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How To...
Dehydrating Foods for Paddling
by Dana Dickson
The thought of home dehydration of food for paddling trips can be intimidating. Where to start? What to dehydrate? Which dehydrator to buy? What if the food is off texture or bad tasting? Dehydrating is kind of like paddling until you try it you cannot know if you will like it.
Home dehydration does have some disadvantages. There is preparation time at home and there may be more detailed meal planning required before a trip. However, my experience is that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. I dehydrate my own foods to supplement dried foods from the grocery store and coop for a variety of reasons. Home dehydrating is less costly that purchasing dried foods at an outdoors store. The variety of foods you can prepare is only limited by your imagination, this helps limit food boredom on trips. Dehydration is an ancient food preservation method that also reduces weight and volume, these are important considerations for paddlers.
Dehydration is an ancient food preservation process that is based on removing the water from food under controlled conditions. Dehydration preserves foods by removing almost all of the water in foods. Without water the growth of mold and bacteria is inhibited or prevented all together. Modern dehydrators have controlled air flow and thermostatic temperature controls. If you want to save costs there are food drying books with plans for making your own dehydrator or some ovens can be controlled at low temperature and used as a dehydrator. My first attempt at food dehydration was to dry some hamburger in the oven. It worked great!
You can dehydrate almost any kind of food. Fruits and vegetables work particularly well. Meat, hamburger, jerky, canadian bacon and canned tuna also work well in a home dehydrator. Fruits can be dried in slices or made into purees and dried as fruit leathers. When I dry vegetables, I keep them separate in labeled bags and mix them when I am preparing soup or other dish. For those of us with gardens, zucchini and tomatoes dehydrate well and taste of summer when used in cooking later in the year. Sauces, tomato based spaghetti sauce from the grocery or home made turns into a very compact leather that cooks up indistinguishable from the original. Salsa direct from the jar also dehydrates well.I coordinate my home dehydration of foods with the purchase of dried and preserved foods from the grocery store. Onions, potatoes, noodles, eggs and milk products can be purchased dehydrated at the grocery store. There are also lightweight meats available from the grocery store that do not require refrigeration until opened, bacon, sausages and now tuna in a foil and plastic package can all be found on the shelf of most any grocery store.
When I cook meals I mix dried foods from home with the store bought ingredients. At the conclusion of one 4 day canoe trip I prepared a Mexican dinner with bean and meat burritos, salsa, and fresh vegetables. The meat and salsa were home dehydrated; the beans and soft tortillas were from the grocery store. The vegetables, tomatoes and lettuce keep at room temperature. On another trip, I prepared meat sauce, pasta and fresh bread from dried ingredients.
Recipes to follow or to inspire you to try your own variations are available in many cookbooks. I like Mary Bell's Compete Dehydrator Cookbook, for dehydration instructions and receipts. Kayak Cookery by Linda Daniel, and Lipsmackin' Backbackin' by Tim and Christine Conners are two more cookbooks with recopies for making and using home dehydrated foods.
A good meal at the end of a good day's paddle adds much to the enjoyment of a kayaking trip. Home dehydration allows you to prepare meals that use your favorite foods on paddling trips that last longer than a few days. The time and energy required to plan and prepare home-dehydrated meals pays off with a much more enjoyable trip.
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