Dehydrating coconut and other fatty foods

The thing about fatty foods and dehydrating is that the fat doesn't dehydrate. If left for a long period without refrigeration, it will go rancid.

I dehydrate chili for backpacking trips a lot, as well as other dishes, and if I'm going to store it for more than a couple weeks it gets sealed up tight and put in the freezer. I get dehydrated hummus mix from the bulk bins at Winco and take that, and add cold water and olive oil from packets or a small bottle on the trail.

I second that…There's nothing wrong with dehydrating high-fat items, it's just that the fat will stay on/in the food, and go rancid. Long as you're eating it soon, or storing it in the freezer until shortly before consumption, there's no issue. My guess is that vacuum-sealing it after dehydrating would also lengthen the window you have before the fat rancidifies. I often choose to dehydrate things low-fat, but then add fat back in in the form of olive oil on the trail. YMMV!

Vacuum seal dehydrated meals with oxygen absorbers for meat especially, but fat in general. You can buy these on amazon. Note, these are NOT the same thing as the silicon H2O absorbers, but one of those wouldn't hurt either.

Use within a month or so – not for long term, but just fine if you take precautions. It's NOT a problem if you a conscious of the issue and take proper precautions about it the packing and the cooking. I just ate some leftover meals from my JMT trip packed as described and the meat parts were fine 2+ months later – if lacking in a little…finesse. Finesse that they never had in the first place, probably.

But you can more smart about it and cook where you add as much of the the fat as you can (like olive oil) in at the end in many case.

I'm heavily into home meal dehydration and just finished a batch of cream of mushroom soup which is very oily but heck I ziploc it up for my trip and in 3 weeks it'll be eaten.

I also just finished a couple big trays of organic cottage cheese which gets hard and can be reconstituted in my boiling water pot cozy as it's added to soups and chili and other meals. It's a good system if you can find decent organic cottage cheese.

Check out my Kitchen keyword pics for more ideas—

http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/keyword/kitchen/

As noted, as long as you dry it correctly, store it dried in the freezer and cycle within 3 months, it is OK :-) But yes, add oil on the trail if at all possible. Hummus made without oil lasts a long, long time – and won't go rancid in long heat waves.

You guys are great. Thanks for the help!

Well we went for a trip this weekend with some friends and there was definitely food envy at dinner time. I dehydrated 1kg of chili con carne down to 250g plus 2 dehyrayed served of rice and it came back like it was fresh, including the kidney beans that I was concerned about. Will definitely continue to use fattier mince in the future for short trips for the taste, cost and calories/oz.

WWillmaking dehydrated sweet potato mash, beef hash, guacamole and more fruit tomorrow ready for our next adventure!

Benen