I wanted to share a couple of successes that I had with my dehydrator and ask a couple of questions from the talent on the board.

Frozen haricot vertes C&W brand(french beans or slim green beans) dehydrate and rehydrate very well - Almost tastes fresh. Cooked pasta dries to look just like it came out of a package and rehydrates in boiling water very quickly - cook it to almost done and the rehydrating process with boiling water will finish it off.

Questions:

Anybody ever try to dehydrate dinty moore (canned) stew? If so how did it work out?

I have heard that canned chicken can be dehydrated and comes back very tender when rehydrated. Can anybody confirm this?

Thanks,

Pack Rat

I would worry about the fat content in the Dinty Moore stew. It may spoil very qickly.

Chicken, fully skinned and all fat removed can be dehydrated (pre-cooked first) and does come back, but it takes a long time to soak. What I've done with chicken is add water to my bag right after noon and strap it to my backpack or to my canoe pack, whichever I'm doing at the time. By dinner time it's ready for use.

I agree with Lorax. I had a problem with dehydrated chicken last year. I didn't soak it long enough and had chewy chicken in my soup even though I cooked the soup longer than needed. Give yourself enough time to rehydrate the chicken.

Make your own stew and cut as much fat out as you can and dehydrate that. I wouldn't do Dinty Moore.

Thanks for the responses. I agree, home cooked chicken does not rehydrate well at all. I have heard that canned chicken does rehydrate well - I'll try it and let you know. Also, for the short term (10 days or so) the Dinty Moore fat content won't be an issue. Heck, they have jerky shooters to make jerky from raw ground beef with all the fat. Also, plenty of preservatives and salt in Dinty Moore - Yum.

I guess the main point of my question is this. Does the canning process make for better rehydration of chicken and potatoes - two of the most difficult things to rehydrate?

Thanks,

Pack Rat

One time, while hiking in the Bigelow Range in maine, Me and my buddy dined on a teriyaki chicken (dried) that I rehydrated generously (or so I thought)for an hour. It was prepared with rice and spices.

I would have rather starved than chip that many teeth.

Two pesky issues:

The high sodium tends to get concentrated when dried. It can leave an "off" flavor when you rehydrate.

The other is the meat - be sure to take it out and shred it before drying.

Potato suggestion: Buy the boxed Augratin or Scalloped potatoes. Either cook with water instead of milk, or use the potatoes and discard the powder. They only take about 15 minutes of fire simmerings to make good taters. At a 1.50 a box, it's not worth it to me to dehydrate taters.

Hey Pack Rat...I don't know why this is but the canned chicken rehydrates better and faster than fresh chicken! For some great tips on dehydrating check out http://www.aforkinthetrail.com/ and http://www.wildernesscooking.com/

Kirk

The reason why canned meat dries well is two fold - one is the pressure used to can it and as well how tender the meat is. It is a "wet" meat. Home cooked meat tends to run on the drier side - not a bad thing for eating at home. For cooking and drying chicken at home using a pressure cooker seems to work the best. It produces a pretty close product to canned chicken.
But, the sodium in canned chicken also works nicely as a preservative. Not a bad thing.

"I have heard that canned chicken can be dehydrated and comes back very tender when rehydrated. Can anybody confirm this?"

I can't. I used to do before the foil pack chicken came out. I never had luck rehydrating the dehydrated canned chicken. It always was chewy and/or rubbery.