Freezing vs Canning vs Dehydrating

[PoorMusician]

I currently can and freeze. I'm interested in dehydrating, but I'm starting to wonder if I'm making this too complicated.

 

Does anybody use all three methods in their preps? Does each fill a particular purpose/role for you or is it more like canning until you're out of jars and then start dehydrating?

 

Sorry, just have a tendency to over-think things beyond absurdity.

[Jeepers]

A girl after my own heart = over thinking things!

 

I do all three. For me each serves a different purpose. Usually one thing 'preserves' better one way than the other.

 

1) I freeze things that I eat usually within 1-3 months. Mostly things I buy from the store like the frozen flavored pasta/veggie meals in a bag etc. Or portions of my own chili, mac and cheese, lasagna etc. I also store bread in there. And steaks, chops and chicken breasts for meals I want to fry/bake/grill. I try to keep in mind the power might go out so I keep my freezer for more of a short term storage situation. Oh, and blueberries are great frozen.

 

2) I can food for longer storage of a year or more. I can chunks/shreds of meat to use in casserole type dishes, spaghetti sauce, sloppy joes, lots of soup and small jars of fruit for deserts. Also pickled things and jams. When I can, I can a lot on purpose so it will last a couple of years.

 

3) I dehydrate for very long term emergency storage. Mostly vegetables.

 

Everyone is different so what works for one may not work so well for another. I live alone so I probably don't store things in my freezer the way other people who have a large family do. I've also become a lazy cook living on my own. I'd much rather open a jar of my soup and zap in the microwave than to wait for a box of my soup to thaw from the freezer then zap it. I also have lot more room to store 70 pints of canned soup on a shelf as opposed to my freezer.

[Ambergris]

I live in a very humid area, so dehydrating takes way more than twice as long as what's stated in any manual I've seen. I dehydrate anyway because we've had as many as nine people living in this 1200 sq ft house and dehydrated food takes up a lot less room than any other form of storage. Also, since it's not instantly nosh-able, for the most part, it tends not to get preyed upon by snackers. Also, if it does get good and dry, it should stay good a long time yet can be thrown into the slow cooker any day. I keep thinking I'll wait until winter and dry things indoors, where the humidity is lower and when the warmth will be a plus for the house, but although the dryer is currently sitting out, taking up counter space, nothing has been put in it since before Christmas. I have blueprints for a huge, huge dehydrator, something that would stand outside in the yard full-time and use a solar trough to force air... Never mind--it's definitely a back-burner project.

 

I have just gotten back into canning after a 40-year hiatus. Hated canning as a kid. Spent too much time working in massive canning operations in a sweltering southern Mississippi kitchen with no air conditioning. Plus, our peaches always tasted alcoholic and the green beans were mush...and so on. I'm canning meat, broth, and concentrated stock because yeast extract (which seems to have replaced clearly labeled MSG on most labels) makes me ill. I expect to branch out into canning soup. Beyond that? Probably tomatoes and sweet fruit. I found I'd rather puree the green beans and dry them, resulting in something I can use to fortify a broth later on, than can them and know that nobody's going to much like the mush that comes out of the can.

 

The freezer is packed with food I expect to be eaten in the next few weeks. I don't wrap things properly for the freezer because I want the food in full view and I want to remind myself how much I lost those times the freezer died (and nobody immediately noticed). My sons' convenience food takes up some room in there, but most of the rest of it is stuff I could can in two days or dry if I had a few weeks available.

[The WE2's]

I dehydrate and vacume seal. That's it. We're empty nesters and do alot of RVing, plus don't have alot of space for storage, so dehydrated foods that are vacume sealed fit very nicely (and lots of it) under our camper's queen size bed...when we're on the go. At home I dehydrate my garden veggies, frozen veggies, frozen fruit, watermelon, canteloupe etc., and vacume seal it in jars. I have 3 dehydrators and during garden season I keep them all going! LOL I even vacume seal our toiletries, hand soaps etc., to keep them fresh etc. Mountain Man calls me the dehydrating/vacume sealing queen!

[Canned Nerd]

I do all three on a regular basis and each has its place and purpose. Canning and Freezing are fairly obvious. If for nothing else dehydrating is great for ripe produce, fruits and scraps that might otherwise just be tossed into the compost....such as celery tops/leaves which makes great celery powder. Then there is mushrooms, tomatoes, jalapenos, onions, bell peppers, garlic, and the list goes on and on. I love dehydrating fruits for snacks. I couldn't survive without my dehydrator.

[out_of_the_ordinary]

One of the MANY things I really like my dehydrator for is preserving the fresh herbs from my garden. Parsley, oregano and basil. When I was growing up, my mom used to dry that stuff in the oven. I absolutely hated the "burnt parsley" smell.

 

We also dehydrate onions, garlic, green peppers, tomatoes and fruit (for snacking). And make fruit rolls. Especially with having a garden, I don't want to waste anything. Have you see the price of dehydrated fruit in the store? Expensive and some of it is not just the natural dehydrated fruit (like the banana chips fried in oil to make them "crispier").

[The WE2's]

Dehydrated fruit is a staple when we make Gorp, especially pineapple chunks, banana chips, canteloupe chunks etc. I buy the raisins though...LOL