Dehydrated food

[rik_uk3]

The last few months I've been drying veg in the oven at home, and have more or less finished a home made dehydrator (I'll post on its success or failure after trying it out a few times)

My question is, do many of you use dried food (not counting Jerky) and if you do, what sort, variety and make? Any ideas on buying dried veg in larger quantities in the UK?

When I was a kid, most camping shops stocked big packs of dried veg, but I can't find them anywhere now, guess they are out of fashion (but you can still get Vest Beef Risotto )

 

[Cap'n Badger]

Ahoy Rik...You can get most 'dried veg' from health food shops.......also some (tho not much) from tescos...(spit!!)....
It'll be good t' see yer 'dehydrator' matey...the only ones I've seen are these.....pricey bit o' kit!!
http://www.keimling.de/SiteAssistant.php/ADW_UK_Stoeckli/39-2-1067

 

[rik_uk3]

Hi Cap

This is the one I've about 80% finished
http://www.alpharubicon.com/prepinfo/dehydratorstryder.htm

but I've dropped a hint or three with the family about this item and my next birthday
http://www.ukjuicers.com/dehydrators/HottopKN128P.htm

 

[amott69]

I just brought the very same dehydrator from the same company, its a good bit of kit.I'm not sure what to dehydrate myself but there is a big list in the booklet i got with the dehydrator.
You can dehydrate most fruit and vegetables but i brought mine for the jerky which leads me to a question can you jerky rabbit and how would you do it?
steak is becoming a bit pricey

 

[moko]

Top thread starter. I never thought of this. I am going try out your DIY idea but would love to find out if rabbit and other game would work. Also, is it possible to build a field kit, something that can be put together using mainly natural materials?

Moko

 

[spamel]

I had the chance of picking up a dehydrator for seventeen euros yesterday but the missus was giving me one of those looks and I decided against it!! It looked like a very basic model.

 

[rik_uk3]

Rabbit is lean meat, so should be fine, from what I've read and been told, you need to strip as much fat off meat as possible to prevent spoiling.

Ray Mears did an episode showing meat been jerked high over a low fire, so I guess you could rig the same sort of thing outdoors over a fire as well

In theory, dry cured bacon should last a long time (look at the cowboys), but the problem is finding it these days. You can, even here in the South Wales valleys get it, but not all the time, and its very expensive when you can. So thats why I'm looking at drying my own food; even though I camp less than a lot of you guys, drying food will be a good home project I look forward to going for

 

[nobby]

When I was a kid, most camping shops stocked big packs of dried veg, but I can't find them anywhere now, guess they are out of fashion (but you can still get Vest Beef Risotto )

You can get catering packs still and Whitworths make some dried veg: mushrooms, peas and onion, at least. If you email them they will tell you who near you stocks it.
They come up on Google

 

[Jerky Meister]

we have found many after years of using dehydrators that we have jars of stuff everywhere, i.e we make a Veg Crisp thing, soak tomatoes,basil, mange tout, beetroot and shrooms in balsamic then dry it all, when its dried its a great snack or good for making food when campo cooking,be the best bit is after the weighing up we have lots of "scraps" of stuff left,powdered bits to small to pack so they go into a jar and get sprinkled on cheese n toast, colly flower cheese, in plain crisps anywhere you can think of lol

 

[rik_uk3]

Got a 5 tray one coming

Any tips people?

 

[spamel]

My wife went back to the shop today and got the dehydrator for €17.99! It's got a bunch of trays and I think it is designed for fruit and veg, but I can't see a reason why I can't do meat in it.

Hopefully, this will link to the picture of my dehydrator from Severins' website:

I've previewed my post and it seems to work!! It's a lot bigger than it looks, and it gets to about 70 deg C according to the book. A fan circulates the air, only downside is there is no timer, but I have a seperate plug in timer that I used when I kept tropical fish, so it's not a problem!!

Did I say it was the last one?

 

[rik_uk3]

Thats very cheap Spamel, in the Uk they are about £50+ I got mine off a friend for about the same as you paid

Yes you can make jerky in them, I want to try and jerk Chicken, has anyone tried this? Fat free breast joints would be the best I guess

 

[anthonyyy]

Ray Mears did an episode showing meat been jerked high over a low fire, so I guess you could rig the same sort of thing outdoors over a fire as well

If I remember right, Mr Mears said that the fire was to keep the flies away and to impart flavour.

 

[Earthpeace]

I Use an old wooden incubator that a farming friend gave me.
I dry veg for putting in winter soups, carrots in slices, onions chopped , nettles I dry whole leaves then rub between gloved hand until power like.
Also dry apples in slices, figs in halfs ,pears slices and raspberrys whole. these all go into cookies which the whole family is addicted to, along with things like dried red clover flowers and nuts.
Chestnuts dry well too, get fresh chestnuts grate with a cheese grater then dry on muslin cloth, for cooking with - put some dried chestnuts in a bowl with twice as much milk and leave over night in the fridge. Next day cook some brussel sprouts and add the chestnut/milk in the last 5 mins of cooking or until they taste cooked. Mmmmm
For blackberrys its best if you get the fresh berrys, put them in a blender and put them though a sieve to get out the pips and then put the juice/plaste on plastic sheets,when part dry lift off tray put fresh plastic on tray and turn the blackberry plaste up side down on to the new sheet and pull the old on off. It drys into a 'leather' which you can roll up and put in a jar, to use just cut in pieces with knife.
The melon family does not dry very well, I dried a couple once, in put in about 2 kgs and once it had dried it fitted into half a cup!!!!!! go's to show how much water is in them.
The first time I dry carrots, I put in 5 kg or so and got about 1litre jug of dry carrots, that was a waste I though until I Put a cup of them in a big pan of mixed veg soup, I lifted the lid off a few hours later to find carrot soup!!!! they just went back into a kilo of carrots. magic
Hope this helps.

 

[rik_uk3]

Thinking back, I think your right Anthonyyy, more air dried than heat dried.

Keith Floyd is being run again on Sky 3, he was in Norway (I think, not sure), and showed row after row of cod drying in the cold wind, fantastic sight.

Earthpeace, I oven dried carrots and got the same results, put them in a soup I was making and ended up with carrot stew

 

[fast celt]

Found this on froogle Deydrater

 

[amott69]

just put some deer in my dehydrator as well as some steak with good sprinkle of piri piri, i'll let you know how it turns out.The last lot i did was a bit chewy.

 

[Jerky Meister]

the dehydrator in the pic is the same a sthe one i started withj,they are fine for hobby use and a family but cos they dont have a fan it takes an awful lot longer,but if you aint in a rush then its not a problem lol, if anyone has any dehydrator questions that i can help with im more than happy to let you know what ibve learned over the last couple of years
we have a forum, fairly quiet
http://www.martinsjerkedmeat.com/forum/
we dry almost anything that doesnt move fast enough in our house, though chicken, pork and other white meats i dont bother with ,nearly all the books i have suggest avoiding it due to the fact white meat is easier to go off,
try a search online for Mary Bell, she is the dried food guru LOL

 

[Glen]

the dehydrator in the pic is the same a sthe one i started withj,they are fine for hobby use and a family but cos they dont have a fan it takes an awful lot longer,but if you aint in a rush then its not a problem lol, if anyone has any dehydrator questions that i can help with im more than happy to let you know what ibve learned over the last couple of years
we have a forum, fairly quiet
http://www.martinsjerkedmeat.com/forum/

How powerfull a fan do the more intensive use ones have?
I'd pressume it'd be a fan that shifts just a small volume of air, else it'll probably cool the thing too much, or maybe need a more powerfull heater to go with it, so presumming very low power, should be easy enough to graft a small low power fan onto the domestic unit. I'm thinking computer CPU cooling fan or similar.

 

[rik_uk3]

Glen, mine will be here this week, I'll see what sort of strength the fan blows at and let you know