[strider]

Quark, I also had a bad experience with rocks disguised as dried chicken chunks. Not fun, especially when others are hungry and YOU are the one who owes today's dinner after a long day on trail. It's all about surface area. I had zero luck rehydrating home-dried meat until I began using ground meats. Beef, turkey, chicken, pork, it all works just fine if you start with ground meat. Cook it up at home, then dehydrate. It turns into what I call "rubble". 2 pounds of lean fresh meat turns into about 10 0z. of rubble, and will return to almost 2 lbs of cooked meat after it rehydrates. When you are ready to rehydrate, theres a LOT of surface area to re-absorb the water. Drop some water into the ziplock bag an hour or so before you want to prep the meal. Double zip it if you're still on trail, just in case of 'leakage'. The meat will look just like it did when you took it from the frypan. Use the leftover water in the recipe because there's flavor therein, rinse the zippie and use that water too, then use the zippie again for the next rehydration. Prepared this way, meat keeps very well and "fresh" meat six or seven days in is a magical thing. If you want the meat for a particular meal (taco's for example), cook it with the taco flavoring and it will be pre-seasoned at camp. Another 'flavor' option is teriyaki - teriyaki beef burger over instant rice, anyone? Pass the soy sauce packet, please.... I prefer unseasoned rubble myself, it's more flexible. Just reach into the bag of rubble and grab, one big handful per person per meal is the rule of thumb I use, and no one goes away hungry. I have a big zippie of beef and another of turkey on board for almost every hike. Toss some into a pot of boiling ware then add the raman package is the most basic use, but there's lots of better options. The only meat I was unsuccessful with was pork sausage. It de- and re- hydrated just fine, and kept very well, but it left a bitter aftertaste. I don't know why for sure, I suspect it had something to do with the grease / fat combo in the sausage. With a bag of beef rubble and a bag of turkey rubble to work with, the hamburger and turkeyburger helper aisle at Safeway becomes a Very interesting place to shop for BPing meals. A favorite is rehydrated hamburger, sausage flavor gravy mix, and english muffins. Yes, that's right, trail biscuits & gravy. After a few days of oatmeal or breakfast bars, this is heaven on trail. It's always the 'last mornings' breakfast' for us..... Try some rubble recipes at home. You'll be converted. strider

[Riverside Laker]

Don't toss out the rubber chicken. Put it on your steps so folks know it's your house. Sheesh.

[Quark]

Thanks for the ideas, strider, jenjen. I love biscuits and gravy!!!!! Marylou made some beef rubble last year, and gave me some to try; it had mexican flavors in it. It sure was good, so I made more for this year. Only we didn't call it "rubble." I like that name, so rubble it is, from now on! !IAgree! I need to replace my rubber chicken; the other one melted in the sun last summer. I kept it for a long time, but it looked so bad, I figured all the gifts and money I should be getting in the mail aren't being delivered because the mailman's afraid to come up the steps. So I tossed the melted chicken out.

[pianodirt]

I have made a few home dehydrated meals using canned chicken. The canned chicken I have been using (the 12.5oz can from TJ's) is like most, small pieces cut against the grain. I try to "fluff up" the pieces somewhat while spreading it out on the drying tray to give more surface area. a BIG KEY to good rehydration is a cozy. I personally love Reflectix, the aluminized bubble wrap. I pour the boiling water into my bag of food, zip it up and put the whole thing in the the Reflectix cozy and clamp it shut with a small binder clip. I'll have to take some pics sometime soon to show off my lovely invention of my cozy design. I have noticed that most of my meals rehydrate beautifully in 10 minutes or less in the cozy. Meals involving dried chicken are best to sit in the cozy for 15 or 20 minutes. Don't worry, unless it's -10F, it's still going to be plenty hot. In fact, I just ate a chicken curry meal (from the Lipsmackin' Backpackin' recipe book) this last weekend and could not tell the chicken had been dried. The chicken that comes in cans is packed in water, it has been "marinating" (becoming more tender and the fibers of the meat looser) for probably weeks or months in the can. Chicken you cook yourself might need some help in the tenderizing aspect...a meat tenderizing hammer (do it before cooking the chicken) works wonders, just don't do it at 1:30am! The chicken you cooked...how did you cook it? In a frying pan with little liquid or in a covered oven pot with lots of liquid? Chicken cooked for hours, such as in a crock pot or in the oven in lots of liquid is going to be very tender and more likely to rehydrate well. Another option, although possibly more expensive, is to use drained canned chicken and simply mix in the spices you were going to use cooking fresh chicken, then dehydrate that. Further on the topic of rehydrating, I have had experiments with rehydrating some things fail I think because I was "experimenting"...meaning I was using not a real-life sized sample, but a small portion, not enough hot water and not enough insulation to keep the heat from escaping. Many things will rehydrate even in cold water, but could take hours or days to reach the level of hydration that really hot water can do in 15 or 20 minutes. I once successfully rehydrated tasty Emerald Valley salsa and have not been able to repeat the experience since. I'm not sure what I did differently. good luck

[Allison]

I had dried/reconstituted chicken sausage bikkies and gravy for breakfast just yesterday.

[Damian]

[polarbear]

[Allison]

More on protein sources: I was at the Greenwood Market today and saw shrimp packaged the same way they do the tuna, salmon, and chicken in the foil pouches. I also saw larger cheaper packages of both regular and Albacore tuna made by Western Family.

[Jeff R]

[Allison]

That foil vacuum packed smoked salmon you get at places like Port chatham is quite good as well. Sometimes they have sales over at their shop in Ballard where if you buy enough of them, they get way cheap. Or go hiking with Greg, and he'll bring the best danged smoked salmon you ever did eat.

[lookout bob]

I am forced to digress off your subject and interject a story....when in Israel, someone sent my roommate a fruitcake. It got held up in the mail for 4 months and when it arrived, we couldn't cut it with any knife. we wound up using it as a door stop....even the ants wouldn't touch it..... perhaps you could find a similar use for your ( now ) undehydrated chicken......

[jenjen]

Thanks for the head's up on the foil packed shrimp. I've looked at that on the shelf, but not read the label closely. All of the flavored tuna varieties I've tried have been fantastic.

[sarbar]

The Chicken Of The Sea smoked salmon (wild Pacific) in pouches is very tatsy..on sale this week at Fred Meyers for about $3. Very tasty!

[Mike E.]

What the heck are you all messing around with real meat for ? Just get yourself a bag of that fake soy based chicken chunks and use them. They're light, they rehydrate easily and best of all they taste just like a REAL rubber chicken ! If you cook them long enough, mix them in with something spicy and mushed up AND you're really tired, they take on some of the characteristics of real chicken, (well maybe the texture). Another benefit is that you won't starve to death in the wilderness. Great huh ?

[Allison]