I have heard some talk about making your own jerky, or fruit leather and several other things like dehydrating spaghetti sauce. I am interested in what other things you dehydrate to take with you, and what kind of dehydrator do you use? I am trying to break the chains of spending loads of money on freeze dried foods that I don't really think taste all that great. I normally don't bring much if any fresh food mostly because I like to save the weight. I am open to your best lightweight recipes to help me become a better wilderness chef. My canoe partners will thank you for any help you can give me.

I have an American Harvester dehydrator that I bought at Fleet Farm. Not the greatest dehydrator but gets the job done.

I dehydrate jerky, spaghettii sauce, hamburger, fruits (apple, strawberry etc), literally anything that contains lots of liquid that would be lighter dried. It helps to bring in store bought food thus saving money as well as gives you more choices for food that you will enjoy. Jerky is a great portage snack too.

My dehydrator is some cheap model I got somewhere - probably a walmart type store. Get one with a fan. If you really want to go whole hog get one with temperature control. I spent less than $40 for mine.

The most important things to dehydrate IMHO is tomato paste and hamburger. Those are the two items hardest to find, and are the most handy to have, that are not on the supermarket shelves. I do dehydrate jerky, too.

Most other things I can find dehydrated (banana chips, apple slices, vegetables, etc). It saves me time and I get a superior quality. But if you want to dehydrate your own stuff, go for it.

I bought the RonCo brand several years back when I was up watching late night TV. I know it sounds hokey but it actually works pretty good. It came with a recipe book as I suppose most of them do. I agree with Bannock that Hamburger is important to dehydrate. I like dehydrating apples and grapes (read that as raisins) I can't seem to find dried apples to often and the raisins you wind up with are huge. I dried dehydrating chicken breasts I had pre-cooked but they didn't turn out very good.

You can dehyrate almost anything. I think the best value in a dehyrator is doing ground beef. This *really* makes a difference for me. Also, spagehetti sauce!

I don't do veggies too often because I can get "just veggies" at my coop fairly cheap (*WAY* cheaper than REI), and they are much better than I could do on my own. :)

The number one thing, test EVERYTHING at least once before you bring it with. This way you don't have to depend on food you might not like.

I just had some "just veggies" for the first time today. Not too bad at all, and from what I'm reading about dehydrating my own stuff vs. buying freeze dried I figure I'm just gonna buy some "just veggies."
Don't suppose anyone knows where to get the larger sizes in the Twin Cities? Does MidwestMountaineering do free shipping to their store a la REI?

I object to the "Just veggies" theory!

I dehydrate a lot of veggies for a lot cheaper than I can get at the local co-op and most of them turn out just fine. Some veggies you'll want to blanch a little before drying (Mostly firmer ones), if your using frozen you don't really need to. Potatoes should be cut THIN and blanched. Shrooms (not veggies) also dry well....

Canned baked beans dry nicely!

You can also prepair a whole meal for the appropriate number of portions/people and dry it. If you cook the spagetti sauce and make spagetti at home (cooked al dente') and dry it all together... soups and stews work also....

Hex... ever trying to lighten the food pack before I draw the "Foodbag-guy" short straw!!!

You can really dry cooked noodles? I never thought of that. Do you just mix the sauce and noodles together or dry them seperate? How long to rehydrate?

"You can really dry cooked noodles? "

Basically, that is what all Hamburger Helper meals are. The noodles in those are dehydrated cooked noodles. that's why you don't need to boil them etc. You're just rehydrating them and heating them.

"Canned baked beans dry nicely!"

Totally agree. Works perfectly for canned chili beans too. I used to make my own chili, not by dehydrating the chili, but by dehydrating the various components and mixing them together. Dehydrate a can of chili beans with sauce; a small jar of salsa, a can of tomato paste; 1/2# hamburger. Bag together. Chili!

oooh, I forgot about salsa, which does dry nice.

Rehydration time.... depends on what your makin... but typically try to keep stuff done in 20min or less at a simmer. Yeah, it takes a little while but the cook does that while the other "setup" camp chores are being taken care of. It pretty much evens out.

There are a few books on the subject that are good... for helping your realize... "Hey, I can dehydrate that!"

Hex

Wow I can't thank you all enough for the help. As I type this I am making jerky in my new dehydrator. I can't wait to try all of the different things you have suggested. This should help me pass the time until I can get a paddle back in the water.

I am actually changing my mind about drying my own veggies. I tried it in the oven and it worked well, 20 cents a serving instead of $1 from just veggies. My oven has a dehydrate mode and I got 4 screens on ebay for $10 total.
It will require a little practice for me to get good at it, but the veggies were edible, to say the least!

I've been expanding my dehydrating skills lately too planning for some hiking and also a BWCAW trip this September.

A few of the books I've gotten (names may not be spelled exact):

Backpack Gourmet ~ Linda Frederick Yaffe

Freezer Bag Cooking - Sarah Svien (www.freezerbagcooking.com)

Travel Light, Eat Heavy - www.travellighteatheavy.com

Trail Food: Drying and Cooking Food for Backpacking and Paddling
by Alan S. Kesselheim

How to Dry Foods by Deanna Delong

~~~
I've also just recently found an on-line course that I signed up for, it doesn't start until April so I can't recommend it one way or another, but it looks promising. http://outdooradventurecanada.com/order.htm

And I put up a couple of web pages on my own experiences with pictures of meals I've tried drying.
http://www.quinnfusion.com/backpacking/cooking.htm

Tom