Dehydrated foods

[Rocdenindy]

I am looking at doing some overnight camping trips and want to take dehydrated meals with me and have a few questions. Can I dehydrate canned foods such as chili? I like Hormel Turkey chili and I know one of the biggest concerns with dehydrating food is fat content and its pretty low in fat. Will that work? Also, I see a lot of people talking about food going rancid. How do you tell in dehydrated food? With hamburger, is it worth doing on my own or buying "store bought" dehydrated hamburger? I know that doing dairy and eggs are extremely difficult so I will just use the ready made stuff for that but wondered on the meat portion and premade type meals. Also, any suggestions on foods to take? The hikes will be 2-3 days and water access is good. Thanks for any input.

 

[joseywales7450]

I have never personally dehydrated much more than jerky. I'm a big proponent for dehydrated meals while backpacking and canoeing. They are quick, easy and there are some good ones out there. Cache Lake has some great meals (biscuits and gravy are my favorite meal of theirs). Also, eggs won't go bad in the shell if you can keep them from breaking. Get a plastic carrier for eggs and you'd be fine. MSR makes some good meals too.

If if you are dead set on dehydrating your own food, you should be able to google and find some websites dedicated to dehydrating your own camping food. I hear spagehtti tomato sauce is really easy (no meat).

My 2 cents is to just buy them from REI or wherever.

My favorite lunch on the trail is summer sausage, Hawaiian rolls, and cheddar. Just like in Boy Scouts!

Easy breakfast is simply oatmeal doctored up with granola, dried fruit, nuts, honey, etc.

Cooking and cleanup takes a lot of time on the trail so I say, the easier the better so you can enjoy the outdoors more, except for a good meal here or there.

Another thing I've done is prep and freeze a hobo dinner (potatoes, onions, carrots, celery, stew meat) then throw that on a fire in tin foil for the first night on the trail. Always a crowd pleaser.