Dehy Advice

[corvus]

G'day all,
I have been an advocate of boil water add and leave 10 mins then eat however having done the gamut of Back Country Meals I am well and truly past them,problem is I still want to add boiled water and eat .
I have done the big Dehydrate thing in the past and it was good but required more fuel for all aspects prior to and after eating, do any of you have any just add boiling water to home dehy meals (I am experimenting with Dahl at the moment)and realise that any sort of meat will be a challenge however any help will be welcome.
C

[Penguin]

Dahl and rice is it and a bit. Mix, add boiling water, 8 minutes later eat.

Risotto is tough to get right.

Savory rice works well, even the cheese!!!!

I have made fish jerky - cannot re hydrate - but great with the Dahl.

Love the Dehy mushrooms and tomatoes to all to other things.

Red kidney bean curry (like a chili con carne) does well. You could try the meaty version. Spag bog sauce dehy I am told works well.

The rice is an excellent base - we do the rice in bulk on a rice cooker first. 100gms dehydrated is the base of the meal.

P

[Penguin]

PS You do not need a long spoon for these

[tasadam]

As an easy base, with Cous Cous you can add boiled water and cover a bit. Haven't got it right yet - always end up with way too much, which I force down anyhow.
But I'm still a back country (or similar) kinda guy.

[Son of a Beach]

Dahl is the only meal I've personally found that rehydrates virtually instantly (not waiting for 10 minutes, anyhow). Mushrooms and tomatoes also rehydrate very quickly (and I add them to other meals, such as packet pasta and sauce to improve their flavour).

I'm generally happy to take a bunch of ingredients (dehydrated, and/or otherwise) and cook a meal from scratch out bush, at least for some of the nights, but I'd also like to learn some other complete meals that rehydrate quickly and simply just by adding boiling water (and maybe simmering for a couple of minutes).

I'll have to try the spag bog again - my first (and only) attempt was a complete disaster, and I ended up going hungry that night. The lesson was learnt though: Always test something new at home first!

[Macca81]

on a recent trip down the SW, my mates dad came with us, and he had borrowed a dehydrator, so offered to provide all our dinners.

4 meals for 4 people, we had spag bog, beef n guiness stew, beef curry and something else that i cant remember.... but all had meat(in mince form).

when we arrived at camp, the first thing to be done was dump it all in a trangia bowl, and add water to just cover it. tents would then be pitched etc, and a cup of soup made, then the meal would be put on the heat. 2 mins after the soup was finished, we were tucking into a good hearty meal! less than 15 mins from when we walked into camp.

we figured that the key was letting it soak while we set up, then bring it to a boil.
have tried the method of adding boiled water and leaving, but even with the same meals (way to much guiness stew was made, so we tested b4 we left for the trip), the meat would not hydrate properly, and it just didnt seem quite right.

after the success of our meals, a dehydrator is sitting in my top 10 wish list.

[corvus]

Did a Commercial Dhal ( Tasty Bite Cusine of India turned out brilliant )did a home made and whilst it dehy'd and rehy'd to perfection the Pataks Korma sauce had too much coconut flavour for my taste ,so back to the drawing board.
Very impressed by the almost instant edibility of Dhal and will be continuing my experimentation which I will share c

[Son of a Beach]

I use this dahl recipe which my brother sent me. It dehydrates and rehydrates very well, and is quite tasty.

[Gippsmick]

we figured that the key was letting it soak while we set up, then bring it to a boil.

Yep. Let it soak when you first get into camp and while your setting up - 10 to 15 mins or longer if you like. A quick boil and your done. Perfect.
I dehy a lot of home cooked meals to take away. My favourites would be spag bog, curries, chilli con carne & dahl. I reckon you can dehy just about any thing. Dishes with meat are no drama.

And I always carry veg to have on hand and offer to the cook. Even simple things like basic tomato sauces are handy to have - you can add them to heaps of dishes.

When you bring out a home cooked dehy meal near the end of a long walk your partners will worship you and curse that they didn't think of having a cook up before leaving home.
I'm amazed at how amazed people are when you tell them whats on the menu. I'm guessing most people don't dehyradte home cooked meals to take out bush?

[daznkez]

hi we are also over the backcountry stuff and find the drawbacks with dehydrating meat products however have had reasonable success with keeping meat separate and rehydrating during the day with a bit of hot water with a bit of stockcube for extra flavour (wide mouth nalgene works well but remember to release pressure build up until cool)is usually good to go by dinner and just reheat and add to other products. i have also been looking into purchasing bulk freeze dried meat products from the states, however not sure so far about getting into country via customs+ its also expensive($120-160 USD for 5lbs)so still not sure if its a viable option.The company is alpineaire(think thats how you spell it) from here you can add your own dehydrated vegies and away you go. Anyways hope this helps a bit

[samh]

Did the OLT in June and we dehydrated all our food. except some diced bacon for the first couple of days. We used some beef jerkey, which we just eat dry, not the best option but ok. Also we used Kangaroo mince which is great and rehydrates well, in our opinion anyway. We normally use a pot cozy so all we need to do is add the hot water and wait for about 15 minutes. We usually use rice, pasta and cous cous which all works very well. Add some vegies, spices or a dehydrated sauce and enjoy. All we need to do is boiling the water, we also eat directly from the zip-loc bag which saves us doing the dishes and bringing a plate, we also used a lot less fuel

[corvus]

G'day all ,
As a continuance on re visiting my Dehydrator ,whilst doing my beef jerky I decided to try the canned food experiment .
Harvest Lamb Hot Pot (not much Lamb) 425g ended up as 66g when dried to about fruit leather consistency ,rehydrated and slow simmered it comes around 300g and passes the taste test (from a canned food hater Mrs c)so I will be doing further tests with Chunky Soups and some of those Microwavable meals,anything to put off going Back Country meals
c
added about 100 ml of water to bring it up to near original