Dehydrated Food

Therese Preece
Surrey, British Columbia

Dehydrated Mince Beef (Hamburger)

• Brown 1-1/2 lb. of ground beef until all the red is out.
• Drain it well and place on a paper towel lined cookie sheet.
• Set your oven to its lowest temperature, usually around 150 F to 200 F.
• Let it dry out overnight.
• When you wake up it will look like dry dog food.
• Cool and store in Ziplock bags.
• Store in freezer until used.

Dehydrated Mixed Vegetables (use frozen)

• Use one to two cups and dry in the method above for mince beef.
• Drying vegetables takes less time - usually five hours is sufficient.
• Store same as mince.

Beef Stew (Makes four generous servings)

• Use the largest pot you happen to take on your trip.
• Fill half full with filtered water.
• Add all your dried vegetables and meat.
• Let them soak for about 15 minutes.
• Add some bouillon cubes or powder and a package of dried vegetable soup mix like Knorr.
• Any extra spices you add like chili powder, dried onion flakes, salt, pepper, garlic powder, oregano....... to suite your taste.
• Cook on lower heat for approximately 15 minutes.

We added some dried packaged scalloped potatoes to the top and ate when everything was cooked. You could premake up a recipe of dumplings and steam them on top instead. Noodles of any kind would work well also.

Tips:

• Remember when you put together all the ingredients to take to camp that everything should be DRIED. You would not believe how little everything will weight when the water is gone. Ziplock bags are heaven sent when you can premeasure out exactly how much you will need and carry it in your pack all ready to go.
• Try it out before you go so you can streamline your amounts.