Dehydrating Leftovers

[Whip]

I'm new to this dehydrated meals game but am hoping I can come up with some menu selections of my own instead of buying MH or other prepackaged meals. I've read some suggestions to simply dehydrate leftover meals, and that sounds great. But I've also read that meats, vegetables, etc dry at differing rates and that they are best dried separately and then the ingredients combined later.

So which is it? I've got some crock pot and casserole type recipes that we make at home frequently. The ingredients seem like they should work, but will they dehydrate OK when already combined and cooked?

I have collected some recipe ideas from other threads here and look forward to trying those, but it would be nice if I could toss some leftovers in the dehydrator to use as well.

Another question while I'm at it - does cooked ham dehydrate well?

 

[TJ]

I prefer casseroles, stews, etc over adding individual ingredients to make a meal. Casserole will dehydrate well.
I try to make sure the meat in the casserole is in fairly small pieces when I dehydrate.

I'd say dehydrate a few and test it out.

 

[AdamW]

I usually make "one pot" type meals and dehydrate it all together. It has worked fine for me overall.

 

[beachbunny]

i'm a stew. casserole person also, works fine

 

[Whip]

Thanks for the replies. I've been running the dehydrator for the past week trying all sorts of things. Just about have my menu complete. Should be some good eating.

 

[gudspelr]

I've been looking at doing this as well, but haven't pulled the trigger on a dehydrator yet. Whip, would you mind sharing what you have and how you like it? I also love crock pot casseroles and such-would be really nice to have something tasty like that up in the hills.

Jeremy

 

[archer wapiti]

I dehydrated some split pea and ham leftover soup. After about 16 hours, I pulled the ham out and chopped it up finer to finish.

 

[Whip]

Jeremy, I have an American Harvest 500 watt dehydrator. Not the fastest model I'm sure, but seems to do a nice enough job. I bought enough additional screens and fruit leather trays for each rack. I Most things I've done on the screens, but stuff like spaghetti sauce and salsa were on fruit trays.

 

[gudspelr]

Thanks, Whip. Nesco/American Harvest is a brand that's come up a number of times when I've been looking. There are just so many models of the different brands that it can get a little confusing. One of these days I'll have to just go for it. I just watched a guy making jerky last weekend and it made me really wish I could do the same .

Jeremy