Meat on the trail

[Suzzz]

I'm getting ready for a section hike in July 2017 and plan to experiment with different food options during the winter. I won't be cooking for breakfast and lunch but I want a warm meal at the end of the day. Being a pasta afictionado chances are most of those meals will be pasta-something. I will be bringing a variety of dehydrated vegetables but what about meat? I don't eat meat every day but I like to have a serving of either beef/pork/chicken about once or twice a week. I know I can get the nutritional value of meat elsewhere but I like the taste. Does anyone here have experience with meats on the trail? Is there a way of dehydrating it without turning it into jerky? And what about re-hydrating it? Is it a huge pain in the ***?

Also I'm debating on whether I should buy dehydrated food from a supplier or if I should buy a dehydrator and do it myself. I'm leaning towards option #2 because I like doing my own stuff but since those machines can be expensive, I wonder if option #1 wouldn't be the smarter way to go from a financial stand point. How much food do you need to dehydrate before the machine pays for itself?

Thanks all for your immense and very pertinent knowledge!

[LuckyMan]

I have had good success dehydrating lean ground beef to make stroganoff etc. Lean ground turkey was so lean it had a rubbery texture and wasn't so appealing. I've made big batches of pulled pork (tenderloin) or chicken (breasts) barbecue with cabbage, carrots, red peppers, onions and garlic - rehydrated, they are good hot or cold. I also eat a lot of pepperoni and summer sausage, and it has not gone bad on me.

[ADVStrom14]

I'm working on the menu for my first big trip and I am planning to work on take meat with me. Buying from someone else is convenient but can be expensive. You can get a good dehydrator for $50. I have 2 Nesco dehydrators and they work great. Plus they are expandable for larger preps. I hvae been reading the Backpacking Chef and he has some great recipes along with directions for dehydrating a variety of your own foods.

http://www.backpackingchef.com/

[AfterParty]

Dehydrators are great If you have a cabelas around they stock refurbished ones in the Bargin cave area. And you can do a lot of food in one run and probably one of the best for the money.

[Sandy of PA]

I use freeze dried meats in my dinners. Available from Packit Gormet, mountain house, Be-prepared.com etc. Heavier options are Tuna and Salmon in foil packets and Spam singles, hard boiled eggs, and cheese for protein sources.

[Trailweaver]

A lot of meat options now in the grocery store are packaged in Mylar (?) packages so they are sealed really well. Some are single serving Spam (and recipies abound on their website), tuna (old standby), and salmon. The fish come in many flavors too. Also available is shelf stable bacon. Gotta get creative. You can buy (or make) the ground beef "gravel" to rehydrate & add to all kinds of creations. Check out the many on-line suppliers of dehydrated meals & either buy from them or make your own from their ideas.

[Spirit Walker]

As Trailweaver said, there are a lot of options at the grocery. Adding protein to meals helps muscle healing and helps you feel full longer. We mostly eat cheese, tuna, salmon, spam, sausage, and cold cuts. For first night out of town, you could buy chicken strips or canned chicken or even some hamburger if it's cold enough. I've carried big deli sandwiches out of town too. My husband used to like canned anchovies and jerky. I've tried the hamburger in foil packets but didn't care for it much, but I wasn't doing a long hike when I ate it. Hunger makes a difference in what you find tasty.

[Starchild]

Precooking the meat will help reduce excess water while not dehydrating it.

[rocketsocks]

...also it dose t have to be all of nothin' you can get the dehydrator, do your pastas and veggies or what have you, then buy some free dried meats or proteins to add to your meal bags. Dehydrating is a great way to get rid of a lot of crap that's in food.

[Wil]

I dehydrate browned ground beef with onions, garlic, salt, pepper. All floured. I use 80 or 85% because it's lots tastier. I do drain the fat while browning and keep in foodsaver bags or zip locks with the air strawed out. Kept in the freezer until I leave and it's fine for at least a couple of weeks (I think I've gone as long as 3 in fairly warm weather with no sign or any indication of going bad. Mixes with lots of stuff. Optimal is to re-hydrate the meat for a few minutes in boiling water before adding the other meal ingredients (in my case usually just veggies mix with pasta or rice & spices) but if you don't want the extra step it's OK just jumped together, brought to a boil for a minute, then cozied for 1-15 minutes. Or just simmered for a several minutes if you don't mind using the fuel.

Commercial freeze dried chicken (I use larger chunks) is pretty good so I don't bother drying chicken.

I dry boiled large shrimp cut in thirds lengthwise (or smalls cut in half lengthwise).

Diced corned beef dries well; I mix it with Hormel CB hash and dry the whole batch. Add a raw egg when almost reconstituted (carried cracked and sealed in a food saver bag, tricky to seal because of the liquid, never kept these on the trail for longer than a few days, no idea how long the eggs stay good.)

[Wil]

In the ground beef above I forgot to mention I add Gravy Master or Bovril liquid.

[Dogwood]

With the rise in Paleo interest many more options are available than just super hard super chewy jerky which is similar to meat leather or a leather belt.

https://epicbar.com/bars-overview Becoming more widely available. I even see it a Sporting Good Store chains. Added to a meal by breaking up taking into consideration human sized, even hungry hiked sized meat portions needed with the meal not centered around mass consumption of meat, AS YOU SAY YOU WANT, with the other non meat based ingredients being the primary ingredients and. Doubles also eaten as is as a bar. Could be all you need in different varieties or perhaps mixing it up with chicken foil packs or various fish in foil packs. Getting your carnivore on need not be complicated on trail! Don't over think it!

http://www.tankabar.com/cgi-bin/nanf...b89d832effd60f OK, like the mixes that include other items.

http://www.bricksbars.com Never ate one. I don't see them that often.

All jerky is NOT THE SAME super hard super chewy meat leather either.

I can tell you Krave Basil Citrus and Lemon Garlic versions are soft turkey jerky. I don't know about the other meats. I see this at a wide range of stores. https://www.kravejerky.com/shop/krav...udeUnavailable

Perky Jerky Turkey is soft and flavorful jerky where you will not dislodge teeth attempting to tear apart. Although I don't eat it the other meat varieties all looked soft and less chewy too. Find at Wally World and widely elsewhere. http://perkyjerky.com/buy-4-get-1-free

Lorissa's Kitchen Ginger Teriyaki Chicken jerky is soft and easily consumed as is out of the bag or added to meals. Target, Krogers, prolly elsewhere is where you'll locate it. http://lorissaskitchen.com/what-we-make/

There will be some disagreement but for all the work and possible initial expense dehydrating these meats perhaps if you are accurate in saying you will not eat meat on trail as often as you say buying any of these might be more acceptable. It seems to me, and I could be wrong, dehydrating and then rehydrating often equates with rehydrating jerky/jerky like products anyway.

Dehydrating food means also mailing out resupply boxes rather than buying all these on the AT as you go. When not consuming meat in mass quantities as you say you will on trail you have to start weighing different option depennidng on your situation.

[Hosh]

I use a Nesco dehydrator for all my backpacking meals. If you want to do chicken, use canned chicken it is much easier to re-hydrate. I use 90%+ ground beef and rinse it repeatedly under hot water before drying. You can keep the beef gravel separate and add some cold water hours before meal prep.

I don't have any experience with pork, but would suggest ground pork, since it will be easier to re-hydrate.

[Engine]

Tuna, Salmon, Chicken, and other options in the foil packs from Wally World. They are inexpensive and often available pre-seasoned with some flavors better than others. These options are slightly heavier than freeze-dried, but much less expensive and you don't have to rehydrate them.

[MtDoraDave]

Dry sausage. Cured, smoked, salted... it kept back in the old days before refrigeration.

I can (and do) eat just about anything without ill effects, though some people are more sensitive. However, hand and fingernail cleanliness should be considered when preparing food on the trail, so pre-sliced and pre-portioned foods seem like a good idea for days or weeks out on the trail.

[MtDoraDave]

... since this section hike is 9 months away, it would be relatively painless to spread out the cost of buying enough Mountain House meals for one per day on the trail. -But to me, a section hike means a week - the op didn't say how long their section hike will be.

I just re-read the original post - and to eat meat just once a week, logistically it makes more sense just buying it rather than making your own... unless its something of a personal challenge, then do what you enjoy.

[DuneElliot]

I found a decent dehydrator for $50 (I think) at Walmart. That's not exactly expensive. I haven't tried it yet because I have no space for it, but it had good reviews

[Feral Bill]

Dry sausage. Cured, smoked, salted... it kept back in the old days before refrigeration.

I can (and do) eat just about anything without ill effects, though some people are more sensitive. However, hand and fingernail cleanliness should be considered when preparing food on the trail, so pre-sliced and pre-portioned foods seem like a good idea for days or weeks out on the trail.

A couple ounces a day of dry sausage does wonders. Having it separate helps when hiking with vegetarians.

[RockDoc]

We make paleo beef jerky using grass fed ground beef, a strip extruder, and our dehydrater. Easy peasy.

We also carry Landjaeger sausage, which does not need to be refrigerated.

[Suzzz]

Thanks guys for all your valuable input!

MtDoraDave I set aside 2 weeks for my section hike. And yes making my own trail food myself would be a nice challenge but it needs to be tasty. I can't imagine being stuck on the trail with horrible food. That's why I want to experiment at home during the winter. If I see that I have the talent to dehydrate and then rehydrate food without making it look like goo and taste like crap, I'll be more than happy to hit the trail with my own concoctions. It must be very rewarding to be able to do that. But if I can't, I'll gladly buy whatever I need. I'd rather pay for something I know will be good that being in a bad mood for most of my hike because my food isn't good.