View topic - Dehydrating Chili...

Anyone have experience making chili and then dehydrating it?

I'm going to give this a try tonight and see how it works out.

It works quite well: just put the boiled chili in a colander to cool down. Most of the liquid drains and collects below, and thus can be saved in the fridge for a lunch. (The drained chili dries quicker in the dehydrator.) I use the regular trays of mesh type, just the lowest one of the stack gets a solid insert to prevent drippings from messing up the unit.

At the camp site, the stuff rehydrates quite quickly: I add lake water to the chili and once it boils, it's pretty much ready. Just sample it before serving.

I make vegetarian chili and thus am not worried about spoilage - I keep most of a batch in the freezer and it's gotten up to 2years old in there without any consequences.

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I generally dehydrate the ingredients (burger, red beans, tomatoe paste etc.) separately then combine them, but I suppose there is no real reason you could not do it this way, as long as you are fairly careful to get most of the fat out of the burger. Also do not overcook the beans too much before drying or they will explode.

Kinguq.

I dehydrate the whole thing - liquid / sauce along with the solid ingredients on a fruit roll up tray.

I supose it takes longer to dehydrate, but..........well, I don't know why I do it this way. Maybe I'll try it your way and see which is more flavourful.

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Pack it in. Pack it out

I got those fruit rollup trays as well....I'm going to try it on those first to preserve the sauce.

This is the chili recipe I use:
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/award-win ... etail.aspx

Except this time I'm making it without the bacon to reduce fat content/chance of spoilage.

On the stove simmering as I write this, smells soo good!

Atticka, make a double batch of your favourite whatever, have supper and dehydrated the rest. Use the leanest products possible.

I would use parchment paper instead of fruit leather trays for easier cleaning.

Don't worry about a little fat (way too much is bad of course) as long as you're going to use it within the season and store in the freezer until needed.

Taste will slightly decrease the longer you store it. We found more than 6 months too long.

We just finished a trip that had baked spaghetti, baked lasagna, pork fried rice (with eggs!), and finished with a Kraft dinner, hamburger, and mushroom soup cassarole. All these were dehydrated in our dryer. We rehydrate with boiling water and store in a pot cozy for 45-90 minutes depending on activity.

At home dish out a large serving per person and bag in a good quality freezer ziplock bag. In camp, add the hot water, throw in cozy, set up camp or anything else, come back in while and eat a home cooked meal right out of the baggie. Lick your one dish to clean up and go back to enjoying the great outdoors!

Using this system we've saved an incredible amount of time and space by not dealing with dishes or the stove time.

This is just what works for us on certain trips.

Ted's lazy version of dehydrated chili.
Buy four cans of good quality chili.
Open and dump on four "fruit leather" trays.
Dehydrate until the beans break when flattened.
(But don't test on more than a couple as you want the beans whole.)

Package in four little plastic pouches along with 1/2 cup of couscous.

cheers Ted

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Chili came out really well! Crisp to the point where you can break it up for easier packaging.

Its a new era of camp cuisine for me, love it.

Glad to hear it. We had some fantastic chili a couple weeks ago that was just plain dehydrated chili.

I cook the meat (ground beef) first and then drain and rinse that with very hot water to get as much fat out as possible. Then it goes back in the pot & I continue making my chili as per usual. I slice the veggies a little more thinly than usual. I try to make an extra big batch for supper, then the leftovers go on the dehydrator.

Cous cous or instant rice would be good additions to thicken it up in case it turns out a little watery.

Cheers,
Bryan

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I did the same to my ground beef.

browned the beef as usual.
Rinsed well with boiling water to pull out as much fat as possible.

I really couldn't tell any difference in flavor (rinsed or not).

Also making fruit leather (peaches and honey!), problem is it never last long enough to make it on a trip!

A really good addition to chili are dumplings- just use any bannock or biscuit mix, make the dough (almost a batter really) very soft, and simmer in a tightly closed pot for 5 minutes. Even better if you add corn meal to the dumpling mix.

Kinguq.

For trips less than a couple of weeks I simply pour the fat/water out of the frying pan when I'm cooking it. Never had a problem with it gong rancid. Has anyone ever had their meat go bad?

Well, fat tastes good when I've been putting out lots of energy and it has lots of calories. If I have rinsed-out all the fat I add oil when I cook it out on a trip.