Refried Beans, Making and Freeze Drying - Part 1

Part 1 - Refried Beans - Making and freeze drying some refried beans made from dry beans.
This is part of our Freeze Drying The Alphabet from A to Z series.
Part 2 - Rehydrating and using the refried beans, tri tip roast pieces and some rice. (link to part 2)

This time it's refried beans. Making and then freeze drying some refried beans from dry beans.
Note to self: Use beans that have been stored well for long term and/or beans that are not 5 1/2 years past their best-if-used-by date. Certainly not ones sitting on the shelf in an open bag for all of that time.
That was the case with our first batch and it showed; the beans refused to get properly soft in any reasonable time-frame.
We did a second batch with new beans and it turned out great. We got about 28 cups of finished refried beans from 5 lbs of dry pinto beans, that would be the equivalent to about 14 cans. At less than $.50 per pound, that is less than $2.50 of beans or about 18 cents per can.

Catwood Cooking tries to put up their freeze drying videos each Friday; consider going over and checking out their channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6Xttj6OctZs_KBsv6_TNyQ/videos

If you are thinking of buying a Harvest Right freeze dryer, please consider supporting us by purchasing through our affiliate link. It helps us and costs you nothing! https://affiliates.harvestright.com/995.html
We have the medium freeze dryer with the original vacuum pump.
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Mylar bags: https://packfreshusa.com/shop/seal-top-gusset-mylar-bags-sets/

Music: Blue Danube by Strauss