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bobgessner57
02-27-2004, 14:01
Has anyone used a home dehydrator to dry soft cheeses like ricotta or cottage cheese? How did it work? How long did it take? What were the results? Seems like it would open some great recipe opportunities.

Doctari
03-01-2004, 11:33
I have never done so, but it MIGHT work.

You would probably do it like this:

Shred or grate the ricotta to small bits, &/or use small curd Cottage cheese. spread as a thin layer on (probably) a fruit roll up sheet. dry till about %80 of moisture is removed, put in double zip locks. Store in freezer till ready to hit the trail.

Hint: I dry in portions; the full meals get put in my cook pot, then spread on the drier one pot at a time. Additives like we are talking here: measure out what you would use in a recipie (1 cup?) & dry & bag as those amounts. My bet is that a snack size zip lock would be enough for 2 or more servings of dried ricotta.

Hope this helps, let us know what you find out :sun

Doctari.

bobgessner57
03-02-2004, 01:04
I bit the curd and tried drying some cottage cheese, the 4 percent fat kind.
I dried it for 12 hours. I dried that long in order to get the moisture out of the curds, the creamy white part dried very quickly. The curds look like little chunks of dried out cheddar-sort of amber. The volume was reduced to slightly less that 50 percent of the original and I haven't had time to carry the sample out to the scale in my shop. I plan to let it sit a few days then attempt to reconstitute and give the taste test. When I washed off the drying tray the cream seemed to do well and had a nice flavor. I'll report on the results.

bobgessner57
05-04-2004, 08:53
Stored powder for 2 months on my desk and in my gear box. Saw no apparent problems. What started out as 10 oz (weight) 1cup and 1 tbslp by volume was dried down to 1.9 oz and slightly less than 1/2 cup volume.

Took 1/4 c of powder and mixed with about 3/8 c water, threw in some dried basil. No cook, used cold water, took about 1 hour to pretty much rehydrate, the longer it sogged the softer and better the chunkier parts got, but still looked a bit odd. Added water in small amounts as it absorbed.

Ate some on crackers-better than a lot of trail food. Took remainder and mixed in with some of my home dried spaghetti sauce and Sgt Rock dried
hamburger, the result was outstanding. It tasted like lasagna, I've had a lot worse in restaurants. Haven't tried putting powder straight into the cook pot with burger and sauce but should work.

The reconstituted cheese had a bit more sour acidic flavor than fresh but is a good change from the typical dried psuedo american or fresh rat cheese.

Calories-not sure because I threw away the container. But one could tailor the calorie count by using low fat or whole cottage cheese, ricotta would probably work too and is much higher in calories. I am playing with recipes that are filling and can be adusted for fat content. On short trips I'll shoot for low to moderate fat and burn the adipose, on longer trips add the olive oil, fattier cheese, etc.

lobstergrrrl
05-25-2004, 09:09
Was wondering if you ever dried the ricotta? I like ricotta better than cottage cheese with pasta. I'm thinking I might try the lasagna receipe on my next hike.

bobgessner57
05-29-2004, 22:35
Haven't tried to dry ricotta yet but it should work fine. Please post and share results if you try it.

Drynfood
07-06-2004, 10:23
I dry my cheese on a solid sheet with a tiny bit of olive oil to keep from sticking. Normally takes less than 4 hours at 135 deg with a dehydrator that has a fan and thermistat. Make all the chunks the same size so they dry in equal time.
The less fat in the cheese you select, the better it dries and the less likely to become rancid. Ricotta, low fat cottage cheese and feta cheese are awesome. Add herbs and spices. If it is a little to clumpy for you, stick it in the blender after it is dried.

For more recipes and hints: www.northernoutpost.com (http://www.northernoutpost.com/) :sun

Jaybird
07-06-2004, 10:40
Has anyone used a home dehydrator to dry soft cheeses like ricotta or cottage cheese? How did it work? How long did it take? What were the results? Seems like it would open some great recipe opportunities.


Man! you got way tooooo much time on your hands.

why not take some thin slices of "real" cheese? No hassles!

bobgessner57
08-03-2004, 20:44
Man! you got way tooooo much time on your hands.

why not take some thin slices of "real" cheese? No hassles!

Jaybird:
I like to carry hard cheeses like sharp cheddar or Jarlsberg but on really long shots between resupply or when canoe camping (think portage, backpacking with a canoe on your head) the dry cheese is a real weight saver. The soft cheeses are generally much lower in fat than many of the hard cheeses. This can be a benefit if one is desiring to shuck a few pounds while out or it can be a liability if you are trying to hog down every calorie in the county. The soft cheeses generally do not keep well outside a fridge but they sure taste good for a change from cheddar and pasta for the umpteenth time. Dried they seem to keep quite well.

If I see you up the trail I'll 'vide with ya!

Pirate
08-03-2004, 21:52
Why don't you just buy some cheese from the store? It will keep at least a week unless the mice get to it first. Most stores sell cheese and cheese comes in different flavors.