What happened to my beans!!

[misterfloyd]

Hello to all,

I dehydrated a bunch of beans and sent them on maildrops. By the time that I got to the second one they were growing penicillin!!

I dried them completely in my oven. After that I stored them in zip-lock containers in the freezer before shipping them off in boxes.

Any thoughts......suggestions!

Floyd

[MikeyPooh]

Hi Floyd... I'd have to guess that when you pulled the frozen packages from your freezer and they hit room temperature air, condensation formed inside your bags giving you the trouble. If that's what happened maybe try moving them from the freezer to the fridge 24 hours ahead of time to let them gradually thaw. Or maybe vacuum sealing them would do the trick. I don't have any first hand experience with this though, just throwing it out there... good luck.

[WingedMonkey]

Define beans used. Dried beans cooked and dried? Green beans dried ? Canned beans dried?

[Rain Man]

"Dried them completely"? Impossible. Even dried beans actually retain some moisture content.

Next time you might try desiccant or perhaps oxygen packets in the final packages, to keep nasty stuff from growing.

Rain Man

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[Blue Mountain Edward]

The beans iced up in the freezer like a bag of corn or mixed vegetables. You wasted money mailing yourself beans. Try eating some lentils they are not to hard to cook.

[Pedaling Fool]

In my mind there are some things that just are not worth dehydrating, such as beans (I also buy lentils in towns), but also things like pasta and garlic; those things are already dehydrated, except garlic with will keep on the trail and can be gotten in any town.

It just takes too much time, better spent on dehydrating the really good stuff, like fresh veggies and jerky.

However, WRT to the "penicillin" issue, like Rain Man said, dehydrated food isn't 100% dehydrated, you don't want to get to that point or else the dehydrated food would no longer be food.

So assuming you dehydrated it correctly, then I'm thinking it was the condensation issue.

Personally, I don't freeze/refrigerate dehydrated food, I don't even vacuum seal the stuff. I simply bag it up in a ziplock bag and keep it in a cool dry area and out of the sunlight. I've eaten the stuff after a year of sitting in those baggies. I also never bag up the stuff until it's completely cooled from the drying process.

[misterfloyd]

The beans were from a can. I dehydrated them in the oven until they were cracking.

They were black beans and pinto beans.

The point about putting them in the freezer is what I was thinking. I don't have money to invest is a vacuum sealer, got to get a dehydrator first. It was brought up about the little oxygen packets as well. I thought with a zip-lock it would stay fresh.
My main trail weight is food so I thought about lightening it up.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts guys. Live and learn.

Floyd

[Pedaling Fool]

Just know that bacteria do not need oxygen to grow, be careful of anaerobic conditions. https://www.lds.org/topics/food-stor...rm-food-supply


Excerpt:

Warning: Botulism poisoning may result if moist products are stored in packaging that reduces oxygen. When stored in airtight containers with oxygen absorbers, products must be dry (about 10% or less moisture content).

[WingedMonkey]

The beans were from a can. I dehydrated them in the oven until they were cracking.

They were black beans and pinto beans.

The point about putting them in the freezer is what I was thinking. I don't have money to invest is a vacuum sealer, got to get a dehydrator first. It was brought up about the little oxygen packets as well. I thought with a zip-lock it would stay fresh.
My main trail weight is food so I thought about lightening it up.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts guys. Live and learn.

Floyd

My experience is with dry cooked beans, mostly pinto sometimes navy.

I had pinto beans with rice about twice a month all the way to Maine (and cornbread pancakes).

I cook them in just water with some salt, no oils or fat and then drain and dehydrate them. I add the fat and vegs when I rehydrate.

Never have put in freezer, sometimes seal in a vacuum packed jar for long term.

Might want to check to be sure your canned beans don't have some kind of added fat.

[Rocket Jones]

In my mind there are some things that just are not worth dehydrating, such as beans (I also buy lentils in towns), but also things like pasta and garlic; those things are already dehydrated, except garlic with will keep on the trail and can be gotten in any town.

Dehydrating cooked pasta will definitely save time and fuel on the trail, because you're rehydrating, not cooking and rehydrating. Same with beans and lentils.

[Blue Mountain Edward]

I would carry a couple cans of beans and eat them in the first day or two. Home dried food tastes a bit bad and stinky to me.Canned beans would taste better straight from the can.

[rocketsocks]

I think the beans just weren't dry enough on the inside. I used to have a oven with a standing pilot, and would dry jerky in it, it took a long time but work, when I got the dehydrator that time was almost cut in half, I think it was the convection and removal of the warm moist air that helped. Your oven will work great, but the times you might be following aren't gonna be near what a dehydrator does. When foods are just out of the oven they'll feel warm and it's kinda hard to detect water in em, it's not until the temp inside the bean gets nearer the ambient temp that you can see condensation on the inside of a sealed baggie, if you see this condensation, they're not all the way dry, stick em in the oven some more.

[The Old Boot]

I store all my dehydrated foods in the deep freezer (not the fridge freezer section) and have not had a problem with the food once it comes out of the freezer.

I suspect that drying the beans in the oven resulted in a semi-dry bean to start with which would mold fairly quickly when taken out of the freezer.

Learning what the difference between what is dry to the touch and what is really, really properly dried has a learning curve.

[Demeter]

I mash my beans slightly before drying them. Helps to dehydrate the inside, as well as make them easier to rehydrate...

[Wise Old Owl]

The beans were from a can. I dehydrated them in the oven until they were cracking.

They were black beans and pinto beans.

The point about putting them in the freezer is what I was thinking. I don't have money to invest is a vacuum sealer, got to get a dehydrator first. It was brought up about the little oxygen packets as well. I thought with a zip-lock it would stay fresh.
My main trail weight is food so I thought about lightening it up.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts guys. Live and learn.

Floyd

I would recommend getting both at the same time. - My wife loves the vac sealer - ask for it on the Holidays or Birthday if inclined... Your first replys in this thread were on target as to what happened...


Or do this....
http://shop.honeyville.com/refried-b...FdBi7AodIicAUQ

[Pedaling Fool]

I mash my beans slightly before drying them. Helps to dehydrate the inside, as well as make them easier to rehydrate...

I've never dehydrated beans, but if I were I think I would do this; if nothing else it seems like it would reduce the drying time.

[misterfloyd]

I really think you guys are on the money.

I tried to do some different things this time out. Food is my biggest weight and my biggest challenge. I have a good idea of what to bring (maybe) but I need to make it lighter. My taste changes from home to the trail, If I see or pack another bag of Gorp, I will check myself in a hospital!!!

I made trail bars for breakfast to save time in the morning to hit the trail, but by 10am I was out of energy. Even though it had plenty of oatmeal in it it didn't have the staying power of it making it plain.

When on the trail my taste changes. I made some homemade Jerky that came out and stayed really well.

I'm going back to Erwin to Roan, Tenn, the beginning of Aug to make up mileage I should have, and planned to do. Traillegs will be gone by then!!!! I will try all of your suggestions again.

Always trying to get better, I thank you all for your help.

Best,
Floyd

Always trying to refi

[Lyle]

I'm a long way for an expert, but my guess would be a combination of the beans not being dry enough originally, and then the condensation when removing from the freezer.

Two things I would try in the future, double bag the beans before putting them in the freezer, and, until you can get a vacuum sealer, a drinking straw or straw-type coffee stirrer (even better) will suffice as a poor-man's vacuum sealer. Place food into ziplock, squeeze out as much air as possible, start sealing the zipper. when you get to the last fraction of an inch of zip, insert the straw and seal the zipper around it. Suck out as much air as you can. Keep the straw sealed with your tongue or finger while you remove it and, at the same time, seal the rest of the zipper. Works pretty good, and gets more air out than you can by hand. Less air means less moisture to condense inside the bag with temp. changes.

[Wise Old Owl]

Lyle nothing in the process requires freezing. Dry-Beans I am not sure where you got the idea - before or after you do not need to freeze! So no need to double bag...Vac seal is more about preventing freezer burn on meats. IF you walk into Wegmans go to the meat section and see that every chunk is in a gold foil vac bag that secret process makes meat last unfrozen 30 days in the package in the refrigerator and frozen lasts a long time and keeps color retention. This is a huge break thru in packaging.

Backpackers use vac seal as its a stronger plastic and takes up much less room in a UL pack - its easier to boil a bag.

Until you get your equipment - and you want two servings of beans and tortilla Try the inexpensive McDougalls Black bean soup break it into two glad bags evenly recalculate the fill line and you will find after adding the right amount of boiling water -stir with a spork and cozy for 5 minutes. you will have a re-fried like beans product for the tortillas. High in energy and low in sodium... I add a small packet of lime crystals to it and a taco bell green chilly packet.
51n2lTA51qL._SY300_.jpg

[Pedaling Fool]

Been raining all day here so I decided to make a spaghetti meal, which I do about once a month or so along with garlic bread. I don't have a set recipe, rather I just like experimenting and since I have tons of tomatoes in the garden I've been having to dehydrate them so they don't go bad.

Today I decided to chop up bits of dehydrated tomatoes and onions and throw into the garlic butter for my garlic bread. Special taste it gives it...








And here's the sauce....good stuff