Food dehydrating for backpacking, discuss..

[Logtec]

I just bought a food dehydrator, it cost $80 has 5 trays, adjustable thermostat and a fan. I like to eat good food while out on the trail, fresh food is good but heavy and will spoil with out proper storage, "prepackaged dehydrated food" is EXPENSIVE and taste like $hit!

The first batch consists of:
3 types of apples, pineapple, cherries, strawberries, banana,
Jalapeños, blueberries, grapes and apricots...
Ill post my results once they are ready!

So lets hear what some of your favorite food or recipes are!

[Mike]

Re: Food dehydrating for backpacking, discuss..

I appreciate your enthusiasm for home dried foods

What you will find is that they do not rehydrate easily even by boiling

I suggest you get a pressure cooker. There are smaller lightweight pressure cookers for camping. These will do a good job of rehydrating home-dried foods including vegetables and meats

Also, you should blanch vegetables before drying. If you buy frozen veggies at the supermarket they will be per-blanched already

[Logtec]

Re: Food dehydrating for backpacking, discuss..

Thanks Mike..

A friend of mine dehydrates all the time(chili and stews), altho her food is good- most of looks like diarrhea, I mean slop.
I don't mind some slop after a long day but i dont like the idea of eating slop everyday for a week straight!
My gf has a food background, she promises me our food won't be slop!

I read about blanching some fruits before dehydrating, nothing was mentioned about veggies.
I blanched the grapes and cherries, but I'll def blanch my veggies if they are bit frozen.

So far:
-Pineapple and grapes aren't quite done yet.
-3 types of apples all are good, the Mac and granny taste more or less the same, the red delish is slightly sour (my fav!)
-cherries are great.
-apricots were cut in 1/4's, they are alil hard- I think 1/2's would be better.
-Banana's are what I expected
-jalapeño are nice and hot!

[Mike]

Re: Food dehydrating for backpacking, discuss..

If you buy frozen foods from the grocer, they are already blanched so you don't have to do it again

One bit of important advice I can share is don't over-do it with the dehydrating. In our enthusiasm for the new toy, we sometimes dry more food than we ever will need. We imagine how much backpacking and camping and even home use we will do and dry massive amounts of food

One week, I dried 60 lbs of a variety of vegetables and several lbs of meat

A friend of mine dried a 100 lb sack of fresh raw onions (THAT put a stain on his marriage to be sure!)

Dried foods last forever in theory, but they do pick up odors and a certain funk after you have them for awhile

I would recommend drying as much as you anticipate using for three months and no more

[Logtec]

Re: Food dehydrating for backpacking, discuss..

Haha,
I only intend to dehydrate small amounts of food for snacks and camping/ BPing trips. I'm not going to go nuts, now my gf might be a different story..
My machine probably will hold a max of 15 apples, the thought of pealing, coring and cutting more then 15 apples day in and day out- sounds like a lot of work.
Dehydrating will be a fun project to do on rainy days.

[Mike]

Re: Food dehydrating for backpacking, discuss..

Mmm Hmmm. Well, there are shortcuts that lead you down the path of over-doing it. Imagine discovering #10 cans of discounted sliced pineapples You buy five cans and.... You have over done it. Frozen corn goes on sale. You buy ten pounds and.... You have overdone it

By the way, you can actually stack food on food, slice on slice. It still dries OK

[markkee]

Re: Food dehydrating for backpacking, discuss..

My wife and I have an Excalibur dehydrator. I made some great Thai mango chicken on my last back packing trip. The chicken was a little tough. My wife is going pressure cook the chicken to make it tender. She found this great back packing food site that uses a food dehydrator. We are busy making meals for my 5 day back packing trip in the Ansel Adams wilderness near Yosemite National Park.

"I found this great site on yummy backpacking food ideas."



http://www.backpackingchef.com/




Here are some of the good ones we can make for you. Let me know which ones you are interested for me to take on making and dehydrating.

Basic Backpacking Menu Planning

What’s on Chef Glenn's backpacking menu? I rustle up familiar comfort foods like Mashed Potatoes with Meat & Vegetables or Mexican Beef and Rice with Peppers. By combining one meat, one vegetable, and one starch, I get a tasty meal with lots of color and texture; and the balanced nutrition I need to tackle the next leg of the trail.
My basic backpacking menu plan accomplishes three objectives:

• Reduce meal weight to three ounces or less with a dehydrator.
• Vary meals with interchangeable ingredients that I like to eat.
• Cook and eat in a small pot using ½ ounce of fuel or less.

Removing water from food (but not the flavor and nutrition) with a dehydrator can cut the food weight in your pack by two-thirds. I dehydrate my backpacking food with an Excalibur Food Dehydrator. When it’s time to head to the woods, I consider how much food I will need and choose the meal combinations from my backpacking menu:
Meat & Beans (¼ Cup Dried) such as:

• Ground Beef or Turkey
• Sliced Ham, Turkey, or Roast Beef
• Shrimp, Tuna, Crab Legs
• Beans (Pre-cooked Black, Red, White, Pinto, etc…)

Be creative. If you make an entree that you really like, cut it into smaller pieces and dehydrate it. I am going to dry this awesome enchilada dish that my wife makes with home made corn tortillas. You cannot go wrong with enchiladas! All my meals can be cooked in less than 20 minutes. All I am doing is re-hydrating them and heating meal up. No real cooking.

[Logtec]

Re: Food dehydrating for backpacking, discuss..

I haven't ventured into dehydrating meat yet, still loving the fruit and veggies.
a friend of mine who dehydrates alot for trekkng- said, she has found that using fattier cuts of chicken/turkey, then cooking it until its 95% cooked, helps preventing the meat from being tough after rehydrating..

[Mike]

Re: Food dehydrating for backpacking, discuss..

I haven't ventured into dehydrating meat yet, still loving the fruit and veggies.
a friend of mine who dehydrates alot for trekkng- said, she has found that using fattier cuts of chicken/turkey, then cooking it until its 95% cooked, helps preventing the meat from being tough after rehydrating..

Sadly, that isn't very good advice. WHen you dry meats, you want to use the leanest meat possible and cut off all visible fat. The fat will go rancid fairly quickly during and after drying - defeating the purpose of drying the meat for preservation.

[Logtec]

Re: Food dehydrating for backpacking, discuss..

Sadly, that isn't very good advice. WHen you dry meats, you want to use the leanest meat possible and cut off all visible fat. The fat will go rancid fairly quickly during and after drying - defeating the purpose of drying the meat for preservation.

Thanks for the info..
(I'm not ready for dehydrating meats yet..)

[Mike]

Re: Food dehydrating for backpacking, discuss..

Thanks for the info..
(I'm not ready for dehydrating meats yet..)

Rehydrating meats dried at home is especially difficult. I think a better bet is to go online and buy FREEZE-DRIED meats or textured Soy Protein. These will last longer, rehydrate much faster, and I believe they are nearly as economical as drying your own meats

While you are at it, buy some freeze-dried egg powder. This is very useful and MUCH easier to use than home-dried eggs

[markkee]

Re: Food dehydrating for backpacking, discuss..

My wife and I make all of our own food for back packing. We dry cooked potatoes, pasta, tomato paste, canned chicken, Asian noodles, ground beef. It's so easy and tastes so good!

My favorite all time food on the trail is chia pudding. It's instant and tastes so good. I add dried mangoes, raisins, dried coconut, and dried whole milk.

Below is my chia pudding along with my dehydrated food.



I supplement my meals with fresh caught trout.

[Logtec]

Re: Food dehydrating for backpacking, discuss..

My dehydrator is in full effect! I bought 2 more trays.
-I made garlic hummus without using oil, dehydrated it.
I added alil oil after rehydrating- it was great!
-Also made some chili and dehydrated that too, I'll try that in Oct- a few of us are doing a week in Algonquin park(Ontario)
-I also tried bbqing chicken breasts then dehydrating, the chicken is alil tough...
So I picked up a package of "freeze dried chicken breasts dog treats" it is 100% freeze dried chicken breast(I've asked my Dr if it was safe to eat, he said yes, just call the company and make sure its 100% chicken", it is!) its alil bland but has the right texture, all it needs is alil flavor.

[Mike]

Re: Food dehydrating for backpacking, discuss..

Hey, Logtec, I work in the animal protein business and I am telling you from inside knowledge: DO NOT EAT PET FOOD.

It is not handled the same as human food and most of it does not pass inspection for one reason or another such as the animal having excessive tumors or absesses, etc.

No matte what the pet food companies tell you, they are NOT animal processors. They buy their meat protein from producers and they buy their culls. Ain't nobody buying USDA inspected and passed meats for animal food. The processin plants toss all that not-for-human-consumption stuff into a big stinky slimy dump truck and it gets hauled away to the pet food guys.

Worse yet, some of that stuff comes from China or Mexico. I shudder to think.

Look, here are some hints for tender rehydrated meats:
1) Tender meats make for tender dried cuts
2) Cut the meat against the grain before drying
3) Cook your dehydrated meats in a pressure cooker at camp. Just boiling dehydrated foods at 220 degrees rarely has exceptionally good resuslts. A pressure cooker can and will bring nearly flint dry meats and veggies back to life.

[James.]

Re: Food dehydrating for backpacking, discuss..

Wow Mike, you have me rethinking the food I give my dogs.