Dehydrated meals

[forgotmyoldpassword]

You might want to consider a dehydrator if you do a lot of backpacking.  They aren't particularly expensive at the mid level and by the time you've bought 6-8 backpacking meals you've basically covered the cost of it.  Only downside is you do need to get somewhat organised with making batch food, but I've found they last for ages in the freezer once they're made and packaged up.

[richardh1905]

You might want to consider a dehydrator if you do a lot of backpacking.  They aren't particularly expensive at the mid level and by the time you've bought 6-8 backpacking meals you've basically covered the cost of it.  Only downside is you do need to get somewhat organised with making batch food, but I've found they last for ages in the freezer once they're made and packaged up.

Interesting. How would you go about making, say, a dehydrated curry?

[forgotmyoldpassword]

Basically the benefit of doing it yourself is cost & you get the food you actually like to eat.  I'd argue you can make more nutritious versions of things, too, since you know exactly what goes in it.


For things like curry/chilli the important bit is to remember a dehydrator just removes water from the food as it dries it out, so there's little point making a stew then trying to ladle it into an extractor to spend hours dehydrating it.  So make it as normal but try replacing anything which is inherently very damp with a drier alternative which still gives flavour.


General tips:


1. Make your food as you would do normally but use the leanest meat you can (fat doesn't dehydrate well) and dice everything so it dehydrates evenly
2. Be careful with spicing/flavours, when you dehydrate it tends to become stronger flavours so remember you can always carry a (practically weightless) container of spices but you can't take it away once it's mixed in
3. For things like tinned coconut, tinned tomatoes - replace them with diced real tomatoes, or tomato paste, dried coconut etc.  Try to make it more of a 'thick' curry or stew so you spend less time dehydrating it.
4. Dehydrators aren't complex, but you want one with a fan, multiple trays, and ideally a timer.  That way if you're out for the day you'd just ladle it onto greaseproof paper put on each tier (many dehydrators have 3-6 tiers where you can spread out food to dry it evenly), set a timer for x hours and then you can go about your day.  I'd consider the fan the most important feature, by quite some distance.


Some people go all fancy and use a vacuum packing machine so seal their food, but we found just using knotted food bags and putting a pile of them in the freezer was a great way to always have something you like available when you head out and was a real upgrades on the usual mix of supernoodles/cup-a-soups which are the tier below pre-packed backpacking meals.  About six months of being sat in the freezer is probably max you'll get, but having a weekend of cooking/dehydrating set you up for a full backpacking season seemed like a pretty good way of doing it.


Probably loads more tips, in general it pays for itself very quickly, especially if you're the kind of backpacker who can stomach a larger evening meal but doesn't much care for breakfast.

[ninthace]

We often use ziploc bags for freezer storage,  they are a bit more robust and can be washed and reused.

[weston.front]

Over the last two years I've tried a range of makes of dehydrated meal pouches.  I know one question you asked was 'Is Real Turmat worth the price tag' and to that question I've have to say no.  They are OK, but there are tastier meals out there at much lower prices.
I cannot eat pasta or cous-cous, so my experience is only for rice, rice noodle or potato based meals and the top two in my experience have been:
Mountain Trails / Food on the Move - but I was shocked to see that they have 'paused' their business because of poor trading.  I really hope they re-start as their curries are excellent.  They also offer the pouches in two sizes, regular and expedition which is handy:: https://www.mountaintrails.org.uk/default.asp
Activeat - longer hydration times that the MT, but excellent quality, interesting and very tasty options :: https://activeatfoods.com/

[fernman]

 I had an issue with Mountain Trails, partly because each meal was in two separate pouches, i.e. one meat and one potato each of which had to be prepared separately, which took me by surprise because this wasn't mentioned on the website, and partly because a substitution was made to one of my items without me being asked. I sent the order back and received a refund.

 
Activeat Foods look interesting, but from a quick look on their site it looks like a very limited range.

 
If you like curry, as I do, I find Be-Well Pack N Go chicken tikka masala delicious!

[Birdman]

I never buy the dedicated camping meals, because the sizing isn't good for me and I find them WAY too expensive.

For me, a dinner must be 1000 kCal or more. Most of these backpacking meals are 600-700 kCal, so i would need about 1.5. And then the cost....

I usually get Batchelors Pasta N Sausce type meals, which packs really small and cost about £0.50 each for about 500 kCal. So for dinner I have two of those to get 1000 kCal. I sometimes ad some extra pasta too to top it up a bit further for more calories. It would be a bit underwhelming for a meal at home, but when hiking everything with calories and salt tastes delicious