Of course "it depends". Cooked one-pot food, like casseroles and stews and the like tend to come off the dehydrator hard and brittle, easily broken apart. I break it apart into a large bowl, then use a hand chopper to crunch it up small. It's not hard to do, but you need to break it up small save space and for consistency of rehydration. Sometimes I use an electric food processor to chop, but not with things like chili where you want to preserve beans relatively whole rather than a powder. Double bagging is cheaper and works ok, vacuum sealing is the primo way to go but the bags are expensive. Most dried items last a very long time at room temperature. I store large quantities in the freezer indefinitely.
Other items like spaghetti sauce (if not mixed with pasta in the first place), salsa, and fruit purees will come out like leather if not overdryed. Just roll it up in plastic wrap. Eat the fruit as is. For hot sauces just rip into small pieces into hot water.
Upon rehydrating, the golden rule is to allow sufficient time to sit in hot water. 20 minutes is the usual time, insulated in a cozy or under a fleece jacket or whatever. Check quickly at 10 minutes for enough water with a quick stir and recover again for the full 20 minutes. Trying to rush the process by "cooking" or stirring over heat just does not get you there any sooner and may cause a messy disaster.
Convenient, tasty, nutritional food ideas for backpacking?
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I'm starting to prepare two weeks worth of food for the trip Doug and i are making to South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana this spring. I'm going to vacuum pack them with my sealer and then put that if a zip lock and store them all in my pantry. They'll go out in my backpack on the airplane.
As far as how it looks, it depends on the meal. For instance, many of the pasta meals call for vermicelli of linguine and those are broken into thirds. I did a clam vermicelli with tomato, mint parsley sauce for our overnight in the Silver lake lean-to this week and thats what it looked like in the bag, orange vermicelli noodles.Leave a comment:
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We vacuum-seal them and store them in the freezer. It depends upon the meal, but the consistency in its dehydrated state tends to be lumpy. We double-bag meals that have sharp edges (pasta, for example) so they don't puncture the bag. The Mountain House type meals tend to be more crumbly.
Another advantage is that you can make whatever amount you want, and you're not wedded to a 20-oz. serving.
DickLeave a comment:
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Once you have cooked and dried a meal what do you do with the "product". How do you store it? Is it a crusty hard lump? Powder? Does ir resemble what you get in the Mountain House type of freeze dried packets?Leave a comment:
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The Linda Yaffee recipes, for example as I mentioned are of the "casserole" type, everything in one pot. Adding crunchy items to the cooked food works well to spice up the variety... consider pine nuts and the like, added after rehydration. The recipe deas in the book are so unique to what you are probably used to, preparing them actually encourages you to experiment with your own variations. At the same time those recipes are surprisingly delicious things you would certainly enjoy eating at home for regular meals.
I just recently purchased the "Backpack Gourmet" book by Linda Yaffee.
The meals are TASTY, in fact outright delicious, especially compared to the commercial freeze-dried and dehydrated ones. Not only that, they are designed to give you plenty of protein and carbs for fuel.
Simply add the amount of water she tells you to (I write them right on the zip locks), bring to a boil, stir and eat.
You will have to stock a few items you might not normally have at home (TVP, Small white beans (Navy or Cannoleni), and some chicken, beef and vegetable base). but it's more then worth it. This stuff is so good, you might want to cook them to eat at home and not dehydrate them.
To top it off, they are fairly simple to make. She certainly does put the "Gourmet" in to meals for backpacking.
I may do a review on the book.
HawkLeave a comment:
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What would you recommend for breakfast while still in the sleeping bag? I'm thinking along the lines of pouring boiling water into a wide mouthed thermos the night before and keeping the thermos in the bag with me. I assume this would work well with oatmeal pre-mixed with powdered milk, brown sugar, nuts and raisons. What might some other breakfast foods be that could be prepared in a similar manner?Leave a comment:
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Wilderns and Dick, if you were going off for a couple of months in winter and all your meals were going to be brought to life by pouring boiling water on them and either eating them right away or keeping them in vacuum bottles for the next morning and next afternoon how would you exploit the techniques outlined in the book? Would you recommend the book in these circumstances?
Vacuum bottles should keep the food hot for a long time if you don't mind the extra weight and volume of them. How long does coffee/chocolate stay hot in those things? The same should apply for food. My rule of thumb is to rehydrate for a full 20 minutes in a pot-sized fleece cozy (or wrapped in a jacket) for full reconstitution and it is still as hot as you would want to eat it.
In a similar vein, I would also encourage anyone to try trailfoods.com, as commercially dehydrated foods of the same type (not freeze dried) and very nicely vacuum packaged. You even get a LNT info card with each entree.Leave a comment:
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But it sounds like you've got it covered pretty well!
DickLeave a comment:
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Yes, this is about the Manitoba trip.
I was thinking of drying meat and veggies and adding it to purchased freeze-dried meals. Also, stuff making soup for the next day's lunch with dried meat, veggies, powdered base and angel hair pasta.
The vacuum bottles would be the best availble and the idea is to prepare all the next day's breakfasts, coffee/tea, and hot soup and drinking water the night before while it is dark but too early to sleep. The bottles would be well wrapped in articles like down coats. They will weigh what they weigh and go in the sleds. We will never wash them, just let the dregs freeze and be part of the next meal. (we'll have to take care not to mix them up!).
No bears to worry about.
I guess we will be carrying a lot of plastic and other wrappers.
We will probably have one menu that is one week long and repeat it week after week.
Dinners will be hot and hot soups will be for lunch but we will be nibbling on sausage, chocoate, nuts, candy all day long.Leave a comment:
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Wilderns and Dick, if you were going off for a couple of months in winter and all your meals were going to be brought to life by pouring boiling water on them and either eating them right away or keeping them in vacuum bottles for the next morning and next afternoon how would you exploit the techniques outlined in the book? Would you recommend the book in these circumstances?
Well, I didn't factor in a two-month winter sojourn! Is this that Saskatchewan trip you mentioned? I guess I don't see why vacuum-sealing dehydrated food for two weeks vs. two months would be any different. Food would be to your own liking (you made it, you know you like it, you know what's in it). That would be a lot of meals to prepare beforehand, of course. How long between resupply? Will your vacuum bottles really keep the food warm enough? How many, how much do they weigh, and how easy are they to pack and to clean? Are you in serious bear country? One downside to vacuum sealing: the plastic bags used with sealers are heavier and bulkier than regular plastic bags (they can be reused). Do all of your meals have to be hot ones?
Interesting, and I'm going to think about it some more.
DickLeave a comment:
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for a summer overnight I often bring fairly heavy food. I picked up a whole bunch of MREs. they last practically forever, but they arent lightweight at all. the snacks, especially the peanut butter packets, make great emergency food to keep in my 10+ essentials bag.Leave a comment:
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I guess it weighs quite a bit, but on my last trip I brought a few of those pre-cooked chicken breasts in a packet and mixed them in with Lipton 4 cheese noodle packages, etc - it wasn't "restaurant quality" but I enjoyed them very much. I also brought 2 packages of refrigerated ravioli for 2 nights along with a jar of sauce that I like, which I used half one night and half another night.
Granted, weight was an issue, but I like to eat well, so it was a sacrifice I was willing to make for the luxury.
Until I learn how to prepare equally enjoyable and nutritional meals that weigh less this is the route that I must go.
One of you guys gave me a great idea for coffee that will enable me to leave the camp percolator behind - triangle coffee filters with the right amout of your favorite coffee in them - folded over and stapled - dropped in your nalgene bottle - JUST ADD WATER AND ENJOY!
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Wilderns and Dick, if you were going off for a couple of months in winter and all your meals were going to be brought to life by pouring boiling water on them and either eating them right away or keeping them in vacuum bottles for the next morning and next afternoon how would you exploit the techniques outlined in the book? Would you recommend the book in these circumstances?Leave a comment:
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Linda Yaffe. Backpack Gourmet: Good Hot Grub You Can Make at Home, Dehydrate, and Pack for Quick, Easy, and Healthy Eating on the trail. Available from Amazon.com.
I'd throw out all of the other dozen or more backpacking recipe books I have, and keep just this one. Dehydrate these meals and they come back to life just like fresh. Many are unusual, not what you would ever think of on your own, and are starting points for new ideas to try yourself to be creative. Just try them, you'll be impressed.
DickLeave a comment:
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I'd throw out all of the other dozen or more backpacking recipe books I have, and keep just this one. Dehydrate these meals and they come back to life just like fresh. Many are unusual, not what you would ever think of on your own, and are starting points for new ideas to try yourself to be creative. Just try them, you'll be impressed.Leave a comment:
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