Freeze Drying Trout, Double Batch Kahlua - Saturday

It was time to try trout in the freeze dryer and since I had them all in the freezer and they were nice and solid I unwrapped them and threw them on the trays. In total they weighed 7 pounds and got put in whole. They had all been gutted before freezing but still have heads and, skin, and bones.

I looked all over the net for anything talking about freeze drying whole fish but only found info about fish food. I know that it is done but I think it is always tiny fish for feed and not larger fish. I had them in by noon and near midnight the machine said it was almost done. I did not feel like it would be given the thickness of the fish and so I added an extra 6 hours to the process so it would finish when I woke up this morning.

We needed more kahlua made up and so I brewed a couple thick cups of espresso and boiled it up before adding the sugar. I let it sit outside for a few hours before pouring it into growlers, splitting it between them.

I then added the liquor. Jim Beam is an okay bourbon that is not top shelf but not bottom either. It makes one of our favorite kahluas. The last batch I made was 2 bottles of Beam kahlua but this time one is Pendleton whiskey.

After adding the liquor and vanilla I capped the bottles with plastic and the lids before setting them on the shelf to age for a month.

J wanted to do another meal out of his cookbook and this one was a stir fry. The boys cut up a bunch of the ingredients while @stryeyz cut up the raw chicken.

It is super warm considering it is nearly solstice. It rained last night and this morning it is 40F. It feels like a balmy spring day. The snow is nearly gone around the farm now and the chickens and ducks seem a good bit happier about it.

This morning I checked on the fish and they were not nearly done. I added another 8 hours to the drying time and kicked the machine back on. Hopefully that will be enough time to finish them up.

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