Category: Dehydrator

Dehydrating Refried Beans

5/13/2022

I get so giddy using our Excalibur Food Dehydrators. Today I am drying 10 cups of homemade refried beans. Saves room in my freezer, I know every ingredient that’s in it, and it will make taco night so much more fun. Since there is only two of us, I can rehydrate just enough for that meal and not have to worry about losing the rest of it in the fridge (I can’t be the only one this happens to.)

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Dehydrating Black Beans

3/29/2022

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Cooked the Black beans in the Instant Pot for 45 minutes, then pureed some and left some whole. Waited until they were cool and placed on trays and dehydrated on 135° for 12+ hours depending on how thick you put on the trays.

Result is amazing and I think this is how I am going to do beans from now on. So easy to rehydrate and use in recipes, especially the pureed ones. I measure out how much I want to use and add 1 1/2 the amount of hot water (i.e. 1/2 cup pureed beans, 3/4 cup of water). More or less to your liking. I like my beans a little on the runny side so I can spread them out easily on tortillas. If you like them more firm, add less water. Let sit for 15 minutes, stir, and adjust to your liking.

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Dehydrating Cooked Shredded Pork

2/22/2022

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Okay, I know you are probably wondering, why in the world would someone dehydrate meat that isn't for jerky? Well, I'm gonna tell you. I can store it on the shelf (if stored properly), it frees up space in my freezer (this is a big one for us), it is travel friendly, and it uses less canning jars (which less face it, that's a big one).

Last week Pork Shoulder was on sale for $1.29 a pound. We have been trying to buy more meats but with the prices going up, it has been getting difficult to stock up. So I bought a little over 8 pounds and took it home, put it in my Instant Pot with some veggies and water, and set it for 3 hours. I got an amazing bone broth (cause ours was bone-in) and then shredded the rest for that night's dinner and the rest got shredded really small and put in the dehydrator.

Safely Dehydrating Meat: Dry only lean meats and blot off any oil during the drying process. It is the fat in meat that can turn rancid as it reacts over time with oxygen. Heat and light accelerate oxidation, so store in a cupboard away from heat.
Storing Dehydrated Meat: As long as the meat you dry is low-fat, it will keep well in jars with oxygen absorbers or in jars that are vacuum sealed with the FoodSaver accessory. I have stored dehydrated meat for up to a year in jars. If you want to go longer than a year, or if you just want peace of mind, you can vacuum seal the dried meat in vacuum bags, and place the meat in the freezer. When taking dried food out of the freezer, allow the food to return to room temperature before opening the bag. Otherwise, condensation may form on the food.
Excerpts taken from www.backpackingchef.com

I dehydrated it on the silicone trays at 155° for 4-6 hours. Checking it and testing the doneness. This batch was relatively clean with not a lot of oil and fat resting on top of the pieces. That doesn't mean it didn't have any in it. Once I "squished" a piece between my fingers and there definitely was a little oil that was left of my fingers. Since we are going to be using this over the next month or so, I am not going to be too worried about this going rancid before I can use it.

For extra safety I will be vacuum sealing my jars and adding oxygen absorbers. I will also be keeping mine in our closed pantry that is quite cool (especially this time of year).

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Sauce to Powder

2/22/2022

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I get asked, quite a bit, why I dehydrate a lot of our stuff instead of canning it. Well let me tell you why. I love that I can make a large batch of sauce and only have to use 1 jar to hold it all. This sauce was about 14+ cups before I dehydrated it. Now instead of using a dozen or so jars, I use one left over (cleaned out) spaghetti jar for the 14 oz. of powder I have. And in this day and age when jars are hard to find and the prices are through the roof, it's even more important to me to conserve where I can. (yes, pun intended) ;)

If you have a dehydrator, this is super easy to do! I usually cook my sauces down on the stove until most of the water is cooked out. Low and slow will get you the best results. You don't want to burn the bottom, especially after you've spent all that time & ingredients to make the sauce. The recipe I used here is from my Double Duty Slow Cooker Chicken and Enchilada Sauce recipe. Once the sauce is cooked down, it needs to cool. The consistency should be the thickness of applesauce. Once cooled, spread out on your dehydrator sheets like you would to make fruit rollups.

Dehydrate at 135° for 6 - 8 hours (depending on dehydrator model and humidity). After about four hours, check the sauce to see if it is dry enough to peel and flip over for the duration on the drying time. I find that flipping it helps it dry faster.

How to know when it's dry: When it's completely dry it will be dry to the touch and snap when you bend it. If it's still a little bendy, dry a little longer. You want to make sure there is no moisture left in it.

Once completely dry, break up the sheets of dried sauce into a large bowl and then place in blender or spice grinder. Once ground into powder, place in air tight jar.

To use your sauce from powder: For me, I usually start with the amount of boiling water I want as sauce, and then add a couple tablespoons at a time until the flavor is what I am going for for that dish. Depending on how fine or coarse your powder is will determine the dissolving time. Mine usually only takes about 5 minutes.

Other sauces you can dehydrate: Spaghetti sauce, BBQ Sauce, Picante Sauce / Salsa, Siracha and other Hot Sauces, mustards, etc/

It is not recommended to dehydrate sauces that have a heavy oil or dairy content.

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Dehydrating Refried Beans

Dehydrating Black Beans

Dehydrating Cooked Shredded Pork

Sauce to Powder

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