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Boundary Waters Quetico Forum :: BWCA Food and Recipes :: Rehydrating hamburger
 
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hooky
06/24/2016 10:36AM
  
I've never rehydrated just the burger. It's always with other ingredients. I tend to eat my dehydrated meals like a stew, so they have a little more water in them than if I was fixing them at home.


As soon as my water comes to a boil, I pull it off the fire and then pour into my freezer bag so the water is about 1/4" above the food. I try to push out the air, seal it, give it a good squish to make sure there aren't any dry spots and then let it sit for 15 min in the coozy with another quick squish while still in the coozy to mix around halfway. If there's dehydrated corn in it, I give it 20.


In my case, coozy = knit stcoking cap in cold weather or a padded UPS envelope in warm weather.
 
butthead
06/24/2016 11:45AM
  
quote hooky: "I've never rehydrated just the burger. It's always with other ingredients. I tend to eat my dehydrated meals like a stew, so they have a little more water in them than if I was fixing them at home.



As soon as my water comes to a boil, I pull it off the fire and then pour into my freezer bag so the water is about 1/4" above the food. I try to push out the air, seal it, give it a good squish to make sure there aren't any dry spots and then let it sit for 15 min in the coozy with another quick squish while still in the coozy to mix around halfway. If there's dehydrated corn in it, I give it 20.



In my case, coozy = knit stcoking cap in cold weather or a padded UPS envelope in warm weather."


That is the thing I like about my GSI solo press, doubles as a strainer/press/coozy. It really holds in heat if you use both insulated cup and press nested.


butthead
 
Savage Voyageur
06/23/2016 11:53AM
  
I agree with all, it's not rocket surgery here. Just add a cup and pour off the extra. I've done this many times.
 
butthead
06/23/2016 01:20PM
  
As mentioned, dried burger will take water to a point then just pour off extra or use in sauce. The breadcrumbs function is more for holding flavor, in my opinion. Sometimes I use some not. When using crumbs I add worcestershire or teriyaki sauce.


butthead
 
marsonite
08/13/2015 05:46AM
  
For starters I would add a cup of water to a cup of dried burger. It's not an exact science, and you can always pour off the excess.


It's too late for you probably, but adding bread crumbs to the burger before you brown it really helps the rehydration process.


As to how long, I boil it and put it in a cozy for as long as I can, up to an hour. Hamburger without the bread crumbs really never totally rehydrates that well in my experience, thus the name "gravel". But it goes down just fine on a canoe trip!


I know some people people start the rehydration process at lunch, though I personally am not comfortable with that from a food safety standpoint.



 
4keys
08/13/2015 06:55AM
  
Thanks for the info. I did read about the breadcrumbs, but totally forgot about them until I was done cooking. Always next time.
 
OldFingers57
08/13/2015 06:59AM
  
I know some people on Facebook groups that feel you have to add the precise amount of water to whatever you have dehydrated by weighing the food before and after dehydrating. Let's face it though, this is not Advanced Chemistry here. Just add some water to the meat and let it soak in and then gradually add more.
 
4keys
08/12/2015 10:53PM
  
So I have the hamburger meat dehydrated and bagged. How much water do I need to rehydrate this? Some say cover with water- just over the top, by half an inch, what?
Other recipes say 1:1. Is that one part water to one part meat- as measured before or after dehydrating? In other words, I took 2 pounds raw meat, cooked it down to 5 cups meat, then dehydrated it to just over 2 cups gravel. When rehydrating do I use 2 cups, 3 cups, or 5 cups water? And realistically how long does it take to become edible again?
 
huntfun2
06/23/2016 09:42AM
  
Ditto on adding the bread crumbs, makes a big difference.
 
ManBehindThePlan
08/13/2015 10:21AM
  
You can also let it soak in ambient temp water for awhile, and then boil. If you do this separately, any excess can be poured off, just like OldFingers said.


I find measuring things in the wilderness to be too much work, especially since I don't have a full kitchen. Heck, I rarely measure at home either, and nobody complains :)
 
brux
08/20/2015 12:09PM
  
I use a 1:1 (1 cup dried food gets 1 cup of water) ratio for rehydrating all my home dried meals. If it looks a little dry during the rehydration process just add a little water, but I rarely have to do this.
 
Goby
08/20/2015 03:50PM
  
I agree with the one to one ratio that others mentioned. If you are cooking the meat with a sauce or something, just add the sauce to the mix and cook to simmer down any excess water.
 
hooky
06/24/2016 12:32PM
  
Interesting. I have one of their 30 oz presses with a neoprene insulating sleeve, but not the nesting cup.


I'll have to take a look and see if they sell a nesting cup for the size I have.


Thanks, BH.
 
HammerII
06/23/2016 11:32PM
  
quote 4keys: "So I have the hamburger meat dehydrated and bagged. How much water do I need to rehydrate this? Some say cover with water- just over the top, by half an inch, what?
Other recipes say 1:1. Is that one part water to one part meat- as measured before or after dehydrating? In other words, I took 2 pounds raw meat, cooked it down to 5 cups meat, then dehydrated it to just over 2 cups gravel. When rehydrating do I use 2 cups, 3 cups, or 5 cups water? And realistically how long does it take to become edible again?"


I find a good starting point to be 1 cup to 1 cup.


Now and this is sort of the important part to having just a meal, or having a dinning experience in the wilds. Who said you have to use just water?
I have found that just by adding a bit of simple powdered beef stock makes a huge amount of difference. Heck the best “Italian dinner” we ever had on a river bank started with gravel that we added powdered tomato to the water. A few herbs and a bit of powdered garlic oh man that was a killer meal after a long hard day. Just think about what the gravel is going to be used in and try to add a bit more flavor to bring it back to life. Simple SOS over instant potato’s grab one of those instant beef gravy packets and use that watered down a bit to bring that gravel to life.
Even something as simple as a few shakes of red pepper flakes to boiling water brings smiles to the finished product.
Don’t forget to play with your food, I find that if I start adding water to the gravel around midday break by dinner we’re about ready. We’ve never had a problem but we always cook the reconstituted gravel when fixing dinner.



 
Dances with Sheep
06/24/2016 07:46AM
  
quote huntfun2: "Ditto on adding the bread crumbs, makes a big difference."


I always rinse the ground beef after cooking to get rid of excess fat. Obviously you can't rinse if you are using bread crumbs. Are there any concerns with the crumbs absorbing oil and spoiling sooner?


Thanks
 
billconner
06/24/2016 08:10AM
  
I tried bread crumbs one year and thought it lessened the "beefy" flavor, so now just beef. 96% lean and don't rinse. No problems rehydrating. I do measure weight and use that as a guide for how much water but probably eyeballing it is fine.
 
mirth
06/24/2016 09:54AM
  
Interesting suggestion on using some powdered beef stock when rehydrating to rejuvenate some flavor that might be lost due to lack of fat or rinsing it away. I might try that next trip.