This seems like such an easy thing to do I must be missing something. Caveat: I don't like spending time dehydrating food. Tried dehydrating hamburger once and decided not work the trouble, though it was a very successful batch of crumbles.

As far as I can tell, Hormel dried beef is cured and salted, ready to eat, but need to be refrigerated after opening the package. So if it's cured already, why not just soak to remove salt, then dehydrate it? It's cured right? But not smoked, flavored or thick like jerky. Thin sliced and should be minimal effort to dehydrate? Or is there dehydrated sliced beef already available?

sounds like more work than ground beef. :)

Take it as it is. Soak out the salt at camp and use as beef. Does that work?

bobbernumber3: "Take it as it is. Soak out the salt at camp and use as beef. Does that work?"

Except for 2 things: I'm selfish about dumping water: prefer to ingest (for lack of a better word) all the water I haul to camp. (except soapy washing water. Yuck.) Of a lesser concern is the rare times I'm out in weather that stays above 60 deg and the meat should be refrigerated.)

Otherwise, yep, stellar idea. Least amount of effort. Big plus for that.

billconner: "sounds like more work than ground beef. :)"

Almost. I'm thinking I don't have to cook it or remove any grease that might go rancid. I did that with the hamburger and was more work than I wanted.
Who knows, might change my mind about that too.

GeneH: "

billconner: "sounds like more work than ground beef. :)"

Almost. I'm thinking I don't have to cook it or remove any grease that might go rancid. I did that with the hamburger and was more work than I wanted.
Who knows, might change my mind about that too."

I buy 90 or 95% lean and just drained and a little squeeze and into dehydrator. Doesn't seem like much effort. Seems easier than soaking at camp but for sure ymmv.

How do you intend to use the washed, dehydrated, rehydrated dried beef? Have you tried a recipe with the final product at home? The beef is so thin, I can't imagine any remaining texture, body, or flavor once you finally put it into a recipe and cook it again.

Skip all the hassle and unknowns and just purchase freeze-dried beef. You will have a top notch product that is like the real thing.

Piece of cake. I rinse the salt off under running water, throw it on the dehydrator, and it turns into beef chips that look and crunch like potato chips. Crunch them up, then pack. Works great in biscuits and gravy, creamed chipped beef, etc. I haven’t ever tried using it to replace ground beef in tacos or spaghetti sauce. But the drying is easy.

Hockhocking: "Piece of cake. I rinse the salt off under running water, throw it on the dehydrator, and it turns into beef chips that look and crunch like potato chips. Crunch them up, then pack. Works great in biscuits and gravy, creamed chipped beef, etc. I haven’t ever tried using it to replace ground beef in tacos or spaghetti sauce. But the drying is easy."

Great answer to the OP question by someone who has done this.

Gotta love this board!

Northwoodsman: "Skip all the hassle and unknowns and just purchase freeze-dried beef. You will have a top notch product that is like the real thing."

Do you have a favored brand that I can go lookup reviews and such?
The 2 or 3 that I checked didn't have great reviews. The one that I do remember the name is Thrive Life ground beef, and that has 16 grams fat in a 36 gram serving. The reviews I did scan indicated a pretty bland, cardboard flavor. One was actually pretty amusing, at least to me.

bobbernumber3: "

Hockhocking: "Piece of cake. I rinse the salt off under running water......the drying is easy."

Great answer to the OP question by someone who has done this.

Gotta love this board! "

Agreed!

billconner: I buy 90 or 95% lean and just drained and a little squeeze and into dehydrator. Doesn't seem like much effort. Seems easier than soaking at camp but for sure ymmv."

Bill, what's your process? Fry it up, squeeze most of the grease out onto paper towels, and dehydrate in a low-temp countertop air dryer?

I might have carried the process a little further than needed: Really worked to get all the grease out, and if I remember correctly I rinsed it after that to get even more grease out. Then put it in the oven. I really wanted to make sure the hamburger didn't go rancid on me in 70 deg or higher weather for a few days, as well as having a 6 month freezer-bound shelf life.

As others have stated, brown the meat as normal in a skillet or pan. Drain the fat. Right away rinse the cooked meat with very hot water to remove any remaining fat particulates. Then dehydrate.

How much water will it take to rehydrate it? Weigh the meat before you dry it and after you dry it. This difference in weight is how many ounces of water you will need to add back in.

Here is a link to some shelf stable and freeze dried meat products. Excellent quality.
Packit Gourmet Shelf Stable Meat

Thanks Northwoodsman for the dehydrating info - good to know I'm on the right track, and for the link to Packit Gourmet. Now I remember why I tried hamburger crumbles myself: $$$$.

I've enough info now and think I'll stick to trying TVP for packing light and just carry frozen cooked hamburger or chopped beef when I'm dragging a sled in the snow, or take a steak on short distance weekend trips. If if find flavored TVP just doesn't cut it, I'll probably dry out thinly sliced cooked beef or extra lean hamburger.

Thanks everyone!

GeneH: "

bobbernumber3: "Take it as it is. Soak out the salt at camp and use as beef. Does that work?"

Except for 2 things: I'm selfish about dumping water: prefer to ingest (for lack of a better word) all the water I haul to camp. (except soapy washing water. Yuck.) Of a lesser concern is the rare times I'm out in weather that stays above 60 deg and the meat should be refrigerated.)


Otherwise, yep, stellar idea. Least amount of effort. Big plus for that."

Use the principle of evaporative cooling if it's not humid. Take your beef ,wrap it in a damp terry towel and then put in a small soft side cooler. The water will evaporate from the towel and keep the meat cool. We keep meat and cheese this way up to two weeks in Wabakimi. In forest fire areas we had temps way above 100. Bare rock reflects lots of heat.

The same principle used to be used in swamp coolers to cool homes before AC became widespread
This won't work in Louisiana but ought to in the BW

I used fry pan on top and pyrex in oven - not sure it matters - drain in a SS strainer, dump onto parchment lined dehydrator tray, and go till it's like grape nuts. I have blotted it with paper towel but it doesn't even seem to collect grease. I keep in freezer till day before trip and when I open it, it seems dry and not greasy at all. Preferably 95% lean.

Works for me. YMMV

yellowcanoe:
Use the principle of evaporative cooling if it's not humid. Take your beef ,wrap it in a damp terry towel and then put in a small soft side cooler.....

Hey that's what I do to cool beer faster in the refrigerator! Thanks! Hadn't considered it for food storage.

Thank you Bill.

I've a lot of clear info and confirmation in this thread about getting meat prepped. Also good, critical questions I had to think about.

Winning.

When I dry ground beef I add a 1/2 cup of bread crumbs to a pound of meat. The bread crumbs absorb water and the ground beef is tender instead of being gravel when rehydrated. Check out Backpacker Glen’s site. Haven’t figured out how to add a link on my IPad.

Carl

The Backpacking Chef

Looks like an interesting site you have!