DIY Dehydrated Backpacking Meals

[heronwheels]

Great thread! I don't backpack but I've dehydrated meals for motorcycle camping for a couple of years - never considered dehydrated eggs (they look much better than I expected). I'm getting ready to fire up the dehydrator (Nesco American as well) for some apple chips and beef jerky for my upcoming road trip. That unstuffed pepper dish looks pretty great!

 

[Michael]

...that's a great idea, Nick!
How does your meals taste?
Did you prepare your meals under the criteria of nutrition facts?

 

[Nick]

...that's a great idea, Nick!
How does your meals taste?
Did you prepare your meals under the criteria of nutrition facts?

They taste fantastic. Pretty much exactly how they taste when cooked fresh at home. I do my meals this way because I don't like to eat gluten and all sorts of other unnatural things often found in dehydrated and freeze dried meals.

 

[Cody]

Sausage jerky sounds interesting. Might try that this afternoon. I'm thinking of boiling until firm and then slicing 1/4" thick for dehydration. Did you do something similar, Nick?

 

[Nick]

Sausage jerky sounds interesting. Might try that this afternoon. I'm thinking of boiling until firm and then slicing 1/4" thick for dehydration. Did you do something similar, Nick?

Pretty much exactly what I did. Small problem though - the high fat content of pork sausage is not ideal for dehydration. lostlandscapes and drclef use chicken sausage and it seems to work quite well.

 

[HomerJ]

They taste fantastic. Pretty much exactly how they taste when cooked fresh at home..

I'm going to have to give this a try. I can barely stand to eat MH's eggs.

 

[Nick]

I'm going to have to give this a try. I can barely stand to eat MH's eggs.

Oh, on the eggs, they don't rehydrate quite as well as other stuff. But toss in a little cheese and it's bomb.

 

[drclef]

Pretty much exactly what I did. Small problem though - the high fat content of pork sausage is not ideal for dehydration. lostlandscapes and drclef use chicken sausage and it seems to work quite well.

Yes, we've dehydrated both chicken and pork sausage. I've found that boiling either type of sausage first until completely cooked works best. I either slice the sausage in half lenth-wise or slice small "coin" shaped pieces. When the pieces are coin-sized they dehydrate more quickly. If the sausage is on the fatty side, you can blot occasionally throughout the dehydration process with a paper towel to remove the excess fat.

 

[Duke]

Hey Nick

I have read through this interesting thread and am very intrigued. However I do want to ask about the efficiency and risk. I have a small dehydrator that I have never used (well OK my wife has but I didn't mess with it). I just can't help but wonder if this is worth the effort and risk for someone like me that eats non-paleo, glutten containing food. I am trying to get ready for a trip here in Idaho and thought this sounded like something I should try. But, it is looking like a good bit of effort, electrons to run the dehydrator, stove time, etc. So my question is if you think it worth the effort even without factoring in that this gives you more ability to eat your own, no preservatives, food? Is most of the benefit in a greater freedom of food choice?? I think part of my quandary is that I don't have a good way to value a meal that I made. Obviously there is more into my meal than just the cost of the food but I don't know a good way to determine what that would be to compare. I do know that freeze dried foods are expensive. I also know that I am a bit skeptical about heading backcountry with something that I just dried myself. Skeptical that is from an acute health standpoint vs chronic. A dose of backcountry G.I. problems are what I fear but once again I just don't have enough knowledge on the subject to compare the risk/benefits of the two. ??

 

[Nick]

Hey Duke -

Probably not worth it for most people. In fact, I've pretty much stopped doing it too. This year my dinners have been consisting of a package of instant potatoes and a pack of salmon and maybe some chunks of cheese mixed in. Add to that a bunch of the natural backpacking snacks to be found at Trader Joe's, some pepperoni and nut butter and I'm been pretty well set. I haven't fired up the dehydrator more than a few times this year.

If I wasn't concerned about all the junk in Mountain House, I'd probably just buy a case of them from Costco and call it good.

As for the risk, I try to minimize it by thoroughly drying the food and making sure it's in small chunks (no moist cores). I also store it in my fridge until it's time to head out on the trip. I'd probably be more worried about it on trips over 3-4 days and in really warm climates.

 

[Duke]

Thanks Nick. Still very interesting and I will probably try it some day.

 

[baltocharlie]

Not a dehydrator guy myself. If I used one it would be for leftovers from certain dinners. Anything more than that would be too much work for me. If you are a stay-at-home worker/parent then perhaps it would be easier. There are so many one pot meal recipes out there, I can't see the need. Here's a link to a woman that has tone of recipes (FBC) boil water, add ingredients, stir, wait 5' then eat. My kinda BC food, easy clean up to boot.
http://www.trailcooking.com/recipes/types/fbc

 

[cpd]

Hey Nick,

I've been trying to successfully dehydrate and rehydrate ground beef and chicken with little luck. It is always very tough after rehydrating. I saw some of your example dishes and it sounds like you are having no issue getting tender meat after rehydrating. I'm eager to know the secret here. Does the meat need to be in a sauce of some sort prior to dehydrating? Is it possible I'm dehydrating the meat too long? I'm simply out of ideas and would love any suggestions!

 

[audraiam]

@cpd,

@Nick is currently out on the trail, but here is what I can tell you about the meat we have used. It is grass-fed beef and we have always used a tomato based sauce with it prior to dehydrating. I am not sure which is more important but I would guess the acidic nature of the sauce probably is helpful. About over-dehydrating when we have had the misfortune to leave something in too long it always has a slightly burnt taste, so that is the only indicator that I have of overcooking.

 

[cpd]

@audraiam, Thanks so much for your reply! I bet the sauce is making the difference somehow as I used grass-fed beef as well with poor results. I was told later by a friend that I needed to tenderize the meat beforehand and marinate it in lemon juice. I'm wondering if the tomato sauce is producing a similar outcome by breaking down the meat in some respect prior to dehydration.

 

[Nick]

@audraiam, Thanks so much for your reply! I bet the sauce is making the difference somehow as I used grass-fed beef as well with poor results. I was told later by a friend that I needed to tenderize the meat beforehand and marinate it in lemon juice. I'm wondering if the tomato sauce is producing a similar outcome by breaking down the meat in some respect prior to dehydration.

How big are the pieces of meat? I find it works best if you get it really small. For some dishes I even chop it up.

 

[cpd]

@Nick, I tried ground beef and chicken that I chopped into small bits. In both cases, I got tough meat. I've had particularly bad results with the chicken. It just won't rehydrate. It's been really frustrating. That is why I want to try putting the meat or chicken in a sauce next. Maybe that will help.

 

[Nick]

I haven't tried chicken but the beef has always been in some sort of sauce and it's worked out great. It's always rehydrated nicely although it does take a bit of time to get all the way rehydrated just like a freeze dried backpacker meal (~10 minutes). I often let mine boil for a minute or two and then let it sit. Let us know how it works out!

 

[cpd]

Thanks again @Nick for your reply. I'll definitely report back!

 

[cpd]

So in my latest experiment, I dehydrated small chunks of beef in a can of lentil vegetable soup. The beef was tough upon rehydration but not completely inedible. It was about the same result I had previously. I think I will try the same experiment again with tomato sauce to see if I can replicate the same tenderness that @Nick has talked about.