Prepackaged vs Homemade

[Jim Colten]

I want to second William’s suggestion about dehydrated cooked hamburger. Someone I met online called it “burger rocks” … which will make perfect sense if you try to bite one of the dried pieces before rehydrating.

Home dehyraters work well for making burger rocks and other dried foods … I used an oven until I ran the oven for a week straight during the hottest week of the summer in our then non air conditioned house … a dehydrator came gift wrapped on my next birthday.

Dehydrated frozen corn/peas/greenbeans work well too, as does dehydrated fresh green pepper slices. I haven’t tried other veggies. Tomato sauce, premade pasta sauce and diced tomatoes, home made soup and chili all dry very well. Make your own apple fruit rollups by drying applesauce (add cinnamon for that apple pie taste)

Some caveats if you are using an oven:
1) the borderline between drying and cooking is approx 150F. Most instructons for drying things suggest staying below 140F. Many (most?) newer ovens with digital thermostats can’t be set below 170F
2) prop the oven door open about an inch with a stick or wooden spoon so as to let water vapor escape.

I’ll have to try William’s suggestion about separating the fat and adding the other liquid back in. The instructions I’ve been using say to remove the fat with boiling water … but that does remove a lot of flavor too. You definitely want to get rid of the fat … it turns rancid over time.

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

I store my dried hamburger in the freezer at home as a safeguard against it going rancid :-)

[Bill McCartney]

I just posted some background information about Travel Light-Eat Heavy if anyone wants to know more about it.

[Laurie Ann March]

I’m a big fan of homemade backpacking foods too. I’m the owner of http://www.outdooradventurecanada.com and I do a ton of wilderness travel… it didn’t take long before I got totally sick of pre-packaged foods. I now teach wilderness cooking classes (online) which is a lot of fun and have learned a ton since those first trips.

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