Dehydrator "How To"

[Lotsafreshair]

Don't know about you guys, but dehydrators held such an air of mystery for me before I started using them.

It took a number of experiments (some with better outcomes than others!) before I found a way of working with them that worked for me.

A lot of people ask me about them, so I thought it might be helpful to put some tips and tricks learnt along the way out there for discussion. Here's a few thoughts:

1. If you're going to use meat... Use mince.
2. Cook up extra for dinner at home one night and just chuck the rest in the dehydrator over night.
3. Tofu... Don't bother*
4. Keep good records of your drying to compare weather/humidity each time.
5. Keep everything small and uniformly sized.
6. If leaving it going at night, don't sleep in the next room! (Smelly and noisy!)

I've just posted a new blog on http://lotsafreshair.com/2013/04/16/8-tips-to-using-a-dehydrator-to-make-tasty-hiking-food/ with photos and tips... Including the results of trying to dry tofu!*

Hope you find it useful.

Cheers
Lotsa

[neilmny]

Hey hey who said she wandered of into the wilderness and never came back.
Well done!

[Son of a Beach]

Good tips. I've tried drying non-minced meat, and (apart from when making jerky) it's not good. Doesn't rehydrate much. So like you say, mince is the go. I do cook a chicken curry for dehydrating with large pieces of (boned) chicken. But before drying, I pull out the chicken pieces, cut the up as fine as I can, then stir them back in. After rehydrating, this gives just the right amount of chewiness to make me feel like I'm still eating real food.

(Jerky is also really worth doing too, by the way.)

[Lotsafreshair]

Hey hey who said she wandered of into the wilderness and never came back.
Well done!

Really? Who said that... I'll hunt them down with my new Krav Maga skills and sort them out

[Lotsafreshair]

(Jerky is also really worth doing too, by the way.)

Ah, jerky. I usually buy the great chilli stuff from the supermarket as I'm a bit dubious of my own. Tell me... how do you make your jerky?

[Pongo]

Thanks Lotsa. Always enjoy your blog posts and have been sure to plug them to my hiking group.

I love making my own camp food and am turning into a real back country foodie, so some of my tips to add to the "how to...":

* Be prepared to experiment - some things will go so well for you and others will just fail. Be brave, have some fun!

* After some experimenting, a mate and I have found that pressure cooked mince comes up better. Since I don't own a pressure cooker, he's now the official mince cooker for us .

* Chef beware - Certain things don't rehydrate the same way they went in. My first attempt at dehydrated food was a pasta sauce that rehydrated more like soup.

* As a result of the above, I prefer to dehydrate things separately, add them to my zip lock bag, and rehydrate them together. Normally this means making a meal base, dehydrating veg, dehydrating meat and then combining them.

* If you find yourself getting serious about dehydrating, run a stock of things that you commonly use. It will stop you from madly dehydrating food a few days before that weekend hike comes along. This way when you want to make a meal, you take out the ingredients, lob them in a zip lock bag and you're on your way, quick and easy.

FWIW my store consists of a range of veg (from bog standard onion and carrot to chinese broccoli and bok choy), homemade spice powders (garlic, ginger etc...), meal bases (curries and pasta sauces), and some more exotic imports such as powdered soy sauce and powdered butter. Meat I try to use up within the month I've prepped it so I often don't have it on hand.

[Tortoise]

Sometimes I dry a full meal, sometimes just cooked mince to add to later if i'm in a hurry. Either way, i put it in bags in airtight containers in the freezer, where it keeps for yonks.

My store of dried vegies was low for my walk last weekend, but i'd bought a bunch of stuff to go with the dried mince (including dried tomato & capsicum) at a local health food store recently. Still very yummy.

[Son of a Beach]

(Jerky is also really worth doing too, by the way.)

Ah, jerky. I usually buy the great chilli stuff from the supermarket as I'm a bit dubious of my own. Tell me... how do you make your jerky?

Here's my two jerkey recipes:

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=221 (this one is actually a steak marinade recipe, but I add chilli and replace sugar with salt, and it makes great jerky! Best with wallaby or roo if you can get it)

viewtopic.php?t=260

For the billtong recipe, I cut the meat into wide but thin slices. For the first recipe I cut it into strips. I dehydrate it until it is quite dry, but still a bit bendy, and not completely rock hard. It needs to be chewy, but not break your teeth. Makes for a very tasty and very nutritious protein filled snack. Good for salt replenishment too, of course.

[neilmny]

Hey hey who said she wandered of into the wilderness and never came back.
Well done!

Really? Who said that... I'll hunt them down with my new Krav Maga skills and sort them out

Yikes
Nobody honest.... .....just been missing your "how to" contributions and glad to see your return.

[mountnman]

Any tips of what sort of mince is best? Lean, premium, regular, etc? And whether it's beef, pork, lamb, chicken, kangaroo?


Also, my dehydrator says to "Blanch" vegetables before dehydrating, but what exactly is blanching?

[Pongo]

Any tips of what sort of mince is best? Lean, premium, regular, etc? And whether it's beef, pork, lamb, chicken, kangaroo?

Also, my dehydrator says to "Blanch" vegetables before dehydrating, but what exactly is blanching?

My understanding is that fats and oils don't dehydrate properly so I have always favoured minced meat made from lean cuts. Typically your lean and premium minces have less fat content. Pressure cooked lamb on my last trip was yummo, minced chicken breast has been pretty decent. I can't comment on any other meats as I haven't done them before (although goat is on our to do list ).

Blanching: "All that means is to put the item in question in boiling water, lift it out after the prescribed time, and cool it off quickly." Source - http://localfoods.about.com/od/preparat ... Blanch.htm

Some veges you need to blanch, others you don't - eg, spring onions - no blanch; zucchini - blanch.

I hope that helps!

[MartyGwynne]

Hi yes the leanest meat is best as fats and or added oils don't dehydrate (the fats and oils go sort of rancid and don't taste as good).
For drying soups a friend (who worked for the DPI) has done a lot of work on drying food and he says that by adding dried ground chick peas to make them nice and thick again.
I have not done this yet but am willing to experiment. It sort of makes sense as it would thicken up soups (I guess pasta sauce too), I would have to experiment on how much chick pea to add, little by little at first.
I think you can get chick pea flour from super market.
I will have to use the pressure cooker method it sounds a very good way of cooking for drying food.