I just tried to dehydrate my chili. I did 4 cups of chili, which is about one hardy meal on a solo. I did it at 140 for about 10 hours. How do I know when it is done? I read the post about it being like leather. It is all crumbly, the beans, corn, and beef is hard. The broth breaks up like a saltine cracker. Did I cook it too long? Do you let it cool before you bag it and freeze it? By the way the dehydrater is a Open Country. I didn't want to spend a lot until I know I would use one . Thanks for the help.

It should be fine. It can depend on the recipe what kind of product you get at the end. Mine was as you said very dry and crumbly I had to double vacuum bag it in order to keep it from poking holes in the vacuum bag. It tasted fine after re-hydrating. Bacteria and other nasties grow best in the temperature range from 41 to 140 degrees fahrenheit so by keeping it at or slightly above 140 you did the right thing.

I've only done it one time, but yours sounds like mine did when it was done. It rehydrated easily and tasted very good. I've done a few more test run recipes, so far, so good.

So, not just chili, but is the conventional wisdom that if dehydrated, assuming it's really dry but not burnt, and allowed to cool before vacuum sealing, that any food has a long shelf life in the freezer and at least a week or two or three in a pack?

Just dehydrated and stored on a shelf in your house, how long would you store dried fruit or vegetables? ground beef?

Just curious - from a guy who has no problems storing fresh eggs un-refrigerated for a month or more.

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Main Meal Dehydrating