Books for lightweight dehydrated trail meals

[longhiker]

Going through this forum (and Amazon), I found several cookbooks discussed:

Freezer Bag Cooking: Trail Food Made Simple by Sarah Svien Kirkconnell In Stock.

Trail Food: Drying and Cooking Food for Backpacking and Paddling by Alan Kesselheim

Lipsmackin' Backpackin': Lightweight Trail-tested Recipes for Backcountry Trips by Christine Conners

Backpack Gourmet: Good Hot Grub You Can Make at Home, Dehydrate, and Pack for Quick, Easy, and Healthy Eating on the Trail by Linda Frederick Yaffe

Fork in the Trail: Mouthwatering Meals and Tempting Treats for the Backcountry by Laurie Ann March

and a whole bunch more here http://blog.trailcooking.com/trail-library/


I'm looking for a book with particular needs:

1. Completely new to dehydrating (about to buy a Nesco 700 W from Amazon)

2. Intend to dehydrate only for trail use.

3. Want to dehydrate for trail use primarily to (a) lower food weight as much as possible (b) get around an allergy (gluten) that prevents us from using Mountain House etc ..

4. The dehydrated trail meals need to very simple -- looking for "Just add hot water" on the trail

Would anyone who has used the above books be able to recommend / shed light on which one I ought to go with?

Thanks a lot!

[RollingStone]

Of the 4 books you listed, Fork in the Trail, Freezerbag, and Lipsmackin are recipe books. All 3 have their merits but do not focus on what you want.

The Linda Yaffee book I did not like at all.

Trail Food delves into the subject you are looking for the best out of the ones you have listed.

BUT - If you really want to dive into dehydrating, then Mary Bells book is what you need. From there, you can create your own recipes. None of those books will help you regarding Gluten free.

You can dry just about anything you want for a trail meal but since you are new to dehydrating, Mary Bells is where I would start. From there, you can look at specialized recipes on the internet and work your way through at being able to adapt them for your personal use.

http://www.amazon.com/Mary-Bells-Com...3104617&sr=8-2

[Phreak]

I have all the books listed but I find I simply dehydrate whatever meals I normally eat home... any type of stews, casseroles, pasta dishes, etc.

[longhiker]

Thanks.. that was helpful. Looks like Mary Bells' book teaches you the basics and you build from there. I'll order the Nesco 700 Watt machine soon..

I was just wondering if there is some accessory I should also order from Amazon while I'm at it. I keep reading about some sheets needed to dehydrate soups .. wondering if there are some accessories needed for typical trail food dehydration that doesn't come with the Nesco.

[ChefGlenn]

In addition to the books mentioned, you can learn a great deal about dehydrating food for backpacking on my website with lots of simple recipes.

http://backpackingchef.com

[RollingStone]

Thanks.. that was helpful. Looks like Mary Bells' book teaches you the basics and you build from there. I'll order the Nesco 700 Watt machine soon..

I was just wondering if there is some accessory I should also order from Amazon while I'm at it. I keep reading about some sheets needed to dehydrate soups .. wondering if there are some accessories needed for typical trail food dehydration that doesn't come with the Nesco.

The Nesco is a pretty good unit to get started with. They do have "Fruit Roll" trays that can assist with drying soup.

Personally, I use a Nesco but I don't use the trays, I instead use Parchment paper cut in a circular pattern. If we dry a soup as an example, when making it we purposefully make it thick for two reasons, it wont run all over, and cuts down on drying time.

Buy a couple with your machine and after you get going, experiment with different methods to find what works best for you.

OH, and I will vouch for Chef Glenn's website! He's got some great basic information and some neat recipes. Good luck!

[g8trh8tr]

I have all the books listed but I find I simply dehydrate whatever meals I normally eat home... any type of stews, casseroles, pasta dishes, etc.

I agree with Phreak. I have Lipsmackin Backpackin and it is a good book but I just dehydrate leftovers for the trail. I have come to the conclusion that if I like it at home I will like it on the trail. Good luck.

[Farr Away]

I like Freezer Bag Cooking, and use it for most of my on-trail meals.

I also use Mary Bell's book. First rate introduction to dehydrating, and still a valuable resource for people with prior experience.

[Snowleopard]

Some of these books are written by WB members, who also have useful web sites:

Sarbar: Freezer Bag Cooking: Trail Food Made Simple by Sarah Svien Kirkconnell http://www.trailcooking.com/

LaurieAnn, Fork in the Trail: Mouthwatering Meals and Tempting Treats for the Backcountry by Laurie Ann March http://www.wildernesscooking.com/

Dicentra wrote: One Pan Wonders, Backcountry Cooking at its Finest http://www.onepanwonders.com/buythebook.htm

[Dicentra]

Dicentra wrote: One Pan Wonders, Backcountry Cooking at its Finest http://www.onepanwonders.com/buythebook.htm

You won't need a dehydrator for that one!

[sarbar]

If you want easy liners for your trays, just use parchment paper

[longhiker]

Thanks for the parchment paper tip! Don't want to buy too much stuff before I get to try some basics..

I understand the idea behind dehydrating stuff you make at home anyway. I guess I just feel clueless about any complexity it might involve.. for eg: I read on these forums about separating ingredients like meat from the base of the soup (they dehydrate at different rates) etc..

I'd also *LOVE* to have dried eggs on the trail. I understand you can't do it to raw eggs and many report bad things with scrambled eggs.. but how about hard-boiled eggs?

Just being able to include eggs or at least eggy-recipes in our trail diet would completely sell me on the idea.

[russb]

I have most of those books. Interesting that we all have our own perceptions because I found the Linda Yaffe book to be one of the best. Laurie Anns is also great.

[Graywolf]

You won't need a dehydrator for that one!

Thats what makes Dicentras the best..Dont need to do anything special to your meals..

hers is the best.. And this comes from a Chef...Forget the dehydrating stuff..Way too costly and you can use some of that extra cash for other trips..Onepanwonders...Yes, 100%

Graywolf

[longhiker]

Are the recipes listed in One Pan Wonders from fresh/canned ingredients? Can one use those recipes on a 4 - 5 day backpacking trip? i.e would the food stay and would it be light enough to carry if it isn't dehydrated?

I'm shooting for about 1.2 lbs / day /person.. ~2400 calories.

[sarbar]

Eggs:
Buy a high quality commercially dried egg. OVA brand is very good - you can get it through Packitgourmet.com
Eggs are just not worth it for home drying.

When I started the FBC website (and now which is Trailcooking.com) all those years ago it was about making meals from dried items - that you could buy at grocery stores and then also evolved into using dried (and freeze dried) items that one could do at home or purchase easily online. While drying meals from home is easy (and tasty) it can also be great to have the components on hand to whip up meals.
In other words:
A well stocked hiker pantry full of carbs, veggies, fruit, etc.

[RollingStone]

Are the recipes listed in One Pan Wonders from fresh/canned ingredients? Can one use those recipes on a 4 - 5 day backpacking trip? i.e would the food stay and would it be light enough to carry if it isn't dehydrated?

I'm shooting for about 1.2 lbs / day /person.. ~2400 calories.

If you look at the recipes, most of em are from packaged ingredients. The ones from fresh, need to be dried for the trail.

Everyone's recipes on the net, regardless of who they are or how long their websites/cookbooks have been around will have a combo of packaged and or fresh ingredients and usually your fresh cooked at home ingredients need to be dried for trail transport. Not always true but usually.

Best you can do is make the rounds, pick out a few you think you can make gluten and allergy free, and try them.

[longhiker]

Sarbar, I've been looking at your website for some time now... at first it seemed too complicated for me - used to mountain house beef strog. .. but it seems like a good option now to control for allergens (for my partner) and for variety. still restricting myself to one pot meals..

[sarbar]

Sarbar, I've been looking at your website for some time now... at first it seemed too complicated for me - used to mountain house beef strog. .. but it seems like a good option now to control for allergens (for my partner) and for variety. still restricting myself to one pot meals..

You definitely can control the food issues doing it yourself For example I cannot consume anything with artificial coloring. While I do use commercial products still I only buy all natural or organic versions. It took a little learning curve when I changed my way of eating 4+ years ago but within a couple trips I knew how to do everything and found it easy to do

The recipes on our website are the ones we often developed with products we have found over the years. We are still working on book 2 and 3, of which the recipes are more straight forward - which is how book 1 is. (Though book 2 and 3 do not call for much commercially produced foods. I developed most of the recipes after I changed how I ate.) Now we just could er...get those books done but life gets in the way (that and having a 6 week old baby means little gets done these days!)

But if you ever have questions on how to change recipes to fit dietary needs, ask away. One of us will be able to help here

[ChefGlenn]

I concur with Sarbar that eggs don't dehydrate well at home. You can't dry the yolk for long term storage. I was hopeful that the dehydrated whites of hard boiled eggs would be a useful protein ingredient in meals, but they strangely turn yellowish and translucent when you dehydrate them. Not very appealing. Somebody gave me a Backpackers Pantry freeze-dried egg meal last year on the trail and it was surprisingly pretty good. If you are dehydrating food at home, you could split one of these freeze-dried egg meals in half and add extra dehydrated meats and vegetables... or fresh meats (shelf stable sausage) and fresh veggies if you go that way on shorter trips.