Food drying

I do have a pasta maker at home. My noodles are based on the German spatzel recipe which is a 4 eggs mixed with 3 cups of flour (I mix white with different whole grains) and enough water to make a dough consistent with pasta making. However, I just want to add how I cook pasta in the field which I have only done with packaged spaghetti noodles so far:
First, I preheat 500 ml of water in my Nalgene "solar cooker" which I presented elsewhere in the Forums:

This has gotten the water up to 110 deg F on a warm July day. Then I boil the pre-heated water in an "Energy" can on my Altoids alcohol stove, break a box of spaghetti noodles in two and add one half into the Nalgene bottle. I add enough boiled water to cover the noodles, screw the lid on, and wrap the bottle in a Reflectix cozy that has Velcro attached:

It cooks for 20 minutes. I also usually add boullion to the noodles before immersing in boiling water.

That is seriously cool.

I just cook the pasta at home. I cook it a little more firm than usual. Then I put it in the dehydrator until it's bone dry. It dries quickly. When I am ready to eat it I just put it in a freezer bag and put boiling water on it. It rehydrates perfectly. This lets me eat pasta and saves me a lot of fuel.

…not my trick. I got it from Sara's web site… of course!

Yep, instant pasta ;-) You have to love it!

But, I have to say, that cozy is way cool ;-) Never thought doing a solar cooker (which would work for instant noodles!)

Sarah: it does work for instant noodles.I've tried Ramen and Mrs. Knoll's (is that right?). And that's with solar heat alone. BTW: me and my boys are headed out this weekend. I'll try the solar water heater and see if it works on a March day in Wisconsin.

I've been doing my first drying in my oven last night and two weeks ago. I now have a home dried pasta-minced meat-tomato sauce-pesto meal and a mashed potatoe-bacon-vegetable meal waiting in my freezer to be used during my upcoming easter hike. Can't wait to eat those meals.

I was amazed at how easy this drying is. And it was a lot of fun too. Although i do set my alarm every three hours to check on the food and give it a stir (which is less fun).

Can't wait to start drying for the end of April hike.

Eins

Just discovered this discussion. It's funny, I've been experimenting the last few weeks with my convection oven and dehydration, and then I find this!

I can firmly attest that convection oven dehydration definitely works like a charm. I can also verify that if you have an oven that exchanges with outside air, it will smell up the place (sometimes good, sometimes bad).

My two most successful discoveries are:

-Tomato based spagetti sauce with veggies, spices, and finely chopped sausage.

-Dehydrating cans of Progresso Beef Barley soup.

That last one was really amazing! It looks pretty suspicious when it's done, but after its rehydrated and heated, it tastes almost exactly like what was in the can. (Probably preservatives at work here). I'm now going to explore some other Progresso soup options.

Another note: when dehydrating products with meat, cut the meat into small chunks. It doesn't come out all hard and "rocky".

Hi George,

Sorry for the late response. I have been busy finishing up my wilderness cookbook and sending it off to the publisher.

Thank you for the compliment on the review. I definitely have put the Nesco through more than most people would. It ran almost non-stop for the last year too.

Hi Brian,

I think most of us start with spaghetti sauce. You'll find that the more things you dry – the more comfortable you'll get with the dehydrator. What I do now is make meals with lots of leftovers so that I can dry them (this really reduces the workload).