Re: [Paddlewise] dehydrating food for long trips

At 11:14 AM 4/17/98 , Ari Saarto wrote:
>I have found a very interesting book from the end of the seventies 
>about dehydrating food!  It seems that quite many hikers here do 
>it home to get "fresh" (more tasty than canned) meat, vegetables, 
>herbs or fruit to their trips.  Very interesting...even if some shops 
>can be found from the local coastal islands.

Dehydrating is a good thing. It's not the holy grail, however.

>It can be done in oven under a very low heat [50 degrees C/80 degrees 
>F?] and might take, depending on the size of the stuff and how you 
>cut them to pieces, from five to nine hours.   

I prefer a tray-type dehydrator. It blows warm air across the food, rather
than just overcooking it. It's also difficult to control the heat that low
on a conventional oven, and can be dangerous. You need to find/buy/make
drying racks anyway. Drying your own food is a labor-intensive process;
trying to make things work can take all of the fun out of it.

>Very healthy, light to 
>carry & take with you.  It takes some 10 minutes to "rehyrdrate" the 
>food in boiling water, before actual cooking.  

I prefer a longer soak of an hour or more in a sun-warmed container. One
problem with improperly re-hydrated food (aside from the unappealing chewy
texture) is the resultant incredibly smelly farts. If you're sharing a
small tent, this can make for a disasturous evening.

>As for an example a 
>full litre of bananas is only a quarter of it´s original volume after 
>dehydrating it...like me during these long Friday afternoons ;-)

Have you ever eaten dried bananas? An interesting snack, but no way could
you confuse it with the real thing. I've found that buying quality dried
fruit is better than I can make it. DOing beef jerky, on the other hand, is
*always* better if you do it yourself.

>The book is very detailed, so I might be trying this during 
>next weeks. Some specific details are given, how one is supposed to 
>cut the vegetables, and if some of them should be cooked 
>before drying to fasten the actual cooking time. 

You might want to read Linda Daniel's "Kayak Cookery" (ISBN 0-89732-236-3).
Although it's 10 years old, it still has many good ideas and procedures. It
also has an extensive section on drying.

>I am interested in the idea of making the food smaller in the volume
>and keeping the taste. Less canned food and more space for the 
>Claudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc!

I wouldn't be throwing out the cans too quickly. If you spend a lot of time
eating a lot of poorly dried food, you could probably work out the kinks in
the system. Depends on how much free time and desire you have. On my last
week long trip, I was drooling over the fresh cabbage salad that another
member of our party was enjoying every evening. I'll never do a long trip
without a cabbage again!






________________________________________________________________
Doug Barnard                                   Virtual Acreage
Agoura, California (near L.A.)        Visualization in 2D/3D/4D
http://virtualacreage.com                    818-991-9328
                                          
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