Are DIY Dehydrated Meals Worth it?

[Brendan]

I used these and they work great, but not available right now:

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Some things that worked for me:

Ground up all my old shanks and freezer burned freezer fossils, used those

Made a chili in the crockpot, tossed in a cup or two of brown rice for the last hour to absorb all the water.

Adding some panko breadcrumbs to help with rehydrating.

After dehydrating, dumped everything in a metal mixing bowl and pounded up into small pieces. Helps with rehydrating. Helps keep bigger and sharp pieces from potentially piercing the bag. Never had that issue.

Single serve packets of olive oil. Pour one in with every meal.

I do remove all the fat because I don't have room to keep them in the freezer and don't want to have to think about keeping them cold. Had a couple spares that lasted 6 months and tasted fine.

Botulism won't grow with a low pH - high acid foods. Think tomatoes and tomato sauce, maybe with a little citric acid, lemon juice, or vinegar added to the mix.

 

[bbarranco]

I have been making dehydrated jambalaya for about a year. It takes the same amount of boiling water as a mountain house and taste better.

I can also make 4-5 large (bigger than mountain house) servings for about $7 so it is significantly cheaper.

any chance you would be willing to share your Jambalaya recipe? sounds pretty amazing I would like to give it a try.

 

[GunsAreFun]

any chance you would be willing to share your Jambalaya recipe? sounds pretty amazing I would like to give it a try.

It’s easy. Get two boxes of zatarans jambalaya, an onion, a can of rotel, and 1lb of andouille sausage. Fry the sausage and onions and then poor everything else in per the instructions on the box plus the rotel.

When it is done, enjoy a bowl. Then put some wax paper over your dehydrator shelves and lid it up making sure to break up the pieces of sausage. Once the liquid is mostly gone, I’ll start blotting the oil periodically. Store in vacuum sealed bags in the freezer.

Notes:
-You can get extended, non-frozen, shelf life by using ground Turkey because it has almost no fat. The taste is pretty close if you season the meat generously with a Cajun seasoning.
-I use ground andouille sausage which my local grocery store makes in house. If you can’t find ground, you can buy a quality cased sausage and deconstruct it.
-The recipe also works with cut up frozen shrimp.
-I actually think the meal taste better after being dehydrated. I’m not sure why but it just gets a bit more pop and spice.

 

[Bulldawg]

The one thing I have been trying to figure out is eggs. I've experimented a few times and they were disgusting lol. But I eat several eggs every morning and it is much preferred breakfast to oatmeal or the like. Anybody had good luck making a hearty breakfast?

 

[JoeDirt]

The one thing I have been trying to figure out is eggs. I've experimented a few times and they were disgusting lol. But I eat several eggs every morning and it is much preferred breakfast to oatmeal or the like. Anybody had good luck making a hearty breakfast?

Freeze dried eggs are hard to beat....

 

[Clarence]

The one thing I have been trying to figure out is eggs. I've experimented a few times and they were disgusting lol. But I eat several eggs every morning and it is much preferred breakfast to oatmeal or the like. Anybody had good luck making a hearty breakfast?

Like Joe dirt said. I like ovaeasy. Work in baking, pancakes and for scrambling, but I pack around a fry bake pan to spike camp. They are reasonable enough that I haven't messed with dehydrated eggs, though I hear it can be done.

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[*zap*]

If you coat eggs with mineral oil they will last for a while without refrigeration.

 

[Clarence]

If you coat eggs with mineral oil they will last for a while without refrigeration.

Raw eggs in the shell?

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[*zap*]

Raw eggs in the shell?

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Yes, coat the shell of a raw egg with mineral oil and it will last without refrigeration for a while. Farm eggs that have not been washed will last quite a while without coating them.
Walmart sells a great egg carrier:

 

[TTSX180]

FBC (Freezer Bag Cooking) I Trail Cooking

FBC (Freezer Bag Cooking) is the simplest way to eat on the trail while backpacking.

trailcooking.com

 

[Eltigreblanco]

I'm trying my hands at diy dehydrated meals this weekend. I'll report back

 

[Clarence]

FBC (Freezer Bag Cooking) I Trail Cooking

FBC (Freezer Bag Cooking) is the simplest way to eat on the trail while backpacking.

trailcooking.com

I frequently use this site as well for recipes and ideas. Stumbled across it from Hill People gear website. Tons of ideas there.

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[GKWMontana]

What kind of cozy do you use? Where do you purchase them?

 

[Photodog]

Most of the meals I make end up a little soupy or stew like but you can ad dehydrated pasta sauce to mix up the flavours a bit. I’ve found it does take more water and more fuel but I feel so much better after a meal than I do after mountain house.

For ground beef or other red meats, mix in some bread crumbs (the pulverized kind in shaker cans) and work that into the meat like you would making a meat loaf. Then brown it in the skillet without added oil. The bread crumbs keep the meat from clumping so much, mixes better and speed up the re-hydrating process.

 

[Pilsner]

The one thing I have been trying to figure out is eggs. I've experimented a few times and they were disgusting lol. But I eat several eggs every morning and it is much preferred breakfast to oatmeal or the like. Anybody had good luck making a hearty breakfast?

Eggs do NOT dehydrate safely.
For shelf stable eggs you have to freeze dry.

 

[Pilsner]

As for using more fuel to cook it: take 2 cups of boiling water and pour into a ziplock freezer bag with the DHed food.
Toss bag into a mylar bubble wrap coozy.
Wait 15 mins.
Eat.

I made a couple of coozies out of a $5 windshield sunshade I got at walmart.
Been using it for a couple seasons now including a big thru hike.
Works well and requires zero extra fuel.

 

[Pilsner]

What kind of cozy do you use? Where do you purchase them?

Make your own out of a mylar bubble sunshade. Enough to make 2 or 3 of em out of 1 sunshade. Not bad for $5.
YT has dozens of DIY vids.

 

[GKWMontana]

Thanks!

 

[Photodog]

What kind of cozy do you use? Where do you purchase them?

These are nice commercial cozies:

Insulite™ insulated food pouch freezer bag cooking cozy

- Insulated, reflective material to retain temperature- Durable non-woven fabric- Made with recycled and upcycled materials.-- Premium PrimaLoft insulation: made with 70% post-consumer recycled content (PCR). Every meter we use saves 2.5 plastic bottles from the landfill Click here: to learn...

bigskyinternational.com

 

[SteveinMN]

One big time saver I've found is for whatever veggies you need just buy frozen. I put them straight from the frozen bag into the dehydrator, no cooking or thawing required. I buy pea/carrot mix for shepherd's pie along with some frozen diced onions. It's shocking how small you can make a 16oz bag of broccoli by dehydrating it, toss that in mac n' cheese and you're good to go.