High Sierra Topix

Gary,
Thanks for the feedback.

Elliott

Here's a simple recipe for turkey chili, that dehydrates and rehydrates well.

Brown ground turkey with onions and garlic, season with salt-pepper, cumin, chili pepper
add 2 to 3 cans of small white beans, drained and rinsed
2-3 cans diced green chili's
2 cans of diced tomatoes and green chili's
1 to 2 smoked chipotles, finely chopped and some of the juice from a can
add water or chicken broth to get to the consistency you like.
simmer for about 30 min.
dehydrate, if it's runny, I place the chili on wax paper in the dehydrator
It takes over night on 160 setting ( meat)
At camp, add shredded cheese and eat with tortillas, enjoy !

Lots of stuff here http://www.geocities.ws/lighttrailfood/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Wanderin' Jack

We use the Excalabur dehydrator and haven't bought freeze dried since about 2002. We mostly do not cook in August hikes but when I want to to a hot meal I have a few basics. One involves dehydrating one pound white chicken in broth in cans from Costco. I break up the chicken pieces as small as possible and spread out the meat on the waterproof membrane we use on the dehydrator sheets for wet foods. I also cook up lean ground beef with some added beef base for salt and make burger gravel. The dried chicken flakes are added to soup mixes along with additional dehydrated veges, home cooked and dehydrated brown rice or fine pasta. The burger gravel is added to spaghetti sauce leather cut up into small pieces with fine pasta. We portion it out in a ziplock so it is the right amount to add to a pot of boiling water. We simmer the mixture for about 5 minutes and then take it off the stove and put it in a pot cozy for about 25-30 minutes. The mixture rehydrates better in the cozy and saves a lot of fuel.

I made 10 pounds of beef jerky this week. We will use it on our JMT trip coming up soon. We also made about 14 pounds of dried bananas, blueberries, peaches, nectarines, mangos and several other fruits. We haven't brought a stove or cooked on a July or August trip since about 2005. We like hiking long days and grazing out of ziplock bags as we go. Since we don't need to cook diner we often camp far away from streams or lakes and seek higher ground with views, breeze and fewer bugs.

We always eat up what we dehydrate within a few months so I really don't worry about it going bad. I like that my dehydrated fruit has no sulfur added and the food doesn't leave an aftertaste like some freeze dried meals. My family rebelled against freeze dried back in about 2002 and I had to find good alternatives. As long as I plan ahead it is very easy to make my own trail food.