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Thread: How to make dehydrated food last for a year?

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    Default How to make dehydrated food last for a year?

    Hi all,
    I don't have the money to buy a dehydrator but was able to use the electric oven to dehydrate. It took a day instead of hours but the end result seems to be the same.
    Questions:
    1- How can one dehydrate too much?
    2- Why does the oily stuff go bad? Is it the oxygen? Why do I see salamis over a year old and still good?
    3- is there a way to preserve food for a year without smoking it? I want to head for Yukon for a year but can't see myself carrying tons of home made canned goods.
    I need to have food for at least 8 months and will be backpacking it to the site, so it needs to be as light as possible. what are my options?
    Many thanks.


  2. #2
    Quality Control Director Ken's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by LoveTheWild View Post
    Hi all,
    I don't have the money to buy a dehydrator but was able to use the electric oven to dehydrate. It took a day instead of hours but the end result seems to be the same.
    Questions:
    1- How can one dehydrate too much?
    2- Why does the oily stuff go bad? Is it the oxygen? Why do I see salamis over a year old and still good?
    3- is there a way to preserve food for a year without smoking it? I want to head for Yukon for a year but can't see myself carrying tons of home made canned goods.
    I need to have food for at least 8 months and will be backpacking it to the site, so it needs to be as light as possible. what are my options?
    Many thanks.
    An oven can work just fine, and many items can take over a day to dehydrate IN A DEHYDRATOR.

    Answers:
    1. You really can't. An item is generally considered to be dehydrated when 95% of the water has been removed.
    2. Oily "stuff" goes bad because the oils cannot be dehydrated and become rancid. Salami has an extremely long shelf life because it is cured (and sometimes smoked as well) and ferments as it air dries. All salamis also contain anti-bacterial nitrates (which are extracted from a variety of vegetables) in some form or another. Salamis actually improve with age so long as they are properly stored wrapped in paper or a fabric sleeve that allows the salami to breathe. Salamis should never be frozen.
    3. Yes. Canning, fermenting, pickling, and dehydrating are methods that can preserve food for several years.

    Dehydrated food weighs far less than foods preserved by other methods if backpacking weight is a concern.
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    Quality Control Director Ken's Avatar
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    If you want to learn more about food dehydration, check out this thread I created a couple of months ago. It links to a series of excellent "how-to" dehydrate videos.

    http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...ight=dehydrate
    “Learning is not compulsory. Neither is survival.”
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    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    When you are dehydrating you are removing the moisture out of the food. Using the oven is fine just set the thermostat to the lowest setting and leave the oven door ajar. You want about 140°F and good air movement. It is the air movement that speeds up the drying process. The amount of moisture in the food varies by the food. Fruit, for example, will be around 20% moisture when it's done. Vegetables will be about 10%. As I said, those are examples and will vary by the actual fruit or vegetable dehydrated.

    Oily or fatty foods (pork for example) will go rancid. That is, it will have an offensive taste and/or odor. The fats and oils chemically change. That can be a good thing if you are making cheese but a bad thing if you are dehydrating meat.

    If you are interested in dehydrating then I suggest you purchase a copy of Mary Bell's Complete Dehydrator Cookbook. Just google it. You can find it anywhere. It's an excellent how to on dehydrating and contains a lot of great recipes for backpacking.

    If you want to store food for a year then I'd suggest freeze dried. Something like Mountain House. Their food is good, it's light and it has a long shelf life. Well more than a year.
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    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    For a good idea of supplies for a year.....check this out.
    http://www.survivalblog.com/2009/09/...arlessons.html
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    Quote Originally Posted by hunter63 View Post
    For a good idea of supplies for a year.....check this out.
    http://www.survivalblog.com/2009/09/...arlessons.html
    I call BS on that one. 50 lbs. of beans and only 8 rolls of toilet paper?
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  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ken View Post
    I call BS on that one. 50 lbs. of beans and only 8 rolls of toilet paper?
    sure one pound of beans a week, and you substitute foliage to wipe with see totally doable.however I buy at least 50 pounds a month, and have cases of TP.
    I Wonder Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, "I think I'll squeeze these dangly things here, and drink what ever comes out?"

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    Quality Control Director Ken's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by welderguy View Post
    sure one pound of beans a week, and you substitute foliage to wipe with see totally doable.however I buy at least 50 pounds a month, and have cases of TP.
    Well, maybe a Sears catalogue....
    “Learning is not compulsory. Neither is survival.”
    W. Edwards Deming

    "Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils."
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  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ken View Post
    Well, maybe a Sears catalogue....
    they even make them anymore?
    I Wonder Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, "I think I'll squeeze these dangly things here, and drink what ever comes out?"

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    Super-duper Moderator Sarge47's Avatar
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    Cool Well, since you asked...

    Quote Originally Posted by welderguy View Post
    they even make them anymore?
    Nah, they're now on-line, you have to use your keyboard...then the keys get all stuck and you can't type worth anything!....
    SARGE
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    Super-duper Moderator Sarge47's Avatar
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    Cool Well, since you asked...

    Quote Originally Posted by LoveTheWild View Post
    Hi all,
    I don't have the money to buy a dehydrator but was able to use the electric oven to dehydrate. It took a day instead of hours but the end result seems to be the same.
    Questions:
    1- How can one dehydrate too much?
    2- Why does the oily stuff go bad? Is it the oxygen? Why do I see salamis over a year old and still good?
    3- is there a way to preserve food for a year without smoking it? I want to head for Yukon for a year but can't see myself carrying tons of home made canned goods.
    I need to have food for at least 8 months and will be backpacking it to the site, so it needs to be as light as possible. what are my options?
    Many thanks.
    Forget all that, just buy up a bunch of McDonalds hamburgers and you should be good!....
    SARGE
    "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
    Albert Einstein

    Proud father of a US Marine....SEMPER FI!

    They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
    Benjamin Franklin

  12. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by Sarge47 View Post
    Forget all that, just buy up a bunch of McDonalds hamburgers and you should be good!....
    when im bugging out I prefer room service. just sayin
    I Wonder Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, "I think I'll squeeze these dangly things here, and drink what ever comes out?"

  13. #13

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    Ummm...how much does 8 months worth of dehydrated food weigh? Gonna backpack it in ...in 1 go?
    Wilderness Survival:
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  14. #14

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    I'd guess it would be a couple hundred pounds at least. Removing (most) of the water doesn't remove most of the weight. Not a lot of meals in a pound of dried beans.

    Gonna go find a bus to live in?
    If we are to have another contest in…our national existence I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's, but between patriotism & intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition & ignorance on the other…
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    Quality Control Director Ken's Avatar
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    I'm gonna' guess 50 - 75 lbs.
    “Learning is not compulsory. Neither is survival.”
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    "Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils."
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  16. #16

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    For 8 months?
    Better hope living off the land provides quite a bit.
    If I had to think about it, I might go more for dehydrated plant materials like beans, rice, greens and roots as well as some of the more common staples, and trust to finding a few slow rabbits, squirrels and fish onsite, before carrying in 50 pounds of salami.

    Of course the OP has checked the game seasons for the Yukon and has all the proper permits and licenses, including a passport and visa if from the States, not to mention permission from whoever owns the land he'll be hiking into.
    If we are to have another contest in…our national existence I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's, but between patriotism & intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition & ignorance on the other…
    ~ President Ulysses S. Grant

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    Quality Control Director Ken's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by LowKey View Post
    For 8 months?

    Yep.


    "Weight Reduction: All fresh foods contain water, which is its main source of weight (fruits are more than 80 to 90% water). However, during drying about 98% of the moisture in the food substance is removed, which reduces the weight by as much as 90%, making it lighter to carry backpacking. Aside from freeze-drying’s (and dehydration *) use in backpacking and camping, the military also freeze-dries foods to make it easier for one person to carry large amounts." http://www.wildbackpacker.com/backpa...g-dehydration/


    "Interestingly, research shows that most humans eat around 3-5 pounds of food per day. Indeed, as we approach 4 pounds of food intake for the day, most of us are feeling pretty satisfied." http://www.precisionnutrition.com/what-are-your-4-lbs

    * http://voices.yahoo.com/30-tips-fact...44.html?cat=22


    So, 4 lbs./day x 240 days = 960 lbs.


    It's fair to assume that at least 1 lb./ per day (25% of weight) will be derived from foraging wild edibles, fish, and game.

    Subtract 240 lbs. from 960 lbs. and that brings us to 720 lbs.

    Remove 90% of that weight through dehydration and you arrive at a weight of 72 lbs.
    Last edited by Ken; 06-21-2013 at 11:24 AM.
    “Learning is not compulsory. Neither is survival.”
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    "Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils."
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    Quality Control Director Ken's Avatar
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    New Food Dehydrator Calculator - Calculate Dehydrated Food Weight

    http://www.food-dehydrator.com/calcu...alculator.aspx
    “Learning is not compulsory. Neither is survival.”
    W. Edwards Deming

    "Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils."
    General John Stark

  19. #19

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    Remember all the calories you are gonna be burning chasing around the walking protein and cutting wood to cook it. Among other things.
    If we are to have another contest in…our national existence I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's, but between patriotism & intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition & ignorance on the other…
    ~ President Ulysses S. Grant

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    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    Hence the room service. Right, WG?
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