How to Start Dehydrating Your Own Trail Meals: Tips and Tricks for Beginners

[Demeter]

While there is lots of info on the internet about freezer bag cooking and DIY trail food, I've gotten a lot of emails about how to start dehydrating your own foods at home to make healthier DIY trail meals for backpacking and home food storage, so I am doing an eight part series on the subject.

So far I have an article on dehydrating meat, and another on drying vegetables. I am putting them together in a step-by-step how-to guide for anyone interested. I will put them here or you can subscribe to my blog if you want to get them when I finish.

Ciao!

[jarrett.morgan]

Thanks for the share. I've really wanted to start dehydrating my food to increase my variety. However, I am pretty lazy and buying a dehydrator looks expensive. Anyways, I hope this will push me over the edge to start preparing my own meals.

[atraildreamer]

... and buying a dehydrator looks expensive.

Cruise the yard sales. Plenty of units out there. I got three for a total of $12!

[HeartFire]

you should be dehydrating your entire meal - make any one pot meat, casserole, stew, soup etc and dehydrate the finished product, not the separate components. Next time you make something and have left overs - put it in the dehydrator - go out to your favorite restaraunt and bring home an extra meal and dehydrate it - only caution here is that they will have a much higher grease content than meals cooked at home. Fats/oils can go rancid, they don't dehydrate.
I don't eat meat, but the only meat I would recommend drying separately from meals would be hamburger meat - then you bring a baggie full and add a handful to other meals.

[Tuckahoe]

Thanks for the share. I've really wanted to start dehydrating my food to increase my variety. However, I am pretty lazy and buying a dehydrator looks expensive. Anyways, I hope this will push me over the edge to start preparing my own meals.

I have this particular model of Nesco dehydrator -- http://www.amazon.com/Nesco-FD-80A-S...ood+dehydrator

I think it is a good model to start off with, without being too costly. And as Atraildreamer said, hit the yard sales because there all to often hardly used dehydrators... the weeding or birthday gift that only got used once. You can also try your hand at dehydrating by using your oven. It would give you a chance to see if it is something you really want to do.

[RangerZ]

Can you dehydrate SOS? Maybe dry the ground beef and gavy separately and combine the result? Of course, wash the ground beef well. It would make a great breakfast.

[adamkrz]

How do you make a good beef jerky, I just purchased a 4 tray nesco new for 46 Dollars.

[Tuckahoe]

Can you dehydrate SOS? Maybe dry the ground beef and gavy separately and combine the result? Of course, wash the ground beef well. It would make a great breakfast.

Personally I would not try dehydrating SOS because of the fat and dairy. In the past I have made SOS on trips just by using a packet of instant pepper or country gravy and several slices of Armour dried beef. This is close enough to the real thing and without a lot of hassle.

[Demeter]

you should be dehydrating your entire meal - make any one pot meat, casserole, stew, soup etc and dehydrate the finished product, not the separate components.

I must respectfully disagree with you on this one, at least partially Some foods, like chili and stews do rehydrate better when prepared in advance at home. However, some dishes, like veggie noodles ("zoodles") or ramen and sauce, are better (IMHO) when dried separately and rehydrated on the trail. My new blog series on DIY trail foods cover this more. Sara Kirkconnell's book on Freezer Bag Cooking is full of recipes that are individual ingredients placed in the bag.

Thanks for the share. I've really wanted to start dehydrating my food to increase my variety. However, I am pretty lazy and buying a dehydrator looks expensive. Anyways, I hope this will push me over the edge to start preparing my own meals.

You don't need to invest a lot of time or money in dehydrating. You can dry a little or dry a lot, but if you pack frequently, the money saved should payoff that dehydrator in a couple trips!

Cruise the yard sales. Plenty of units out there. I got three for a total of $12!

Good advice! Lots of dehydrators are never even used!

Can you dehydrate SOS? Maybe dry the ground beef and gavy separately and combine the result? Of course, wash the ground beef well. It would make a great breakfast.

I love SOS! My dad would make this for us growing up and tell us about how it was always served in Korea in the MASH unit where he was stationed. I don't see why it wouldn't work, but the fat in the gravy could be a problem. Maybe a store-bought white gravy mix? I have some pemmican I made - I wonder if that would work since it has loads of rendered fat in it already. I will have to give it a try!

How do you make a good beef jerky, I just purchased a 4 tray nesco new for 46 Dollars.

Jerky can be made from thin slices of any meat, or you can use ground meat and a "jerky gun" (which my DH loves to use!). Lots of great info on the web. http://www.jerky.com/beef-jerky-recipes http://allrecipes.com/recipes/appeti...poultry/jerky/
http://paleogrubs.com/jerky-recipes

Personally I would not try dehydrating SOS because of the fat and dairy. In the past I have made SOS on trips just by using a packet of instant pepper or country gravy and several slices of Armour dried beef. This is close enough to the real thing and without a lot of hassle.

Thanks for the tip!!

[squeezebox]

SOS is what?

[Tuckahoe]

SOS is what?

Sh$t on a shingle = or creamed chipped beef on toast.

[July]

SOS is what?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipped_beef Best served in mess hall w/ omlett after morning PT...

[Demeter]

Sh$t on a shingle = or creamed chipped beef on toast.

Dad said the "shingle" got it's name cos the toast was as usually hard as a rock!

[Tipi Walter]

Can you dehydrate SOS? Maybe dry the ground beef and gavy separately and combine the result? Of course, wash the ground beef well. It would make a great breakfast.

I do alot of home drying (using a TSM 5 tray machine) and have found using a blender helps when preparing dried food for backpacking. If I was eating such food, I would blend up the ground beef and gravy first and then add a little water to make it pour out onto your silicone dryer sheets and VOILA you have something which will easily reconstitute in the field, just put the SOS on the "shingle"---bread.

I cook and dry alot of brown rice and have found three ways to do it---
** Blend up cooked brown rice with just water and pour on silicone sheets.
** Blend up brown rice with whole organic milk and dry.
** Blend rice with organic soups like Amy's or Imagine butternut squash, tomato, sweet potato etc even rice with a can of chili and add water and pour on silicone sheets etc. Works great and the brown rice is totally edible and cooked thoroughly in the field.

All these meals must be brought to a boil and put in a pot cozy for around 30 minutes.

Check out my ideas on Smugmug---

http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/keyword/kitchen/i-pGcGJcJ

[Tipi Walter]

Plus, drying whole meals is a great idea, especially things like complete spaghetti dinners or mac and cheese already cooked. Once fully cooked at home and dried, these do not need to be cooked in the field and only brought to a boil and cozied.


Here's a box of spaghetti with 2 jars of pasta sauce and some mushrooms fully dried at home and brought out on a trip. The gallon hefty bag of dried spaghetti lasted me a full 7 days on the trail.

Recently I dried a couple tubs of cottage cheese and added the dried bits to my soups. Works great.

[Rocket Jones]

+1 on the Jerky Gun! Ground beef jerky is good stuff.

[lonehiker]

I love SOS! My dad would make this for us growing up and tell us about how it was always served in Korea in the MASH unit where he was stationed. I don't see why it wouldn't work, but the fat in the gravy could be a problem. Maybe a store-bought white gravy mix? I have some pemmican I made - I wonder if that would work since it has loads of rendered fat in it already. I will have to give it a try!!

It has been a few years since I've seen that era of recipe cards, but, I think that it called for half a beef carcass.

[squeezebox]

My major problem is that I have no idea what a serving size is on the trail. I don't want to make 1/2 portions or double portions.
I like to cook , and I cook well, a minus $100 dehydrator would be within my budget.
I have the time. And what do I do with all this food if my knees crap out on me part way through and/or something else forces me off the trail.

[July]

My major problem is that I have no idea what a serving size is on the trail. I don't want to make 1/2 portions or double portions.
I like to cook , and I cook well, a minus $100 dehydrator would be within my budget.
I have the time. And what do I do with all this food if my knees crap out on me part way through and/or something else forces me off the trail.

I guess that there is no definite 'rule' as people vary in weights and sizes. When starting to dry at home, instead of 'loading' up a tray, portion out what you would consider a portion, or meal, and dry that amount. Of course different meals vary as to satisfaction, so taking notes and pulling out the ole postal scale when bagging comes into play. As to what to do with surplus, we have a wonderful invention called the 'freezer' As one old hiker commented to me once, "ya know, most of the time I eat at home like I do on the trail".

[Rocket Jones]

Like everything else in life, you practice and get experience. You can have every last detail of driving explained to you, but until you get behind the wheel on the road, you really don't know how you'll do.

You can vacuum seal your food, or store it in the freezer to extend its life, but even if you don't there's nothing that says you can't eat it at home.