Anyone here dehydrate your own foods?

[JustAnotherNut]

We love our dehydrator! The problem is that we eat the food so fast that we don't usually are able to store it for long term!

Funny story that I may have posted on earlier this summer; I dehydrated a bunch of Habenero Peppers this summer and their evil emissions ran us out the house!

I think I read that story and was thinking the same could be said for drying onion or garlic. I've not done hot peppers before, but the onion & garlic is now done outside.

[JustAnotherNut]

I've considered making homemade MRE's with the dried foods, but haven't really taken the next step of putting them together for an actual meal in a pouch yet. When I tried to find any info on it I only came up with articles or videos of people putting store bought things together....like canned tuna or spam, crackers, granola bars & such and that's all well & good, but not really what I was looking for.

I'm thinking more along the lines of adding meat, veggies, some boullion, maybe either rice or pasta (not sure how that would work) all together in a sealed bag, just add a cup of hot water to reconstitute and it's ready to eat. A meal for one. No real cooking needed.

Has anyone done this? Or have ideas about it???

[Back Pack Hack]

I've considered making homemade MRE's with the dried foods, but haven't really taken the next step of putting them together for an actual meal in a pouch yet. When I tried to find any info on it I only came up with articles or videos of people putting store bought things together....like canned tuna or spam, crackers, granola bars & such and that's all well & good, but not really what I was looking for.

I'm thinking more along the lines of adding meat, veggies, some boullion, maybe either rice or pasta (not sure how that would work) all together in a sealed bag, just add a cup of hot water to reconstitute and it's ready to eat. A meal for one. No real cooking needed.

Has anyone done this? Or have ideas about it???

Don't make the meal then dehydrate the results. Dehydrate the ingredients individually.

[JustAnotherNut]

Don't make the meal then dehydrate the results. Dehydrate the ingredients individually.

Exactly. I do have the separate ingredients except the pasta/rice. Well, I do have the pasta/rice, but I've not tried cooking it then dehydrating it.

One concern is that meal fatigue thing, cause I can only see the end results as being like a soup or stew...no matter how many times I change up the ingredients.

[Back Pack Hack]

...... Well, I do have the pasta/rice, but I've not tried cooking it then dehydrating it. ..........

I've never had any success doing so.

[bigwheel]

Drying peppers in a sunny widow sill for a few days laying on a paper towel works pretty good for small batches. Made quite a bit of various chile powder using that system back in he comp chili hobby.

[JustAnotherNut]

Drying peppers in a sunny widow sill for a few days laying on a paper towel works pretty good for small batches. Made quite a bit of various chile powder using that system back in he comp chili hobby.

and that's another possibility...to dry foods naturally without a dehydrator, or a solar unit if you have one.....in case there is no electricity and a bumper crop of something. It's possible to lay stuff out on a cookie sheet in the summer sun with a cheesecloth over it to keep bugs out. Thinner slices or pieces of course dry faster, and you'd have to stir it up a bit now & then.

[Broncosfan]

We do a lot of dehydrating. Super sweet tomatoes cut up and dehydrated and store in a jelly jar after vacuum sealed. Used in stir fries and as a salad topping. This year we filled over 50 jars of tomatoes. We do onions by slicing and then chopping. Great for meat loaf, soaps, stews etc. We dehydrate bell peppers for the same reason as onions. Hot peppers all types dehydrated and then ground into spices. Garlic is great to dehydrate and make into a spice. Bump apple crops get dehydrated sometimes a cinnamon/sugar sprinkle first. I have found that a vacuum sealed jar works the best with a oxygen absorber for storage.

[Gunn]

I have and still dehydrate things and have had great luck. But never had luck with potatoes. Now I know why. Thank you for the tip. My 10 year old grandson made his first jerky on our dehydrator just three weeks ago.

[Gunn]

We do a lot of dehydrating. Super sweet tomatoes cut up and dehydrated and store in a jelly jar after vacuum sealed. Used in stir fries and as a salad topping. This year we filled over 50 jars of tomatoes. We do onions by slicing and then chopping. Great for meat loaf, soaps, stews etc. We dehydrate bell peppers for the same reason as onions. Hot peppers all types dehydrated and then ground into spices. Garlic is great to dehydrate and make into a spice. Bump apple crops get dehydrated sometimes a cinnamon/sugar sprinkle first. I have found that a vacuum sealed jar works the best with a oxygen absorber for storage.

Also try storing them in the mylar vacuum bags. I also like the Boise State Broncos.