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Dehydrating foil pouch meats
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Home › Forums › General Forums › Food, Hydration, and Nutrition › Dehydrating foil pouch meats
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Apr 5, 2011 at 11:12 am #1271738
I need some foil pouch meats for my Freezer Bag recipes but don't want to carry the weight. Can I dehydrate any of these successfully?
Chicken
shrimp
salmonApr 5, 2011 at 11:15 am #1720333The short answer is yes.
Keep a window open and use a fan when drying salmon… stinks to high heaven. So does shrimp. You have to watch shrimp like a hawk because if you over-dry it… it won't come back all that well. Chicken dries and rehydrates like a charm, however you'll need to rehydrate with boiling water and give it a good half hour or more.
Apr 5, 2011 at 11:16 am #1720334I do canned chicken all the time. You might save some money by buying canned vs the pouches, fwiw.
ETA: Link. http://www.onepanwonders.com/chicken.htm
Apr 5, 2011 at 11:25 am #1720338Save money if you can by buying the massive cans at Costco and shred, then dry!
Apr 5, 2011 at 12:58 pm #1720397I tried dehydrating canned chicken a few months ago. I shredded it into small pieces and used my Excalliber dehydrator on the meat setting (155F I believe). It dried easily, however, I could not get it to rehydrate. I put it in my pot with water and boiled them both. Then, I let it sit in a cozy for 30 minutes. No luck….still crunchy. What am I doing wrong??
Apr 5, 2011 at 1:08 pm #1720406Hey Stephen,
I just had the exact same experience. Dehydrated some canned chicken from costco and found it very difficult to rehydrate. Finally, I resorted to boiling some water in morn/afternoon and allowing it to rehydrate the entire day while I hiked. Kinda of defeated the weight savings. Maybe over dehydrated??
Apr 5, 2011 at 1:18 pm #1720412Could be on that. I haven't found too much issues when I dry it but IMO I prefer it out of the pouch.
Freeze dried meat really is stellar in this case – if you want as light as you can get it and have it rehydrate in 5 minutes…..
Apr 5, 2011 at 1:29 pm #1720421I did a comparison between dehydrating canned chicken and fresh lean ground beef vs. the Packit Gourmet freeze-dried chicken and ground beef. I found they were the same price, and that didn't include the electricity for cooking the ground beef and for dehydrating both. Obviously, I'm getting the freeze-dried this year and saving a lot of work.
If you already have the foil pouches, save them for short (2-3 day) trips.
Apr 5, 2011 at 4:19 pm #1720548I'm guessing I over-dried it.
@Sarah – how do you dehydrate your canned chicken?
@Mary – How is the chicken from pack it gourmet the same price as canned chicken? It's 9.99 for what amounts to 1 and 1/2 cup of chicken vs the same amount canned for only a few dollars. When bought in bulk from costco or sam's club, canned chicken is a pretty good deal.Apr 5, 2011 at 4:35 pm #1720565Sarah,
nvm. I found the section on your site where you talk about this. I believe I dried mine for 8 hours. I will try 5-6 hours and see how it comes out. I'd like to get this right so I can make a bunch of easy 1 pot meals to send ahead for my thru hike next year.
Apr 5, 2011 at 8:10 pm #1720708MaryD, I found the same thing in 2009 when I was making meals to drop to a couple friends who were thru-hiking. Using FD meat ended up being cheaper and a stable choice. It also allowed them to rehydrate with cool water as well quickly :-)
Apr 5, 2011 at 8:56 pm #1720730Stephen, my calculations used the large size Packit Gourmet FD meat container (16 oz. chicken, 24 oz. hamburger), not the small. I was also comparing to the highest quality canned chicken (Winco prices) and to extra-extra lean ground beef. I have a lot of meals to prepare and using the FD meat will save me a LOT of time and electricity. Sarah, thanks–I'm glad I didn't calculate wrong!
Home dehydrated chicken does come out pretty crunchy. I suggest running it through the blender or food processor after dehydrating.
Apr 5, 2011 at 10:54 pm #1720782You two pretty much have me sold on the freeze dried chicken. I've got the ground beef down to my own little science, and I like cooking whole meals then dehydrating it all together. I wouldn't be able to do that with the freeze dried meat, but I can work around that for the chicken.
I have no experience with anything freeze dried (except eating it), so is there anything specific I need to do for packing? Can I just throw it in a bag with the rest of my dried ingredients and vacuum seal it?
Apr 6, 2011 at 7:44 am #1720857What I found worked best is I tucked the meat in its own bag. Then sprinkle in right before making – this way the meat stays freshest (not absorbing moisture in). But for weekend trips don't worry, just add into the bag with everything else!
Someday I am going to try the FD meatballs….lol!
Apr 6, 2011 at 9:55 am #1720920Meatballs….now there's an idea
Apr 7, 2011 at 12:46 pm #1721516Bauly Specialty Foods http://www.bauly.com has meatballs. They are pretty good but definitely need a sauce to jazz up their flavor.
Apr 7, 2011 at 12:49 pm #1721521http://www.beprepared.com is a very good resource for cans of harder to find freeze-dried meat btw :-) Based out of Utah.
Apr 9, 2011 at 1:10 pm #1722442OK, guess I'll buy the freeze dried meats and save my retort pouch meats for weekend trips.
I did read somewhere here that dehydrated turkey rehydrates well.
Thanks for the insight everyone.
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