Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Dehydrators!

[Mariner Chuck]

This week saw my dehydrator come out of the closet and food preparation for the summer's paddling trip begin! In addition to dehydrating Basmati rice (a tip I picked up from an earlier discussion on WCP), I've had apple sauce and chili con carne on the racks...but not at the same time. What have you been preparing? Any new recipes you're trying out this season?

 

[nootka]

All ingredients were dehydrated, except for the soon-to-be-added couscous.

From viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2589&sid=f3b0ebd2c1e3ae4b5b2a052b490d39c8#p38843

 

[Mariner Chuck]

Great picture--and great looking rehydrated veggies and ham--Nootka. I've not had much luck with rehydrating items that "chunky" to a texture I like. Does ~8 hours in your rehydrating thermos do the trick for you?

In recent years I've started making meals in a slow cooker, then manually shredding the meat while I puree the sauce and veggie chunks so that they dehydrate evenly. I use a wide-mouth thermos to rehydrate. During breakfast I'll throw my dinner in the "rehydrator" with some hot water. At dinner time the rehydrated meal goes into a pot for warming, then goes over cous-cous, pasta or rice.
This weekend curried chicken came out of the slow cooker, went on the dehydrator, and is now vacuum-packed with dehydrated Basmati rice (thanks for the tip, Daren) all ready for this summer's trip. Though it takes some preparation and planning time before heading out, food prep in the spring always whets my appetite for the upcoming season--and leaves me with delicious, home-cooked, easy to make (add water and heat!) meals in the field. Gotta love those dehydrators :big_thumb

 

[nootka]

Hi Chuck!
I choose meat that hydrates easily (ham, sockeye are good; chicken & pink salmon are slow); or I add jerky and expect it to be chewy. Vegies are in the wide mouth thermos re-hydrator 24 hrs (I boil extra water after cooking supper). There is no room left in the little thermos to add meat (say at lunch) because the vegies expand so; but it seems to re-hydrate well enough for me. If it's a concern, I add water to the meat an hour before supper; in the supper pot.

 

[nora]

I have never had much luck with chicken jerky in meals as it takes so long to rehydrate. It tastes good by itself but is quite chewy in a curry. Any tips?

 

[Mark_Schilling]

We just got back from a two-week trip around Nootka Island and area, living completely out of our kayaks save for fresh water and two ice-cream sandwiches bought on the first day in Esperanza. We had, i think, seven meals requiring dehydrated chicken, so I prepared (in two batches) a frying chicken, three large legs and two enormous chicken breasts in advance. I started by bbqing them in a covered roasting pan, then removing all the 'easy to get to' meat. Anything left (ie bones and skin) was then boiled, using the water for a soup stock and the rest of the meat for dehydrating. Thus, all of the dehydrated meat started out fully cooked and very very moist; it fell apart quite easily. I dehydrated each on the solid sheets in my American Harvest dehydrator.

When re-hydrated for an hour or so, the chicken was firm but palatable (we were not picky eaters after paddling long days on the exposed rugged coast of Nootka Island!). The last morning I used some in scrambled eggs (yes, we had an egg left on day 15 and it was excellent!), so it didn't get more than 5 minutes to rehydrate but was still good, if a little tough. If we were able to rehydrate our dinner chicken starting at lunch time (ie 4+ hours), it worked perfectly - not tough at all. I can't imagine a way to get better, 'softer' chicken before dehydrating so I'm not sure it would be possibly to rehydrate any better, but I was impressed and will certainly use this technique again.