What are you DEHYDRATING today?

[ORChick]

I've been dehydrating for years and finally broke down and bought an Excalibur 3900 yesterday. Woohoo! Plus this year we have a huge garden going in.

So ... my question is: I'd like to put in pint (or quart) canning jars dehydrated fixings for soup (protein+grain+veggies), that Hubby can take to work, take off lid, add water, and microwave. Has anyone done this?

Like I'd dehydrate a bunch of cooked meats, cooked beans, cooked grains/pasta, etc and of course, veggies. Line up a bunch of jars, and add ingredients, including seasonings and herbs. No two alike. Screw on a top (either lid/ring or plastic top), mark the ingredients, and store. Put one in his lunchbox. At lunchtime, he'd add water and microwave for ??? minutes, then eat.

Thoughts?

Your best bet might be to do up a jar, and try it out; see how it works for you. Another thing might be to make up a pot of soup, and then dry it as is. That way it would already be seasoned etc. just as you like it - no guessing.

 

[smackiesmommy]

how do you dry a pot of soup? I have never heard of that before but it sounds cool...can think of a few soups i would like to try that with

 

[sufficientforme]

I have seen this done on back packing websites, they dry all sorts of food I would have never thought of. Try the library, blogs (there are many who post recipes) or Amazon for books like Trail food by Allen Kesselheim or Lipsmackin' backpackin' by Bill Connors. Hope that helps

 

[ORChick]

Make your soup with less stock/water than you normally would, so it will dry faster. I would think that thick pea or bean soups would be excellent for this, but most likely any soup would work.

http://www.mademan.com/mm/how-dehydrate-soup.html

Another link with interesting meal ideas: http://www.backpackingchef.com/index.html


ETA second link

 

[Laureli]

I deydrated 2 pounds of mushrooms and 1 1/2 onions.


When they are done, I will put my fruit leather in.

 

[mythreesons]

I'm dehydrating beef jerky using my new jerky gun kit for the first time using the Excaliber..wish me luck!

 

[baymule]

Whew! I just finished reading all 56 pages of this thread. I have learned that I more than likely want an Excalibur dehydrator and that I can make my own fruit roll ups! I have had an old dehydrator I bought 17 years ago to make jerky with that cost me $12.50, has no fan, but made jerky for years and is still usable. I borrowed my daughter's round white dehydrator (with fan)-WOW! I have been missing out! I have dehydrated tomatoes and vacuum packed them, about 6 tomatoes to each packet. A friend gave us 10 huge sweet onions and cautioned to put them in the refrigerator as they would not keep otherwise. I have the last 2 in the dehydrator now. Dehydrated onions make a great snack! I wish I had a fruit tree so I could pick my own and process it but I will look around for someone with an excess. My daughter and her husband will not touch a fresh tomato, but adore cooking with sundried. I call mine un-sun-dried

So today I dried 14 tomatoes and just loaded it up again with 2 onions, cut in rings. YUMMY! I got a bucket from the local doughnut shop that had chocolate frosting in it and it has a seal in the lid. Probably not as good as the screw on ring tops (can't remember the name of them right now), but it will do great for storing my dried vacuum packed veggies.

 

[terri9630]

I've got beef jerky in right now with a couple of large sweet onions waiting to go in tomorrow. Then I have some beef to grind and try to can.

 

[mrscoyote]

I put tomatoes and cucumbers in mine for it's first run. I am so excited Does dehydrating onions and peppers smell up the house?

 

[ORChick]

I put tomatoes and cucumbers in mine for it's first run. I am so excited Does dehydrating onions and peppers smell up the house?

Onions, yes - do it outside if possible. Peppers, no, not in my experience. Garlic, certainly - again, outside if you can. I fill up the dehydrator once a year or so with chopped onions and sliced garlic (I have 12 trays for my American Harvest machine - approx. 12 square feet), and leave the whole thing out on the covered deck till dry. This is quite enough to cover my needs for at least a year.