dehydrating meat for resupply buckets?

On here : http://www.backpackingchef.com/ and in his ebook this guy gives special instructions for doing various meats. Have you tried the trick of putting bread crumbs in ground meat before cooking and dehydration. Seems to work pretty well.

I dehydrated some salmon puttanesca. The salmon pieces had to soak a lot longer, and were still a bit "jerkyfied". I may not have done it the best way. But it worked. And was still good, though the salmon was sad in comparison with fresh, of course.

Supposedly chicken, which is problematical, works ok if cooked in a pressure cooker. I made a bunch of it this way, and it might have been the chicken, or the smell after dehydration, but it didn't seem too appetizing in dehydrated form. Have yet to use it.

Lastly, I have had really great luck with a brand of pre-cooked chicken sausage. FWIW, Chef Bruce Aidells brand. But I doubt it depends on the brand except for personal taste. I cut it in thin disks, and halved those. I used the andouille version (there are a whole bunch) cooked with Zatarains jambalaya mix, and it re-hydrated spectacularly. Its cheap, you can make a ton of it quickly, and the taste and texture of the re-hydrated stuff is about a close to the original as anything I've tried yet. Like with most meat, you might want to let it re-hydrate a bit longer. But sausage seem to rehydrate pretty well. You might have your own version of what you think might work well, but I imagine andouille (chicken version or "authentic") might actually be a bit easier to find where you are. I imagine this would also go great with red sauces of any kind.

If you like the heat you probably can't swing a cat in Austin without hitting good chorizo.

Edit: I just checked and while most of the ones I use are chicken, the cajun style andouille I used is in fact smoked pork, so my bad. Need to read the fine print. Anyway, not chicken, but still taste good re-hydrated.

they sell pepperoni or whatever in the store. Not refrigerated. or beef jerky? They must put unhealthful preservatives in it?

Maybe you could just that. Cut it up maybe? Like they have one ounce sticks in vacuum plastic package that should survive.

I have had good luck putting either chicken breasts or pork tenderloins in the slow cooker, then pulling it apart into shredded meat and dehydrating it. I can eat this stuff no-cook, simply rehydrated in just few hours (probably less time is needed) and it has the consistency of real meat. Both kinds of meat are pretty low in fat so no rancidity.

I've also had good luck frying up 95% lean ground beef and also mixing this with ground up beef liver and frying it. No rinsing seemed to be needed. I stored it in the freezer before I packed it up for my trip. Delicious, too. Can't taste the liver but I'm betting it adds some vitamins.

Jerry, I know it sounds like a zen thing, but seriously, your post makes be wonder what good beef jerky would be like if "re-hydrated". Seems like it would be OK, and has the "advantage" that you can find it at the 7-11, so you could grab it at the last minute.

So which style commercial beef jerky goes best with a red sauce and white wine?

Oh, and I forgot to add "on the JMT". :-)

It seems like if you put beef jerky in hot water it would re-hydrate some.

or other meats – elk, deer, salmon,…

I know FD food is pricey, but for me, freeze dried proteins are WELL worth it. You can get hamburger, ham, sausage, and chicken, that I know of. It hydrates to like-fresh, and is shelf stable for extended periods of time. I particularly like the sausage, as it adds much needed flavor to lots of my FBC meals. I get mine from Honeyville. A #10 can is somewhere around $30, which if you break it down per serving, is actually very reasonable.

You can easily make your own jerky, using an oven, a dehydrator or an electric smoker. Most folks put a ton of salt in it, and the commercial jerky has who knows what in it, but simply drying thin slices will keep meat a long time. Since I'm on a low salt diet, I have to make my own: I use an Eye of Round (very little fat), sliced cross-grain. I soak it in whisky, Tabasco and garlic overnight, then dry it in the smoker. If I'm going to use it for cooking, I run it through a food processor to turn it into "carne seca", which is small flakes of dried meat. These rehydrate halfway decently, much better than hamburger gravel (great name!), but do need some simmer time to completely lose the crunchy texture.

Packit Gourmet sells freeze-dried ( not dehydrated) beef, chicken and roast beef. You could call and ask if it would be safe to keep in a 5 gallon bucket for resupply.

NICE! I didn't think about the freeze dried options. thanks so much!!

And I really like that jerky recipe!! Way better than the one I usually use….thanks!

Last couple of meals I dehydrated were a variation of this recipe. I have some in my pantry in a freezer bag to test out the longevity – so far so good!

Hey, Marko, did you cook the Aidell's sausage before dehydrating it? I know the sausages are pre-cooked, but it seems like you'd want to cook off some of the fat before slinging it in the dehydrator.

“Burger” Crumbles
1. No cooking involved and in a couple short hours you have a bag of ready to use “hamburger” that is vegetarian friendly and great for carrying in a food sack on longer trips due to their low fat content. The crumbles are a great source of protein as well.
2. Go to the frozen foods section of a well stocked grocery store and look for the section of veggie burgers. Here you will find Morning Star Grillers® Recipe Crumbles™ in 12 ounce bags. The bag is equivalent to one pound of uncooked hamburger.
3. Spread on fruit roll up trays. A bag takes two trays up. Set on 135° and check back in 2 hours to stir and break up any big pieces. The crumbles will dry fast so keep an eye on them – they take only a couple hours.
4. The crumbles are dry when you rub a piece between your fingers and it is dry all the way through. Like actual hamburger, the crumbles will darken considerably as they dry. (Morning Star Grillers® Recipe Crumbles™ in 12 oz bags dries to 4.4 oz)
5. Once dry, let cool down and then package into a tightly sealed bag or canister. For best long term storage, store in your freezer.

Ground Hamburger

1. Ground beef with 15% fat content is often labeled as Ground Round. Ground Chuck and Hamburger. Brown your hamburger a skillet. While you are cooking be sure to break it up well.
2. Once your hamburger is browned, drain all the grease from it.
3. After you drain as much grease out as you can, rinse the meat with boiling hot water until the grease is gone and let it drain again. You want as little as possible in your meat.
4. After you have the grease out and the meat is well drained, put it in a clean skillet. Season your meat with whatever you choose to use. I use salt, pepper onion powder and garlic powder. Continue cooking until all the moisture is gone. You want to get it as dry as you can without burning the meat.
5. Using a dehydrator, place your meat on fruit roll up trays.
6. Dry at 165 degrees for approximately 15 hours. Stir every few hours to make sure it is evenly drying. When it is done, the meat will be dark brown and hard (like little rocks) with no moisture in it.
7. Store in air tight jars. You can use your vacuum sealer or O2 absorbers to draw out the air.
8. To re-hydrate, place the meat in a bowl and cover with boiling water. As with most dehydrated foods the rule of thumb is 2 parts water to 1 part meat.
9. One pound of ground beef typically yields about 4 ounces of dehydrated meat.

TASTY TIP: For every lb of ground beef you dehydrate, add 3/4 cup bread crumbs. The bread crumbs will make it rehydrate fast, add nutrition for little weigh penalty.