Dehydrating personal meals

[Hosh]

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but a great series of recipes have been done on a youtube channel. Search on Babelfish5. He has some great renditions of tuna casserole, beef stroganoff, and chicken & rice.

Check it out

[Hikes in Rain]

I did. Lots of nice things to try there. Good find, Hosh, thanks!

[Hosh]

Your welcome, I've been doing my own main dishes for about 5 years. His recipes are pretty easy. I have been storing everything in mason jars that I vacuum seal and then store in my freezer.

I've had hamburger gravel last over 3 years.

[Hikes in Rain]

Didn't realize you could vacuum pack jars. I'd bet it really would extend the life of stored food. I'll have to check it out. I played with dehydration off and on for a few years with a cheap "as seen on TV!" brand dehydrator. Got serious enough with it to justify a last year model Excalibur. Really improved the quality of my dried stuff!

[Hosh]

The Excalibur is the Cadillac of dehydrators. Some of the FoodSaver vacuum sealers have a canister option. You can buy a separate jar sealer, http://www.foodsaver.com/jar-sealers...76970x57127330 that can be used on Mason jars. It's really handy for dehydrated foods and things like rice, flour etc. My wife and I can tomatoes, pickles and salsas, so we have lots of spare jars sitting around.

[Hikes in Rain]

Got ours cheap! New model came out and Amazon had the old one cut rate. Also saved $100 by getting the one without the timer. Wandered out to the workshop and found one of our old timers you plug into the wall and plug a lamp into so people think you're home (and have exactly the same routine each night!). Thanks for the link on the foodsaver; it's going to come in handy.

[Hosh]

I use a Nesco, it's adequate but doesn't dry everything consistently. The inner ring takes longer than than outer diameter. It's not a really big deal since I tend to over dry things. Occasionally I'll move things around to even it all out. I generally run the unit over night so I don't feel the need for a timer.