what's on your food dehydrator?

[LaurieAnn]

Well in less than a week I will be off on an 8 day wilderness trip so the food dehydrator is running full tilt.

Today's first round has...

2 trays of Harvest Pork and Apple Stew

While I don't often dry ingredients separately for meals there are a few exceptions...

for a backcountry Chicken Pot Pie
1 tray of Cream of Chicken Soup (Campbell's Low Fat)
1 tray of Green Giant Frozen Mixed Veggies (corn, peas, carrots, green beans)

for backcountry pizza...
1 tray of homemade pizza sauce
1 tray of sliced Roma tomatoes
1 tray of feta cheese

for a snack of salsa with tortilla chips...
1 tray of Tropical Salsa

Then when that is done I'll be drying...

2 trays of ravioli
1 tray of tapenade
2 trays of Quinoa and Spinach Soup
2 trays of Sunny Garlic Hummus

It's going to be a busy weekend because I need to cook most of the dishes too. I will probably double the recipes and put the other halves in the freezer for quick dinners at home later on. I'm all about doing that so it saves time later. Often I dry leftovers but my darling husband got into the leftover Chipotle Pulled Pork that I was going dry. Men! lol

[hoz]

You sure eat good on your trips Laurie. Can I come too?

[Dicentra]

I need to get GoBlueHiker's meals to him, so I'll be running the dehydrator full tilt today (and prolly tomorrow) too.

I *do* do individual ingredients. I think you get more variety in the end that way.

Not sure on tray counts yet b/c I have to go to the store first, but I plan on doing artichoke hearts, pasta, rice, chicken, tomatoes and maybe peas.

I did inventory last night and I'm out of a LOT of stuff! I need to do mushrooms, but hubby got mad last time I ran a full machine of mushrooms. He hates mushrooms and the house had an "earthy" smell to it... Oops. I'll do those outside later at some point.

[LaurieAnn]

You sure eat good on your trips Laurie. Can I come too?

Anytime! I figure this is my vacation and I don't want to eat like crap. It all adds to the experience, in my opinion. Plus, at the end of a rough day it can certainly bring people together and lighten everyone's spirits.

[LaurieAnn]

I need to get GoBlueHiker's meals to him, so I'll be running the dehydrator full tilt today (and prolly tomorrow) too.

I *do* do individual ingredients. I think you get more variety in the end that way.

I have to respectfully disagree on the variety comment and also flavor-wise... take stews and soups for example. Adding individually dried ingredients to a baggie and then water at camp doesn't allow flavors to develop and meld which is what makes soups and stews fantastic. When you cook it as a meal and then dry it that way the flavors are enhanced. After all, soup and stew is always better the second day and this is why.

[Dicentra]

*shrugs*

HYOH.

I likes my food.

[Snowleopard]

2 trays of ravioli

I love ravioli! That's inspiring.
Are these the usual Italian ravioli, about 1"-1.5" across?
Mixed with sauce before you dry them?
How does the rehydrating work with them?

How many cups of soup to a tray?
How thick do you put something like pea soup or lentil soup on the tray?

Pick your own strawberries should be in season here soon. Just slice them and dry?

I'll probably be on the trail around July 4.

[Jofish]

As a semi-hijack of this thread, what model dehydrator do you use?

[LaurieAnn]

I have used the 1 inch chesse and spinach ravioli before but these little guys are homemade with a veggie stuffing. In this case the sauce doesn't use ingredients that need dried but if I am using a sauce that requires dehydrating I dry and rehydrate it separately.

Rehydrating ravioli works pretty well. I partially cook them first (remove them just before al dente). Space them apart on the trays (I line with parchment) and run the unit until they are dry all the way through. At camp I add enough boiling water to just cover them and let them sit. Some types come back in 15 minutes or less and others have taken 1/2 hour... just depends on the size and filling.

I generally put 1 3/4 - 2 cups of soup per tray. Depends on the soup. Today's is 2 cups. I try to have it just slightly over 1/4 inch deep especially with something like lentil soup.

Strawberries are super easy... in season here too. I just slice and dry. No need to pre-treat them.

You'll be hitting the trail just before I get back from the world's largest old-growth red pine forest. I can't wait... I really need to get out as the first part of this year was awful for us.

[LaurieAnn]

As a semi-hijack of this thread, what model dehydrator do you use?

Nesco FD 75 PR and before that I used a Nesco FD 50. I know there are other, more expensive models but with all the drying I do for the cookbooks and such these two units have performed extremely well.

The FD 50 is now with my sister as I owed her a dehydrator as her Mr. Coffee unit, which was crap, got lost in our house fire. But anyway... before I get too far off the question... I do have a few criteria...

For me, it is important that there be an adjustable thermostat and that the unit be 500 watts or more for effieciency. An on/off switch or timer isn't a big deal. I use a power bar if I want a switch. For a timer I use a standard light timer... you know the type you use to make people think someone is home. Works like a charm. It has to be expandable as well. I generally run between 5 and 12 trays at a time but the average is around 8.

Hope that helps.

[Jofish]

Hope that helps.

Sure does. Thanks!

[saimyoji]

love this stuff after a few hours in the dehydrator:

http://www.handsofhopedisasterrelief...Cuttlefish.jpg

[Jo-To]

I just finished up some Bison jerky,strawberries and bannans.Now i'm getting ready to do some chicken and smoked salmon.

[Jo-To]

Almost forgot,i'm going to attempt to make some strawberry/rasberry fruit roll-ups and some black beans too.

[Snowleopard]

LauriAnn, many thanks for the info.
"the world's largest old-growth red pine forest" Have a great time.
--Walter

[bigcranky]

4 gallons of strawberries last month. 5 pounds of sweet cherries last week. Mmmmm dried fruit on homemade granola. Yum.

[Chowder]

Another side question (since I'm new to dehydrating food), if you don't mind - What have you found to be the best way to store and carry dehydrated food on hikes? Do you use those fancy vacuum seal pouches, simple ziplock bags, or other?

Thanks a bunch!!

[LaurieAnn]

I got tired of vacuum seal pouches failing and it drives me crazy that I can't reuse them so I use aLoksaks from http://www.loksak.com and ziploc freezer bags if I don't have enough aLoksaks on hand. I like that the aLoksaks are reusable and I tend to pack freezer bags out for reuse at home (school lunches and the like). I do my rehydration in a wide-mouth (non BPA) Nalgene. Ya, I know I have to wash it but I'd rather do that than use the plastics. It's a HYOH deal but that's just my way of doing things.

[hoz]

Where is this oldest Red Pine forest Laurie? Temegami?

I saw some pretty big specimens on the Spanish River.

[LaurieAnn]

It's at Wolf Lake in the Chiniguchi area of Temagami. This one's a paddling trip with some good bushwhacking type day hikes (one will be to the top of the hill to take a nice panoramic like you see on the site). It's going to be pretty buggy though. It would have been a backpacking trip but I have a dear friend who has been pestering us to go to Temagami with him for quite some time. That, and I like backpacking later in the year when the bugs are gone. Anyway, the route we are doing lies mainly within what is called the Middle Tracks.

As you can see, I am pretty excited. I haven't been out in the bush for more than 4 nights straight in over a year because of the book release (signings and such), Bryan's (hubby) work travel and some other issues... so it's going to be just what I need. Tobias (my little guy) had a choice between soccer and wilderness trips and he chose the latter.

The only thing is that the dates crept up on me and Bryan has decided he doesn't want an all vegan/vegetarian diet on the trip (I have lots of that in the freezer and he's such a pain )... so I'm madly drying some meat based dishes for him.

I'm going to try and take lots of photos on the trip and I'll post a link to my trip report when all is said and done.

Sorry I rambled on there... just really jazzed up about vacation time