Dehydrating pasta?

[Dingus Khan]

how would i go about dehydrating chili or sauce? the reason i ask is because my dehydrator only has the typical racks that do not hold anything smaller than say a dime.

I had dehydrated using ovens before, but am not sure about how to do it using a liquid based product. obviously you cannot cook a pot of sauce, stick it in the oven and dehydrate it that way.

I really need some hints and tricks please!! i also plan on buying the FBC.com book too, looks great and useful for more than just trail food (i do a lot of winter surfing at locations where you are essentially camp cooking if you plan on having anything other than cold food...

links to sites/threads which may be of help are much appreciated.

and as always, you guys and gals rock, i am spending hours learning from you all just by "listening in"...

thanks

[Skidsteer]

how would i go about dehydrating chili or sauce? the reason i ask is because my dehydrator only has the typical racks that do not hold anything smaller than say a dime.

I had dehydrated using ovens before, but am not sure about how to do it using a liquid based product. obviously you cannot cook a pot of sauce, stick it in the oven and dehydrate it that way.

I really need some hints and tricks please!! i also plan on buying the FBC.com book too, looks great and useful for more than just trail food (i do a lot of winter surfing at locations where you are essentially camp cooking if you plan on having anything other than cold food...

links to sites/threads which may be of help are much appreciated.

and as always, you guys and gals rock, i am spending hours learning from you all just by "listening in"...

thanks

You can use the fruit leather trays that come with most dehydrators, or use oven parchment paper to line your trays. It works fine.

[fiddlehead]

My dehydrator (I built it myseld) uses 7 - 2 foot square racks. When i'm doing pastes or beansoup or something like that, I put saran wrap (clear clingwrap stuff) on opposite halves of each shelf. It still gets the airflow it needs at all levels and works fine. Cook it a little thick.

[Dingus Khan]

hmmm, thanks, i'll have to try that. the alternating pattern makes sense, i was worried that by using paper/wrap you would be defeating the whole purpose of having a fan.
cool thanks.

[Rocketman]

I must be dumb... I still don't get it. First you cook it and then you dehydrate it. Then in camp you cook it again ??

Wouldn't plain old store-bought pasta cook just as well, in camp, using the method you describe above?

What am I missing here?

Cooking pasta is one thing. Cooking requires 5 to 10 minutes of boiling water for whatever chemistry happens during cooking pasta all the way through. Dehydrating cooked pasta doesn't put it back to being the raw pasta it was in the original box. Repeat that thought.

The dehydrated pasta can be mixed with COLD water and in 15 minutes to 30 minutes it will be COLD COOKED rehydrated pasta, soft, and ready to eat, cold. Rehydrating isn't cooking, it is restoring water. Repeat that thought over and over.

Hot water will speed up the rehydration and it will be HOT and rehydrated in just a few minutes. The hot water isn't actually cooking it for the second time. Repeat that thought.


You can also cook vegetables and dehydrate them. Store them for a couple of months before you go hiking. Different vegetables rehydrate at different rates (no suprize there?). Some will rehydrate in a half an hour in cold water, but others require sitting time in warm or hot water because rehydration of those vegetables is so slow.

Rehydrating dehydrated potato powder is almost instant. That is one reason they call them INSTANT POTATOES.

Powdered or flaked vegetables rehydrate rapidly because of the high surface to volume ratio of powdered or flaked vegetables, versus the lower surface to volume ratio of, say, a whole solid potato.

[harriey von alkier]

I always eat cold,cook macaroni's at home dry them and put as much as I like to eat with dried beans or chili in a little container covert with water at lunch and it is ready to eat at supper. Hope it helps

[greggg3]

I've been messing with trying to cook pasta in bag for awhile - I can get it cooked but its always this sticky gummy type consistency, seriously not al dente. I tried different times but that just leaves it crunchy. Very frustrating. Finally came to WB for help (I always read directions only as a last resort) and found this thread. Thanks guys.

Evidently its the amount of water (or lack of it thats) causing the problem - hadn't thought of that till I read it in this thread. Tried cooking it in the pot (like at home only in miniature). Works great, only its a small sized portion since I have a small solo titanium pot. At least I understand it now and know my options - cook it on the trail in small portion size, cook and dehydrate it at home, or buy freeze-dried stuff (or just eat the sticky gluey stuff, but for me thats not an option).

You can't buy dehydrated cooked pasta can you? (I mean outside of the freezed dried meals with sauce and everything already added).

[russb]

You can't buy dehydrated cooked pasta can you? (I mean outside of the freezed dried meals with sauce and everything already added).

Not that I know of.

When it comes to home dehydrating, pasta (and rice) are by far the easiest. Have you ever cooked pasta and when you drained it, one noodle was left in the pot? Two hours later it is solid again and stuck to the pot. Shows just how quickly and easily pasta will dehydrate, even if just left out in the open air.

My problem is long noodle pasta. When dehydrated, it doesn't package well. The individual noodles are no longer nice and straight so they are very bulky. Any solutions or should I just resign myself to non-long-thin-noodles?

[Jim Adams]

I've used tortellini stuffed with spinich and cheese lately. I stopped dehydrating pasta ever since.

geek

[greggg3]

Tell me more Geek, how do you cook it?

[oldbear]

Hi guys I've playing with this idea in my kitchen and it does work
I know enough about the whys and the ways of food to pretty sure that with a modification or two it will work on Trail
These aren't exact numbers but they're close
For experimenation purposes take 1C of decent commercially made dried pasta like Ronzoni or Barrilla . I like shapes like Bow Ties and Penne and the Zitis rather than things like angel hair
Dump the pasta into bowl with about 4C of water in it
Alllow to soak for about 45 minutes to an hour
When the pasta starts to smell really "wheaty" ,when bitten it feels like it's about 2-3minutes before al dente and has that pasty consistancy that everybody is complaining about
Drain it and place it in a saute pan that has 2-3 " of gently boiling salted water
FYI :the quality standard for salted water is the salinity of sea water
Cook for another 2-3 minutes until al dente
Drain add sauce mix & serve >do not rinse the pasta

[gregpphoto]

Did you read through the "experiment" I described, earlier in the thread?

The only advantage I can see is that my method (supposedly) produces a "starchy" tasting pasta. But I must have poorly developed taste, 'cuz somehow I didn't notice.

Must have lucky taste buds. I thought I had done something wrong, but good to know its just the nature of pasta. I'm currently dehydrating velveeta shells to bring along. Whats the approximate dehydrating time for pasta?

[Terraducky]

I cook my pasta al dente. Mix some sauce into it....spread it in the dehydrator and let it go for about 8 hours...around 135. Voila. Bag it. Poar boiling water over it by an inch and let it sit for 10 minutes....dinner time! Too easy and like you have at home. I make my own meat sauce, with ground beef, deer or maybe sausage all crumbled up. OMG it is very good and way better than Spatini...I didnt know that stuff was still around!

[gregpphoto]

I cook my pasta al dente. Mix some sauce into it....spread it in the dehydrator and let it go for about 8 hours...around 135. Voila. Bag it. Poar boiling water over it by an inch and let it sit for 10 minutes....dinner time! Too easy and like you have at home. I make my own meat sauce, with ground beef, deer or maybe sausage all crumbled up. OMG it is very good and way better than Spatini...I didnt know that stuff was still around!

So you can mix the pasta with sauce before dehydrating and it comes out well? Gonna have to try that!

[Andrew Patrick Brown]

links to sites/threads which may be of help are much appreciated.

I've used both of these site's recipes with great success. I have cooked over 100 meals from the hungry hammock hanger.

http://www.hungryhammockhanger.com/

http://www.backpackingchef.com/

[Tipi Walter]

Save yourself some trouble...

Ramen noodles have msg---just another junk chemical we don't need.

i dehydrate alot of foods for wilderness trips but i have never attempted plain pasta like spaghetti or rotini. i have learned to dehydrate pirroghis though and they are made basically from pasta. you must cook them first and then dehydrate them. if they are not cooked first, they fall apart when you rehydrate them. don't know if spag. etc. is the same.

You should try dehydrating spaghetti with sauce, etc. It works great.

The glory of dehydrating pasta (and most everything else) is that instead of using 10 minutes of fuel to cook your pasta you need only to boil the water. I like the idea of just adding the boiled water in the freezer bag, no dirty kettles, no burnt food, and no dish washing. Less time doing chores; more time enjoying the great out of doors. Less chance of getting sick due to inadequate cleaning of utensils.

This is why I dry my pasta meals.

This is an old thread but it's current now so I'll add my thoughts. I'm getting ready for a trip and I'm busy dehydrating many pasta meals and as usual have cooked up a box of spaghetti and added two jars of spaghetti sauce and mixed them and immediately put the results on my 5 dehydrator trays. So, when I get out in the field I'll have a complete spaghetti dinner and only need to boil them up in my MSR pot and add butter and cheese let sit in my pot cozy for 30 minutes.

Mac and cheese is great dehydrated after preparing at home and then prepared in the backcountry. Highly recommended.



Here's a fotog when out on a trip of my spaghetti pasta dried and ready to be cooked. A whole box and 2 jars of sauce makes enough dinners for a week.

[VT-Mike]

dehydrating pasta (noodles and sauce) is ideal when making one pot meals. if cooking pasta and sauce separately no need to dehydrate pasta.

[Tipi Walter]

dehydrating pasta (noodles and sauce) is ideal when making one pot meals. if cooking pasta and sauce separately no need to dehydrate pasta.

There's no need weight-wise but there's a real need if you want to conserve your stove fuel. As people have mentioned, uncooked pasta takes a lot longer to cook in the field than cooked and dehydrated pasta---in fact there's no cooking needed, just add boiling water and wait.

[lukabrazi]

Must have lucky taste buds. I thought I had done something wrong, but good to know its just the nature of pasta. I'm currently dehydrating velveeta shells to bring along. Whats the approximate dehydrating time for pasta?

Please let me know how this goes.

[rustmd]

from http://www.backpackingchef.com/ you can find Pasta Bark, easy to deal with both dehydrating and rehydrating. for those who like meat w/ dinner or extra flavor, add pepperoni slices to the pasta bark. pack some parmesean cheese too.

i dehydrate lots of soups & stews, usually running the mix thru a food processor for a few seconds to make sure contents are chopped to uniform size. i use fruit tray liners in my dehydrator. i also use a food saver vacuum sealer for my meals, ensures my food of staying safe, dry, etc.