Our new oven has a dehydrator feature! Very interested in trying it out.

What are your "go-to" dehydrator items? I'm thinking ground beef and venison so we don't have to rely on CHICKEN EVERY NIGHT!!!!

Love FRED's idea on the sweet potatoes.

Anyone else have a newer oven with this mode? How long do you do your ground beef/venison for? That's what I'm primarily interested in now.

An oven with the dehydrator feature, sounds intresting. I use a regular dehydrator and I dry my hamburger down to "gravel". I've had dehydrated burger in the freezer for well over a year and it tasted OK but I try to use it up by the end of my last trip. I brown my burger and sausage then rinse with hot water [to get off as much grease as possible] then dump it on the screened trays and set the dehydrator on 165 degrees and leave about 5-6 hours then check. If you vacum seal "gravel" put 2-3 layers of paper towels around the burger or it may poke holes in the vacum bag. Some of the food stuff I dehydrate are, sweet potatoes, spagetti sauce, salsa, mushrooms, stawberries, FRED

Besides dehydrating ground beef. We do a lot of fruits and veggies. We do apple slices, strawberries, kiwi, broccoli, bell peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, and lots of other veggies.

quote OldFingers57: "Besides dehydrating ground beef. We do a lot of fruits and veggies. We do apple slices, strawberries, kiwi, broccoli, bell peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, and lots of other veggies.
"

Us too. We also do lean pork sausage, shredded chicken breasts, peaches, fruit leathers, any sauce that doesn't have dairy in it, corn, peas, green beans, apple sauce, potatoes, carrots, the list is endless for trip food. One of our favorite add ins to noodle dishes is chopped, dehydrated broccoli &/or mushrooms.

For long term storage at home, it's just mushrooms, fruits and veggies.

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Spaghetti sauce
chicken pad thai
salsa
baked beans
hamburger
chili
a mexican rice dish
corn
fruit leathers
applesauce


Most of it rehydrates well. Meats and black beans need to simmer a little to rehydrate fully.

Just use a regular electric oven myself. I do cut and/or ground beef, pork sausage, venisons. I brown in a fry pan, drain on paper towel, transfer to cookie sheets and parchment paper. Into oven between warm and 200 degrees for about 5 hours. I leave the door open about an inch, turn over every hour. Look for "Grape Nuts" consistency.
Italian seasoned pork sausage top. 95% lean ground sirloin below. Started with 1 1/4 pound each ended with around 6oz dried each.



butthead

quote butthead: "Just use a regular electric oven myself. I do cut and/or ground beef, pork sausage, venisons. I brown in a fry pan, drain on paper towel, transfer to cookie sheets and parchment paper. Into oven between warm and 200 degrees for about 5 hours. I leave the door open about an inch, turn over every hour. Look for "Grape Nuts" consistency.
Italian seasoned pork sausage top. 95% lean ground sirloin below. Started with 1 1/4 pound each ended with around 6oz dried each.



butthead"

Just made my "grape-nut" beef today! Stored/sealed in a Food Saver Bag. Do you just store in your cupboard - or? How long is this good for now, and how much water do you use to rehydrate?

Over night (12 hours) just because I'm lazy and that's the maximum time mine will run for. Lots of advice but mix ground meat with bread crumbs so it rehydrated better. I always bring dried veggies. I just use the frozen microwave kind.

quote BasecampMom: "Just made my "grape-nut" beef today! Stored/sealed in a Food Saver Bag. Do you just store in your cupboard - or? How long is this good for now, and how much water do you use to rehydrate?"

I vac-bag, toss into the freezer till I package for a trip. When repackaged for a trip it goes into twist tie baggies (I pantry pack instead of individual meals). I re-hydrate extra wet because I'll need the moisture for the rest of the meal, usually mixing a sauce right in with the meat, think spaghetti meat sauce or pork sausage gravy to serve over biscuits/mashed potatoes.

butthead

Boy, I like the thought of that option on a stove. How efficient I wonder.

Using the regular dehydrator for hamburger or Italian sausage I measure out portions in snack bags and put usually 5 or 6 in a freezer ziplock. I do plenty to have on hand. Last year did nothing much more than day trips. But I'm always playing with meals and use it up with in a year. I'd keep dehydrated meats in the freezer until needed. I quit using the vacuum sealer for most things because no matter what I did it seemed to take up a lot more room in the vault. And a hassle making small solo packaging.

I think the longest I've kept dehydrated ground beef in the deep freezer was about 14 months, and it was fine when it was used last summer. When vacuum sealing poky things like ground beef, chili, pasta, etc I like to line the vac bag with a paper towel, then put the stuff I wish to seal into the paper towel lining. The paper helps to blunt any sharp edges and then you have a bonus piece of dry paper for hands, fire starting, etc.

As far as rehydrating.... I weigh what I am dehydrating first, then weigh it again when it is dried. The difference is basically how much water you need to add back in because all you are doing is removing water. A 1 oz. liquid measure of water is basically equal to 1 oz. by weight. For example it you take 32 oz. of pre-cooked and rinsed ground beef and dehydrate it to 8 oz., you would need to add 24 oz. (3 cups) of water to rehydrate it. If you divided the ground beef into two packages, you would add 12 oz. (1.5 cups) to each.