light weight food to carry when travelling outside by foot.

[jimbob]

Dehydrated vegetables are great. If you get a dehydrator you can do your own. I usually bring carrots, sweetcorn, broccoli and tomatoes, but just about anything can be done. All of these will rehydrate over the normal cooking time of a meal. I also bring marrowfat peas, but you need to soak those all day, so it won't work if your traveling.

Get a dehydrator and look at an auther called "Mary Bell". Almost anything can be dehydrated to weigh next to nothing and it lasts a good while too. Stuff like rice and pasta can be cooked normaly first, then dehydrated to make them lighter than the original product. Ive had some beef in a cupboard for about 3 months and its still OK and if you store it in the freezer it can last indefinately.

:Wow::wow1:This is really interesting!! What's a dehydrator, where can I get one, how do they work, what's the effect on nutritional content???

Every now and then part-timers like me stumble accross ideas that revolutionise our capacity to enjoy and extend our times in the wilder places.

 

[Nohoval_Turrets]

This is really interesting!! What's a dehydrator, where can I get one, how do they work, what's the effect on nutritional content???

A dehydrator uses hot air to gently remove the moisture from food. It's a good (and ancient) method of food preservation. Since it doesn't use high temperatures, it's supposed to maintain the nutritional value, but I can't find any actual data.

You have to slice the food up thin, and it comes out weighing next to nothing - sundried tomatoes are a good example. A tomatoe is mostly water, so the dehydrated product is feather weight. In fact a big pile of fruit and veg will easily pack away into a ziploc bag.

Here's an example of one: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Stockli-Dehyd...deo_TelevisionSetTopBoxes?hash=item4835706255

It usually takes about 8 hours to dry vegetables. Make sure to get one with a timer - I didn't think of it and I have to use a timer switch on the power supply - it works but it's a bit awkward.

 

[jimbob]

Many thanks, that's some really useful info. I've long been missing my vegetables on my trips. No longer. Awesome! Could I rehydrate 'em using a bamboo steamer, d'you know?

 

[Gavmar]

Seaweed, while obviously horrible
With the exception of dulce which is very tasty.

 

[rik_uk3]

Dehydrator for £30

A few of us here use these and they work well

http://www2.westfalia.net/shops/hou..._food/dehydrating_/193811-food_dehydrator.htm

 

[AJB]

I also bring marrowfat peas, but you need to soak those all day, so it won't work if your traveling.

Hello, if you can be bothered, I would like to know a little bit about the cooking process of your veg in general, to you soak to rehydrate then add to stews etc, or just throw them into a liquid cookeing medium as is? As to the peas, if you soaked and cooked them before you dehydrated them I assume they wouldn't need a long soak?

Cheers

 

[jimbob]

Rik_uk3/Nohoval_Turrets: Brill, cheers! Can you make biltong/jerky with these?

 

[jimbob]

Seaweed, while obviously horrible
With the exception of dulce which is very tasty.

Where can I find this seaweed? Haven't heard of it before - does it go under a difeerent name?

 

[Nohoval_Turrets]

Could I rehydrate 'em using a bamboo steamer, d'you know?

I don't know. My guess is you could, but I've never tried.

Hello, if you can be bothered, I would like to know a little bit about the cooking process of your veg in general, to you soak to rehydrate then add to stews etc, or just throw them into a liquid cookeing medium as is? As to the peas, if you soaked and cooked them before you dehydrated them I assume they wouldn't need a long soak?

I like to keep my cooking as simple as possible. Generally, I just cook the veg with rice. Some veg need presoaking to rehydrate, some just rehydrate during normal cooking - I boil and then "simmer" in a pot cozy for 20 minutes.

Broccoli: no presoak required
Sweetcorn: no presoak required
Carrots: presoak about 1 hour
Marrowfat peas: presoak all day.

By the way I just buy the dried marrowfats, I don't dehydrate them myself.

Generally dehydrating is done on uncooked food - although you get the best results if you blanch the food in advance - just a minute or so in the steamer. I'm not sure what dehydrated cooked peas would be like, but I suspect that they would disintegrate rather than dry properly. But I'm guessing here.

Brill, cheers! Can you make biltong/jerky with these?

I believe you can, but I've never tried.

As you can see, I'm no expert on dehydrating. My own needs are simple, and I'm sure there's a lot more you can do. There are several books on Amazon about dehydrating, maybe they would answer these questions better.

 

[jimbob]

Many thanks Nohoval_Turrets.

 

[AJB]

Rik_uk3/Nohoval_Turrets: Brill, cheers! Can you make biltong/jerky with these?

Current thread...

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54819

 

[AJB]

Cheers Nohoval

 

[jimbob]

Current thread...

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54819

Yes!

 

[AJB]

Yes!

Just bought one

 

[Toddy]

Hello
We are wondering if anyone know's what food is light weight to carry on our travels. We are on foot with only one bag each and need to know any advice anyone has. Thank you very much.

In the past in the UK the staple was oats and barley.
These can be used to make a porridge, a stodgy heavy bread, or with care and practice, crisp oatcakes. High in nutirion, slow to digest, filling food.
They are also the kind of food that can be added to by whatever you can find, whether that be meat, vegetables or fruit or honey.
If you are walking all day you need about 3,000 calories to maintain health. 150g will give about 600 calories. That's a lot of oats/ barley. Then you need clean water, and these days that usually means carrying it.

Where are you going ? and where are you staying ? This is a busy wee island and unless you own the land or have permission to use it and it's resources, you'll rapidly run out of room for foraging. Heavy foraging depletes resources.

Just my tuppence halfpenny worth.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[treadlightly]

Nuts - high calorific value and nutritious.

 

[AJB]

My dehydrator has arrived and I love it - I've run out of fruit and veg, it's all dried!

Does anyone have any tried and tested recipes that work well dehydrated?

 

[jimbob]

AJB - good to hear. What model did you get?

 

[hertsboy]

If you're backpacking, leave the stove at home!

For my next trek - a 4 dayer starting this friday I'm taking Oats and milk powder, gorp (good old raisins and peanuts), about 10 Kellogs Nutri Bars (must make my own, they are expensive!), big bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk. Probably take some cheese sandwiches for the first night out.

No water - just 2 empty 500 cc plastic bottles and iodine solution (plenty of streams where I'm going in mid Wales)

All this plus my gear makes total pack weight come to just 10.4 kilos. It's sitting there waiting to go on my back first thing friday for a walk to the station.

Funny thing is that I always come back feeling great, having lost a couple of kilos, but without feeling at all hungry on the way.

 

[AJB]

AJB - good to hear. What model did you get?

I got the one from the link earlier in the thread...

http://www2.westfalia.net/shops/hous...dehydrator.htm


I've been really busy since it arrived so have only done bits of fruit and veg, but it's great. This weekend is cooking for it weekend!