Another cooking tip from Jim. How to save money by making your own dry meals. Dehydrated hamburger is the first step in making lightweight delicious meals for out in the wilderness. This is something we have used over the years and feel like we have not only saved a ton of money, but also felt like our meals may have been a little more tasty. If you look at the cost of freeze dried meals in camping stores these days and feel like they are a bit spendy hopefully this video will help you on your way to keep a few dollars in your pocket on your next trip into the wilderness.
Dehydrated Hamburger from Bill Bryson III on Vimeo.
Could you recommend a particular brand of dehydrator, or at least recommend things to look for before purchasing one. Thanks.
@Trudy Thomas: Hi Trudy,
The dehydrator we use we picked up at a garage sale. Really any food dehydrator sold today will do a sufficient job. I’d check out amazon and see what the reviews have to say. Anything with a 4 or 5 star will work great. One thing that might help in dehydrating burger is to make sure the weave of the tray has relatively small holes. You definitely need airflow, but the burger shrinks in size so much that it can fall through the cracks easily. I hope you find yourself eating some tasty meals on your next canoe trip.
Thanks for commenting,
Bill
This is the most helpful site I’ve found to help prepare for the Boundary Waters. Thank you! To chime in on the question above, my dehydrator has large enough holes for ground hamburger to slip through. I just make a bunch of mini-patties which fit nicely on the trays and dehydrate quickly. Meatballs can get too fat and don’t allow the trays to stack properly.
Thanks again!
Mike
@Mike: Thanks for the feedback. The burger does get very small when it dehydrates and can easily fall through your trays if the holes are too big. Great idea on making small patties. Do they break down when they are done dehydrating and put into bags? I’m really happy to hear you enjoy our site. Thanks for watching!!
Bill
Was wondering if you could just boil the meat to get the grease boiled out. I haven’t done this yet but I have heard that the hamburger has lost a lot of flavor after dehydration. If this is so it probably wouldn’t matter wif you boiled it,would it? Thanks for the tip on how the dehydrated meat in 1 C. is equal to 1 lb.
Kendra
Use cheesecloth to put the hamburger on. It is a little aggravating in that the smaller hamburger particles can stick to the cheesecloth – but you get good air circulation. If you can resist the urge to want every last particle of hamburger out of the cheesecloth – it works really well.
Drew
I just use the solid fruit leather trays and set the temperature on high. If you turn the meat and cut up the larger piece with a kitchen scissors the meat will dehydrate faster and by using the solid tray you can get every little piece of meat.
When dehydrating hamburger I use the 93/7 mix and don’t rinse out any fat. If you vaccuum pack the meat and then freeze until your trip it will be fine for 4 -5 days without refrigeration.
How long can deydrated hamburger be stored and what is the best way to store it?