the sun, (tomatoes, onions, carrots, peas exct.) You cut the pieces as small or thin as possible, give them a quick blanch them in water with some chemical (will have to get the english word for it will post later) that prevents mould from forming, when dry you put in bag and vacuum seal it, with the onions we found you you could store them in a plastic drum or bucket, arter a 2 years they taste real good like onion chips. Most butchers around here do have facuum sealers, cause it is an expencive artical to buy a decent one try and source the use of one when you need to.
 
What we did was to dehydrate our veggies in the sun, (tomatoes, onions, carrots, peas exct.) You cut the pieces as small or thin as possible, give them a quick blanch them in water with some chemical (will have to get the english word for it will post later) that prevents mould from forming, when dry you put in bag and vacuum seal it, with the onions we found you you could store them in a plastic drum or bucket, arter a 2 years they taste real good like onion chips. Most butchers around here do have facuum sealers, cause it is an expencive artical to buy a decent one try and source the use of one when you need to.

I want to know about vacuum dehydration. What pumps are best, what vacuum specs do I need (how low of a vacuum), how long does the food need to be in the vacuum, how much can be done at once, etc...
 
I want to know about vacuum dehydration. What pumps are best, what vacuum specs do I need (how low of a vacuum), how long does the food need to be in the vacuum, how much can be done at once, etc...
As far as i know vacuum dehydration is only used to remove water from oil, so you will have to experiment with it yourself to find out what specs your going to need and so forth. It looks like a real expencive proses, why not stick to something that is tried and tested, canning, air dry and sundried, smoked?
 
I want to know about vacuum dehydration. What pumps are best, what vacuum specs do I need (how low of a vacuum), how long does the food need to be in the vacuum, how much can be done at once, etc...

Hi James, Vacuum packaging does NOT dehydrate foods, it simply removes the air which slows down oxyidation. You use low slow levels of heat to dehydrate food
 
Hi James, Vacuum packaging does NOT dehydrate foods, it simply removes the air which slows down oxyidation. You use low slow levels of heat to dehydrate food
I don't want to "vacuum package", I want to vacuum dehydrate.

As pressure decreases, the boiling point of water decreases, and at some point the water will boil off at room temperature. They make large (3 gallon or so) chambers that you can draw a vacuum from. If you put food in there, the water will boil off quickly after you pull the vacuum on it. I've watched a couple YouTube videos. You have to figure out a way to do something with the water vapor that gets drawn off. I'm wanting to talk to someone that has actually done this.
 
As far as i know vacuum dehydration is only used to remove water from oil, so you will have to experiment with it yourself to find out what specs your going to need and so forth. It looks like a real expencive proses, why not stick to something that is tried and tested, canning, air dry and sundried, smoked?

I don't know. I have an instinct. It makes sense to me. No one else is doing it. I think it will dehydrate faster, and I think more of the water will be taken out. I think you can do larger quantities. I also have another purpose for buying a vacuum pump and vacuum chamber that has nothing to do with food preparation, that is also experimental. A vacuum pump might be $200 and a vacuum chamber might run $100. There's a bunch on eBay. I'm hoping to run into someone that has been down this road and made some mistakes that I could learn from.
 
I don't know. I have an instinct. It makes sense to me. No one else is doing it. I think it will dehydrate faster, and I think more of the water will be taken out. I think you can do larger quantities. I also have another purpose for buying a vacuum pump and vacuum chamber that has nothing to do with food preparation, that is also experimental. A vacuum pump might be $200 and a vacuum chamber might run $100. There's a bunch on eBay. I'm hoping to run into someone that has been down this road and made some mistakes that I could learn from.
I agree with northern, er silent earth. If it was a viable way to dehydrate then the commercial companies would be doing it. As far as I can tell they all use freeze drying. Even if it can be done, apparently it's not too efficient. I am however always interested in a new way to clean a fish! Who knows, you may stumble on a new use for one that has great potential for something else.
 
Here is the only thing I found in my library regarding the process. I'd agree with the guys that have chatted with you already and made their opinions known. Very sound thoughts since I am not an expert in the dehydration area, just use my own dehydrator at home and vacu seal them afterwards. The process of it seems sound, just not a conclusive evidence to be used by the home prepper. Industries have been using it for some period.

Also, I have my opinions about Ebay and not all of it good. So if you've got the money to spend at it and it doesn't work out, the worse is to place it back on Ebay and sell it. Good luck.
 

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