View topic - Hashbrowns

now dehydrated in the middle aisle of the supermarket. I never noticed them before

http://www.amazon.com/Hungry-Jack-Premi ... B004UEG1XM

but one pack was 99 cents..not three or four bucks.


Has anyone ever used these?

Maybe I better buy more before they disappear from the market. Stuff that is usable for camping and that I like usually does.

Dehydrate your own. For about $2.50 I buy frozen boxes of 20 hash brown 'bricks" (like you get at McDonalds, but a bit larger) at Aldi's. Break into pieces or leave whole, and dehydrate. I find it easier just to break them up partially before, then completely after dehydrating. Rehydrate with hot water in just 5 minutes. Top with McCormick Country gravy mix:
http://www.mccormick.com/Products/Seaso ... y-Mix.aspx

Add some rehydrated ground beef or packaged real bacon bits. Yummm.

I will ignore the gravy part. I will look for the bricks but what is an Aldi?

The chief concern I have with the already dehydrated potatos is that I would like onion and I might be able to do that with the frozen brick; add onion that is.

I intend to use the taters at breakfast.

Ever been in the military and had SOS for breakfast? This is better (with the gravy). Add onion too if you like, either dehydrated or freshly made.

Aldi's is a warehouse type market. You can find the hash brown bricks elsewhere, usually in smaller packages (Walmart?), but Aldi's has the best deal.
http://aldi.us/index_ENU_HTML.htm

Kim, we used to use hashbrowns like that in a restaurant I worked in in the early 70's. They took no time at all to rehydrate. They were not too bad. If you were to put some onions with them and fry them to a golden brown, they would be very tasty. Maybe some rehydrated salsa on top.

_________________
-Jim-

"Paddle faster, I hear banjos!"

Re Hungry-Jack-Premium-Hashbrowns, they been available for a bit.

I've been drying store bought frozen hashbrowns for years with great success.

_________________
Brian
http://www.JohnstonPursuits.ca

 

I found a recipe for dehydrating hash browns that calls for grating the raw potatoes then blanching them before dehydrating,works good tastes good but pointy little ends poke through the vacuum bags lol

Blanching is a great idea, as this would precook the potatoes, and they would just need to be heated (browned) before eating.

_________________
-Jim-

"Paddle faster, I hear banjos!"

Dehydrated hashbrowns are a staple on our remote trips. It's a simple matter to dehydrate the frozen ones from the supermarket, easy to rehydrate, keep well, they are light, can be "flavored" as much or as little as you like, go with any meal if you are craving potatoes and can be used as a filler or thickener for soups and stews.

I just take a couple of potatoes with me and cook them up fresh. Way better. I have a hard time imagining how you would rehydrate the frozen ones without them ending up as mush? I do dehydrate some veggies for prepacked stews and chili and the like but have gotten away from that with potatoes. I will have to try again to see if I can achieve better results.

It is easy to make your own hash browns from fresh potatoes. You need to be able to shred them. I usually peel them, shred them and then rinse them placing them in a double boiler arrangement and blanch them for several minutes until they are almost cooked, rinse again and dehydrate.Rinsing removes a lot of the starch, which I don't necessarily need. But the starch is what helps them to brown quickly in your fry pan.
When dried the pointy things do puncture the zip lock bags, as woodenkayak mentioned.

I use them mostly for breakfast, ~25g dry /person and I sometimes add dried onions to the bag ( 10g) when packaging. In camp you can either add them to your fyring pan with water and boil to rehydrate then add some oil and fry or if you are lucky to have your act together, (actually remember that you are going to use them in the early morning ) bring along a Nalgene jar and put them into that the night before with some water and they are ready to fry up in the morning. ( saves fuel).They make a great addtion to breakfast, with bacon and eggs, but you can also use them in one pot stews , and other similar dishes.

Why dehydrate something you can buy in the store already dehydrated, unless you're worried about additives? Betty Crocker also has dehydrated hash browns in a box right next to the au gratin potatoes, which are also great for camping. We also buy the packets of flavored mashed potatoes.