Freeze-Dried Food: How To Use It
Today, I want to talk about freeze-dried food, specifically several different kinds of cheese. Please note that I buy commercially processed food; I don’t freeze-dry it. My favorite companies for freeze-dried food are Nutri-Store, Thrive Life, and Augason Farms. From time to time, I get a notice from the folks at Harvest Right to consider purchasing a Harvest Right Freeze Dryer while they have them on sale. At my stage of life, I already have a lot of freeze-dried foods and don’t want to put out the funds for one, but if you plan to buy a freeze dryer, I understand that they make a good product.
Here’s the deal: Freeze-dried food is more expensive in #10 cans than dehydrated food. But please remember that it has a longer shelf life, and you can eat freeze-dried food right out of the can. We like to eat the bananas and pineapple freeze-dried fruits as snacks right out of the can. Another bonus is that it requires less hot water to undergo the rehydration process and less cooking fuel.
Freeze-Dried Food Options
I want to be upfront here today. I used to sell Thrive Life, but writing posts, teaching classes, speaking, writing my book, and caring for clients purchasing food from my Thrive Life website became hard. We’ve stocked up enough food to sleep at night, knowing we had enough #10 cans (7 inches tall and 6-1/2 inches in diameter) filled with freeze-dried options for Mark and me to survive any disaster.
Shredded Cheddar Cheese
I have used this shredded cheddar cheese in many casseroles and even made grilled cheese sandwiches. Flipping the sandwiches to cook the other side was a little tricky.
The grated cheese would fall out, but the taste was great! I have used it for tacos, and it tastes great, but it still has a different texture from freshly grated cheddar cheese. I bought two cases of it because I liked it so much.
Hydrate the cheese, drain it, and use it in any recipe. No special cookbook is needed. It’s cheese. I love it! You can make nachos, cheesy potatoes, baked potatoes with butter and sour cream, and top them with cheese. After you rehydrate it, it works great in most recipes.
Quote from Thrive Life:
“Thrive Life Cheddar Cheese will give your recipes a bold kick of flavor. Try using it in classic grilled cheese sandwiches, onion dips, festive quesadillas, pizzas, and tasty soups. It will add the perfect flavor to make any dish a success.”
INGREDIENTS: Cultured pasteurized milk, salt, enzymes, annatto color, and potato starch added to prevent caking. Contains: Milk.
25-year shelf life
Freeze dried
NO GMOs: No bioengineered ingredients
NO artificial colors or flavors
Good source of calcium
Certified gluten-free
Rehydration Instructions:
Drizzle 1/2 cup cold water over 2 cups cheese and stir continuously until water is incorporated. Store in the fridge overnight or for several hours before using.
Shredded Pepper Jack Cheese
I have always loved Pepper Jack cheese, I guess because I used to live in Logan, Utah, and they had the best cheese source, a factory where we could purchase cheese directly from the cheesemakers. It’s delicious in breakfast burritos and, of course, quesadillas.
Quote from Thrive Life:
“Thrive Life Pepper Jack Cheese has a long shelf life and is easy to use. It’s perfect for daily meals or keeping on hand for long-term food storage. Rehydrate, melt it over Mexican food, use it for grilled cheese sandwiches, or toss it into your breakfast burritos. It’s a good source of calcium. Use in any recipe—substitute 1:1.”
INGREDIENTS: Pepper Jack Cheese (pasteurized milk, cheese cultures, salt, jalapeno peppers, enzymes), with powdered cellulose added (to prevent caking). It contains Milk.
25-year shelf life
Freeze dried
NO GMOs: No bioengineered ingredients
NO artificial colors or flavors
Certified gluten-free
Good source of calcium
Rehydration Instructions:
Place cheese in a dish or bowl and cover with cool water. Allow cheese to rehydrate for 3 to 5 minutes, or until water is absorbed. Drain excess water if needed.”
Cheese Sauce (it’s a powder)
I’ve made homemade mac and cheese with this cheese sauce powder; it tasted great and was easy to make. I followed the recipe on the can. It has a shorter shelf life (ten years unopened).
Quote from Thrive Life:
“Thrive Life Cheese Sauce is cheddar cheese ground into a powder for a versatile and delicious cheese sauce. Drizzle over macaroni, bake into pasta dishes, or stir into soups. Use in any recipe—substitute 1:1. It’s cooking made simple!”
INGREDIENTS: Whey solids, maltodextrin, milk fat, salt, buttermilk, cheddar cheese (pasteurized milk, cultures, salts, enzymes), modified food starch, xanthan gum, natural flavoring, and annatto coloring. Contains: Milk.
10-year shelf life
NO GMOs: No bioengineered ingredients
NO artificial colors or flavors
Certified gluten-free
Rehydration Instructions:
Place cheese in a dish or bowl and cover with cool water. Allow cheese to rehydrate for 3 to 5 minutes, or until water is absorbed. Drain excess water if needed.”
Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
I use this one in several ways, including on pizza and in my lasagna. It is fabulous! I also use it in salads.
Quote from Thrive Life:
“Thrive Life Mozzarella Cheese elevates any Italian dish to magnifico status! This versatile cheese adds a delicious touch to lasagna, pasta, pizza, and more. Crafted with part-skim milk, it’s lower in fat and a good source of calcium.”
INGREDIENTS: Cultured pasteurized part-skim milk, salt, enzymes, and potato starch to prevent caking. This product contains Milk.
25-year shelf life
Freeze dried
NO GMOs: No bioengineered ingredients
NO artificial colors or flavors
Certified gluten-free
Good source of calcium
Rehydration Instructions:
Place cheese in a dish or bowl and cover with cool water. Allow cheese to rehydrate for 3 to 5 minutes, or until water is absorbed. Drain excess water if needed.”
More Freeze-Dried Tips
- Pros and Cons of Freeze Drying
- Which Methods of Food Storage are Correct?
- 5 Freeze-Dried Food Items I Recommend You Store
Is Freeze-Dried Food Good for You?
One of the advantages of freeze-dried food is that the freeze-drying process doesn’t adversely affect the nutritional value of the food. The vitamins and minerals and other nutrients are still available for your body to absorb and take take advantage of. The process removes the moisture from the food product as part of the freeze-drying steps. Some other food preservation approaches aren’t as efficient at preserving the food and maintaining food safety.
What Other Food Products Can Be Freeze-Dried?
If you were to take an inventory of our food storage shelves, you’d find the following feeze-dried fruits, vegetables, and meats. I’d have to admit this isn’t a complete list:
- Beef
- Chicken
- Turkey
- Pork
- Apples
- Bananas
- Strawberries
- Raspberries
- Blueberries
- Beans of various kinds
- Celery
- Spinach
- Cucumbers
- Tomatoes
- Peas
Final Word
I needed to share my thoughts today on cheese, a freeze-dried food we can all feel comfortable storing in our pantry or food storage stash. You never run out of cheese if you have some of these on your shelves. Thanks again for being prepared for the unexpected. May God bless this world, Linda
I have some freeze dried cheese, but find it pretty pricy. I bought a book on cheese making, so if I can get milk, I will be able to turn it into cheese. Mozzarella is really easy and really good.
Hi Janet, it’s very pricey, I only have it for emergencies. I know I can make many casseroles with it! LOL! All I need is my cream of chicken soup and a few other items and I can feed the whole street where I live if we lose power. I have never made cheese, I need to get with it. Great comment, Mozzarella here I come. Linda
I wonder how long it lasts once the can is opened. Has that been a problem for you, with cheese or any freeze-dried foods?
Hi Beth, most freeze-dried foods are good for two years once open, be sure and check your manufacturer. The freeze-dried cheese I use up within a few months after I open it because it’s so expensive I make sure none of it goes to waste. I only open the freeze-dried cheese if I am totally out of cheese and do not want to go to the store. I freeze my regular grated cheese in the freezer and only pull out what I need for each meal. Regular grated cheese goes bad very quickly so I freeze all of my bags. The chunks of cheese I do not freeze as they crumble when I slice them. I cover the open end with plastic wrap and put a rubber band around to secure it. Thanks for stopping by, Linda
Linda –
Thanks for this post. I have FD cheeses in my emergency stash but have not used them to date.
For those of us who are single or a couple, Thrive Life does have cheese in the Pantry Can (16 servings vs the #10 can with 49 servings). I find the smaller cans easier for me to store and less chance of waste if I don’t use it fast enough or, heaven forbid, I don’t like it!!
That being said, Pantry Cans are a bit more costly per serving: Colby $1.52 vs $1.28 for the #10 can.
I justify the cost of the smaller cans though, as I stated above. When I was still working, I purchased 6 months of Thrive Life as an insurance policy for my retirement as well as for emergencies. It is comforting to know that I don’t have to run to the store if I run out of flour, sugar, salt, etc.
~ Leanne
OH, Leanne, thank you for reminding me about the pantry cans. They are so awesome for a single person, college student, or for two people. I take one whenever I teach classes because we don’t have to buy the large #10 can. I need to write a post about that size can. That’s the size I have in my 72-hour bag of food (13 days worth for Mark and me actually). It fits in a sweater bag. I love hearing you bought 6 months worth of Thrive food storage before you retired. You can sleep at night knowing you will be fine today or many years from now. Love this! Linda
Freeze dried food fascinates me because I have zero experience with it. We also have a Survival Store where $20 gets you a session of freeze drying your own food – I have yet to do that, either. Like Janet, I make cheese (soft and hard – you gotta try at least making soft cheese, it’s a blast) but I imagine milk will be a premium in an extreme emergency. Thanks for the post, Linda.
Hi Debbie, I have heard about those sessions where you can freeze-dry your own food. The Harvest Right machine I saw here at a local store is too complicated for Mark and me to deal with. It has tubes and pipes out the side and we are not mechanical at all. We can frame a basement, wire it and sheetrock, paint and tile whatever, but we would not use one of those machines. I have heard really awesome stories about using them. My only issue is they have very small trays and it takes about 24 hours to freeze-dry a batch of whatever the demo I watched was doing. Then, I would need to buy some containers with oxygen absorbers and I’m not going to do that. I got burned dry packing $1200.00 worth of food storage at a local church cannery. I call that my very bad learning curve. I only buy commercial products in #10 cans. I can bottle my own food safely. Let me know how it turns out for you if you try doing it. I better learn how to make cheese…thanks again, Linda
I have the Parmesan Cheese – I love it! Thanks for all your posts. They are so helpful and informative.
Hi Cheryl, that’s good to know, I need to order some of the Parmesan cheese. Thanks so much for commenting, Linda
I can sell Thrive Life foods, I have a customer base of 2… my sister and me. My favorite part about Thrive Life foods is the pantry sized cans, especially of meats. Even when it was 4 of us, that would be enough meat for 2 or 3 meals; now with just 2 of us, it would be enough for even more meals. We have beef dices, ground beef, shredded pork, chicken slices, chicken dices and sausage crumbles. There are so many veggie choices and they will last longer once opened. The fruit is great. My daughter loves the freeze dried strawberries.
I have bought several things from Auguson Farms, some of which Thrive Life doesn’t have. I bought two #10 cans of black bean burger mix for my daughters. I like their powdered cream cheese and use it for added flavor in my smoothies.
I have tried meals from several other places and don’t like them once cooked. We buy the new freeze dried meals from Thrive Life both for food storage and to take camping. I have given some of the meals to my vegetarian daughter but had to go to REI to find vegan meals for our youngest daughter. The Thrive Life freeze dried meals are lower cost than many and have 3 servings instead of 2.
One year when they were on sale, I bought an emergency 3 day food kit from someone and it broke it down to 12 meals…. only 4 of those meals was from a packet of soup mix. What good would 4 servings of soup do me if there was no way to safely store 3 of the servings. Basically it had one breakfast, one lunch and one dinner with leftover servings that might not be able to be stored safely. Each kit is supposed to serve 1 person for 3 days. I figure that each kit would take care of 2 of us for 2 to 2.5 days.
I found a book with meal in a jar recipes where each recipe will make a dozen jars. Once you open the cans of freeze dried food it is only good for one year. If you make the meals in jars and are able to vacuum seal them, they might be good for up to 2 years. To plan for many years, I have bought the ingredients to make 2 of the recipes and placed the unopened freeze dried food cans in a storage tub with a copy of the recipe. That way it is good for up to 25 years.
I am happy we have freeze dried foods and if we hadn’t needed it in about 10 to 15 years, we will start taking and using it while camping. By that time we’ll be old enough that it there is a major SHTF situations, we probably won’t survive long anyway. Realistic if something happens that changes life as we know it, 80+ year old people won’t live long.
Hi Topaz, smart move on being a consultant for you and your sister. That’s how i started, to get the big discounts. I love the pantry size cans too! Linda