- Joined
- Mar 19, 2007
- Messages
- 7,443
I bought a dehydrator some time ago - and just found myself using a lot to prepare trail food.
I bought a Nesco FD-75PR based on many positive reviews and have been making a lot of stuff for the family and the trail. This thing works great. It is not too expensive and is VERY easy to use. Nesco is a good brand and seems to support their products very well. I also bought their Jerky Gun and used it. More on this later.
The dehydrator comes with 4 trays, a book on how to use the dehydrator, and a warranty card. It is very idiot proof (I can even use it) and seems to dehydrate meat, veggies, and other things evenly and quickly. I would highly recommend this dehydrator.
Jerky:
I have made two kinds of jerky thus far, both with the packaged jerky mix that Nesco sends with the dehydrator. One was made from 6 pounds of chicken, marinated over night, and dehydrated for about 4 hours. It turned out GREAT and is a very low fat (thus low grease) meat to use for jerky. I was stunned how easy it was and how my first batch was awesome.
They jerky mix that Nesco sends is very peppery - and I am not a SUPER spicy lover - so I used about 3 times the amount of meat for the recipe and it was awesome.
The above picture is about 2 pounds of jerky ( you get about 1/3 of the weight out than what you put in for jerky). My first batch.
The second batch I made was with the jerky gun. That thing is like a huge caulk gun that you load with meat (after mixing with the spices) and then caulk onto the trays. I had picked up 2 extra trays at this point 3.5 pounds of jerky fit nicely onto 6 trays. In about 5 or 6 hours I had jerky. It too was EXCELLENT. Made from 93/7 Turkey (I buy what is on sale) and patted often to rid it of the grease the jerky is very mild but excellent. Again I got 1/3 of the weight out than I put in.
Dehydrating Trail Food:
I have been reading how to do some dehydrating for preparing light weight and small trail food. I first decided to do a huge batch of hamburger and steak strips to draw from. I fried up hamburger drained off the grease, patted clean with paper towel and loaded up my dehydrator:
You can see in the pic above the second batch of meat going in and a baggie with the first batch coming out. You loose a TON of weight when you do meat like this. Use as lean of burger as you can - but even this lean looses a lot of weight. I put in 7 pounds and a little over a pound and a half out.
I then did veggies - this is even MORE crazy in weight savings. I used frozen mixed veggies (use the easy clean screens - because the stuff falls through as it dries) and did 8 pounds. I got about 1.5 pounds out.
With this as my base here is a recipe I tried out this weekend:
1) 1/2 cup dehyrated ground beef.... Read More
2) 1/2 cup dehydrated vegetable mix.
3) One package of Ramen noodles.
4) 1/2 cup of instant mashed potatoes.
Put noodles, ground beef, veggies in a freezer bag. Put potatoes in a smaller sandwich baggie. Carry with you in the field.
Weight (dry) 8 ounces.
I use a Jet Boil - so add two cups of water to your jet boil and the meat and veggies - bring to a boil. Poor water, 1/2 packet of ramen flavoring, and ramen noodles into the freezer baggie. Wrap freezer bag in your fleece shirt (some people make a coozie for their bags) and wait 10 minutes. Add the mashed potatoes and mix.
Time elapsed about 15 minutes. Mess = NONE (freezer bag has the mess - and you can wash that before you leave site)
Calories:
About 1100
Protein: about 50
Carbs: about 130
Fat - about 15 grams.
Taste - not damned bad - and my weight was very little over all in the pack.
Here is what the meal looked like packed:
Misc Drying:
I have made fruit roll ups for the kids and all sorts of other stuff. It is a lot of fun.
TF
I bought a Nesco FD-75PR based on many positive reviews and have been making a lot of stuff for the family and the trail. This thing works great. It is not too expensive and is VERY easy to use. Nesco is a good brand and seems to support their products very well. I also bought their Jerky Gun and used it. More on this later.
The dehydrator comes with 4 trays, a book on how to use the dehydrator, and a warranty card. It is very idiot proof (I can even use it) and seems to dehydrate meat, veggies, and other things evenly and quickly. I would highly recommend this dehydrator.
Jerky:
I have made two kinds of jerky thus far, both with the packaged jerky mix that Nesco sends with the dehydrator. One was made from 6 pounds of chicken, marinated over night, and dehydrated for about 4 hours. It turned out GREAT and is a very low fat (thus low grease) meat to use for jerky. I was stunned how easy it was and how my first batch was awesome.
They jerky mix that Nesco sends is very peppery - and I am not a SUPER spicy lover - so I used about 3 times the amount of meat for the recipe and it was awesome.
The above picture is about 2 pounds of jerky ( you get about 1/3 of the weight out than what you put in for jerky). My first batch.
The second batch I made was with the jerky gun. That thing is like a huge caulk gun that you load with meat (after mixing with the spices) and then caulk onto the trays. I had picked up 2 extra trays at this point 3.5 pounds of jerky fit nicely onto 6 trays. In about 5 or 6 hours I had jerky. It too was EXCELLENT. Made from 93/7 Turkey (I buy what is on sale) and patted often to rid it of the grease the jerky is very mild but excellent. Again I got 1/3 of the weight out than I put in.
Dehydrating Trail Food:
I have been reading how to do some dehydrating for preparing light weight and small trail food. I first decided to do a huge batch of hamburger and steak strips to draw from. I fried up hamburger drained off the grease, patted clean with paper towel and loaded up my dehydrator:
You can see in the pic above the second batch of meat going in and a baggie with the first batch coming out. You loose a TON of weight when you do meat like this. Use as lean of burger as you can - but even this lean looses a lot of weight. I put in 7 pounds and a little over a pound and a half out.
I then did veggies - this is even MORE crazy in weight savings. I used frozen mixed veggies (use the easy clean screens - because the stuff falls through as it dries) and did 8 pounds. I got about 1.5 pounds out.
With this as my base here is a recipe I tried out this weekend:
1) 1/2 cup dehyrated ground beef.... Read More
2) 1/2 cup dehydrated vegetable mix.
3) One package of Ramen noodles.
4) 1/2 cup of instant mashed potatoes.
Put noodles, ground beef, veggies in a freezer bag. Put potatoes in a smaller sandwich baggie. Carry with you in the field.
Weight (dry) 8 ounces.
I use a Jet Boil - so add two cups of water to your jet boil and the meat and veggies - bring to a boil. Poor water, 1/2 packet of ramen flavoring, and ramen noodles into the freezer baggie. Wrap freezer bag in your fleece shirt (some people make a coozie for their bags) and wait 10 minutes. Add the mashed potatoes and mix.
Time elapsed about 15 minutes. Mess = NONE (freezer bag has the mess - and you can wash that before you leave site)
Calories:
About 1100
Protein: about 50
Carbs: about 130
Fat - about 15 grams.
Taste - not damned bad - and my weight was very little over all in the pack.
Here is what the meal looked like packed:
Misc Drying:
I have made fruit roll ups for the kids and all sorts of other stuff. It is a lot of fun.
TF
