Dehydrators

Joined
Aug 14, 2016
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Great Falls MT
I've tried Mountain House and it wrecks my guts. I can handle Taco Bell, but Mountain House is like the laxative from hell.

Thinking I'm going to just use the money I'd spend on freeze dried and buy a dehydrator.

I've never bought one so what are some good units for the money for making my own meals?

Any tips for meal prep?
Thanks

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bhylton

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Jan 28, 2015
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-MT-
i just listened to a Hunt Harvest Health podcast and they use excaliber brand dehydrators. i dont have any experience but have been looking into it. check out some the those Hunt Harvest Health podcasts if you have not already. lots of good info
 
OP
TradLife406
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Aug 14, 2016
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Great Falls MT
i just listened to a Hunt Harvest Health podcast and they use excaliber brand dehydrators. i dont have any experience but have been looking into it. check out some the those Hunt Harvest Health podcasts if you have not already. lots of good info
Thanks! Yeah the Lampers know their stuff.
I think Heather's Choice is supposed to be good. But I don't Paleo and the meal choices don't look that great. To each his own. I told the wife she needs to start her own company making healthy backpacking meals.

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aron

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Dec 27, 2012
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North Dakota
Excaliber. I would buy one with a fan to help even drying and a larger capacity as it sucks to get everything ready and than realize you don't have enough room.

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sweetroll

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Mar 20, 2016
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Idaho
Yep. Excalibur with the fan is a must. You don't have to babysit it and rotate trays. I just did 8lbs of deer burger in one 8hr cycle over night. Also, get the book Recipes for Adventure by Glenn McAllister. It has lots of great tips and recipes. For example, mixing bread crumbs with the burger to help its rehydration. And I'll bet you feel better vs. eating mtn house. I know we do. Not sure how much money you'll save, but you won't regret it anyway.


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Joined
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Central Cal
My only advice is don't get one with the fan and heating unit on the bottom unless you like your jerky dripping into the fan. Fan on top is way easier to clean.
 

Rs3003

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SW PA
I have a Excalibur and it works great. The timer is good also. Set the timer and walk away.
 

Murdy

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I have a Nesco brand, lot cheaper I think, plastic trays, but its been working for me just fine. They're not the most complex piece of equipment. I had a super-cheap, all plastic one that my Mom got from somewhere that I used for years. It's still around, but didn't have a fan (had to get up in the middle of the night to rotate trays), so I upgraded to the Nesco, which has a fan and, I agree, is an important feature.
 

BCSteel

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Dec 31, 2014
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I've got a Nesco Garden Master. So far it's been great. Good air flow so no tray shifting, expandable up to 20(I think) trays, digital readout with temp select and programmable run time so you can set it and forget it.

Raise the limits
 

mrgreen

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Yep. Excalibur with the fan is a must. You don't have to babysit it and rotate trays. I just did 8lbs of deer burger in one 8hr cycle over night. Also, get the book Recipes for Adventure by Glenn McAllister.............

Completely agree with sweetroll, also McAllister's website is a great place to start.

Backpacking Chef
 
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I have this cheap one and it works well... Only thing I wish it had was a off timer but not a huge deal and could be added with an outlet timer.

Amazon.com: Nesco FD-75A Snackmaster Pro Food Dehydrator, White: Kitchen & Dining

As far as meal prep, I haven't done a whole lot myself but tried what I have done on a recent trip and it worked very well and was more filling than mountain house and much cheaper. If you don't mind eating practically the same thing for every meal I highly recommend it. The meal consisted of a gallon freezer ziploc with 2 packs of ramen (only used one or partial flavor packet but you could go without) and some dehydrated protein. So far I have been dehydrating canned stuff, so canned chicken, pork and Hormel chili worked the best. I also did corned beef hash, which worked but not great. As an experiment I tried dehydrating chef boyardee and it failed miserably. I will also sometimes throw some bacon bits in.
 

pods8 (Rugged Stitching)

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I have a 20yr old American harvest circular I got way back in the day and also a newer presto circular I got free, they work fine. If I had the coin and needed something new I certainly would consider the Excalibur units though.


Meal prep can have some variety if make up ingredients and then you can assemble combinations. You can also dehydrate full concoctions like chili. The meals I made up for last year were:

*Chili dehydrated in full.
*Ground meat + dried red peppers + dried onions + rice + taco spices + dried cheddar cheese powder (note I'd add some dried salsa in the future)
*Ground meat + dried red peppers + dried onions + rice + dried pasta sauce + parmesan cheese powder

Dried chicken and lipton noodles/rice meals offered a quick assembly solution as well.

The ground meat is game meat (lean already) ground with some bread crumbs mixed in (helps it rehydrate) and browned then dehydrated. I have a pressure cooker now and might play around with that and preparing some meats this year.
 

UtahJimmy

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I used my in-laws Nesco quite a few times and wanted my own. Did some research and ended up with an Excalibur (no shame here... my mother bought it for us for an xmas gift. Otherwise I would have got a nesco) and it is bomber! Having the fan and heater in the back is amazing. It dries things so fast and really moves air around. Timer and temp dials are pretty sweet too.

Highly recommend over the Nesco style if you have the available coin. Not having to rotate trays is a convenience and the speed at which it dehydrates is impressive. They'll both get the job done though!
 

Bulldawg

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Minnesota
I use a cabbalas commercial dehydrator and can't say anything bad about it, has a fan that evenly dries all the shelves the same, has a ton of room to fit a lot of food into, has temperature control and a timer which is handy when I'm drying over night. It takes up some room but it works really well.
 
Joined
Sep 3, 2014
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Sabinal, TX
I’m thinking about getting a dehydrator but don’t know much about them. Could I dehydrate a stew? Like a moose, carrot, onion and celery stew?


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Joined
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Utah
I’m thinking about getting a dehydrator but don’t know much about them. Could I dehydrate a stew? Like a moose, carrot, onion and celery stew?


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I have found it best to dehydrate the meats separate from the veggies. They take different amounts of time. You don't want the meat under dehydrated or the veggies over dehydrated.

I do chili and can get by with doing them at once, but I make sure the meat is in really small portions.
I also use vacuum type sealer bags and just add hot water to those, so I leave the bags a bit bigger than needed.
 
Joined
Sep 3, 2014
Messages
529
Location
Sabinal, TX
I have found it best to dehydrate the meats separate from the veggies. They take different amounts of time. You don't want the meat under dehydrated or the veggies over dehydrated.

I do chili and can get by with doing them at once, but I make sure the meat is in really small portions.
I also use vacuum type sealer bags and just add hot water to those, so I leave the bags a bit bigger than needed.

So, you’d pick through a stew and fish out all the meat chunks? Usually the meat is falling apart when I’m finished with a stew. So, how would accomplish that? Maybe I’d be better off investing in a Harvest Right freeze dryer?


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