Cooking Dehydrated Food

“I was in a local health food store this weekend looking at their bulk dehydrated food (beans, peas, etc.) My questions is how long do you have to cook dehydrated food before it comes back to life? Can you just put it in boiling water for 5 minutes, or do you have to first soak it in water and then boil it?”

“my stuff that I dehydrate at home does fine with just adding boiling water and leaving it be in a bag cozy for 10-15 minutes. no presoak required.”

“Matt, if your rehydrating whole beans, then it might take a bit longer, but, once dehydrated I always crush up the beans, into a powder, then rehydration takes no time at all. I like pasta too...just add hot water, then put it in a cozy, and wait 10 minutes.”

“Matt, you have been posting entirely too many threads lately...what do you think, that this is your website or something??

do you mean beans that have been cooked before, or that are totally raw? the raw ones take for freakin' ever to cook! i would think you mean cooked ones, but the only bulk dehydrated things i can remember seeing in our store are raw ones.”

“My own personal routine (for anything dehydrated) is to 'flash boil' the water, pour over the meat or vegetables and then let sit covered while I get the rest of my food ready to go.”

“i second lyra's first statement.

and i also agree w/ roam and stikky.”

“The Sierra Club has a great cook book, but I don't know if it's still in print, about cooking for groups with bulk dried foods.

I believe it came out before the new, high tech stuff. It has all kinds of nutritional information as well.

If you can get your hands on it you'll love it.

Good luck.”

“Pop your dehydrated food in a double baggie with water when you're having breakfast and pack it up for the day. By dinner it's ready to heat and eat.”

“Did you presoak your dry beans overnight before cooking them? That usually reduces the cooking time to two hours or so. Also, if you're brave enough to use a pressure cooker, you can usually cook dry beans in one in about 45 minutes.”

“i'm talkin 'bout precooked and then rehydrated beans there girls.

but, yeah, with real dried beans (at home) you gotta soak overnight and then cook at least a couple of hours. add the ham hocks and salt/pepper.

yum yum, make some cornbread.....


dam, is it lunchtime yet????”

“yeah, i know you can soak them, and it will reduce the cooking time, but i can't really tell a big difference in cooking time, myself. i usually don't bother! and, as a little bit of trivia, i've read that the main thing that soaking them overnight does is reduce the amount of gas you'll get from the beans! LOL! we wouldn't want that, now would we.”

“Matt - Much of the stuff you were looking at was probably not cooked (or blanched) before it was dehydrated (e.g., beans and most veggies). Those items may require significant soak time plus the additional cook time.

Most backpacking dehydrated food is cooked before it is dehydrated. With it you just add boiling water and wait 7-10 minutes (with possibly some cook time at high altitudes).

I've tried uncooked beans and veggies that had been dehydrated. Tried cooking in a Dutch oven without soaking them first and it didn't work.”

“i was agreeing w/ lyra about matt and his bajillion threads these days. : )”

“And to think, I used to do so well in reading comprehension...”

“for real, yam! matt has popped his TT-trip cherry, and now there's no going back! hahaha, please don't ban me.”

“Yeah, like Phil said.

My answer above was referring to already cooked food which was then dehydrated.”

“ohhhhhhhhhh my, we might as well get together now and start dating.”

“Cooked then dehydrated. Reconstitution doesn't take that long.”

“So, as Phil assumed, the bulk foods at the store are most likely not precooked?”

“no, but it would be funny to watch someone cook them for 5 minutes and try to eat them, though!”

“I can buy bulk, precooked beans and such at the local health food store. If they are precooked, they will be extra lightweight. To cook the dehydrated black beans, I bring them to a boil and then simmer for about ten minutes. The longer you can cook them the better they are.
The stuff I dehydrate at home (beans, peas, potatoes, okra, corn, tomatoes, etc.) for soups require cooking about ten minuites to really bring out the flavor. Peas dry like little rocks and take a little longer.

In the winter, I use a two cup thermos jar and just pour boiling water in with the veggies a couple or three hours before my meal. Usually I fix lunch at breakfast and supper at lunch.”

“Matt,

I would think that if they are packaged for backpacking use that they most likely are precooked and just need rehydrated to be eatable.”

“What do you mean how long do "you" have cook dehydrated food? Come on, that's what chicks are for. (ducking)”

“Uh oh, Buck. You're losing points.

Matt, buy some of the stuff and try it for dinner. Almost everything we take backpacking is dehydrated stuff from health food stores. We just add water and eat it when it looks right and we can't wait any more.”

“wannabp,
After seeing everyone's food in the Sierras, I figured I could "expand my horizons" and try some new foods.”

“jmitch doesn't cook, he just eats cold Pop-Tarts!!!”

“wild oats matt?”

“Well.. let's see... you could always just trade your dehydrated desert for someone's dark chocolate when they aren't looking... :-)”

“Has anyone tried dehyrdrating beans? If so how long should they be left in the deydrator?”

“I have done it, but have never tried to rehydrate the result. I dehydrated the normal amount of time, about 14-16 hours.”

“dehydrator- I can't spell!

Oh really? I didn't think they would take that long. I found a good recipe for backcountry chili.”

“Hey Ms. Opie,

Beans come dried. Just buy a bunch measure off what you need and soak them a few hours before cooking them.there are a number of varieties available. black, baby limas and such. lentles would prolly work best.”

“you can buy dehydrated black or refried beans at Wild Oats. Both are good and not that expensive”

“I thought Mrs Opie was joking. Like Jacks said, beans come dried.

Anybody tried dehydrating rice?”

“Yeah but the dried beans aren't cooked. I want to dehydrate a can of kidney beans for chili.”

“Supposedly a couple people have used canned beans, and dried them with a good turn out. Heck, for less than a $1 you can try it ;-)”

“The recipe that I have says to drain and rinse the beans and then dehydrate them. It just doesn't tell how long it takes.”

“Till hard..they will crumble when you press hard onto one...figure 4 hours and then check every hour afterwards :-)”

“I've only dehydrated rice in jambolya (sp?) Never by itself.

There is a rice that works okay on the trail that is not "instant" rice. I will have to dig out the recipes.”

“i dehydrate my chili all the time - it works really good. Well, the beans can be a bit mushy when you rehydrate them, but its fine (to me)”

“I've dehydrated home-cooked beans and canned beans-right out of the can. With the canned beans-don't drain them or anything. Just put them on a fruit roll-up sheet(or aluminum foil, or wax paper) and dehydrate. Rice: you can do the same way. The only thing about rice is it is much easier to use "Minute Rice" rather than going throught the process. As far as dehydration times, what does it matter. I turn the thing on in the evening and turn it off when I get home the next day. I never time anything and everything comes out okay. You will want to dehydrate vegetables at 135° or less and meats as high as the knob will turn. Above 135° you loose some heat sensitive viatmins from veggies.

Also, almost any canned vegitable is good dried and reconstituted into a soup mixture with noodles or rice. I make Hoppin' John with black-eye peas and rice and dehydrate that. I dehydrate leftover pasta dishes too. It all come out good. Better than freeze-dried. I also dry canned okra and tomatoes and then crush it to a powder and use it as a thickner and flavor booster for soups and such things as top ramin.

Canned pineapple slices are like candy when dehydrated!!
last edited: 10/12/05 8:54:25 AM”

“I've dehydrated rice quite a few times. I used to just order some pork fried rice and dehydrate that. The rehydrated rice is a little mushy, but still good.

Once I patted a little too much of the fat off the pork fried rice though. The result was inedible. It just tasted bland and awful. So leave a little fat, or bring along a bottle of olive oil to add to it when you rehydrate.”

“What BS just said. You can dump a can of cooked beans (e.g. chili & beans) on the fruit roll-up sheet and dehydrate.

My brother is in a mountaineering club and they have been teaching dehydrating. Their method is to take leftovers from pasta, rice, or bean based dinners and dehydrate. In other words, don't take dehydrated ingredients and reassemble on the trail. Simply take finished dishes that you know tasted good originally and dehydrate them. If there are large chunks, then cut them up. He has been experimenting and says it works pretty good.

Sierramel has an excellent dehydrator cookbook that appears to be back on the market. It tells how to dehydrate specific foods as well as what not to bother with. Contains lots of recipes:
http://www.qnet.com/~sierramel/#Food”

“I dehydrated a rice Lipton Meal and sealed it up in a pouch with my vacuum sealer.

Didn't work very well. Didn't stay sealed. The rice mixture dehydrated very hard with sharp edges and the rice punctured tiny holes in the plastic sealer bag. It lost it's seal over a couple of weeks.”

“Well, you obviously just need to polish the ends on every grain of rice after you dehydrate it!”

“Instant Rice is so easy and light to start with, I now see little need to dehydrate rice.”

“Instant rice is stripped of most of it's nutrition.
I cook brown and wild rice then dehydrate.

I buy cooked and dehydrated beans, black and refried, at the local health food store. Comes in a quart milk-carton shaped box.”

“Candy has little nutrition also. I eat that on the trail too. LOL
Instant Rice isn't going to kill you for a day or two on the trail.”

“BS...I have burned things in the dehyrdrator before. My dehyrdrator doesn't have a temperture dial.”

“time to buy a new one”