How To Dehydrate Food At Home For Backpacking
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Summer is here, which means it’s time to go eat outdoors in beautiful places! I have many food allergies and sensitivities though, so eating ready-made meals doesn’t always work for my stomach. That’s why I prefer to make my own food because that way I know exactly what I am eating. So in this post, I’ll show you how to dehydrate food at home in a four easy steps tutorial, so that you can eat home-cooked meals on your next outdoor adventure, whether you will be hiking, camping, or backpacking.
Why dehydrate food at home?
Dehydrating food at home is a game-changer for outdoor enthusiasts, particularly backpackers like myself. Not only does it lighten the load by significantly reducing the weight and volume of food items, but it also retains their nutritional value.
By extracting moisture, foods like chicken, turkey, veggies, and quinoa become lightweight without sacrificing essential nutrients. This is particularly crucial for sustaining energy and muscle repair during demanding treks. What’s more, home dehydration eliminates the need for refrigeration, ensuring longer shelf life and reducing the risk of spoilage on the trail. Plus, it allows for complete control over ingredients, catering to individual tastes and dietary needs. With homemade dehydrated meals, backpackers can enjoy convenient, nutritious, and customizable food options, making their outdoor adventures all the more satisfying.
Benefits of dehydrating food for backpacking
- Lightweight: Dehydrating reduces the weight and bulk of food, making it easier to carry during outdoor activities like backpacking.
- Nutrient Retention: Preserves essential nutrients such as protein, vitamins, and minerals, ensuring a nutritious meal option on the go.
- Longer Shelf Life: Eliminates the need for refrigeration, leading to longer shelf life and reduced risk of spoilage during outdoor adventures.
- Customizable: Offers complete control over ingredients, allowing for customization according to personal preferences and dietary restrictions.
- Convenient: Provides convenient, ready-to-eat meals that are lightweight and easy to pack, perfect for on-the-go snacking or quick meal preparation while traveling or hiking.
Gear you’ll need to dehydrate food
All you need to dehydrate food at home is a food dehydrator and some parchment paper. Typically, trays are included in the food dehydrator. I bought this Cosori food dehydrator and it came with six trays and a recipe booklet for ideas.
You could use your regular oven if you wanted to try without a real dehydrator, but I have never tried that myself. It could be a good way to see if it is something you want to invest in though. I also recently heard that some air fryers have a dehydrator function too, so you may already have everything you need at home!
To store the food, you’ll need Reusable food storage bags. You can get started with Ziploc bags or any other food container you have on hand, of course!
And to rehydrate the food, use your camping stove such as this mini stove or this stove kit!
STEP 1: Prepare your food and spread it on the trays
What food can we dehydrate?
Pretty much any food really. I typically dehydrate veggies, meat, cooked brown rice, and cooked quinoa. I tend to make rice and quinoa in larger quantities so it lasts me a few trips. But for meats and veggies, I prefer to switch it up and do smaller quantities.
For fruits, I usually use store-bought freeze-dried fruits to eat when I’m out in the wilderness. But the recipe booklet explains how to dehydrate those as well. You can also make meat jerky, and dehydrate herbs, nuts, yogurts, etc with your food dehydrator.
Prep your food
I took store-bought frozen veggies to save time due to taking a last-minute trip, but any veggies would do. If you plan on dehydrating “bulky” veggies like broccoli and Brussels sprouts, make sure you chop them in small pieces first.
There was no organic chicken left at the store when I went, so I used tinned chicken breast in water instead. I drain it (my cat LOVES drinking that chicken water!) and spread it thinly on the trays.
To dehydrate ground turkey, I bought organic ground turkey, you need to make sure it’s the leanest ground turkey you can find. I cooked it thoroughly in a frying pan with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper. Then I placed it in a colander and rinsed it with boiling water straight from the kettle to remove oil and excess fat. Rinsing the meat with boiling water is an important step to help ensure your food will remain edible for longer.
Spread your food on trays
Spread the foods as a thin layer and space them out on your dehydrated trays to make it easier for the dehydrator to do its job.
I like to use at least one tray per ingredient, and it’s worth noting that using parchment paper will make your life easier to slide the food into the storage bag afterward.
Honorable mention
Some people weigh their food before and after dehydration to see how much water to use to rehydrate it. I don’t bother with that. But if that’s something you would prefer to do, now is a good time to weigh your food. You can weigh it on the tray and do the same when it comes out of the dehydrator. The trays won’t change weight after being in the dehydrator overnight!
STEP 2: Dehydrate food overnight
Time to dehydrate food
Place your trays in the food dehydrator to dehydrate overnight when electricity is cheaper!
- For meat and veggies, I use 145F for 8 hours.
- For quinoa and brown rice, I use 125F and 6 hours.
STEP 3: Place the dehydrated food in storage bags
if you weighed your trays before you dehydrated them, now is the time to weigh them again to see what the variance is to deduce the exact water amount you need to rehydrate the food. However, be mindful of evaporating water as it boils, so you’ll need to add a little more than that to account for this.
The following morning, take your food out of the dehydrator and place it into your storage bags. If you used parchment paper in the dehydrator, then you can use the paper as a funnel to transfer the food into the bags!
If you don’t have reusable storage bags, you could simply use any ziploc-style plastic bags.
This time around, I kept the food in separate containers, because I was going car camping. If I backpack, I tend to get each meal ready in one container to make my life easier when I’m out in the wilderness. But being at a developed campsite gives me a bit more flexibility. Of course, how each ingredient needs to be cooked may affect how you choose to pack them.
STEP 4: Rehydrate your food
How to rehydrate the food?
You can rehydrate your food out in the wilderness with your portable stove and a pot. I like to place the meat and veggies in the water as it boils, to ensure they are adequately rehydrated and soft to eat. I then add other ingredients and seasonings afterward. So you can get creative and eat home-cooked meals out on trail!
Final thoughts
I hope this tutorial was helpful to you. The initial cost of a food dehydrator may seem like an investment at first, but a food dehydrator is worth it if you go camping, hiking, or backpacking a lot. Especially when you think about the cost of individually packaged backpackers’ meals.
Dehydrating food is far easier than you think. What will you try dehydrating first?
Post originally published on July 11, 2023, and last updated on February 9, 2024.
