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Oven Dehydrating
I've read a few posts talking about dehydrating ground beef.
I don't own a dehydrator atm, so I do everything in the oven.
I've never tried ground beef, and wanted to get your thoughts on this before I tried it and possibly wasted it if it's not going to work. I am going to be making some jerkey this weekend, so I was thinking I could brown off a lb. of ground and try it out at the same time.
First, do you think it will work ok in the oven?
Will a cookie sheet work to dry it on, if so?
Also, the whole reason for this is to be able to provide TDW taco's while in the backcountry :rolleyes: so I'm also looking at trying to dehydrate minced onion, minced garlic, and a few minced chipotles to avoid having to do that chore in the field. (Yes, I make my tacos from scratch.)
I'm not sure how this is going to work out in the oven, so....
Thoughts?
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Alpine - You bet it will. I did quite a bit of hamburger in the oven when my youngest did the AT. He used it for spaghetti but tacos should work just fine.
Brown in frying pan or cook in microwave till all redness is gone. Drain off all fat. (Add 1/2 cup water to cooked meat, bring to a boil, and drain off all fluids. That will reduce the fat to as little as possible. Depending on the cut of hamburger you use you may want to boil a couple of times. For leaner hamburger, once should be fine.
Or...you can drain the cooked hamburger in a colander and run it under very hot water to remove the grease. Then spread out on paper towels, cover with paper towels and press down on it with a rolling pin to squeeze out any remaining fat.
It's the fat that goes bad in the meat. So the less you have the better.
Spread the crumbled, cooked ground meat on a tray or cookie sheet. Dry in the oven under 150F for up to eight hours or overnight turning meat occasionally to ensure even drying. The stuff looks and feels like large pieces of ground coffee or just a little bigger.
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Couple of suggestions, you may want to start out at 165 degrees to rid any bacteria for one hour then turn down to below 150 degrees to complete the drying. I also add spices to the ground burger before drying, (whatever flavor you want) so you dont have to do it later. Spice it up just after washing with water and before drying.
Hope this helps.
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I agree with the spices for sure. Better added before drying. I would think frying the ground meat would take care of the bacteria but it's not a cumbersome step to just turn up the temp so it sure wouldn't hurt.
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I was thinking more of the transfers Rick. Frying pan to pot to stainer to paper towel to rolling pin to trays ect. All being done in the open air.
165 degree insurance.
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