I have never dehydrated ground beef before, and I was curious if I could get some cooking tips and/or directions for doing this from anyone? I have a round Nesco dehydrator, and it works very well for dehydrating apple slices and doing beef jerky, but the ground beef is something new to me. I assume I will need to get a fruit roll sheet to put the meat on, correct? Also, what is everyone's favorite way to use the dehydrated meat in canoe country? I was thinking tacos for supper, and put in eggs for breakfast.
Thanks for any info.

My method is to brown the meat with onions, and then add water and gently simmer it for a few hours to completely tenderize it. Keep checking and adding water if necessary. You could also put it in an instant pot or pressure cooker for a half hour or so. Then put it in the fridge overnight. Next morning, peel off the congealed fat that has risen to the top and spread the hamburger on your fruit roll sheets. My dehydrator has a meat setting which I use, and I dry it until it is completely dry.

Hamburger prepared this way will rehydrate very quickly and be quite tender. Plus it is very fat free so it will keep without going rancid.

If you don't want to go to that much work just brown it and stick it in the dehydrator. It will be tougher and will tend to rehydrate to "gravel" consistency, but I did that for years and it was OK. .

I use it mainly in spaghetti sauce (you can dehydrate the spaghetti sauce too, or buy powdered tomato sauce and add your own spices), tacos, pizzas, and even wild rice casserole.

I use the 96% lean ground beef, cook it in a Pyrex dish in oven till cooked, and spread on sheets in my Nesco. I now use parchment paper "rounds" for everything I dehydrate. Sauces and such dry much quicker than on the roll up sheets.

I use in sauces, usually put in water at lunch in a fair share mug and add sauce and veggies when I get to camp, so just heat at dinner time. I have used on JMO pizza as well. I think tacos would be fine but not sure the shredded lettuce rehydrates well. :)

I've only been dehydrating ground beef for a few years and use a pretty simple method. I start with lean beef and add in some bread crumbs (I think about 1/4 cup or so per pound, maybe a bit more) and mix it in well. Someone else here on the forum suggested this would help the beef rehydrate, and it seems to as far as I can tell. Then I just brown the meat well making sure to chop the pieces up pretty small as it cooks. Then into a colander and rinse very well with hot water. The into my Round Nesco for something like 8-10 hours. I only had one roll-up tray so have often just put a bunch of the beef straight on the round trays. Some of the little pieces will fall down to lower trays, but it all gets done. Last it goes in a seal-a-meal bag, gets sealed shut, and last (but important!) use a marker to label and date.

I've mostly used the beef mixed in with some ramen or rice along with a variety of other things like mushrooms, peppers, peas, onions, or whatever. This year I'm going to try to figure out a good recipe for shepards pie - one of my favourites.

billconner: "I think tacos would be fine but not sure the shredded lettuce rehydrates well. :)"

I've sometimes seen cabbage used on tacos in Costa Rica. Cabbage last pretty well but are huge, so last year I tried bringing a few little Brussels sprouts which are very cabbage like. They lasted pretty well, but I'd suggest only using a little as some folks don't digest raw Brussels sprouts well.

Gonna try the bread crumb idea.And the pressure cooker. JayWalker, when you come up with that shepherds pie, please post it. I love the stuff.

Should be easy. Gravy mix, freeze dried vegetables, instant mashed potatoes, and dehydrated ground beef. Easiest is probably soak beef and then add gravy mix and cook, rehydrate vegetables and add. Make potatoes and pour gravy+ on. I'd like to try it in a jmo, cause I like the crispy or browned crust, but more work. Still very light weight and hearty.

Maddie the goose has a video making shepherds pie. a quick search found this recipie. The grilled sandwich in the cover photo looks like it would be worth checking out too.

I like the idea of boiling the hamburger in water and putting in the fridge.
Probably work good for sausage also but may lose some spices.

billconner: "I use the 96% lean ground beef, cook it in a Pyrex dish in oven till cooked, and spread on sheets in my Nesco. I now use parchment paper "rounds" for everything I dehydrate. Sauces and such dry much quicker than on the roll up sheets.


I use in sauces, usually put in water at lunch in a fair share mug and add sauce and veggies when I get to camp, so just heat at dinner time. I have used on JMO pizza as well. I think tacos would be fine but not sure the shredded lettuce rehydrates well. :)"

Touché, Bill. Maybe burritos is a more appropriate term, was thinking taco meat and foil pack rice and some cheese in tortilla shells. I got my Mexican cuisine mixed up

Easy peesy. Fry very low fat ground beef (96% is great). Put in a colander and rinse with hot water. Dehydrate until it resembles coffee grounds. Backpackers call this "gravel". Simply use this as you normally would ground beef for chili, tacos, spaghetti, etc.

overthehill: " Gonna try the bread crumb idea.And the pressure cooker. JayWalker, when you come up with that shepherds pie, please post it. I love the stuff."

I've looked at a bunch of recipes over the last few days, and the one I thought looked best was already here on our site under Pinned threads: Cookbook - Mains . One of our members, Ripple, posted it along with many other recipes. It's about the 35th one down. I'm going to give it a try, but will sub instant potatoes most likely. I like the idea of trying bison instead of beef - very lean and tasty.

Thanks!

I do about the same as others have said, fry lean burger, rinse very well and then dehydrate. The only thing that I do different is that I think that the meat gets very bland tasting after removing all of the fat, so I add a ground up beef bullion cube to the mixture for flavor.

duckcall: "I do about the same as others have said, fry lean burger, rinse very well and then dehydrate. The only thing that I do different is that I think that the meat gets very bland tasting after removing all of the fat, so I add a ground up beef bullion cube to the mixture for flavor. "

I do the same and have used the packets of instant gravy in the soak water to add more flavor

Ditto to duckcall and HammerII. Pick your favorite Hamburger Helper dish to make or I personally like Zataran's dirty rice meal. Another one is make a brown gravy and add it to Idahoan mashed potatoes.

iamnm.com has lots of good recipes that should dehydrate well.

How do you store your dehydrated ground beef before your trip?

Last year I made goulash and chili and dehydrated it. I put it in a bag and vacuum packed it and then tossed it in the freezer until the day I left.

Not sure if that was a good idea or not as it could possibly cause condensation?

Your thought?

No harm in putting it in the freezer. If you have it thoroughly dehydrated, then there should not be condensation in the sealed bag. And even if there was a bit of condensation, it will just get absorbed into the dry stuff when it gets to room temperature. It's probably not necessary though. I don't think there is a food safety issue...bacteria won't grow without a source of moisture. If there is fat in your burger, that has the potential to go rancid, which is going to affect the flavor. That's why I like to simmer the browned burger in water, put in the fridge, and pull all the fat off it, and then dehydrate. Important note is that I add fat back in in the field for flavor (ghee is really good in pretty much everything.)

I didn't read all of the posts, but we use bison. Cook it thru then rinse it under hot water for a bit.

overthehill: " Gonna try the bread crumb idea.And the pressure cooker. JayWalker, when you come up with that shepherds pie, please post it. I love the stuff."

Old thread I know.
I have made shepherds pie, just as I normally do, cut into 4* x 4" squares and dehydrate! It takes a while. The layers will tend to separate. Take each piece apart when it's half dried, and arrange them on the tray so you know how to reassemble. Use aluminum foil to package it so it stays as a cube. When you rehydrate, use the aluminum foil to hold the boiling water in the pot. In other words....the aluminum foil forms a bucket.....you put the water in that because if you filled the pot enough to cover the food, it would be way too .much water.

I actually like ground turkey better than beef, but they dry about the same. Mixing with breadcrumbs and seasoning well is the key. For drying, putting it on paper towels actually works really well too. Almost better than the parchment or fruit rollup layers.

For Shepards pie, I mixed tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, etc... then dried that really well. Toss in the food processor to make powder to rehydrate easier. Then mix with dried veggies and meat + instant mashed potatoes.