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Freeze-Dried Mashed Potato Recipe

Freeze-Dried Mashed Potatoes

Try these methods of freeze-drying mashed potatoes to find the best rehydration and storage option for your needs.
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Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 1 hour
Freeze-Dry Time: 2 days 6 hours
Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Gluten Free, Vegetable
Servings: 40 150g servings (when rehydrated)

Equipment

  • 1 Freeze Dryer and trays
  • 1 Breville Sous Chef (optional)
  • 1 Blender (optional for powdering)
  • 1 Mylar bags or Mason jars in sufficient quantity for storage
  • 1 Oxygen absorbers for each bag or jar
  • 1 Heat sealer

Ingredients

  • 6-8 kg potatoes adjust for your freeze dryer size

If Making Butter & Milk Mashed Version

  • 100 gram butter
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 tspn salt
  • 1 bunch chives

Instructions

Mash Potatoes

  • Wash the potatoes and peel if desired.
  • Dice into cubes for cooking.
  • Boil until tender, drain and return to the pot.
  • Option 1: Mash with water only.
  • Option 2: Mash with butter, milk, chives and salt.

Freeze Dry

  • Spread mashed potatoes evenly onto freeze dryer trays and pre-freeze for 48 hrs.
  • Weigh each filled tray and remove the weight of the tray to get a 'wet' weight of the food.
  • Load trays into the freeze dryer and run the cycle.
  • Ensure potatoes are completely dry, they will be light, airy and slightly warm to touch.
  • Weigh each tray and remove the weight of the tray to get a 'dry' weight of the food.

Package

  • Option 1: Break into smaller pieces.
  • Option 2: Roughly powder the mashed potato using a blender - this will affect rehydration texture somewhat (see notes).
  • Package into Mylar bags or Mason jars with oxygen absorbers.

Rehydration

  • Use your wet and dry weights for each tray to work out an average rehydration ratio.
  • As a guide, our potato mashed with just water requires a 1:6 reydration ratio (1 part freeze dried potato to 6 parts liquid - water, milk & butter).
  • As a guide, our potato mashed with butter and milk required a 1:4.5 rehydration ratio (1 part freeze dried potato to 4.5 parts hot water).
  • Boil the water or heat milk, butter and water in the required quantity for your rehydration needs.
  • Add to the freeze dried potato, stirring to mix in.
  • Let rest for 1 minute after which your potato should be rehydrated.

Notes

Here are the four method variations we used:
  • Tray 1: Skin-on potatoes, mashed with water, freeze-dried and left chunky.
  • Tray 2: Skin-on potatoes, mashed with water, freeze-dried and powdered.
  • Tray 3: Peeled potatoes, mashed with butter, chives, and milk, freeze-dried and left chunky.
  • Tray 4: Peeled potatoes, mashed with butter, chives, and milk, freeze-dried and powdered.
And here were the results of the rehydration to help you choose which to make:
  • Best Taste + Texture: Tray 1 (Potato, skin on, mashed with water, freeze dried and left chunky.) – this will be our preferred long-term storage option.
  • Convienience + Taste: Tray 3 (Potato, peeled, mashed with butter, chives and milk, freeze dried and left chunky.) – this will be our preferred camping & hiking option as it only requires hot water to rehydrate.
  • Space Efficient + Taste: Tray 2 (Potato, skin on, mashed with water, freeze dried and powdered).
  • Space Efficient + Convenient: Tray 4 ( Potato, peeled, mashed with butter chives and milk, freeze dried and powdered).
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
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