Storing dehydrated food

[PACTwink]

I bought a dehydrator and went a little crazy with making food. So now I have tons of fruit and onions and peppers and .....

So what is the best way to store the dehydrated food so that it doesn't go bad? I'm thinking right now just throwing it in containers in the freezer (we have a chest freezer). My MIL has experience in making food and forgetting about it and later finding it moldy, so I really don't feel like hearing the weeks worth of material that my husband will get from me doing the same thing, lol.

Also - I tried to make tomato powder and when I ground the dehydrated tomatoes they just got gummy. Any suggestions?

[Pedaling Fool]

I've kept mine, including dehydrated chicken jerky, for as long as a year, I don't store it in the refrig/freezer, nor do I vacuum seal; I simply keep it in a cool, dry, dark place.

Also - I tried to make tomato powder and when I ground the dehydrated tomatoes they just got gummy. Any suggestions?

That's good, because you shouldn't dehydrate foods to the point of complete dehydration, doing so will reduce the nutritional value of the food.

[FarmerChef]

In terms of keepability, dehydrated food can keep for various amounts of time just fine at room temperature. But they must be sealed in a non-permeable container (i.e. not thin ziploc baggies) if you want it to keep for months versus weeks versus days. In my experience (and I dehydrate a lot) I have had to contend with not only mold but also moths (the little brown ones that seem to like dry goods like flower or rice). The only sure-fire way I know of to beat these is to either put all your dehydrated goodies into a heavy plastic container or a glass container. That can get somewhat expensive so we use our chest freezer and ziploc freezer bags. Much cheaper and easier. I should also mention that meat will keep for quite a while if you get the grease off but if you think you'll be storing it for several months, you may want to toss it in the freezer just to be safe. The lack of fat and moisture will help prevent it from absorbing any off flavors.

As for the tomato powder, I have had a similar experience. You might instead consider making "bark" as Cheff Glenn puts it on his site (www.backpackingchef.com). It's quite easy if you have the fruit roll up trays or similar. For instance, just take tomato paste and water it down so it spreads easily and pour it on the tray. Dehydrate as normal and when you're done, you can simply crumble it up into a baggie or jar. When rehydrating you simply add it to a little water, warm and stir until it dissolves. I make chili this way and it's the bomb!

[PACTwink]

Ah yes, I'd forgotten about the bark. I will do that next time. I had a small amount of tomatoes as a trial run, so I will try that next time.

Thank you for the consensus about freezing. I ironically have more freezer space than I do counter or cabinet space so that is where everything shall live!

[Creek Dancer]

In terms of keepability, dehydrated food can keep for various amounts of time just fine at room temperature. But they must be sealed in a non-permeable container (i.e. not thin ziploc baggies) if you want it to keep for months versus weeks versus days. In my experience (and I dehydrate a lot) I have had to contend with not only mold but also moths (the little brown ones that seem to like dry goods like flower or rice).

FarmerChef is absolutely correct about the moths. I wish I had known to store my dehydrated food in a non-permeable container as he recommends. After a couple of months of storing various backpacking food items in ziplock bags and placing the bags in an open plastic crate, I ended up with an infestation of meal moths. I have no idea which food item was responsible, because I didn't want to dig through the larvae to figure it out. Yuk! Anyway, before I knew about the infestation, the worms had crawled all over my kitchen, up into the corners of the cabinets and walls, and just kept hatching and hatching and hatching into moths. I would come home every evening to a room of little black moths all over the place. This lasted maybe a month or so. I had to not only get rid of all my backpacking food, but all other open containers in my pantry. Drove me mad!

[QiWiz]

Freeze if you have space. A source of tomato powder is Walton foods. But as soon as it is exposed to air at all, it starts to absorb moisture, so you have to be real careful with it and repackage quickly and in really high quality bags.

[Farr Away]

One way to keep moths under control - bay leaves. I put 2 or 3 leaves in my flour, cornmeal, rice, etc. I also have scattered some on each of the shelves in my 'pasta' cupboard.

Before I started doing this 15 years ago or so, I couldn't keep soy flour; it always got infested. Since then, the only times I've had an issue is when I've forgotten to put the leaves in something.

I 'recycle' the bay leaves. The leaves from the last jar/bag/container get pulled out and put in the replacement; they're good for years.

I powdered my spaghetti sauce by drying it; freezing it, and then putting it frozen in the blender. I haven't tried to do that with tomatoes though.

When storing dehydrated food, divide it up into smallish containers. Finding out that a cup of something is spoiled/molded/unusable is one thing; finding out you just lost a gallon... It will also help you keep moisture out of your food if you're not repeatedly opening a package to pull some out. I also double bag everything that goes in the freezer - a bunch of snack or sandwich size bags inside a gallon size freezer bag.

-FA

[Creek Dancer]

Good tip with the bay leaves. I will try that.

[FarmerChef]

One way to keep moths under control - bay leaves. I put 2 or 3 leaves in my flour, cornmeal, rice, etc. I also have scattered some on each of the shelves in my 'pasta' cupboard.

Oh wow! I think you just saved my pantry Seriously. I learned my lesson with the moths not just from dehydrating food, though that's perhaps the most painful, but in keeping bulk grains, pastas, flours, etc. We have a family of 6 to feed and also a smallish farm so grain abounds everywhere. The animals go through it fast enough that the moths aren't a big deal but I'm sure that contributes to them finding their way into our rather large (at least in today's terms) pantry. I'm going to go try this right NOW!

For any interested there are plenty of articles on this. Here's one I appreciated: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/rep...ay-leaves.html. There are many more. I like the part about the bazooka bubble gum. But I think that would leave a flavor

[Farr Away]

Oh wow! I think you just saved my pantry Seriously. I learned my lesson with the moths not just from dehydrating food, though that's perhaps the most painful, but in keeping bulk grains, pastas, flours, etc. We have a family of 6 to feed and also a smallish farm so grain abounds everywhere. The animals go through it fast enough that the moths aren't a big deal but I'm sure that contributes to them finding their way into our rather large (at least in today's terms) pantry. I'm going to go try this right NOW!

For any interested there are plenty of articles on this. Here's one I appreciated: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/rep...ay-leaves.html. There are many more. I like the part about the bazooka bubble gum. But I think that would leave a flavor

I think you're right!

Somebody told me about the bay leaves (long before I started googling for info, lol), and I've never taped them to anything. I just stick 2 or 3 upright into the middle of the flour or grain or whatever.

[BigRing]

I also separate mine into smaller bags. I also vacuum pack mine and store it in a spare refrigerator in the garage. I have some dehydrated ham and beef that is over a year old and still tastes great.

[fungi601]

I bought a dehydrator and went a little crazy with making food. So now I have tons of fruit and onions and peppers and .....

So what is the best way to store the dehydrated food so that it doesn't go bad? I'm thinking right now just throwing it in containers in the freezer (we have a chest freezer). My MIL has experience in making food and forgetting about it and later finding it moldy, so I really don't feel like hearing the weeks worth of material that my husband will get from me doing the same thing, lol.

Also - I tried to make tomato powder and when I ground the dehydrated tomatoes they just got gummy. Any suggestions?

If you have a foodSaver you can get an atachment that will fit over wide mouth mason jars and you can vacume seal the whatever in the jars and it willl keep forever... or at least a long time.

As for the tomato powder you should try using tomato paste on a teflix sheet and when it is dry use a coffee grinder to make a fine powder. it works great!