Dehydrated veggies

[rebel_chick]

Rick...How do you dehydrate spaghetti sauce?

[dscrick]

Rick,
You are right, I will like that Spaghetti thing.
Thanks!

Dscrick:
You are The Chef! I will try that soon.
You don't have a recepie for dehydrated beer, do you?

-Mert

I have been experimenting with a dehydrated IPA, no luck so far but it makes the house smell good!

[Rick]

I use waxed paper. Your dehydrator may come with a plastic tray for drying liquids. In either case, lightly oil the tray or waxed paper so the dehydrated sauce won't stick to it. Then pour and spread it out making certain it doesn't reach the edge of the waxed paper so it won't drip off (the plastic trays generally have a lip to prevent liquids from dripping). Then dehydrate it until it's a very rubbery leather. It's very similar to fruit leathers. The biggest thing you have to be alert to are any tomatoes that are in the sauce. It just takes them longer to dehydrate than the actual liquid.

Once dehydrated, you just slowly peel it off, roll or fold it up and drop it in a zip lock bag. The dehydrated sauce along with dehydrated ground beef and some noodles make a pretty good field spaghetti.

[oneraindog]

wait...dehydrated ground beef??
'splain please. what is the process? i am liking the idea.

[NCO]

What I do, is that I dehydrate mushrooms, mostly golden chanterelle and "tube" chanterelle (dunno the translation, wikipedia didn't tell me... Cantharellus tubaeformis in latin) And toss them in pretty much any food I make.

[Rick]

ORD - Look at post 15 on this thread.

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...te+ground+beef

[oneraindog]

oh got it. so this might be a stupid question buuut was the ground beef cooked? im thinkign the obvious answer is yes because all dried meat is cooked first.....? is it?

[your_comforting_company]

umm.. there are really two answers to that question ORD.

The meat that Rick dehydrated was pre-cooked, then dehydrated.

traditionally, meat that was jerked (dehydrated) was not cooked, and I have read that meat to be made into pemmican and jerky should not be cooked because it will spoil. This information comes from Naked Into the Wilderness, and I have not gotten sick either way.

yes, Ricks meat was cooked, but no, all dried meat is not pre-cooked. My great-grandad's smoke house was full of smoked (not cooked) dried meat.

Rick, the bit about flashin off the fat.. pemmican is made by adding tallow (rendered fat) back to the meat, right? so I would think that flashing would be unnecessary anyway (at least in the case of pemmican).

[dscrick]

Most of the websites where I've found info on drying hamburger and other meats caution against trying to store them very long because anything with fat in it will go rancid eventually. I've had good luck with it by storing the dehydrated HBG (or the food item containing it) in the freezer in vacumn bags, then when I head out I just toss the bag in my pack. It will keep fine for a week, probably a lot more, without refrigeration.

Also,
When I am cooking HBG to dry I break it up as fine as possible during cooking, then drain it, put it in a colander, and rinse it with HOT water. This removes even more fat.

[Rick]

I never cook anything I'm going to convert to jerky. Only the stuff I'm going to dehydrate. And, as I said in the other thread (link is above), the stuff lasted on the shelf for six months with no problem. Yes, I rehydrated and sampled both with no ill effects...Araaaargggh!....(thump).

[wildWoman]

We dried broccoli the first time this year and it's a real winner! Taste good when you rehydrate it. We just keep dried veggies in glass jars.

[Rick]

Dried stuff is really amazingly simple with today's technology. Either using a stove or an actual dehydrator. Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything that doesn't dehydrate well as long as it doesn't have a lot of fat content. Rehydrating is pretty simple, too. Add water and wait.

[oneraindog]

digging this up again....

rick how long does dehydrated spag sauce last?

[oneraindog]

say vacuum sealed

[Rick]

I really can't tell you because I've never tested it. Several weeks for sure. We shipped it a couple of times to my son who was on the AT. We'd ship it to a post master at a given town so figure ship time + hike time. I had some in the fridge for probably three weeks and it was still good. In both instances they were just in zip lock baggies. The thing you have to watch out for are the tomatoes in the sauce. They retain liquid longer than any other item. Just make certain your tomatoes are dried well and the sauce should last a while. You'll be able to speed up the drying process by cutting the tomatoes in half if they are chunky. The more surface area you make the faster an item can dehydrate.

[nhfieldrep]

I dehydrate frozen veggies all the time. I have an Excalibur dehydrator and you just take your frozen Veggies and put them on the tray frozen. It works extremely well because frozen vegetables are already steam blanched so they retain color. Blanching is required to dehydrate many kinds of fresh vegetables. Frozen veggies are cheap and you save time because they are already cut up for you.

I dry pack mine in tin cans with an oxygen absorber or vacumn bag them if it's for near term storage.

Check out these links, this lady does some really nice videos on dehydrating frozen foods, she also has a lot of other tips on dehydrating and food storage:

Dehydrating frozen foods part 1:

http://www.dehydrate2store.com/videos/?id=45

Part 2:

http://www.dehydrate2store.com/videos/?id=46

I want to the links, watched both of them, then went out and tried it. So easy even a cave man could do it! Just haven't gotten around to using it in any soups yet.

[Rick]

Welcome FieldRep. How about getting around to an Introduction? Here's a template you can use.

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...ead.php?t=7813

[hybrid]

Thought I'd pop this up here...very simple and very tasty.

I worry about the security of the global chilli supply, so here's my bit to help the greater good

Dried Zesty Jalapenos

(could do it with habanero too, if you're into pain)

Pick Jalas when green but pretty big... ok if some have a little brown/purple coming through.

Slice around vertical axis, halve, scrap out seeds (if you time it right most seeds are immature and just pop out with a scrape of a thumbnail). Remove that white pith stuff, ok to leave a bit behind though. Don't go nuts

I leave stalks on around half my pieces... just for looks really.

Rinse, and air dry somewhere shady and with a good breeze. under a fan would work too, or in a VERY low oven.

Now, put in a dish and drizzle a few tsp of white vinegar in there... swizzle them around with your finger (or a spoon, if you're a bit germy) and drain any excess. Now, sprinkle with a tablespoon of salt. I used standard iodised table salt but rock would do fine too, or flowers.

Mix through until they have about as much as is going to stick, stuck.

Spread out evenly and without touching on a foil lined tray, inner sides up. Go over and drop a pinch of salt into each little cavity. Don't miss any.

Pop tray into oven at around 70 deg c (or whatever you normally dry veg at, or use presets if you have a dehydrating machine) with the door cracked a little. If your oven is small, or a little dodgy, you may need to re-arrange halfway thru them drying to prevent some coming out a little over-dry.

Drying time varies by specimen and weather, but normally done in a few hours. They will stay wrinkly green and wet for AGES and then BANG, toasty dry leathery things, encrusted with crystals of brine. A lot of excess will fall off on the tray.

These can be used as instant seasoning... not too spicy at all, but loads of flavour and they're pretty good to snack on with a cold drink (preferably the amber , foamy kind but whatever floats your boat).

Store in snaptop food containers, jars, whatever. Try not to open up on damp days. These last for ages before they start to taste a lil dated and even then they are fine to eat, just not as tasty as before.

I think of em as veggie jerky But you can soak em overnight in cool water, or 10 minutes in hot water and a lot of the salt will be drawn out. Or grind to dust and use like a southwest inspired version of the classic Viet salt-chilli sprinkle.

Enjoy.

[Winnie]

I've just dehydrated my first batch of mushrooms. I'm amazed how little there is left from 1.1/2lb's! I like this dehydrating.
I'm going to store in vacuum sealed individual portions in a canning jar.

[Rick]

With something like mushrooms you have to be careful how small you cut the pieces because once they start to dry the change in size can cause them to fall through the racks. You slide a rack out and you wonder where they went. Then you see them in the bottom of the dehydrator. I've done that before. Celery is the same way.