DIY dehydrated meals

[tdcour]

Hey guys, I'd rather learn from other folks' successes and failures that experiment totally on my own. I bought a dehydrator and vacuum sealer to start making my own backpacking meals for scouting/hunting. Mountain House didn't sit too well with me, but I know my wife's cooking does!

What are some things to avoid trying to dehydrate and why? I hear corn is a no go (I usually have that in my stew). Any other veggies that don't dehydrate or rehydrate well? I hear you are supposed to typically use lean meat, which isn't a problem with my deer meat, but what about pork sausage or something like that? I see a lot of meals with rice, mashed potatoes, or some other filler, but not many with noodles. Do they not rehydrate well? Anyway, would love to hear of some things to experiment with.

Recipes would be awesome as well as how much water you typically add!

Last thing, how do you rehydrate... or what do you rehydrate in? I typically boil my water and pour into a mountain house pouch, but I won't have the insulated pouches anymore. Can I just use the vacuum sealer bags or how does everyone rehydrate?

 

[ivorytip]

will be following this

 

[Tim McCoy]

There are vacuum bags that are made to be microwave and boiling safe. So if we can trust their claims, and I suspect we can, subject to the test criteria, that part is doable. Not all bags are so rated. As to the rest, no idea, but I seem to recall an older thread about the diy dehydrated meal topic.

 

[Work2hunt]

I can't help either, but aren't the Mountain House type meals freeze dried and not dehydrated?

 

[Slugz]

https://backpackers.com/how-to-prepare-homemade-backpacking-meals/

I've stopped making them but this was the link I had saved when we did. Biggest lesson learned was experiment at home and develope 5 go to meals then perfect those ones.

 

[87TT]

You can dehydrate just about anything. We used to dehydrate anything and put it in freezer bags and then just add boiling water to it and let it sit. I guess it is now bad to use plastic bags and most bottles to make food in. Just use a pot and insulate it to keep it warm. My fave was spaghetti. Avoid anything greasy as it will go bad. If you cook pasta first then dehydrate it it will cook very fast. I've even dehydrated frozen veggies. Great for adding to soups. Like was said before, try everything at home first. A good way to try things si to dehydrate leftovers of things you eat at home. Get parchment paper and cut tray liners for the wet stuff like spaghetti sauce. I even has dehydrated ketchup. It comes out like ketchup brittle that I grind up in a cheap coffee grinder to make powder that can be re-hydrated.

 

[hoshour]

Try this site http://www.backpackingchef.com/dehydrating-food.html

 

[tdcour]

Most of the sites I'm seeing say they add the meal to a pot, let it simmer for a while, then eat it. I'm looking for more of the Mountain House style where you boil the water, dump it in, and let it rehydrate. Can you do that instead of simmer? I don't want to take a bunch of fuel with me.

 

[tdcour]

I can't help either, but aren't the Mountain House type meals freeze dried and not dehydrated?

I think you are right. I think heathers choice is the only "commercial" backpacking food that is dehydrated if I remember right.

 

[tdcour]

Anyone ever dehydrate restaurant food? Thinking about trying to dehydrate some stir fry or something like that rather than trying to mix something up myself. Wondering how good the stuff dehydrates, rehydrates, and how long it will keep after getting vacuum sealed.

 

[cflong]

I am not sure how well dehydrating will work with most foods but a friend's mom recently purchased a freeze dryer. She has done a wide variety and I have sampled many and it is amazing what it will do. They are very expensive but if this type of preserved foods were something that a person was going to rely on it might be worth looking at.