When Chop is too wet

[DonnaBudgie]

After I add fresh finely chopped veggies like red peppers and broccoli and canned or frozen corn and peas to my cooked chop base (bird street bistro) I mix it well and put 4 day portions in 1 quart ziplock freezer bags.

The fresh and canned veggies contain a lot of water that gets released after freezing and thawing. I hate serving soggy chop and they don't like it either. Usually I try draining it into dry paper towels but it's an extra step that takes too long and requires me to physically press the water out of it. Plus any vitamins in the excess water get lost. Not good.

Today I tried something different. I partially cooked 1/4 cup of white rice in a small saucepan using only 1/3 cup of water then I added a 4 day portion of soggy chop to the hot saucepan of partly cooked rice and let the rice continue cooking on very low heat until the rice had absorbed all the excess water in the chop, leaving it dry enough to serve without straining it. It was much better.

I don't think it would work as well to try to dry the chop out this way before freezing the whole batch because most of the excess water comes out of the veggies during the freeze thaw process. Fresh chopped peppers seem to have the most water in them but I like to use a lot of red bell pepper for color and vitamins. I know some people add crushed nutiberries to absorb the water but they're way too expensive for me to use when feeding 20 budgies. I spend enough feeding my birds already. I gotta draw the money line somewhere!

 

[AprilRobin]

Lecture them about starving birds in other countries, who would be happy to have that wet chop. It's what my parents used to do, anyway.

Donna at "Love of Pets" made a video about this recently. She adds rolled oats and crushed flax seed to help with the moisture. I wonder if just the oats would make a difference.

 

[nkrbkr]

I came to mention rolled oats as well! They help absorb extra moisture.

 

[chris-md]

there are extra things you can do that really help.

Blanch the fresh veggies before you freeze them. This preps them well for freezing.

after blanching, ring out the chop handful by handful to really get a lot of the extra water out. THEN bag

Slightly undercook grains so they can absorb extra moisture in the mix

Use powders: I add prickly pear cactus and moringa powders. Not only do they deliver added nutrients but do help dry it out a bit

And you’ve discovered the other trick: oats, chia, flax…all can help absorb more water.

I do all of this. I haven’t had a disappointing batch of overly moist thawed chop in years…minus situations where I discovered certain ingredients can add to unpleasant texture, like acorn squash and okra making the chop slimey.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I've told the ungrateful little turds all about the starving birds in India and they just look at me.
I've tried feeding my budgies dry rolled oats but they much prefer them unrolled as oats groats.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

there are extra things you can do that really help.

Blanch the fresh veggies before you freeze them. This preps them well for freezing.

after blanching, ring out the chop handful by handful to really get a lot of the extra water out. THEN bag

Slightly undercook grains so they can absorb extra moisture in the mix

Use powders: I add prickly pear cactus and moringa powders. Not only do they deliver added nutrients but do help dry it out a bit

And you’ve discovered the other trick: oats, chia, flax…all can help absorb more water.

I do all of this. I haven’t had a disappointing batch of overly moist thawed chop in years…minus situations where I discovered certain ingredients can add to unpleasant texture, like acorn squash and okra making the chop slimey.

Good tips. The b8ggest problem is the red bell peppers. Can I blanch them or would that make then mushy?
I have a bag of whole chia seeds. How would I use them in chop? When do I add them?
Would oats groats work to absorb moisture? When would I add them to the base?
How about hulled millet seeds?

I usually let the cooked base cool to room temp before adding the veggies and then I mix and divide and freeze.
I can't imagine the slimy mess okra would make out of chop!

 

[rheashard2]

I don't know where I read this. One bird so I use mini ice cube trays. To add sm amount dry rice on each cube when freezing. It'll absorb extra moisture. If still too soggy thawed add a small amount of dry rolled oats. The only soggy foods Nameliss will eat are those meant to be that way. It's annoying.