View topic - Dehydrated Chilli/Pasta Sauce - Shelf Life in the Field?

Dehydrating tip...
Any chicken or beef associated with a larger meal should be shredded into strands after it is cooked, but before going into the dehydrator. Chunks don't rehydrate very well, and if you plan to cook 1 pot meals on your trip, shredded meats will reconstitute in a simmering pot in about the time it takes for rice & other ingredients to cook. I actually cook & dehydrate a big batch of chicken in the winter months, and then just add it to portions of various meals as I cook & dehydrate them.

Some dehydrated meal ideas...veggie tacos, spaghetti sauce, chicken cacciatore, beef & guinness stew, veggie chilli, curry dishes (if not oily). I even dehydrate cans of tuna for use in tuna casserole - light weight + no can to deal with.

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www.mikemonaghan.ca

or.... you can cook ground chicken and dry that. Rehydrates quickly. Shredded beef , a roast of beef cooked slowly for several hours, then shredded with a fork and dried is very tasty. A bit fragile to portage though so it needs to be stored in a hard sided container.

For longer trips you may want to consider washing your ground beef before dehydrating (to remove fat).

For example, I'll cook ground beef and give it a rinse with hot water before placing into the dehydrator. Doing so will remove additional fat and increase your potential shelf life.

Dehydrated pasta sauce + dehydrated ground beef + dry spaghetti = a super filling meal with very little pack weight.

I'll do the same for chili (wash the cooked ground beef before adding to the chili) if I plan on keeping in storage for a period of time.

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.

A wire strainer works well for rinsing off the cooked ground beef.

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Lasagna...excellent suggestion - will be the next meal I experiment with.

Given the principle is removing moisture uniformly from the food items, what size pieces should the lasagna be cut into for best results?

And what about cheese in the lasagna?

nessmuk, thank you for your tip on adding applesauce to my fruit leather mixture - I've made several successful batches.