This morning, after I got up, I tended to four pieces of meat, in the fridge, which are salt curing. 1 Maple Black Forest Loin Ham, 1 Boysenberry Rosemary Loin Ham, and 2 pieces of dry cure maple Hog Jowl Bacon.

The process is fairly simple, and using the process I use, the end product is only salty on the outside, richly flavorful on the inside, which is safe to eat raw like proscuitto, or which you can cook, and then use like wet cure ham. This is SIMILAR to a salt box curing, but you don't bury the meat in the salt, you just rub the salt on the outside, and for a shorter period of time, so the saltiness is greatly reduced. The secondary drying is done by hanging, rather than by salt.

Downstairs in the basement, I have two crocheted net bags hanging from a beam - one contains a Black Forest Loin Ham (no maple), the other contains a small Boneless Picnic Ham. (Which were, by the way, amazingly delicious.)

I use small meat pieces, boneless. This makes it fast to cure, and easy to handle, and more certain that it will cure well to the center. I cannot yet raise my own pork or beef, so I am using purchased meats, and loins, chuck, and other pieces are often on sale, and work great.

The dehydrator can dry many foods, but there are certain ones that don't work well. A freeze dryer can dry those foods, but it is a more complex process. These foods include strawberries, blackberries and raspberries, and a few others which simply do better freeze dried instead of dehydrated.

Information for this article has been gathered from the manufacturer website, home freeze dryer users, and from other sources for general food storage and freeze drying facts. We find that user experiences do not match the manufacturers's claims in many instances, actual user experiences are not nearly as optimistic. This is common, manufacturer data tends to be based on ideal situations, whereas users are often operating in less than ideal circumstances.

A dehydrator shrinks the foods when drying them. The freeze dryer retains them at close to the normal size. So dehydration is a more compact storage method, freeze drying is just lighter in weight but does not save space.

A dehydrator is a simple piece of equipment. It has a fan and a heater. The more complex ones have a timer and temperature control. You can get one that will work really well for about $40. Some people spend more - but I have not been able to find a reason to do so, other than wanting one in stainless, or needing white plastic instead of transparent plastic (which off-gasses less and irritates my lungs less), because the cheap ones worked just as well as the expensive ones (I have used many kinds), as long as they have a fan in them. A decent sized one (with 5-7 trays) will do 5-10 lbs of food, depending on how it is cut and how it is organized. I can do 10 lbs of apples easily in a 6 tray model.

A dehydrator is fairly economical to use. The heating element does not use a lot of electricity, nor does the fan. Foods dry typically overnight, or in 24 hours for high moisture foods.

A freeze dryer can take 72 hours per batch (generally takes more than 1 day), and uses freezing, vacuuming, heating, and fans - it can run through multiple repetitive cycles of freezing and drying for a single batch. It uses more energy to operate, and each cycle is quite a bit longer. Enough that if you are running the thing with back to back loads for weeks (many people do), you are going to see the difference in your electric bill (the Harvest Right company lists operational costs at about $1.20 to almost $3 per day in energy usage - multiply that by the number of days you think you'd use it per year, and remember that many things take more than 1 day). Many people pre-freeze the food, to shorten the cycles, and if you do that, you always need to have room in your freezer for the trays also. The company says that the unit notifies you when the food is done, but reports from users suggest this feature is far from perfect, and troubleshooting is a common occurrence.

A dehydrator has a small fan that produces some noise. It can be in operation anywhere in the house and not be a disruption.

A freeze dryer is fairly noisy. According to Harvest Right (the maker of home freeze dryers), it is as loud as a "noisy dishwasher". You are going to want to have a place to put it where the noise will not bother you.

Dehydrated foods rehydrate fairly predictably. They rehydrate better with hot water, and are easy to rehydrate during cooking time just by adding extra water to a recipe.

For the most part, freeze dried foods also rehydrate predictably, except there are some foods that just don't rehydrate well. Some foods that people WANT a freeze dryer for (mac and cheese, for example) do NOT rehydrate very well if they have much sauce on them. They have this kind of funky styrofoam and glue thing going on. The outside absorbs moisture, and thickens up so much that it prevents moisture from getting to the inside. So the outside is saucy, then gluey, and then the inside is still crunchy or stiff and clumpy. Even commercial producers struggle with this issue. So Yeah, you CAN freeze dry some things that you would not generally dehydrate, but the end results are not exactly what you wanted.

A dehydrator has a heating element, and a fan, and sometimes a time or temp control. Those are fairly simple, and you don't really have an issue with parts needing replaced. It is simpler and cheaper to just replace the unit, and since you can get a good one for under $100, if it has to be replaced every 10 years or so, it is no big deal.

A freeze dryer has a LOT of parts to malfunction. And according to users, they do.And they are not cheap to replace. A LOT of people are giving positive reviews right after they buy, and updating later to say they are having a lot of problems. The machines wear parts - I don't know all the parts that are involved, but there are some that regularly need replaced, others that wear and break on a high percentage of units, and some that just wear out under high use, or that are flaky under certain situations (climate, usage types, etc). This is one of the top reasons for dissatisfaction.

The argument is made that freeze dried foods store for 15 to 20 years. Some do, some do not. Higher fat foods won't store as long. I've seen (and eaten) freeze dried foods after 20 years. The color has paled, the flavor has gone stale or bitter, and some of them no longer rehydrate as well as they do when they are fresh. Very similar to dehydrated foods, but the dehydrated foods that I've used after long term storage have actually been in better condition.

Dehydrated foods store just as well, and for just as long, but take WAY less space. Those foods that do not dehydrate well do well with other preservation methods - berries generally can well or are wonderful in jams, preserves, and syrup, and they can be made into leathers and used in many ways.

I've also eaten home canned foods that were 20 years old (we look for color changes and texture changes, as well as indications of spoilage - where there are no significant indications of the food breaking down, it is safe to eat - storage conditions radically affect storage life), and they were in as good condition as the freeze dried foods, sometimes better. Storing home preserved foods in a cool, dry, and dark environment will dramatically increase storage life, whether you dry, can, or freeze dry, and storage conditions generally have a greater affect on storage life than the method you choose.

Dehydrated foods rehydrate best with hot water, and are fully rehydrated in about 30 minutes if they are pre-cooked, longer if they are not. They CAN be rehydrated using cold water, it will take several hours, or overnight, to do it though. They are simple to use if added to meals in progress, and allowed to cook along with the fresh ingredients. Other dehydrated foods are commonly used dry for tasty snacks.

Freeze dried foods are less popular for snacks. The initial feel when you put them on your tongue, or if you chew them right away, is kind of squeaky crunchy. But they go to goo pretty fast, and don't really end up having the intense flavor of dehydrated foods, because the flavor is not concentrated. They rehydrate BEST with hot water, but can be rehydrated with cold water, and generally rehydrate faster than dehydrated foods. Thicker freeze dried foods will not rehydrate well into the center, and those with sauces will often not rehydrate well, because the outside absorbs the water, and then the sauce keeps the water from penetrating well into the center of more dense pieces of food. They have their place in emergency storage where heat is limited.

I can find no justification for the incredible cost and energy usage, and fuss and bother of a home freeze dryer. I have limited physical energy, and extremely limited finances, so I have to be very careful where I use those resources, and want to be sure that whatever I do, I am getting maximum value and results for the expenditure. Other methods of preservation are running rings around freeze drying in terms of economy and simplicity!

I heard someone say, "You can freeze dry ice cream and have ice cream all year even if you have no freezer." Well, that's just silly, of course you cannot! Freeze dried ice cream is not ice cream. It is styrofoam type candy! It is not cold. It cannot be rehydrated back into ice cream! It is just a novelty, not in any way essential or even relevant to what it started out as!

I have noticed that many people who get a freeze dryer are not doing it for practical reasons, but because they are enchanted with the idea of freeze drying everything in the house. I know many canning addicts also, who will can things just because they CAN (pun intended). I've never been that way, I want to know that my effort is necessary or beneficial, and if it is not, I do not do it! Freeze drying is too costly and time consuming for me to do just for a trendy hobby.

If you are thinking about one, I suggest you join a group on FaceBook or elsewhere for using a freeze dryer, and see whether it still sounds like a manageable thing. If so, great. If not, don't apologize, just walk away!

I used to think I wanted a freeze dryer until I heard people talking about actually using one. I no longer have any desire to own one!