On You tube I see where some people cook their spaghetti, dehydrate then rehydrate all the Ingredients at the same time. I was thinking I would need to do the sauce, burger and pasta separate or at least the pasta and meat sauce separately. I can see the conveniance in doing the whole thing in one pot at one time, I just wonder about the quality.

We dehydrate our sauce and noodles together and then add the dehydrated hamburger or TVP to it when rehydrating it. I don't think it affects the quality at all.

Wingnut, I'm with you. I dehydrate all separately, combine meat, sauce, onions, peppers, and mushrooms in a container at lunch with water; cook the noodles from scratch at dinner, drain, and dump re-hydrated sauce in the pot with noodles and reheat if necessary. I believe I tastes more individual flavors rather than an amalgam of the ingredients. And I use different ingredients for different meals and it allows me to adjust to how I feel that day or other intangibles.

When rehydrating the sauce seperatly do you need to keep track of what your volume was before dehydrating, say 1 pint of sauce for two people. Then when rehydrating add the dehydrated sauce, plus water till it reaches the pint level, then heat? That seems like the logical way to get things back to their original consistency.

I just eyeball it when rehydrating sauce. It's easy to add extra water as the process moves along.

quote billconner: "Wingnut, I'm with you. I dehydrate all separately, combine meat, sauce, onions, peppers, and mushrooms in a container at lunch with water; cook the noodles from scratch at dinner, drain, and dump re-hydrated sauce in the pot with noodles and reheat if necessary. I believe I tastes more individual flavors rather than an amalgam of the ingredients. And I use different ingredients for different meals and it allows me to adjust to how I feel that day or other intangibles. "

You can add me to the above. It just seems like my the time the meat is ready the noodles are mush.........

quote OBX2Kayak: "I just eyeball it when rehydrating sauce. It's easy to add extra water as the process moves along."

+1 add cold water at lunch, check when you land to see if more water is needed, then set up camp. I happen to like a kind of chock full of vegetables chunky style sauce and my sons like their noodles al dente. Add a little fry pan bread, great camp meal.

Thanks for the reply's. It should be easy enough to rehydrate seperatly. I'll have to give it a try at home and find a system that works. I've read where a lot of people start their rehydrating in a container early in the day so most of the soaking is done before they actually start to cook. Would these be good containers for pre soaking during the day. They say leak resistant. I'm not sure how they would work in a pack.

Some bread with spaghetti always taste good. Thanks for mentioning It. I"ll have to bring extra Peta bread along or even try a tip that someone posted about using pizza dough mix as a bread.

I love the GSI Fairshare Mug for this and many other other things. When I really want to cut weight, I'll eat out of it but haven't yet. It's screw on lid seals well and seem bullet proof. Perfect for mixing things (cover and shake) like Nido, instant puddings, and gravy/sauce mixes. I now have three. (The make a great little scraper spatula too - makes clean-up easy.

quote wingnut: "I've read where a lot of people start their rehydrating in a container early in the day so most of the soaking is done before they actually start to cook. Would these be good containers for pre soaking during the day. They say leak resistant. I'm not sure how they would work in a pack."

Those are what ripple from this site recommends, and she is the dehydrator guru! I've had good luck with them in general for being leak-proof and I plan to start using them this year in the BW.

I am different than most people here. I use the "ripple" presoak method and do everything together (in those ziplock spin top canisters). Ive never had mushy noodles or blended reduced flavors. I think one reason may be that I mostly use orzo as my noodle instead of any other shapes. The noodles dishes ive not used orzo on to make I have ended up thinking "Next time i will use orzo instead". Orzo also seems to vacuum pack better since it has a very small profile.

I do things both ways. I'll rehydrate a premade spag and sauce (good use for leftovers) and I also will cook my sauce from scratch. Tomato powder, minced onion from the spice rack, TVP, sugar and spice. (Don't vacuum pack the tomato powder)

I pack my pasta dinners separately. Ground meat is something I cook, dehydrate and vacuum seal to use for a few meals-so it's already done that way. I dehydrate my homemade sauce on its own, break it up and vacuum seal it- OR -I use tomato paste in a tube along with spices I bring. I found 3 minute pasta from Ronzoni in the supermarket and have never looked back. Rehydrate the sauce & meat together. Cook the pasta 3 minutes, drain. Combine all, heat and enjoy.

I use a Jetboil and try to keep cooking times to a minimum.

+1 on the GSI Fairshare mug, we carry 2. Great for rehydrating, measuring, mixing. I can rehydrate dinner & make dessert at the same time...I don't know how we lived without them.

I have bought the ziplock containers before for my home, I squeezed one between my fingers and the container broke in my hand. I wouldn't trust it...that is just my experience.

I just rehydrate stuff in the ziploc Freezer bag that I had it in. Less mess and clean up.

Add more water back than you think you need or you end up with about 2/3 of the sauce you started with.....