Atticka wrote:
For longer trips you may want to consider washing your ground beef before dehydrating (to remove fat).
I've often seen that recommendation, and it makes sense for long term storage. I haven't done that, but I have made a press out of two cookie sheets and lots of paper towels. I squeeze as much fat out as I can with lots of weight.
Some time ago I found a recipe for ground beef that includes adding finely chopped onions and seasonings and herbs while cooking the leanest ground beef you can find. The secret ingredient in addition is a couple tablespoons of flour mixed in as it is cooking. It was called ground beef master mix, and is very flavorful for whatever you want to do with it. I don't make ground beef plain any more. I don't want to wash my ground beef and loose all that flavor. But has been said, if you keep it frozen until ready to head out on a trip it should keep indefinitely, and certainly will last into weeks on any reasonable length trip. I'm rarely gone long enough for any rancidity to take over.
While we are talking about spaghetti sauce... consider adding refried beans to it before dehydrating. Dehydrate either by itself, or dehydrate mixed with cooked pasta. It is amazing stuff. Lots of needed calories, and it tastes really good and rich. I also add pureed cooked veggies, olives and mushrooms to the sauce from another recipe I found. Experiment on your own and you almost can't ever go wrong with what tastes good in the woods.