Drying your own spaghetti dinner -

[Wise Old Owl]

I have to admit, there are several running posts on this subject, so this being a cold, rainy, windy month here in Pennsylvania, I fired up the dehydrator and made several test Spaghetti dinners. First I dried burger by the usual method, and Ragu separate as fruit leather. Angel Hair pasta was boiled and returned to the dryer. I am finding fault with an interesting problem. Bringing the ingredients to a boil in the field with an alcohol stove and setting them in a cozy to soak 10 minutes, is causing a disappointment. Cooking & redrying the angel hair pasta is not saving any time or fuel. The pasta is also failing to hydrate. On a side note substituting Ramen without the flavor packet was a success. Ramen will hydrate or cook in three minutes. Someone posted Ramen is pre fried, that’s ok. The next attempt I will combine the meat & sauce in the dryer for a better result. Has anyone else experienced this? I am using Angel as I thought it would cook faster.

[Wise Old Owl]

Ok I looked at a few Freeze Dried and other prepackaged foods and they all seem to mention 7-10 minutes of boil time for the spaghetti. When I purchase store bought spaghetti, the cooking time jumps, even if I cook it once and dry it. about 15 - 20 minutes. If it is 10 minutes the pasta is a sticky, uncooked & pasty.
I discovered I had a neoprene sock from Built that fits most common soda bottles from REI. There is a wide mouth mini Gatorade plastic bottles for soda & juices. I empted the bottle and stuffed it in the Built sock, a hiking sock would probably work too. I took the pasta and broke it in half and it fits the 20 oz bottle. Bring two cups of water to a boil and pour it into the bottle and cap it. Let stand 20 minutes and the pasta will be thoughly cooked. The "Gatorade" shape will let you pour off the excess water without dumping out the pasta. You need the sock to handle the hot bottle. I can now return the pasta to the Freezer bag with the meat & sauce and eat out of the freezer bag. I think I am saving fuel and the weight of the bottle is an ounce, with a Built sock it totals 4 oz.
So what do you think of "my find" or am I over thinking this?

[Grumpy Ol' Pops]

Have you tried soaking the pasta in the cooking water for ten to fifteen to twenty minutes before heating the water and pasta together? It's best to try the meals at home before the trail to get the soak and cook times down to where they are justr right. Whenever I use any of the Lipton's "MRE's" this way, it seems they need only two or three minutes slow boil time before they are ready to eat.

[Pokey2006]

I'm confused. Are you cooking the pasta twice? If you boil and dehydrate at home, then you shouldn't have to cook it at all in the field. Just bring water to a boil, add water to the freezer bag, and go off and do something else for 10 minutes while the pasta rehydrates. It's this that saves fuel -- you only need enough to bring it to a boil, not keep it boiling for 10 minutes.

It's good to do the elements separately when dehydrating, but the pasta, sauce and meat (or veggies) should all go together in the bag when rehydrating in the field. Maybe having the sauce in the bag with it keeps the pasta from getting gummy. Eggplant parm with whole wheat spaghetti and tomato sauce is one of my favorite and most successful freezer bag meals!

Good luck.

[Grinder]

SARBAR (resident cooking expert) explained that pasta needs to be cooked in a large volume of water and that water discarded to eliminate the starchy, pasty condition you refer to.

Also, precooking reduces cooking time on the trail as you are really rehydrating and heating.

I haven't done spaghetti yet, but have precooked a number of hamburger helper type meals. It does work, but needs a good stir and a long soak to eliminate the crunch in some noodles.

You are a wise man to practise this at home.

Tom

[burger]

I ate rehydrated angel hair pasta all the time on the trail, and I never bothered with pre-cooking the noodles. It comes out a bit starchy, but if you have sauce, it's scarcely noticeable.

You may want to use something with a little better insulation than a neoprene sock as a cozie. I was usually able to rehydrate a huge freezer bag of angle hair in no more than 15 minutes.

Also, I would measure your pasta out so that you have the same amount for each meal. That way you can add exactly the right amount of water so you don't have to pour any off. Once I figured out exactly how much water to use, I never had to pour off any extra.

[Smile]

I used those little angel hair 'nests' and they were great. Small, fit in a mug on top of one another and a quick boil brought them around to enjoyable in a few minutes.

[Lellers]

I find angel hair to be problematic even at home -- and I'm Italian and even make my own pasta a mano! It's so thin that if you aren't on it every second that you are cooking it, it can clump or become too soft very quickly. I've never tried dehydrating angel hair, but I think that might be part of your problem. Either don't cook it at all, or switch to a sturdier pasta.

Have you considered using macaroni versus long pastas? I dehydrate what amounts to beef-a-roni, and it works well -- sauce, elbows or other small shaped macaroni, and ground beef. I cook the pasta before combining with the sauce and meat, and then once everything is combined and it's seasoned the way I like, I put the entire meal in the dehydrator on fruit leather trays. Works fine. Just to reiterate, when cooking the pasta, use plenty of water and rinse it before dehydrating. That helps to reduce the starchiness.

[rafe]

I'm confused. Are you cooking the pasta twice? If you boil and dehydrate at home, then you shouldn't have to cook it at all in the field.

Bingo. I've had no trouble cooking pasta in a cozy. Straight out of the box. Child's play. Dehydrating and rehydrating pasta seems futile to me. Silly.

[Ewker]

I just cook my spaghetti with meat and sauce at home as if I was going to have it for dinner. I then put a serving size in the dehydrator and dry it. When on the trail I add equal amounts of boling water pop in the cozy and 10 minutes later I have dinner

[Smile]

Lellers: Just to reiterate, when cooking the pasta, use plenty of water and rinse it before dehydrating. That helps to reduce the starchiness.

I think you're right Lellers, that is the key to reducing that starchiness. Maybe at times folks are 'water stingy' (=time stingy=HUNGRY EAT NOW!) when it comes to cooking, and forget about the rinsing part. Good advice ;)

[Fiddleback]

I just cook my spaghetti with meat and sauce at home as if I was going to have it for dinner. I then put a serving size in the dehydrator and dry it. When on the trail I add equal amounts of boling water pop in the cozy and 10 minutes later I have dinner

Me too. I reserve a portion of our spaghetti dinner and dehydrate it on a cookie sheet. In fact, most of my trail meals are reserved portions meals served at home; spaghetti, chile, thick soups, various rice/veggie/hamburger combinations, etc. Although the reconstituted trail meals aren't as good as those served fresh at home they're all better than their commercial counterparts. Healthier, too.

Last season I 'discovered' that garlic toast keeps well too...good enough for the trail. I brush french bread with an olive oil and garlic salt mixture and toast it under the broiler. I found that a leftover piece of toast wrapped in Saran Wrap held its flavor and crunchiness nicely for several days (disclaimer: I am in the arid Mountain West). It makes a nice addition to the trail meal.

FB

[Alligator]

Bingo. I've had no trouble cooking pasta in a cozy. Straight out of the box. Child's play. Dehydrating and rehydrating pasta seems futile to me. Silly.You're silly:p .

Including the pasta beforehand in a dehydrated meal is useful because any sauces cling to the pasta (or gravy:)). The cook times can also be shorter with dehydrated, but do depend on what else is in the meal. I wouldn't dehydrate angel hair though, it cooks fast by itself. And if it was dehydrated, it is so thin that it might get real soggy and possibly overcooked before the rest of the meal rehydrates. Thicker, uniform pastas are more satisfactory IMO when dehydrating beforehand--macaroni, small shells, lasgnaettes, etc. Thin pastas may oversoak/overcook. I've had this problem if I've soaked the dehydrated meal in cold water before cooking.

[rafe]

You're silly:p .

Maybe, but I've cooked hundreds of pounds of angel hair pasta in my day, and never lost a single strand. ;)

[Lellers]

Here's my comment about the futility of cooking dried pasta and then dehydrating it for the trail. The thing about dried pasta out of the box is that it is a dried RAW product. It's basically just flour and water, maybe eggs, combined and shaped into pasta. It's dried that way, and if you rehydrate it without cooking it, you miss out on whatever cellular stuff happens when you cook it. When you rehydrate raw pasta, you basically are headed to a flour and water paste. Ewww.

It seems a little strange to cook something that's dried, and then dehydrate it. But, when you firm up all those cell walls, cook the starches, and THEN dehydrate it, you have a cooked product that will rehydrate with simple soaking. Rinsing it cleans off the starch from the cooking water, and you really do end up with a nice, lightweight complex carb source for the trail.

Dried cooked pasta is usually smaller and darker in color than dried raw pasta.

[sarbar]

Lellers says it pretty much why I precook and dehydrate pasta for the trail :)

I do it for ease, and also I like using big pasta shapes (rigatoni, bowties, etc) that really need a lot of fast moving boiling water to cook up right. I also don't like the starch that pasta leaves behind when you cook in to small of water. So for me it is personal why I do the extra work :)

It is worth it to only have to cover my pasta with boiling water and let it sit for 10-15 minutes and then toss with seasonings and eat!

[4eyedbuzzard]

I think you're right Lellers, that is the key to reducing that starchiness. Maybe at times folks are 'water stingy' (=time stingy=HUNGRY EAT NOW!) when it comes to cooking, and forget about the rinsing part. Good advice ;)

No need to rinse pasta unless you're going to use it in a cold salad. The residual starch aids in any sauce clinging to the pasta. If it sticks together badly it wasn't cooked it in a big enough pot/not enough water.

[WalkingStick75]

I will dry just some normal Ragu type sauce, regular spaghetti noodles (if I need to save fuel I will let the sit in the hot water until done). Parm cheese in small packets that I pickup at the local pizza take out. Cole slaw makes a great salad with a small dressing pack from most fast food places.

[Lellers]

No need to rinse pasta unless you're going to use it in a cold salad. The residual starch aids in any sauce clinging to the pasta. If it sticks together badly it wasn't cooked it in a big enough pot/not enough water.

Oh! I agree. I never rinse it at home when I'm cooking authentically. But I do rinse it before dehydrating. It feel that I get a better result. It's just a matter of taste. I've added it to my pasta meals without rinsing and then dehydrated, and it worked out o.k. But when I rinse and reduce the starch, it seems to me that the final product isn't as "clumpy". I have been accused (correctly) of being a food snob, so I'm probably being picky.

[Smile]

So, how much of a 'clump' are you dehydrating and about how thick are you spreading it on your dehydrator sheet?

I'd like to experiment with some past with eggplant or red peppers and garlic :)

[Lellers]

So, how much of a 'clump' are you dehydrating and about how thick are you spreading it on your dehydrator sheet?

I'd like to experiment with some past with eggplant or red peppers and garlic :)

I just spread the food out on a fruit leather tray, and for my dehydrator, that's about 1-1/2 to 2 cups per sheet. Not thick at all. Sometimes with pasta dinners, I dehydrate the sauce and pasta separately. But I've found that "red gravy" and pasta dehydrate well together. I've tried a few alfredo sorts of things, and haven't had the best of luck. Passable, but not memorable.

[mkmangold]

Instead of noodles, I make Spaetzle (essentially eggs and flour). I cook briefly then dry at home. Kinda chewy but very nutritious.

[sarbar]

Rinsing the pasta does help with getting your pasta to not stick together while drying :) As I tend to use large shapes this helps a lot. I usually dry about 3-4 lbs of pasta at a time and often store it all in large bags till trail time, then weigh out portions of 4-6 ounces for meals. I often mix shapes as well :) Each piece of pasta is indivdual as well, no clumps.

[pure_mahem]

Check out Tinny's video on minibulldesigns. I think he's perfected cooking spaghetti in a heinipot. By the way if you break your pasta so it fits in your pot all covered by water bring your water to a boil and let it sit for 10-15 minutes with the lid on your pasta will be done. We use this method to cook at home to conserve energy, been doing it for years. And one other thing isn't pasta already dehydrated so why in the heck would you cook it and then dehydrate it. unless your talking about hydrating it through cooking draining it and putting it in your ziploc so all you have to do is a quick boil to reheat it but this would add uneccessary weight from the water to your pack. Try the first method it will work for you, be patient. If you were in a hurry you wouldn't be walking.

[Lellers]

And one other thing isn't pasta already dehydrated so why in the heck would you cook it and then dehydrate it.

Yes, pasta is already dehydrated, but it's a dehydrated RAW product. Pasta dough is made, shaped, and dried. The cooking is up to the consumer. It's very different when it's cooked and then dehydrated. At that point, it can be cooked very quickly on the trail and tastes like freshly cooked pasta from home.

[Wise Old Owl]

Come to think of it I was cooking twice. Cooking the pasta at home and throwing it in the dryer and then cooking again in the feild to hydrate. Well my tests are still on the drawing table. There isn't a real savings in time. The fruit leather sauce is a winner. Ragu works great in the dryer. I will share that I am spraying the tray with canola oil cook spray or Pam BEFORE I spread the Ragu. This reduces the staining and makes it easy to peel off the leather when done. A teaspoon of loose bullion with the dry product improves the overall quality of freezer bag cooking. A seperate packet of parmesan taped to the outside - Outstanding.
I really thought I had hit something with a small Gatorade bottle but, I don't think anyone really cared for it. It really works for on the trail cooking of pasta, to get a true pasta taste, in fifteen minutes. I am still playing here to make affordable dry meals. Angel is a bit frustrating, thin speggetti does come out better, too thick and it will take longer.

[Bolo]

Sarbar's 'Pizza in a Pot'..spag sauce, ground beef, linguine noodles, few thrown in pepperoni slices. Cooked and dehydrated each ingredient separately. Took about 20 minutes to rehydrate all ingredients in one pot; about another 20 to fully heat. Fed 11 on Foothills Trail hike this weekend. Also packed garlic toast and strawberry cheesecake (powedered ingredients in a ziploc). Yummy! They were asking for more!
-Bolo