What are you dehydrating?

Food, Nutrition and Agriculture
jennyjj01
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Joined: Sun Jun 04, 2017 11:09 pm

Re: What are you dehydrating?

Post by jennyjj01 »

Potatoes!
My first experiment with making my own instant dried mashed potatoes. I needed to figure out the process and especially determine just how many Kg I could fit in my 9 tray dehydrator at a time.
Here's my report, for anyone who's curious.

TLDR: Disaster! Had big problems. 1 kg spuds fills 2 trays: eventually 2/3 fills a 500ml jar.
This was my guide. GRRRRR!

I decided on a small batch of exactly 1kg of unpeeled spuds. I used the cheap ones from Tesco from before Christmas. Peeled, I had 850g or five fist sized spuds.

I chopped my spuds into roughly 2cm cubes keeping the pieces roughly the same size, this just over half filled my big saucepan. Covered and boiled for 20 minutes without salt until they would slide off a fork. By that time the water just slightly less than would cover them.
Do not drain the water! It seems a bit odd, but as per the man on the internet, I mashed them into the cooking water. I mashed them by hand until they were a soft puree with no lumps, then I mashed them some more.
Important. I covered the metal racks of my dryer with non-stick baking paper. Mine was by bacofoil and had a dimpled surface.
Spread a layer of mash as smooth as possible and as close and even at 3mm (1/8 inch) thick. Here, I discovered that 1kg would fit on just two trays!. It looked a bit grey and unappetizing, having no butter or milk. I then dehydrated overnight (14 hours) at 55C. General advice is to turn the layers over, but I stayed in bed instead. The layers had lifted free from the baking paper and to be honest I doubt turning them matters. They were like great big crisps or popadoms. Quite crunchy enough for my liking. So onwards to pulverizing them, where I failed miserably.
I broke them up into my food processor and tried to pulse them to a powder. This is where it went horribly wrong!: No way could my food processor break these 'crisps' into a fine powder. I thought I was going to burn out the motor trying to break up these hard as nails cornflake sized pieces.

Now I'm stuck. I keep vainly trying to powder the crunchy buggers and I even tried rehydrating from the cornflake sized pieces. No luck.

So. Any tips? Did I over dry them? Should I persist with the milling? Do I buy a mangle? HELP!

Pictures to be added.
Graceful Degradation! Prepping's objective summed up in two words. Turning Disaster into Mild Inconvenience by the power of fore-thought

Not Feeling Optimistic. Let me be wrong
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Cocotte
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Re: What are you dehydrating?

Post by Cocotte »

Put them in a bag and go to town on them with a hammer.
It works a treat when smashing up hard sweets to make cheap liquors.
Lemne
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Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2020 6:44 pm

Re: What are you dehydrating?

Post by Lemne »

People have been posting about this in a group I am in but it confuses me. They cook rice and then de-hydrate it. To re-hydrate it you have to put it in water so why not just cook it to order? I'm going to try it as I don't own a microwave for the shop stuff and am hoping that I can just get out a portion for hubs and then put it in a jug with boiling water on for a couple of minutes. I'm still not convinced it's worth it but will update when I've done it.
jennyjj01
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Joined: Sun Jun 04, 2017 11:09 pm

Re: What are you dehydrating?

Post by jennyjj01 »

Lemne wrote: Sat Jan 23, 2021 2:01 pm People have been posting about this in a group I am in but it confuses me. They cook rice and then de-hydrate it.
That just sounds nuts :)
A quick google illustrates that they are typically converting it into some sort of instant rice 'trail' meal such as risotto or rice and beans.
As I see it, they are dramatically reducing shelf life as the price for some meal convenience.
There's no saving at all of storage volume, which is surely a priority of dehydrating. And no extension of shelf life which is also a top priority.
Graceful Degradation! Prepping's objective summed up in two words. Turning Disaster into Mild Inconvenience by the power of fore-thought

Not Feeling Optimistic. Let me be wrong
jansman
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Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:16 pm

Re: What are you dehydrating?

Post by jansman »

Cocotte wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 11:17 pm Put them in a bag and go to town on them with a hammer.
It works a treat when smashing up hard sweets to make cheap liquors.
I dehydrate leftover bread to use as fishing bait. It needs to be finely ground, and a food processor doesn’t cut it! So I use a cut- off piece of round fence post in a round bucket to pound it. I then sieve it. It doesn’t take long, and it saves me a mint .I reckon dried spuds could be done in a similar way.
In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: It goes on.

Robert Frost.

Covid 19: After that level of weirdness ,any situation is certainly possible.

Me.
ForgeCorvus
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Joined: Fri Feb 08, 2013 11:32 pm

Re: What are you dehydrating?

Post by ForgeCorvus »

jansman wrote: Sat Jan 23, 2021 3:58 pm
Cocotte wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 11:17 pm Put them in a bag and go to town on them with a hammer.
It works a treat when smashing up hard sweets to make cheap liquors.
I dehydrate leftover bread to use as fishing bait. It needs to be finely ground, and a food processor doesn’t cut it! So I use a cut- off piece of round fence post in a round bucket to pound it. I then sieve it. It doesn’t take long, and it saves me a mint .I reckon dried spuds could be done in a similar way.
I was going to suggest a large mortar and pestle...... Then Jansman gave us the budget version ;)


As to the rice thing. You can buy retort pouches of precooked rice for convenience use (nuke or stir-fry to reheat..... You could probably just mix it into a pot of suitably wet food and heat the lot, but I've not tried that yet) and have normal white stuff for LTS (if thats your bag). But dehydrating it sounds like a recipe for disaster, you cook it and then keep it warm until its dry https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questi ... poisoning/.
jennyjj01 wrote:"I'm not in the least bit worried because I'm prepared: Are you?"
Londonpreppy wrote: At its core all prepping is, is making sure you're not down to your last sheet of loo roll when you really need a poo.
"All Things Strive" Gd Tak 'Gar
jansman
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Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:16 pm

Re: What are you dehydrating?

Post by jansman »

ForgeCorvus wrote: Sat Jan 23, 2021 4:49 pm
jansman wrote: Sat Jan 23, 2021 3:58 pm
Cocotte wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 11:17 pm Put them in a bag and go to town on them with a hammer.
It works a treat when smashing up hard sweets to make cheap liquors.
I dehydrate leftover bread to use as fishing bait. It needs to be finely ground, and a food processor doesn’t cut it! So I use a cut- off piece of round fence post in a round bucket to pound it. I then sieve it. It doesn’t take long, and it saves me a mint .I reckon dried spuds could be done in a similar way.
I was going to suggest a large mortar and pestle...... Then Jansman gave us the budget version ;)


As to the rice thing. You can buy retort pouches of precooked rice for convenience use (nuke or stir-fry to reheat..... You could probably just mix it into a pot of suitably wet food and heat the lot, but I've not tried that yet) and have normal white stuff for LTS (if thats your bag). But dehydrating it sounds like a recipe for disaster, you cook it and then keep it warm until its dry https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questi ... poisoning/.
I was going to suggest the same food poisoning issue - but I always seem to come across as the resident health inspector , so I kept schtum!
In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: It goes on.

Robert Frost.

Covid 19: After that level of weirdness ,any situation is certainly possible.

Me.
ForgeCorvus
Posts: 3035
Joined: Fri Feb 08, 2013 11:32 pm

Re: What are you dehydrating?

Post by ForgeCorvus »

jansman wrote: Sat Jan 23, 2021 9:08 pm
I was going to suggest the same food poisoning issue - but I always seem to come across as the resident health inspector , so I kept schtum!
Food poisoning is serious stuff, it varies from unpleasant to deadly and yet most people just laugh about it. :roll:

The whole idea behind drying stuff is to prevent spoilage and illness.

Now we've delivered the public health message, on with the topic
jennyjj01 wrote:"I'm not in the least bit worried because I'm prepared: Are you?"
Londonpreppy wrote: At its core all prepping is, is making sure you're not down to your last sheet of loo roll when you really need a poo.
"All Things Strive" Gd Tak 'Gar
Lemne
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Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2020 6:44 pm

Re: What are you dehydrating?

Post by Lemne »

The rice thing is not something I am experimenting with, it's done by many. Same with the pasta. I'm also going to be killed by botulism by the many meat dishes I water bath as well apparently.
jansman
Posts: 13623
Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:16 pm

Re: What are you dehydrating?

Post by jansman »

Lemne wrote: Sun Jan 24, 2021 5:02 pm The rice thing is not something I am experimenting with, it's done by many. Same with the pasta. I'm also going to be killed by botulism by the many meat dishes I water bath as well apparently.
Please don’t dismiss food safety. Meat canning needs to be done under pressure. You only get botulism once.
In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: It goes on.

Robert Frost.

Covid 19: After that level of weirdness ,any situation is certainly possible.

Me.