Explorer Kate all the time dehydrates her meals at dwelling to avoid wasting weight and area on hikes. It’s the right solution to ensure you’re nonetheless consuming scrumptious and nutritious meals whereas tenting and mountaineering. That is the best way to dehydrate meals for mountaineering.
Relating to mountaineering meals, we regularly think about dehydrated area meals, loaded with preservatives, barely recognisable as an precise dish. It doesn’t should be like this!
Think about in case you may pull as much as camp, drained and weary, and have a gourmand babaganoush with crackers as an entree, whereas pulled pork sliders bubble away in your pocket-sized mountaineering range.
Enter envious mountaineering associates, as they drool over your shepherd’s pie created solely over the flames of your campfire.
‘I bet carrying that all day weighed a ton!’ they’ll say, as they attempt to swallow a bit of chewy cardboard meat, described on the packet as ‘chicken stir-fry’.
‘It weighed 200 grams and serves two people, how great’s a dehydrator?’ you’ll say, as their jaws drop to the ground, their style buds tingling on the scent. Time to get cooking!
What’s a dehydrator?
A dehydrator is a compact oven that removes the water in meals by cooking on a low warmth for an prolonged time period. The result’s a meal that’s half the burden and may be saved for twice as lengthy. When able to eat, re-introduce water to the meals and the rehydrated product will style precisely the identical as earlier than. In different phrases, it’s a hiker’s greatest good friend!
The place can I purchase a dehydrator?
Whereas it’s potential to dehydrate your meals on a low setting within the oven for hours, a particular dehydrating equipment is a safer and extra handy choice.
The primary place to search for a dehydrator is in grandma’s cabinet or your nearest op-shop. Within the Nineteen Seventies. they had been all the fad to cut back waste and minimise cupboard space by dehydrating left-overs or pre-made meals.
Sadly, this development pale through the ‘90s, but we’re right here to make it stylish once more. Sustainable, money-conscious, and flavour-savvy hikers on the prepared!
If none can be found second-hand, a brand new dehydrator may be bought from shops like ALDI, Kmart, or Goal ranging from $50, with top-of-the-range, bigger dehydrators going for round $200. A fairly large expense to get began, however the dehydrator will rapidly pay for itself with the cash saved from store-bought, freeze-dried mountaineering meals.
How do I take advantage of a dehydrator?
The choices for dehydrating are countless, however attempt beginning with one thing easy. Contemporary fruit is among the best mountaineering snacks to dehydrate and requires no added sugar or preservatives when created at dwelling. Kiwifruit turns into a scrumptious bitter burst, mango is a chewy candy strap, and berries add a pop of flavour to boring breakfast oats.Â
1. To start the dehydrating course of, place baking paper over the trays to keep away from meals getting caught within the drying racks.Â
2. Peel and slice up your fruit evenly, no greater than 1cm thick, to cut back dehydrating time.Â
3. Squeeze lemon juice over the fruit to cease edges from browning, and area out evenly on the trays, avoiding items from touching.Â
4. Temperature and time for dehydrating varies relying on the kind of fruit and the way a lot there’s; most dehydrators include a person handbook that will include a chart to assist with this. Should you get caught, 70 levels celsius is a good place to begin for many meals.
5. Start by dehydrating for eight hours, checking the fruit all through. Flip the fruits over and rotate the trays roughly midway via as a way to evenly distribute the warmth.Â
6. If extra time is required, merely add one other 4 – 6 hours, till all of the moisture is totally sucked out of the fruit they usually resemble their store-bought, dried counterpart.
What meals can I dehydrate?
Meat
Uncooked meats resembling lean beef or kangaroo may be made into jerky with a tasty marinade and a little bit of salt. Pre-made meat dishes resembling pulled pork, curries, and bolognese dehydrate very well, good for rehydrated camp dinners.
Greens
Dehydrate water-retaining greens resembling mushrooms, peas, spinach, zucchini, or capsicums to cook dinner up a meal whenever you get to camp. Suppose stir-fry noodles or ramen soup.
Dips
Yep you may make dehydrated dips! Utilizing store-bought or selfmade dips resembling hummus or babaganoush, unfold evenly on the lined trays, roughly 1cm thick. Dehydrate till all of the moisture is gone and a tough wafer is left. Crumble up the dip right into a meals processor, mixing right into a powder. When it comes time to eat, merely mix the dip powder with a bit water, stirring right into a paste.
Fruit Roll-Ups
A wholesome different to the grocery store, sugar-loaded fruit straps chances are you’ll keep in mind as a baby. Experiment with all of the flavours: apple cinnamon, blended berry, tropical passionfruit, or anybody up for pina colada?Â
Mix fruits right into a thick puree, including a bit maple syrup to sweeten if mandatory. Unfold evenly, once more about 1cm thick, over lined trays, dehydrate till fruit puree turns into leather-like.
Marshmallows
A candy deal with for when a sugar hit’s wanted to beat that remaining ascent! Use the smaller marshmallows out there within the cooking part to avoid wasting time on dehydrating or bigger marshmallows for a chewier texture. Unfold evenly onto trays and check out to withstand consuming them till they’re utterly dehydrated. They turn out to be a scrumptious mountaineering sweet.
Yoghurt
Camp breakfast doesn’t should be boring, now the key of dehydrated yoghurt is out. Observe the above directions for dips, utilizing your favorite yoghurt. Serve over granola within the morning or create in a single day bircher muesli by mixing rehydrated yoghurt and muesli earlier than curling up in your sleeping bag the evening earlier than. Pleasant!
How a lot meals ought to I dehydrate on every tray?
Measure out one serving per tray. Previous to dehydrating, spoon out a single serve right into a bowl, unfold that very same portion onto a single tray, and retailer as a single serve.
Meals dehydrate to greater than half their dimension and your eyes can typically be bigger than your abdomen when dehydrated meal. This’ll keep away from meals wastage when at camp – having to hold out left-overs on a hike can typically end in a really smelly backpack.
What are the perfect methods for dehydrating?
Transfer the highest trays to the underside and backside trays to the highest, for any snack or meal dehydrating, to unfold warmth evenly all through the cooker. If dehydrating a snack, resembling fruit or jerky, make certain to flip every bit roughly midway via to even out the warmth even additional.Â
As for meals, guarantee to stir roughly on the tray, to interrupt up and keep away from a brittle biscuit from forming, a crumbly combination is faster and simpler to rehydrate.
How lengthy does dehydrated meals final and the way do I retailer it?
A very powerful a part of the dehydrating course of is storage. Guarantee all of the moisture is evaporated earlier than you cease the dehydrator. The meals have to be utterly cooled earlier than packing, to keep away from condensation from forming within the bag and including moisture again into it.
Retailer in a vacuum sealed, ‘Ziplock’ or ideally reusable ‘Stasher’ bag. Hold it in a dry, darkish spot or within the freezer. The meals nonetheless comprises some pure micro organism, so use the dehydrated meals inside three months.
How do I rehydrate my meal?
When it comes time to eat your dehydrated meal, begin the rehydration course of as quickly as you get to camp, this’ll lower cooking time at dinner and dissipate much less gasoline.
Pop your dehydrated meals right into a camp cooker or bowl, pouring over the quantity of water that was eliminated through the dehydration course of, or sufficient water to utterly cowl the dried items. Chilly or scorching water can be utilized, nonetheless scorching water will pace up the method. At time for supper, put your semi-rehydrated meal on the range, bringing to a boil, then simmering till prepared.
FAQs About Dehydrating Pre-Cooked Meals at Dwelling
What meals doesn’t dehydrate effectively?
Keep away from utilizing oils/cheese/fatty meats. Fat don’t dehydrate effectively, keep away from utilizing oils and cheese in pre-made meals, and select a leaner reduce of meat.
Stir-fries simply don’t work – Talking from private expertise, I’m but to efficiently rehydrate a stir-fry and never have it end in a mush of Asian impressed flavours. Be at liberty to show me flawed, however you’ve been warned.
Can I dehydrate all the things collectively?
Dehydrate like-foods collectively.
Dehydrating curries with apples will end in curry flavoured apples. Keep away from dehydrating sturdy smelling dishes with different meals, matching comparable flavours collectively when dehydrating. For instance, marshmallows and yoghurt each scent candy when dehydrating, and may be dehydrated on separate trays, however in the identical batch.
How a lot water ought to I add to rehydrate my meal?
Weigh your meals pre and put up dehydrating.
When you have kitchen scales out there, it helps to weigh one serve previous to dehydrating, then weigh the identical serving after dehydrating. The distinction is strictly how a lot water has evaporated, due to this fact is the precise quantity of water that needs to be added to rehydrate the meal whenever you arrive at camp.
Should you neglect this step, simply add sufficient chilly water to utterly cowl your meal whenever you’re able to rehydrate.
Are there different dehydrated meals choices?
If all of this feels like a bit an excessive amount of work, or an impromptu journey pops up and also you’ve run out of premade provides, there are just a few manufacturers that promote ‘freeze dried’ meals with no components or preservatives. Learn the labels, because the much less added preservatives and thickeners in your meal, the tastier it’ll be!
Anything I ought to find out about dehydrating meals?
Label your meals.
When all the things’s dehydrated and sealed, a crimson curry could appear like bolognaise. Mexican rice will resemble risotto. If you wish to know what you’re consuming at camp, and what added elements may have to be carried to boost your meal, label your meals, what number of serves there are and the way a lot water needs to be added.
