Homemade or Bought Dehydrated Meals

[JC785]

I was curious of how many people take the time to prepare and dehydrate there food or just buy it from the store.

[Nalgene Ninja]

Define dehydrated foods. Are you talking about standard grocery drygoods (lipton noodles, intant rice, etc) or backpacking foods (Mountain House Meals, Enertia, etc.)?

[JC785]

the mountain house meals and etc.

[Cuffs]

Clarifying...  Enertia is dehydrated... Mountain House, Backpacker Pantry etc are freeze dried.

I home dehydrate and take Enertia if I get them from work...

[JC785]

Clarifying...  Enertia is dehydrated... Mountain House, Backpacker Pantry etc are freeze dried.

I home dehydrate and take Enertia if I get them from work...

thanks Cuffs, what all do you home dehydrate?

[Cuffs]

Just about everything!

corn, peas, mushrooms, okra, cucumbers, browned ground beef, venison, tomatoes, tuna, you name it!

I also like to bake casseroles, eat my dinner portion, then dehydrate the rest!  Makes for great dinner on the trail, tuna casserole, beef stroghanoff...

[JC785]

do you buy the frozen veggies to dehydrate or do you buy the can? and how do you cook the veggies before you dehydrate them? Thanks for all the info.

[highlife]

check out this thread

http://www.alatrails.com/...dex.php/topic,1272.0.html

[buck]

do you buy the frozen veggies to dehydrate or do you buy the can? and how do you cook the veggies before you dehydrate them? Thanks for all the info.

I dehydrate just about everything I carry. I drain the canned vegetables and then dehydrate without any cooking. They'll get a little cooking when I rehydrate them in boiling water for a while. Here's some combinations I use:

Hamburger recipes - get the lowest fat/lean hamburger you can find. It dehydrates faster/better and you end up with more meat in the end than with the cheaper non-lean meat. Make sure you get the grease off the meat. Then try these combinations:

Dehydrated hamburger, tomatoes, onions, chili beans, and 1/2 pack of chili powder mix - to make chili

Dehydrated hamburger, corn, peas, green beans, tomatoes, potatoes (I dehydrate the canned sliced potatoes), add a beef bullion cube - to make vegetable soup. This one takes a bit longer to rehydrate with the potatoes.

Dehydrated hamburger, tomatoes, onions, bell pepper, and then add angel hair noodles and spaghetti sauce powder - to make spaghetti

I've dehydrated just about every vegetable and meat we care to eat in the woods. Some vegetables can lose too much of their flavor and I therefore take along a beef bullion cube for flavoring.

Some of the above dehydrated items will poke a hole in the best vacuum sealed bags. I usually place the items in an open ziplock bag, then place this open bag into the vacuum seal bag and seal with the ziplock still open. I don't have much of a problem with holes when I do this. Hamburger meat is really bad about poking holes.

When I was learning to dehydrate I used to select the ingredients, dehydrate, and then practice cooking in boiling water on the stove at home. Everyone would eat and judge. I am still amazed at how good the re-hydrated meals are when I consider what they look like all dried out in the vacuum sealed bags.

[JC785]

Thanks for the help! I've been dehydrating ground beef and mixed veggies all week. The beef was quite simple but the veggies took forever to dehydrate. It could have been that I bought the mixed bag of frozen vegetables instead of the individual packs of frozen vegetables or I should have used the can type. Next time I will do them individually. Do the vegetables taste the same and have the same texture when rehydrated. I tried rehydrating some and it was like eating rubber, it was horrible, I could have rehydrated them the wrong way.

How do you store the dehydrated beef and veggies and etc.? freezer, of let them stay in ziploc bags, or vacuum seal?

[Nalgene Ninja]

Instead of dehydrating veggies you could try Knorr vegtable soup mix.

[highlife]

Thanks for the help! I've been dehydrating ground beef and mixed veggies all week. The beef was quite simple but the veggies took forever to dehydrate. It could have been that I bought the mixed bag of frozen vegetables instead of the individual packs of frozen vegetables or I should have used the can type. Next time I will do them individually. Do the vegetables taste the same and have the same texture when rehydrated. I tried rehydrating some and it was like eating rubber, it was horrible, I could have rehydrated them the wrong way.

How do you store the dehydrated beef and veggies and etc.? freezer, of let them stay in ziploc bags, or vacuum seal?

We keep our stuff in the freezer in a dark bag

[ednotmilkman]

for me, home dehydrating sounds like a lot more trouble than just going to the grocery store, get good stuff, then carrying  a few ounces of extra water if my tuna and chicken for a 4 day hike isn't dehy.  I have bought some dehy. veggies from Harmony House in North Carolina to go with the excellent Knorr mixes and the old standby Ramen noodles at the grocery.  Those dehy veggies don't soften up all that well for me even when simmering Knorr mixes for 8 minutes and then letting the pot sit in a cozy another 10 minutes.  I think they give me more gas , too ! But they are still good for me, right ? So I eat them.

Harmony House regular dehy veggies average between $0.60- 1.00  / ounce,  so its not cheap, but unless you are planning a through hike with lots of mail drops, its not that important.  They have a few freeze dried things too, but it costs 50-100% more.

http://www.harmonyhousefoods.com/

[buck]

Thanks for the help! I've been dehydrating ground beef and mixed veggies all week. The beef was quite simple but the veggies took forever to dehydrate. It could have been that I bought the mixed bag of frozen vegetables instead of the individual packs of frozen vegetables or I should have used the can type. Next time I will do them individually. Do the vegetables taste the same and have the same texture when rehydrated. I tried rehydrating some and it was like eating rubber, it was horrible, I could have rehydrated them the wrong way.

How do you store the dehydrated beef and veggies and etc.? freezer, of let them stay in ziploc bags, or vacuum seal?

As I said, I dehydrate vegetables straight out the can - drained, of course. The texture does change, but in my experience how you cook the ingredients can contribute to this. I have found that once the water begins boiling, I turn down the heat and have more of a lower temp boil for a longer period of time. I think the more time you give them, the better the texture.

As for the taste, in my case you do lose some of the taste. However, a bullion cube can flavor everything nicely.

I vacuum seal everything I dehydrate and then keep it in the refrigerator until ready to use. I think this is essential unless you plan to use the ingredients VERY soon. Oxygen can reap a negative effect on dehydrated goods. Also, as previously mentioned, I actually place the dehydrate item in a ziploc bag. Leave this bag unsealed and place it in a vacuum seal bag. With the ziploc bag left unsealed, seal the vacuum seal bag with the vacuum sealer. Otherwise the dried ingredients sometimes poke holes in the vacuum seal bag.

I mentioned dehydrating chili beans. They come in a can complete with a flavored sauce of sorts. I actually fill the can several times with water and pour in order to remove some of the thickness of the sauce. Ironically, these beans still maintain a fairly strong chili taste.

Another key when I dehydrate vegetables is to spread them thin on the dehydrator to allow air to move through all sides. Corn is especially hard to completely dehydrate if piled together. Why? I don't know. Green beans spread apart seem to be among the fastest, as are blackeyed peas.

One item I have not mastered is fruit. Still working on the right combination - especially for bananas.

[Haveuseen1]

Just buy Enertia Trail foods or something similar and spend the extra time doing other things such as being on a trail.

[Tim Rich]

Much of the buy or dry decision is determined by how much time you have to do it, how much you have to spend, and whether you want to do dishes on the trail.  My hikes are all pretty much the same - freeze dried for dinner, snacks/crackers/dried fruit for lunch, and oatmeal & coffee for breakfast.  I take Cytomax starting out each morning and at day's end and maybe mid-afternoon if it's a long day.  We never cook in our pot, just boil water.  I eat oatmeal out of my insulated mug, then swish a little water, drink it and then make coffee with Folger singles in the same cup.  Our menu is supplemented by any meal we can snag at road crossings or at town stops.  Some folks complain the freeze dried meals don't taste good or aren't filling, but I like them and I just eat a two person serving for myself.