How much does dehydrated food weigh

The most important thing you should remember is if it has fat it probably is NOT okay to dehydrate. Dehydrating vegetables is so easy to do and requires little to no preparation at all. Unless you want to make veggie chips yum then crank it on up. Mushrooms are one of my favourites to add to my trail meals. What is blanching? Why blanch? Do you have to blanch or not? How do you blanch? These are good questions and I hope to shed a little bit of light on it for you.

Blanching is a process of basically boiling or steaming the food for a short minute before plunging it into a bowl of icy water. Once the moisture has been removed, the ingredients will be lighter and more compact.

Blanching vegetables will not only keep the rich colour of the food, but it can also remove any grit, dirt and organisms from the surface. This process also will help destroy an enzyme in the food that can give off a bitter taste after you have dehydrated it. The biggest reason people like to blanch is that it helps seal in the flavours and vitamins.

I find it helps keep the colour of the vegetables, and that some flavours are stronger if first blanched before dehydrating. Broccoli is an ingredient you can blanch before putting into your dehydrator. I like to nibble on veggie chips whilst hiking and at camp… I use sweet potato and zucchini and carrots but you can be creative.

Try: adding salt and garlic powder to them before dehydrating for extra flavour. I love fruit and I always buy an orange and a cucumber when I hit a town on a trail. The cucumber will last a few days and I munch away on it while walking. The orange is the same and really makes a nice change from drinking water all the time. I, however, eat the orange a little differently. This is because I use it to help make a yummy cake for dessert at camp!

It is such a treat and makes the other hikers jealous. Slice some strawberries, dehydrate them and use them in your breakfasts on the trail. You can dehydrate all types of fruit to have as your snacks or even put into your meals.

I often will have stewed fruit with custard at night or even for breakfast. You can add it to your cereal or oats, make fruit rolls, or even fruit chips. Some fruits need to be treated first by using an acid-based fruit juice to help prevent it from turning brown. I squirt these fruits with either lemon or lime juice, but pineapple juice can work too. Tip: do not slice your fruit too thick, this will make the drying process far too long, so slice thinly for better results.

I often do this for my blueberries or raspberries. Pears will need to be treated with citrus juice before dehydrating. Get creative with what you make, I personally love the combo of watermelon and pear! To make these you just blend all the fruit you want to use together into a puree, spread it evenly over your solid dehydrator tray and pop it into the dehydrator.

When it is around halfway done you will begin to see that it starts to become leatherier. At this point, I peel it off and flip it over to help dry it evenly. Kids also love them, even the older ones! Rice is one of the most popular and oldest grains used by mankind and a staple in the diet of most cultures.

I tend to pre-cook my rice and pasta then put it in the dehydrator. Sounds silly I know, but it really does make the cooking time at camp a whole lot quicker which means you are using less water and less fuel — which is always a good thing! Pre-cooking ingredients such as rice and pasta will save you time later on. I always have rice for my breakfast and throw in loads of dehydrated fruit and mixed nuts with a squirt of condensed milk. So yummy! A delicious Italian risotto goes down a treat after a long day of hiking.

The dehydrating process makes it easy for you to create and have your own homemade yummy soup on the trail. Whether it is a chicken or beef broth, veggie or noodle soup — you can have it all! Tip: I sometimes grate my vegetables then dehydrate. Not only does the food dehydrate quicker, it also rehydrates quicker. When I make a pot of my soup at home for the trail I use less water during the cooking process because this makes the soup more concentrated and easier for the dehydration process.

Remember that when you do rehydrate your soup you can add as much water as you want. Once the soup is made, you then spread it over the solid drying trays. Tip: I put my serving size on each tray to make it easier to know how much to pack per meal. For example, my pumpkin soup takes around 10 hours, as I puree it first , where my chicken curry and vegetable takes 12 hours as there are chunky bits of vegetable and chicken in it.

Tip: Blending your soup to a puree is great for quick rehydrating and once your soup is dehydrated, put it back into the blender to blend into a fine powder. A bowl of piping hot noodle soup is a yummy treat on a cold evening at camp. The main thing to remember is to make sure it is completely dehydrated and choose meats that are of a lean cut with little to no fat.

Be sure to slice your meats small to help it dehydrate quicker. I find that mincemeat works the best for dehydrating. On average, meat will take around 12 hours to dehydrate and I always do so at the higher temperature setting.

Tip: I place the food into my dehydrator right before bed so once you wake in the morning it is done and ready for storage. Once you try it, you can get more confident dehydrating meat.

Storing your dehydrated meat correctly and safely will help your meat last. A safe guideline for you to go by would be to consume your dehydrated meat within the first 6 months, providing you store it correctly. You can use ziplock bags or vacuum seal it for storage. Tip: Be sure, before you handle the food, your hands are completely clean and free of any oils. I would recommend you use food safe gloves as well.

Store your dehydrated meat in a dark cool place like your pantry. Some people prefer to store in the freezer as they say it lasts longer.

It is recommended before placing in the freezer to vacuum seal the meat first to avoid freezer burn. This is a personal choice, so it may take some experimentation to work out what works best for you. I know some hikers I meet on the track say that they easily double that!

Not bad! Beef is easier to rehydrate than chicken and offers more flexibility as you can put it in meals such as casseroles or stews, providing a hearty meal on the track that warms you up on cold and wet days. Unlike other meat, my experience dehydrating chicken has not always been successful, to say the least.

Once dehydrated, the chicken will often become dry, stringy or chewy when rehydrated. I use chicken mince as it dehydrates quickly and re-hydrates back even quicker and is just as moist. Chicken mince is best for dehydrating — then you can add it to a pasta or rice dish. When I am cooking for the family dinner I will make extra and put the leftovers into the dehydrator overnight, so by the time I wake up in the morning, its ready to be packed away.

Tip: be sure when you are preparing that you chop the ingredients, like the meat and vegetables, up small. The brown rice by itself weighed 60 grams. Once I placed the rice and dried Tasty Bite in a vacuum bag and sealed it up the whole entree weighed a scant grams.

This allows me to carry three dried meals for the same weight as one that is not dried! There are many different types of foods that can be easily dehydrated. Generally foods with less oils in them will dehydrate easily.

If the food has too much oil it can take a long time to dry, or will not keep for a long period of time. I had troubles trying to dehydrate certain types of canned chili because of the amount of oils. Just check the ingredients list and look for items where oils are listed close to the end of the list ingredients with lesser amounts rather than closer to the top of the list ingredients in greater amounts.

My best advice it to experiment with different meals before trying to make up meals for a trip you have planned for the coming weekend. Generally it will take at least hours to fully dry, and package a single meal. I only used one solid tray at a time. In theory you could have several meals worth drying all at one time.

Dry times may be longer for multiple trays going at one time. You will also want to figure out how much water to add back into the dried meal to rehydrate it. Initially I took the difference in the dried and pre-dried weights of the meal and added back that weight in water to rehydrate the meal. This ended up being too much water.

The dried food will not reabsorb all of the water that was removed. This will vary so again experimentation is key. Please note, comments must be approved before they are published.

For those of us new to long-distance hiking, making an extra effort to douse your food with powdered butter or olive oil can sound a little counterintuitive. So enjoy the denser food and the lighter pack weight that comes with it! One last strategy for cutting your backpacking food weight on a thru-hike: ditch your stove and fuel entirely. For the right person, in the right conditions, this can be an excellent strategy.

For the wrong person or in difficult conditions, it can be inefficient, uncomfortable and possibly dangerous. Consider your needs: Do you need hot coffee to get started in the morning? Are the foods you plan to carry without a stove heavier than what you have now? Going stoveless also requires planning ahead, as cold-soaking takes longer to rehydrate foods than heating does.

This means you have to carry or have access to water a few hours before mealtime to add to your food, and carry that weight as it rehydrates. Make sure to experiment with cold-soaking some of your favorite foods on shorter hikes before committing to a stoveless strategy.

And if you do choose to ditch your stove a couple of months into your thru-hike as some do , consider adding it to your bounce box a box of items you send to yourself at upcoming trail towns instead, for easy accessibility during the sections of the trail that might experience more inclement conditions.

Fortunately, there are plenty of backpacking foods that are just as good cold-soaked as they are hot. It cuts water while adding fat and packs a huge flavor punch. Combine all ingredients except for the olive oil in a reusable silicone or plastic freezer bag. Be sure that the powdered ingredients are thoroughly broken up and incorporated.