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Contributor III
I have a food dehydrator but the freeze dry units are way too expensive. Anyone have any suggestions for good dehydrating meal preps.
Contributor III
Advocate II
5615
Member III
20468
Yeah, don't bother. Unless you have no other option due to shelf life of already cooked food. Anything that is dehydrated has to be rehydrated. Which requires............water. So you save a bit of weight on dehydrated food, but you use that weight back up and then some because you have to carry enough water to rehydrate it. If you're in an area of easily accessible potable water then you're good but if you're in the desert or areas that don't have that access then you're dealing with just as much weight and, in the end, more hassle, since you're having to spend the time to dehydrate it prior to the trip.I have a food dehydrator but the freeze dry units are way too expensive. Anyone have any suggestions for good dehydrating meal preps.
Contributor III
That’s very helpful Thank You!I can give you a few tips:
1. When it comes to meat, especially chicken, factory canned dries and rehydrates better than fresh.
2. If you have ground beef recipes, e.g. spaghetti sauce or tacos, make the mix with the flavoring and then dehydrate. If you substitute 30%-50% hydrated Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP) in your mix it helps avoid the "gravel" texture.
3. Rice cooked at home then dehydrated, cooks in minutes much quicker than using raw rice.
4. Dehydrating canned beans (baked beans) works well.
Explorer I
Builder III
31666
have you actually used a dehydrator to dehydrate stew? i'd definitely like to know how to do it step by step because i have a food dehydrator and cant for the life of me get those kind of results from it...You can also dehydrate prepared stews or pasta sauces. Just rehydrate with water when ready to eat. These tips can help you maximize your dehydrator without breaking the bank.
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