dehydrating foods

[brianW]

After reading "food sugestions for 7 day hike" thread I was wondering (since i never did it) how you can dehydrate food at home. I know you can buy a food dehydrater at Wal Mart, but can you do it in a regular stove? and if so how? thanks

 

[stoopid]

We had an extensive (and ongoing) discussion of this at adkforum recently... waaay too much info to re-post here.

I use a "walmart special" dehydrator (only one they sold at my local supercenter), others get success with an oven on a low setting and the door cracked open.

 

[jbrown]

I do the oven method. For stews or pasta-like stuff, I spread the food in a thin layer on plastic wrap on a cookie sheet, set the oven on "warm" and leave a pot-holder in the door to hold it open a crack. I've gotten great results from everything I've tried so far. Tonight: Kiwi! (Next time I'm going to try using just the non-stick cookie sheet as the plastic wrap tends to melt just the slightest bit around the edges and stick to the cookie sheet.)

For more info check out:Dehydrated Meals on Backpacker.com .
Good luck!

Josh

 

[Sara]

My dad used to dehydrate using the oven method. He would make racks of spicey venison jerky and then store it in the closet in a brown paper bag. ADackR and I have a great dehydrater from Cabella's. We have had great luck making jerky, chili, seasoned ground beef, beef stroganof, strawberry roll-ups, and tomato roll-ups which later became spaghetti sauce. This week we dydrated my favorite: mangos! Happy Dehydrating!

 

[LittleBear]

I just got a dehydrator about 1 month before our Canyon trip. I had fun using it. I made fruit leathers - they were incredibly easy - about 10 minutes to prepare the fruit and puree it, then pour it onto the trays and start the dehydrator. It takes about 4 to 6 hours to fully dehydrate, but you really don't have to babysit the machine until near the end.

It's been fun trying new stuff and dehydrating it. There was only one item that didn't come out well, and that was mushrooms. I don't think I let them dry long enough. I took them on our trip, but didn't use them because they seemed slimy. I'll have to try that one again later.

 

[Rick]

I've been using an American Harvester SnackMaster for about 14 years, which has well paid for the investment several times over. However, I was thinking about replacing my trays (3rd time) and I noticed Sams was selling a snackmaster for only $25 last summer. It came with a full rack of trays, so it was a great bargain, costing only a couple of dollars more than a new set of trays and I get a new dehydrator to boot.

If you go get a dehydrator, I wpould highly recommend a forced air model - They offer much faster drying times.

Prior to the Snackmaster I used the oven method for jerky. I'd set it on low and keep the door open a crack. I did find you needed to watch your food more carefully than with the dehydrator and you also had to turn the meat more frequently when laid out on wax paper.

Normally, I run mine in the garage in the summer and in the kitchen in the winter. In late summer it is going almost every weekend dehydrating vegetables from the garden, the market and local produce stands.

The only thing I wish they came with was a timer, so I could turn it on and set it for 8-12 hours Like Ron Popeil says "Set-it-and-forget-it".

 

[percious]

I borrowed one of those expensive dealies from a friend at work. They work awesome. The one thing that I recommend, if you are going to dehydrate cooked meat, then do it in very small slivers, because otherwise it takes forever to re-hydrate it when you want to eat. Meals like Fajitas and Tie food are suddenly much more carry-able. We got our food weight down to 1.3lb per person per day last time. Usually we are around 2.5.

 

[Artex]

Food dehydrators are cheap. You can get an American Harvest for ~$40. Much more energy efficient than leaving your stove open a crack, and you won't have to worry about mopping up your own sweat off the floor.

 

[insight]

Melikes this thread.

 

[Danielle]

We got a dehydrator for Christmas, and have used it a bit dehydrating some fruit and veggies. The bananas and strawberries came out great! The peppers came out well too. We also experimented with drying some of my veggie chili. Ryan liked how it turned out, I didn't. We'll have to try it again.
Although the dehydrating process takes a while, I've learned to cut everything into thin pieces for quicker drying, and then I've just been plugging the machine in and leaving it on overnight. Then when I get up in the morning, things are done. Perfect.
It definitely seems to be worth the money spent (in our case none, which is even better ), and I know we'll be using it more this summer as we get out on more trips!
-Danielle

 

[Oldsmores]

As people have noted, the oven will work fine. BUT... in the interest of energy conversation, I'd encourage you to buy a dehydrator. They're relatively cheap, and a lot more efficient.