Dehydrator/dehydrating books?

imported
#1

I’m planning an AT thru-hike for 2006 ((can never start too early, right?)), and could use suggestions on food dehydrating books/resources. ((books geared towards vegetarianism would be greatly appreciated))

Thanks!!

Amy (the good one)

#2

You might want to check out Lipsmackin’ Vegetarian Backpackin’ when it comes out: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0762725311/qid%3D1082143772/sr%3D8/104-9816803-9979163. It will have lots of vegetarian recipes, many of which will either call for or use dehydrated foods. As for the mechanics of dehydration, it will probably be explained in the booklet that comes with your dehydrator. If not, you can do searches on the web. I’ve had a lot of luck with dehydrating frozen veggies, such as frozen stir fry mixed vegetables to use in various dishes. Let me know if there are any foods that you are specifically looking for more information on.

Kanga

#3

“High Trail Cookery” by Linda Frederick Yaffe is a great cookbook, full of real meals that you cook up and then dehydrate. I’ve tried several and they were all good.
My favorite snack for trips is to dehydrate pineapple, its wonderful. I just got a new deyhydrator the Excalibur. its great. http://www.excaliburdehydrator.com/

Judy 7 of 9

#4

Thanks Kanga and Judy 7 of 9 for your suggestions and ideas!

I’ll keep and eye out for the book and check out the Excalibur dehydrator!!! I figure with each food taking more than 8-10 hours to dehydrate…i better get a jump on 2006!! :nerd

Amy (the good Amy)

#5

Amy, you may also enjoy; Cooking the One Burner Way,
ISBN 0-934802-91-2 $11.99 and NOLS Cookery (national outdoor leadership skool) 0-8117-2860-9 $12.95 Lots of good info on driers, pots, spices recipes etc.

Bushwhack

#6

“Dry it, you’ll like it” - good recipes, instructions on how to make an awesome dehydrator.

Tha Wookie

#7

On your thru hike, try to just carry a couple of veggies out of a town. peppers aren’t really that heavy, what else? zucchini, onion, carrot, a fresh jalapeno makes ramen into something new, anything in the produce aisle you can fit in your pack. most of it will keep a day or two, maybe more. even if it is borderline spoiled, if you boil it, it probably won’t harm you. Are you really washing your pot out that much anyway? Dice it in the parking lot or at a hostel or something. The weight isn’t that much more.

Another trail pig trick is the bag of frozen veggies in your pack. even in summer! you eat it that day for dinner, save on a town meal, and power up. Frozen spinach with Knorr pesto and pasta and garlic. That’s good enough for your home on a dinner date.

Just what I do, backpacking that is…

Dehydating, I found, was pretty time consuming, and when it comes down to it, you just have to cook those little rubberized devils longer so you use more fuel.

From my experience. maybe I did a shotty job on the dehydrating.

It goes back to that old wives tale:
“When you are out there on the trail, you could put ketchup and mustard on a piece of sh*t, and it would taste like a million dollars.”

See where I’m coming from?

Bandito

#8

I found out for the time and effort, Beef Jerky. I take london broil and cut in strips and soak in Soy Sauce overnite then dry, while I soak another bunch while I dry the other stuff. I must have $500 in Beef Jerkey in 3 days work. And it don’t even taste like that store crap. its like homemade chocolate chip cookies compaired to store jerky.
Vegetarian foods that I will dry 50 pound at a time or its a waste of time are Strawberries, apples slices treated with [fresh fruit], And I got a blueberry farm down the road and I dry 100 pounds of them blanched. Everything else I can buy in #10 cans of mountain house foods on the internet cheaper. Right now I don’t have any dried foods cept #10 cans. But I bought a apple pealer and want to dry 50 pounds of apples treated with fresh fruit.
Nothing much to books, they all are about the same. You have to dry for yourself. Make sure you have air conditioning if you live in a humid area. Or nothing will ever dry. Have some fun with it but your not going to save money. Mountains house really is the best. They even have dehydrated ice cream. I ate all 10 packs before I even left once.So If I wanted to take 10 packs of dehydrated ice cream on the A-T .I would probably have to buy 100 packs just to have 10 left to carry. So don’t buy the MH ice cream, you’ll never get it out of the house.:slight_smile:

Greg

#9

Greg…you are indeed a trooper! I just have to ask about the ice cream; do you add ice or milk to it? Do you have to do something to make its consistancy like ice cream or do you just shake it? Do you then have to freeze it? I believe you & it sounds good; but I just can’t imagine how it works! :cheers

half moon

#10

Thank you I appreciate that. I think I spoil myself.Don’t read any further if you eat power bars… It’s really just like eating chunks of dehydrated ice cream that melt in your mouth like ice cream almost. It was real cold ice cream, now its freezed dried chunks of ice cream that you eat right out of the bag. You don’t use water or anything. Its the freeze drying that does something to the ice cream. Nothing like it in the world.I tried it first at a campsite and we all said it taste even better than ice cream. That’s why I ate the packs up at home before I got out on the trail, cause you do nothing but open it like a bag chips and eat dehydrated ice cream that’s all there is to it, and “here try some of this” and its all gone. Great idea to send to a friend at a PO drop cause by the time you get to the outfitter they are sold out all the time to. Sure I would buy the whole rack, I think they are $4 or something a bag.
I also realized here after I sent that why it cost me dollar mile to. I didn’t add prepackageing or price of the mail. I wouldn’t know how to do it without maildrops. I don’t want to know either. No grits for me thank you. You don’t want to know what grits are either,trust me.

Greg