Northern Ireland Outdoors Forum - Hiking, camping and more
General => Gear Questions, Information, Reviews and Competitions => Topic started by: Typo-On on September 11, 2011
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With our talk about the TGO lunch complete and one million things running through my head I started this morning to try and look for some of the things we discussed. If lenny and myself get in it looks like we will be eating dehydrated food for most of our meals. So I started looking and found a couple of interesting sites. one of which talked about making your own from dried goods and bunging it all in a bag, then all you do is add boiling water and let it sit. My first thought was 'mmm... that wont work as my food cools rapidly when left in the pot, it wont have time to absorb the water before it cools' I then remembered things like the jetboil have sleeves over them that obviously help insulate the mug.
Are these neoprene? if so about how thick is it? I'm thinking of making a pot/mug sleeve for my ti mug and pot if they are. Do you think they provide much insulation? Im assuming that by being able to let stuff sit and 'cook' you would save fuel also so a bit of a trade off for the weight.
Thoughts on a postcard :)
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I made pot cosy's a few years ago from an old kip mat and foil tape from B&Q
Works well . takes about 20 mins to rehydrate food
Andy
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They are neoprene and about 4mm thick. They do offer some insulation but I always thought the main aim was to allow you to handle the hot metal container.
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Just had a thought, Pound land do iPad covers made from neoprene. You could get a few of these and cut them up, it would be a cheeper option than buying a roll of the material.
Matthew
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Theres a few videos on youtube re construction and use
[ Invalid YouTube link ]pot++cozy
Andy
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What about knitting pot covers?
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I am planing on pouring the water into the packet and eating it from that.
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Suspectmonkey is the king of dehydration around here. He's experimented expansively and can probably give you plenty of good advice.
You can also buy a dehydrator and make you own meals but I gather it's a bit of an art.
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You can also buy a dehydrator and make you own meals but I gather it's a bit of an art.
I dehydrate my own meals in the oven.. its not hard to do , the important thing is to remove as much of the fat as you possibly can during the cooking process
I can do six portions at a time in my oven
It takes about 8-12 hrs to dehydrate a meal .. it may look vile at the end of the process but put it in a pot inside a cosy. add boiling water and leave it for 20mins .
tastes better than anything you'll buy and a hell of a lot cheaper
Andy
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How much of the 8-12 hours are in the oven?
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You can also buy a dehydrator and make you own meals but I gather it's a bit of an art.
I dehydrate my own meals in the oven.. its not hard to do , the important thing is to remove as much of the fat as you possibly can during the cooking process
I can do six portions at a time in my oven
It takes about 8-12 hrs to dehydrate a meal .. it may look vile at the end of the process but put it in a pot inside a cosy. add boiling water and leave it for 20mins .
tastes better than anything you'll buy and a hell of a lot cheaper
Andy
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All of it
Dehydrate time depends on what your dehydrating .... Beef and pork ( fatty meats) will take longer than a vegtable chilli con carne
Andy
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Is having your oven on for such a long time not really expensive too, or is it at such a low heat that it's efficient?
All of it
Dehydrate time depends on what your dehydrating .... Beef and pork ( fatty meats) will take longer than a vegtable chilli con carne
Andy
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For meat based meals its on @ 70 'C .. I has a PAYG meter in my old flat. , leaving the oven on overnight cost about a pound
Andy
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Interesting. Did you learn the finer details on how to do this somewhere or just make it up as you go along?
For meat based meals its on @ 70 'C .. I has a PAYG meter in my old flat. , leaving the oven on overnight cost about a pound
Andy
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I had an interest in air drying and smoking when i used to shoot many years ago , the oven dehydrating sort of stemmed from that
Andy
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lol .. no not quite
I'm so prepared . I gotta go to the shop to get something for my lunch shortly
Andy
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I've done a bit of experimenting with cosys and dehydrated grub over the last year. I found cosys work really well for anything that needs to simmer, with the obvious benefit of not wasting any gas. Not too many gas stoves simmer all that well anyway! The pot cosy material from Backpacking Light (http://www.backpackinglight.co.uk/product212.asp?PageID=110) works extremely well. Its really just two layers of aluminium foil with some bubble wrap sandwiched in between but it insulates very well, is light and pretty durable. I made a cosy for my Jetboil and even after 20 minutes the food is still hot enough to burn your mouth. If you want to see how to put a pot cosy together then search for "minibull design pot cozy" in YouTube. You can pick up the aluminium tape for sticking the cosy together from most builders merchants - I got mine from Ray Graham's in Ards.
If you are using pre-packaged dehyrdrated meals then the way to go is a pouch snug. I got mine from Outdoors Grub (http://www.outdoorsgrub.co.uk/pi_pouchsnug.php), but you can also make one using the same material as the Backpacking Light pot cosy. Then all you do is boil your water, pour it into the pouch, drop the pouch into the snug and leave it for the required length of time. When you open it up it will be nicely rehydrated and piping hot.
One other thing I experimented with was making my own dehydrated meals using dried food bought in supermarkets. I would mix things like rice with Beanfeast and put it into a Polylina Pour & Store (http://www.polylina.co.uk/pour&store.html) pouch (Sainsburys sells them). The Pour & Store bags are designed to take boiling water and are tough and durable, so you can re-use them without worrying about them tearing and scalding you. You just add boiling water to the pouch, seal it up and drop it into the cosy. Takes a bit of experimenting with quantities of water and length of time to leave it sit, but it works well.
This year I will probably look in to buying a dehydrator and making up my own meals. Last year for the TGOC I bought the best part of two weeks worth of dehydrated meal pouches and truth told I could have paid for half the price of a dehydrator when I added the cost up! Also, whilst I generally find pre-packaged dehydrated meals tasty enough they... errr... lets just say leave me smelling slightly less than pleasant! At least if I dehydrate my own grub I have more control over what ingredients are being used etc.
A very useful website is http://www.trailcooking.com/ which has some info on dehydrating food along with a bunch of recipies for "One Pot Meals" and "Freezer Bag Cooking". I also have a useful article in a previous article of TGO magazine on freezer bag cooking, so will try and dig it out for you to take a look at. Bon appetite :)
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http://www2.westfalia.net/shops/household/preserving_food/preserving_food/dehydrating_/ (http://www2.westfalia.net/shops/household/preserving_food/preserving_food/dehydrating_/)
Pretty cheap ones at the bottom of the list.
Is removing the fat only to make drying quicker? I'd hate to lose all those calories and taste units :(
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Agh, ok. That's a bit of a bummer, although could just carry some oil to mix in as/after it rehydrates maybe?
Andy Kirkpatrick drinks a slug of oil before bed on the big walls/mountains as the fat digestion helps keep you warm in the night. As long as it's not castor oil I suppose, or you'd be kept up with other concerns :D