First forray into home dehydrated meals...not bad at all but needs tweaking

TauPhi111

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Sep 10, 2017
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I decided to try making some home made dehydrated meals, relying only on my cooking skills without looking at threads on here dealing with the subject. The result was actually pretty good, but I definitely learned some lessons.

I tried making a version of Mediterranean chicken and couscous. Couscous seems to be an ideal backpacking food cause it cooks in minutes with just some boiling water and is lightweight, and also flavorful and filling. So what I did is sauté some chicken along with peppers and onions in some olive oil. Once cooked I laid it all out on my dehydrator and dried until very dry. To prepare it, I got a box of roasted garlic and olive oil couscous from the store. I boiled about 3/4 cup of water with 1 tsp of oil and half the seasoning packet. Once boiling, I threw in the peppers and onions and chicken, let it come back up to a boil, stirred in half the box of couscous, let it come back up to a boil, let it boil for about a minute, and then covered it and took it off the heat for the couscous to cook. Let it sit 5 min.

What I got was a nice bed of couscous with the other ingredients nicely incorporated. The flavor was great, but the couple minutes I let the dehydrated ingredients boil was waaaay too short. I will definitely have to let them boil a little longer before adding the couscous. Other than that, I think I have a good, light weight, easy backpacking meal on my hands.

Anyone else do something similar using couscous or maybe minute rice? I'm interested in hearing recipes or rehydrating tips for backpacking meals
 

AdamW

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Oct 27, 2015
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Sounds good to me. I think one thing to keep in mind is the extra time it takes to rehydrate/prepare dehydrated meals vs freeze dried. Some nights you just want to get to eating but the extra couple minutes is well worth it.
 

pods8 (Rugged Stitching)

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I use instant rice my meals but couscous could work well too, I use a freeze bag and pour in boiling water and let soak 20min. That typically comes out well. I haven't played around with chicken yet (just ground red meat) but sounds like its harder to rehydrate if cooked conventionally where as pressure cooked it breaks down better and rehydrates better. I planned on trying it for some variety in the future.
 

AdamW

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Oct 27, 2015
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I use instant rice my meals but couscous could work well too, I use a freeze bag and pour in boiling water and let soak 20min. That typically comes out well. I haven't played around with chicken yet (just ground red meat) but sounds like its harder to rehydrate if cooked conventionally where as pressure cooked it breaks down better and rehydrates better. I planned on trying it for some variety in the future.

That's why a lot of folks seem to use canned chicken for their meals; it just seems to rehydrate better. I've played with it in my dried meals a bit and it's just another option.
 

Mike 338

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I've dehydrated meals. Works great and less bulky and costly than freeze dried. It is a chore to make them up in advance though. Many think think they'll re-hydrate in 15 minutes. I haven't found that to be the case. When I cook a dinner, I just take out tomorrows dinner and put the water in the bag and it can soak until I'm ready for it the next night. It's ready to heat immediately with no other wait time. Works great and the quality is there. Chili, spaghetti, rice dishes, pastas all work great. Leaner meats dehydrate better than something like pork but you can still do pork if you get it in the freezer and use it in a reasonable amount of time. It can take 20 hours or so to dehydrate your food and you might need to turn it over to get the other side exposed to the moving air but if you have the time and prefer your own cooking, it's a good option. I vacuum seal the dinners and pitch them in the freezer till I need them. I'll take them out of the vacuum bag and put them in a zip lock freezer bag to save space in the pack. I want to try some Tia food dishes.
 

pods8 (Rugged Stitching)

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That's why a lot of folks seem to use canned chicken for their meals; it just seems to rehydrate better. I've played with it in my dried meals a bit and it's just another option.

Correct. I have an instant pot now so I planned to try and dehydrate some shredded pressure cooked chicken to see how it goes in the off season. :)

I've dehydrated meals. Works great and less bulky and costly than freeze dried. It is a chore to make them up in advance though. Many think think they'll re-hydrate in 15 minutes. I haven't found that to be the case. When I cook a dinner, I just take out tomorrows dinner and put the water in the bag and it can soak until I'm ready for it the next night. It's ready to heat immediately with no other wait time. Works great and the quality is there. Chili, spaghetti, rice dishes, pastas all work great. Leaner meats dehydrate better than something like pork but you can still do pork if you get it in the freezer and use it in a reasonable amount of time. It can take 20 hours or so to dehydrate your food and you might need to turn it over to get the other side exposed to the moving air but if you have the time and prefer your own cooking, it's a good option. I vacuum seal the dinners and pitch them in the freezer till I need them. I'll take them out of the vacuum bag and put them in a zip lock freezer bag to save space in the pack. I want to try some Tia food dishes.

Pouring in boiling water and letting it soak for 20min even at 11k has worked just fine for me. If only 15min the rice might be a bit crunchy still.

Last year I made up numerous ingredients and that was a bit of a pain. This year I cooked up each thing (exept for the rice and cheese if applicable) and then dehydrated the mixture which was pretty easy.

Mexi rice was ground game, taco spice, black beans, red pepper, onion, a can of salsa that got cooked and dehydrated. Packed up with some rice and also cheddar cheese powder (in separate little bag).

Pasta rice was ground game, pasta sauce, red pepper, onion cooked and dehydrated. Packed up with some rice and also parm cheese powder (in separate little bag).

Chili was a batch of chili cooked and dehydrated, I threw some rice in when packing it for more calories.


If the chicken goes well I'll expand the options but the above went down just fine after a hard day.
 
Joined
Mar 2, 2014
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I use the freezer bag cooking and an insulated pouch to cook the meal. 20min is about right for chicken or beef, the insulated pouch keeps it almost still too hot to eat.

I have dehydrated canned chicken with good results. The foil packs of tuna and chicken work well too, but are a little heavier.

I really like the knorr sides with a pouch of tuna or chicken, cheap and easy. The taco rice with chicken or dehydrated shreaded beef/venison is great. Broccoli cheese noodles with chicken or tuna.

The pressure cooker is great for cooking before dehydrating. Shredded jerky works in a pinch too or dehydrated burger. Prepping for a trip is half the fun.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 
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Mar 6, 2012
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I’ll 3rd 20 minutes in an insulated pouch. I’ve done homemade chili, spaghetti, & rice dishes. I’ll have to try soaking the night before, that may be the ticket?
 

Jbenson

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Sep 6, 2015
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Some guys may not like them, but so far my favorite I've found is hamburger helper and chicken helper! I just bought boxes from the store, repackaged them into 2 servings and vacuum sealed. It does take a little time to prep because you have to measure out the dehydrated meat (I bought tubs from mountain house), powdered butter, powdered milk etc. But I've been eating mountain house meals for years and just got sick of them. I actually like hamburger and chicken helper so these are amazing!
 
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