Best way for me to use my dehydrator?

Rocco, all dehydrated foods are different, and some require different rehydration techniques. For some, you can just cold-soak the food, and one hour later it is good. For others, you cover boiling water over the food, and five minutes later it is good. For others, you simmer the food for a while, then let it stand perhaps in a cozy.

You really want to experiment with different techniques to find which ones work best with which food.

–B.G.–

I focus on bringing meals that I can add boiling water to the bag and wait. This allows me to just boil water in the pot. The only exception is pasta which I will cook in the pot as I perfer pasta over raman noodles.

As for waste I don't see it as any additional waste to pack out. Even if I used a pot to cook in every night I would still need to have an individual bag to contain each meal unless I was eating the same thing every night.

My total waste is one ziplock bag per meal plus a few bags for spices and maybe one for pasta if I have pasta meals. I find that if I am dilligent in prepping the individual bags for meals I have less waste then when I am in a rush and just toss each individual component in its own container.

I use the "Add boiling water and wait" method. Just remember: keep everything uniform in size when dehydrating and realize that meat and certain veggies can take longer to rehydrated than thinner veggies and pasta. Play with it and you'll have fun!

For those who use the add boiling water method, what kind of bag do you use? A standard zip lock back? Wouldn't that melt and if not, is it safe?

Do a search on the forum for Freezer Bag Cooking (FBC), and you'll come up with a ton of results.

In short, no, don't use a regular ziplock bag. Use a freezer ziplock bag. They work fine, and are quite safe.

Ok cool, thanks for the help!

You also might want to consider getting a vacuum sealer. The bags hold up just fine to boiling water and your food will take up less space. This also buys you a little extra "shelf life" at home for your dehydrated foods.

Good primer and recipes here:
http://www.trailcooking.com/

Here's another
http://www.hungryhammockhanger.com/

He also has a really good Youtube channel

Or here .