DIY Dehydrated meals?

[Bushcraft]

Aside from the time and energy, dehydrating your own food is pretty straightforward, tastes better (assuming you're a decent cook to start with), is better for you (less salt), and significantly less expensive than the freeze-dried meals, and generally consume less pack volume.

I enjoy cooking and can take the time to make gourmet meals every night while at home if I want to, but when I'm packing for a 8-10 solo hunting trip it's all about decent tasting nutrition and making sure I will have enough fuel to power me around the backcountry.

The trick is making sure all the components of your dehydrated meals are relatively small, and fat/oil free to the extent possible.  Another trick is to pre-soak the ingredients before warming them up.  You'll use a lot less fuel that way by not having to bring everything up to a boil for a while. For example, just toss the dry ingredients into a designated Nalgene bottle with enough water a couple hours before dinner and heat it up to eating temps after camp is set up. Rinse out the Nalgene or slug down the slurry...you're going to want to stay hydrated anyway.

Try this simple test: Dehydrate a can of chili con carne that is readily available off the shelf at your nearest grocery store, or make your own.  A full can is a pretty good sized meal for most folks and you can mix in some carbs and fats to make it more filling. Might only cost you a couple bucks and you can juice up the seasoning to your liking before you dehydrate it. Once dehydrated, you'll notice that the meat is already pretty small but the beans will turn into little rocks that will take some time to reconstitute in the field.  Just take the dehydrated material and zap it a couple times in a Cuisenart or food chopper until the beans are busted up and pour it into a Ziplock freezer bag.  After you've reconstituted it, pour in some fats. Try the same thing with spaghetti if you like.  I guarantee it will taste good, pack up much smaller than freeze-dried stuff, weigh the same as the freeze-dried stuff and you can burn the plastic bags instead of having to pack around the MH bags.  Just make up a big batch and throw them in the freezer to use when you need them.

Sometimes if I know I'm going on a longer trip, I'll just compartmentalize the ingredients so I can whip up whatever sounds good that night.  Marinera and white sauces. Precooked and seasoned ground red meat or finely diced chicken. Angel hair pasta, cous cous, rice or potatoes for carbs.  Plenty of Ghee and Olive Oil to round out the all important fats.

[hirshey]

My mom makes me some awesome dehydrated meals! She has a backcountry meals prep book.. Powerhouse potatoes are my favorite, but she also preps some great eggs and sweet potatoes as well. Between her contributions and the large containers of mountain house meals that I reseal in individual packs, we mix it up back and forth. We never have an issue with rehydration... both are comparable.

[GBoyd]

I've been learning how to make dehydrated meals in the past two years. I decided I have a giant garden and a freezer full of meat, so why use store-bought food in the backcountry? I dry components separately, then combine into meals. I usually have a bag of bear meat- ground, rinsed, and dried. From the garden, I've got dried tomatoes, sweet corn, chiles, carrots, apples, beets on hand, basil, sometimes morels if I'm lucky. I'll combine the meat and choice of vegetable with a starch, usually cous cous, instant potatoes, or Ramen noodles. Then I just need to add seasoning to make a meal.

I end up spending way under $1 for a meal and enjoy knowing it's food that I grew or killed myself. The result sometimes tastes worse than Mountain House, but when it's bad I get to think of how I can improve the recipe rather than just thinking about how much I hate Mountain House.

[cougforester]

Just getting into this.

I picked up this book: https://www.backpackingchef.com/recipes-for-adventure-ebook.html and there's a lot of really good stuff in here. 2 questions.

1) I'd imagine using ground elk/venison would be pretty ideal for dehydrating because of the low fat content. Then I could add a packet of olive oil or so after adding water for bumping fat levels back up?
2) He recommends using a pot to rehydrate meals. I have a JetBoil, and really don't want to have to pack a pot. Anyone tried to rehydrate in a used Mountain House meal bag? I'd sure think it would work.

[Stein]

I've used venison, it dehydrates all the way down to gravel.

I rehydrate in a quart or gallon Ziploc in a home made insulating pouch made from the car window shade shiny stuff.  With dehdrated, make sure you aren't in a hurry as it takes much longer than freeze dried.  Like 30 minutes or more unless you don't like crunchy stuff.

Mix ground vension with mashed potatoes, dried corn, peas and carrots and then 1/4 of a gravy packet.  I do the meat first, then veggies, then gravy and finally mashed potatoes when it's all done.

Water amounts are tricky, using mashed potatoes at the end makes it easier as you can add more or less.

[j_h_nimrod]

Best way I have found to rehydrate burger meat is to first cook it with about 1/2c bread crumbs, panko, dried potatoes, etc. and then dehydrate. It rehydrates much easier this way.

[mburrows]

Just getting into this.

I picked up this book: https://www.backpackingchef.com/recipes-for-adventure-ebook.html and there's a lot of really good stuff in here. 2 questions.

1) I'd imagine using ground elk/venison would be pretty ideal for dehydrating because of the low fat content. Then I could add a packet of olive oil or so after adding water for bumping fat levels back up?
2) He recommends using a pot to rehydrate meals. I have a JetBoil, and really don't want to have to pack a pot. Anyone tried to rehydrate in a used Mountain House meal bag? I'd sure think it would work.

Amazon sells mylar bags for pretty cheap, same style as a mountain house bag, I get some of those small oxygen absorbents to throw in the bag as well.

[Karl Blanchard]

Dont overthink it guys. Meal in a ziplock. Add boiling water from jetboil into the bag. Stuff bag back into jetpoil and pop the lid back on. When ready to eat, fold the mouth of the bag over the jetboil and you are left with a nice bowl to eat from. When done zip it closed and dispose.

[Karl Blanchard]

My go to meals for the dehydrator are spaghetti,  Spanish rice, a burger noodle veggie brown gravy concoction,  stir fry, and chili sometimes.

Small pieces are your friend

Cut burger with breadcrumbs and then boil it if you want the leanest possible.

Canned chicken is super easy vs cooking and chopping your own

I add some water to my meal about an hour before I want to eat it and then finish with boiling water when I'm ready. Cuts cook time in half.

[Jonathan_S]

Plus the way @Karl Blanchard preps them, it doubles as a killer bait for the crawdads

[Karl Blanchard]

Plus the way @Karl Blanchard preps them, it doubles as a killer bait for the crawdads

secret is in the peas

[cougforester]

My go to meals for the dehydrator are spaghetti,  Spanish rice, a burger noodle veggie brown gravy concoction,  stir fry, and chili sometimes.

Small pieces are your friend

Cut burger with breadcrumbs and then boil it if you want the leanest possible.

Canned chicken is super easy vs cooking and chopping your own

I add some water to my meal about an hour before I want to eat it and then finish with boiling water when I'm ready. Cuts cook time in half.

I had thought of adding water a bit before I was truly ready to eat might help speed the process along. And yep definitely was planning on the bread crumbs and canned chicken, seems to be a common refrain. Good stuff, good tip about wrapping the Zip lock over the mouth of the jet boil too.

[Bango skank]

Dont overthink it guys. Meal in a ziplock. Add boiling water from jetboil into the bag. Stuff bag back into jetpoil and pop the lid back on. When ready to eat, fold the mouth of the bag over the jetboil and you are left with a nice bowl to eat from. When done zip it closed and dispose.

https://www.tripsavvy.com/ziploc-omlets-in-bag-504142

[yakimanoob]

Dont overthink it guys. Meal in a ziplock. Add boiling water from jetboil into the bag. Stuff bag back into jetpoil and pop the lid back on. When ready to eat, fold the mouth of the bag over the jetboil and you are left with a nice bowl to eat from. When done zip it closed and dispose.

Definitely gonna try that.   

[baker5150]

Dont overthink it guys. Meal in a ziplock. Add boiling water from jetboil into the bag. Stuff bag back into jetpoil and pop the lid back on. When ready to eat, fold the mouth of the bag over the jetboil and you are left with a nice bowl to eat from. When done zip it closed and dispose.

 

Just don't use cheap bags.  Cheap bags can not only fail due to the heat, but can also (supposedly) leach chemicals into your food at certain temps.

Zip lock brand bags hold up really well, and (again, supposedly) don't leach chemicals.

I have pre-mixed and separated into zip lock bags for a couple years now with great success.  I've also tried vac packing, but the zip lock bags have been easier for re-hydrating due to their flexibility.