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Thread: Dehydrating meals

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
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    5,000

    Dehydrating meals

    I don't know about the rest of u guys, but mountain house and backpackers pantry give me the sh#ts within minutes of eating them. Anyways, I've been getting a little more serious with my dehydrator. I've been reading a bunch of forums and websites getting recipes and thought it might be good to start a thread so we can share tips and recipes.

    I'll post my jerky recipe up tomorrow, but so far I've made all kinds of fruit. Really ripe fruit seems to be best. Pineapple, pears and Granny Smith apples.

    I took some some of the wife's chili and dehydrated it for my last camping trip. It took longer to rehydrate than any of the recipes I found online, but it turned out really good. I poured some boiling water on it and let it sit for a while and kept adding water and bringing it back to a boil over the fire until it quit thickening up. Probably took at least 30 minutes.

    I made the banana nut pudding from backpacking chef too. I used brown sugar instead of white and whole wheat bread. It turned out pretty good. It seems like quite a bit of effort for the results though.
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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Terrace, BC
    Posts
    1,619

    Re: Dehydrating meals

    The amount of sodium in Mountain House meals is almost terrifying.

    My suggestion about rehydration is start it as soon as you can. If you leave camp in the AM, starting soaking your meal in water right away. Once you return to camp, all you have to do is cook it.

    Pretty much any meal you can cook you can dehydrate but I do shy away from pork and chicken.
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  4. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Location
    Fraser valley
    Posts
    2,465

    Re: Dehydrating meals

    I made a load of chilli and dehydrated it a couple years ago.Packaged meticulously in individual vaccuum bagged portions. It was a painstaking process but I was determined to have my chilli while blacktail hunting. You can imagine my horror when I boiled up some water in the jetboil to have a mid day snack. It tasted like a mix of homeless ass and vomit.I don’t know if there is some special trick to dehydrating cooked ground beef but holy hell never again.

  5. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2017
    Posts
    194

    Re: Dehydrating meals

    Great thread brother.

    I also dont enjoy the pre packaged salt blocks they expect us to eat while exerting so much energy hiking and hunting.

    I use the dehydrator alot. I think of what I want to eat, dehydrate the ingredients separately then add them all to a zip lock as little meals.

    When I'm out in the field, in the morning I'll add water to my lunch ziplock and by lunchtime its fully rehydrated. So I add seasoning, spices and what ever else it needs, then heat and serve. Repeat the same at lunch for my dinner meal.

    Works a charm. Weighs nothing. Costs next to nothing and takes up no room in your pack.

    Some favorites included, chili, shepard's pie, any sort of soup mix with meat, salmon pastas etc.

    Chris pryn

  6. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2016
    Posts
    1,125

    Re: Dehydrating meals

    Lots of good DIY dehydrated meals recipes here. easy, cheap. Trick to dehydrating ground red meat is to mix in with bread crumbs and cook before dehydrating.

    Outlined on the site their the whole process including re-hydrating/cooking in the field.

    https://www.backpackingchef.com/backpacking-recipes.html

    https://www.backpackingchef.com/dehydrating-food.html

  7. #6
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Location
    Region 8
    Posts
    133

    Re: Dehydrating meals

    I dehydrate food all the time, spaghetti sauce, chili etc. Spread the portion you want on tinfoil in your dehydrator. Dry it well and add minute rice to it for extra bulk. Vacuum seal but not too hard as rice can puncture the bag. Add your boiling water and stuff it in your toque or something to retain the heat. Never had a bad one. You can also bring a light weight container and your not eating out of a bag. I also never have done this with beef, only deer or moose. I imagine gristlely beef would be pretty bad, I butcher/grind all my own so my burger is like steak tar tare.

  8. #7
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Prince George
    Posts
    27

    Re: Dehydrating meals

    There are freeze dryers you can buy for home use now they work pretty good.

  9. #8
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Location
    Langley
    Posts
    202

    Re: Dehydrating meals

    dehydrated ground beef jerky is the best, I can do 10 pounds and its gone in no time at all around here,
    its nice cause you can make it up pretty much in no time at all

  10. #9
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Vancouver Island
    Posts
    6,052

    Re: Dehydrating meals

    Quote Originally Posted by Chrispryn View Post
    ...I also dont enjoy the pre packaged salt blocks they expect us to eat while exerting so much energy hiking and hunting...
    I also am not a fan of heavy salt in my Mountain house or Backpackers Pantry, however, after a days hiking and heavy exertion, doesn't your body need salt?
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  11. #10
    Join Date
    Jun 2017
    Posts
    194

    Re: Dehydrating meals

    Quote Originally Posted by huntcoop View Post
    I also am not a fan of heavy salt in my Mountain house or Backpackers Pantry, however, after a days hiking and heavy exertion, doesn't your body need salt?
    Oh 100percent your body needs the salt. It's just not that much fun to have to eat it all like that. I'd rather get it from the seasoning in my dehydrated meals, jerky, snacks, water additives.

    I'm not a big salt guy normally anyhow. So it just bugs me to choke it all down in one meal

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