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Woopsadaisy
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Woopsadaisy
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PostThu Jul 03, 2014 12:10 pm 
Hi all, I am new to the group here and also new to dehydrating. I don't even own a dehydrator, but my girlfriend lent me hers. It's HUGE. It's square, an Excalibur machine. I don't like running it unless I can fill all 5 trays. Makes sense, right? But that means that everything I run has to be at the same temp. Because it's been hot, I like to run it at night. So I kinda have been doing a "set it, and forget it" and going to bed, waking up in the morning to see what awaits. So some things are drying nicely while others.... Anyway, I am super excited about all of the great foods I am making for our big trip next month! Just wanted to say how much I like this site and this forum here! Keep up the good work, everyone! Woops

All good things are wild and free. -Thoreau
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ranger rock
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ranger rock
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PostFri Jul 04, 2014 7:56 am 
Woopsadaisy wrote:
Hi all, I am new to the group here and also new to dehydrating. I don't even own a dehydrator, but my girlfriend lent me hers. It's HUGE. It's square, an Excalibur machine. I don't like running it unless I can fill all 5 trays. Makes sense, right? But that means that everything I run has to be at the same temp. Because it's been hot, I like to run it at night. So I kinda have been doing a "set it, and forget it" and going to bed, waking up in the morning to see what awaits. So some things are drying nicely while others.... Anyway, I am super excited about all of the great foods I am making for our big trip next month! Just wanted to say how much I like this site and this forum here! Keep up the good work, everyone! Woops
Welcome to the site. I don't worry much about temperature unless I am dehydrating meat, then it has to be as high as my dehydrator will go. Sometimes when doing fruit leathers I will start them on a lower heat until they have dried a bit and then I turn the heat up. If fruit leathers are started on a high heat they are prone to cracking. Fatty foods are not very good for dehydrating, other than that go for it! I dehydrate all my backpacking foods. I've had one pre-packed backpacking meal, one, that's it. It tasted bad and was expensive and probably had MSG in it. Right now I've got sweet potato soup and lentil soup in my dehydrator. I made the lentil soup. I got the sweet potato soup on sale 2 for a dollar. I had some on my last backpacking trip and found that it rehydrated nicely. My grandparents had a dehydrator and they made the most wonderful fruit leathers with it. They had the old square metal one. My first dehydrator was a round plastic American Harvest that my other grandma bought me when I was about 20. It has worn out and I've gone through a couple of thrift store dehydrators since. On my last birthday my spouse got me a really nice big round plastic American Harvest dehydrator. It has really large trays and it came with all the sheets. I can adjust the temperature and it has an on / off switch. I think it has 8 trays.

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Woopsadaisy
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PostTue Jul 08, 2014 7:03 pm 
I am learning about the fatty foods not dehydrating well! Gosh, I can't even remember what I used to eat.... A lot of granola and dehydrated milk, fruit leather, mixed nuts, jerky, emergenC drinks, and instant soups like Thai soups, and instant ride and mashed potatoes with cheese and jerky thrown in.... Sometimes I would marinade chicken and put it in the freezer and bring it frozen, eat it the first night... I might still do that, actually. I never did get into buying backpacking meals....why pay? Natures cheap! But now, I don't think could eat that blandly again. Or that badly, I should say. Our tuna casserole last weekend was so awesome! And a real meal! What a novel idea! And we had pudding with banana and Annie's chocolate bunny Graham's.... Yumm! There goes my weight loss plan. O well. Happy to fat, I guess! Woops!

All good things are wild and free. -Thoreau
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outdoorgrrl
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PostTue Apr 21, 2015 10:47 am 
Yay! I love it when backpackers dehydrate their own meals. Nothing, I mean, NOTHING tastes as good as your own home cooked food on the trail. I am publishing a DIY Guide to Instant Backpacking Meals later this summer. If you want some more inspiration or recipes, I'd like to invite you to sign up to get notified when it's ready. The link to the sign up page is in my signature. Cheers, Carry

Are you tired of eating mediocre, freeze-dried backpacking meals? Learn to create inexpensive, tasty meals for backpacking and climbing with the DIY Guide to Instant Backpacking Meals.
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sarbar
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sarbar
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PostWed Apr 22, 2015 2:28 pm 
Well, you do want to dry meat higher - at 165* at least. Grains, fruit and veggies you can do much lower - 120* to 155*. As for doing all at once - if anything is strongly scented, do it separately ;-)

https://trailcooking.com/ Eat well on the trail.
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Navy salad
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PostThu Apr 23, 2015 12:10 pm 
Another few dehydrating tips: -- Oily/fatty foods: If you have enough other stuff mixed in (like grains, pasta, flour), then these will absorb much of the oil and you can get away dehydrating "somewhat" fatty foods. Just keep in mind that the fattiness of it will make them more perishable. I store such items in the freezer until I'm ready to use them. Alternatively, you can omit the oil, but bring some oil with you and stir it in when you're making dinner. -- When dehyrating things like soups, it helps to exaggerate the spicing a bit. I tried dehydrating this delicious spicy Thai soup once, but when I rehydrated it, I found that much of the flavor had gone away, so I've since started adding maybe 50% more spice than the recipe calls for. -- When cooking food to be dehydrated, sometimes it helps to undercook it some, since the combination of the heat from the dehydrator and the heat applied when you reconstitute it will have the effect of cooking. -- I like to bring pesto in a small container to add to almost ANYTHING (especially soups/stews)! Really helps bring out the flavors. -- Unlike most other cheeses, you can actually dehydrate feta! Makes a great addition to many foods.

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Ski
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PostThu Apr 23, 2015 12:57 pm 
good tips there, but: on the "spicy" part - that does NOT apply to the salt! wink.gif

"I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each."
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sarbar
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sarbar
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PostThu Apr 23, 2015 1:02 pm 
Oh lord on the salt. Yes. Especially if one is drying canned processed foods...a salt lick in every dish!

https://trailcooking.com/ Eat well on the trail.
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Navy salad
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Navy salad
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PostThu Apr 23, 2015 3:37 pm 
Ski wrote:
on the "spicy" part - that does NOT apply to the salt! wink.gif
Totally agree. I wasn't really thinking of salt as a spice.

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Bernardo
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Bernardo
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PostThu Apr 23, 2015 8:04 pm 
outdoorgrrl wrote:
I am publishing a DIY Guide to Instant Backpacking Meals later this summer.
I'd like to hear about this when it is published.

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EJ
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EJ
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PostSat Apr 25, 2015 7:39 pm 
Tuna casserole sounds good - do you have a good recipe to share? I'm doing a 10-day, 100-mile trip this summer, so I need to get going on prepping the food!

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sarbar
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sarbar
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PostSat Apr 25, 2015 8:23 pm 
EJ, it might not be tuna casserole, but I can tell you it is delicious! http://www.trailcooking.com/one-pot-meals/spicy-tuna-linguine/ You can use precooked and dehydrated pasta to cut down on cooking time (you simply soak the noodles in hot water for 10 minutes, drain and proceed).

https://trailcooking.com/ Eat well on the trail.
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EJ
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PostSun Apr 26, 2015 2:13 pm 
That sounds great, sarbar!

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pimaCanyon
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PostThu May 14, 2015 7:10 am 
Navy salad wrote:
-- When dehyrating things like soups, it helps to exaggerate the spicing a bit. I tried dehydrating this delicious spicy Thai soup once, but when I rehydrated it, I found that much of the flavor had gone away, so I've since started adding maybe 50% more spice than the recipe calls for.
good point! Because much of the flavor of spices is due to their smell and because odors are volatile, they tend to vaporize during the dehydration process. Depending on the spices that are in the original recipe and how complicated it would be to pack them in separately, another option would be to omit the spice when making the food at home and dehydrating it, and then adding the spice mixture when rehydrating/cooking the food in camp. Or you could do some of each: make the recipe at home according to directions, but take extra spice to add at camp.

It's never too late to have a happy childhood
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