scafool--oops..went off on a tangent there and forgot the question..freeze dry V.S. just dried--the chops are the only large bit of meat i've tried that was freeze dried and i can see after some expermenting with it that you really have to soak it a long time to get it anything like a real pork chop.
i have seen instructions that say to soak it longer and then keep it in the frige overnite to really get water into all the meat cells--if thats the right term--i know when it was boiled in the soup/stew it was like any real chop i ever had..the other freeze dry stuff was by Mountain House i think .chicken and beef and the bits were so small that i really did not notice them in the Knorr rice side dishes i added them too. i did try dry meat or what passes for Jerky these days but it took forever to get soft in the stew and cutting it was another cooking chore i wanted to avoid..a local Buffalo farm has Jerky in their store but i never did like chewy meat. what i'm doing of course if putting together camp meals and not something to store away "just in case"..--salt cod in wood box's with blue printing??--Minnesota is a Swedish sort of state and you can get Old Country foods in quite a few places.
i get a dry cure,hard salami that last for weeks on the trail at a butcher shop in Minneapolis that carrys the cod along with fish in toothpaste tubes and other "treats"--