Dehydrating food, what to do

[James Anderson]

I am going to buy a dehydrator so I can make my own pre-packaged meals. I figure it would save a lot of money and also a good amount of weight on my back. Does anyone know some good recipes and any food tips for doing so. Also will meat spoil in due time? I am planning on a 3 week backpacking trip in a hot, moist environment and wondering If I need to worry about dehydrated chicken and beef getting raunchy on me. Any experience, recipes or advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[Mary D]

http://www.trailcooking.com/

[James Anderson]

wow great website. I think this answers all my questions, mahalo!

[Steve Gaioni]

If your concerned about warm, moist environments, consider vacuum sealing your dehydrated meals as an extra protective measure. Doing so will also reduce the amount of bulk a meal occupies and you can cook in the vaccum seal bags. Be aware that sometimes your dehydrated food may "poke" through the bag…particularly noodles.

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

How humid? South America? Florida? ;-) Food vaccing will help – a lot. So will adding oxygen absorbers, http://www.packitgourmet.com sells them – buy some, you won't regret it.

A good trick for meals with sharp sides (noodles, rice, etc) is to line the food vac bag with a clean white paper towel first, then drop the food in. The towel will blunt the edges. Just remove when you go to add hot water of course (and hey, you get a paper towel for dinner as well for cleanup!)

With all dehydrating storage in the freezer till trip time will buy you the longest storage time. And if you are worried about meat, consider carrying the extra weight and taking the shelf stable foil pouches instead. They have shelf lifes of 2-3 years and work well.

(And yes, Trail cooking is me!)

[Paul Mountford]

If you have not yet come across http://www.backpackingchef.com/, it is worth a visit.

[Laurie Ann March]

James… here is a copy of an article I did for the Washington Trails Association a few years back.

How to Do it – Dehydrating Food

I also go over quite a lot of technique in both my books so feel free to ask me any specific questions and I'll be happy to help.

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