Best foods to dehaydrate?

[jewishprincess]

I grew up only eating pizza made at home and my dad always made an 18" pizza using old aluminum pizza pans that I swear had to be from WWII! But the crust was always crisp on the bottom and never soggy on top with globs of sauce on it. He would use a mixture of freshly grated parmesan and romano and just enough mozzarella to give it some body. My favorite all time pizza that he made was his mushroom pizza because he would slice the mushroom himself into thick enough slices that you had something to bite into and chew.

I don't think I had a franchise pizza until I went off to college and then I just about gagged at the amount of grease that dripped off of the pizza slice as I tried to eat it.

Now I don't mind a white pizza now and then, but nothing beat a good old homemade pizza.

[Alan Wheeler]

Water, is the best thing to de-hydrate. It reduces down to an easy to store size and all you have to do to re-hydrate is add water, hot or cold, it doesn't matter and it's instant. No standing period or anything. ;-)

[rsn48]

There are recipes for barbeque cooked pizzas, try the "Weber" site for one recipe. So you can cook a "thin crust" pizza on your barbeque.

[hellosailor]

Wheels, even in the 60's you could buy pre-canned freeze dried water in some of the outdoor/climbing stores in the US. No joke.

But pizza on a bbq or an aluminum platter...no way. The purpose of a pizza stone, or brick oven, is so that the porous ceramic/stone can suck moisture out of the dough, giving it a crisp crust. Plain metal traps the water, the crust will never have the same crispness, even if it is a good crust.

I'd be surprised if Weber didn't sell special branded gourmet Weber BBQ Pizza Stones.<G>

[Talbot]

despite your belief, a metal pizza base does work - we have one that has proven its utility a number of times. However, it is a special design with a lot of small holes in the bottom, so that the heat can get to the underneath of the pizza base, and allow the moisture to be sucked out by the heated air.

[hellosailor]

Talbot, I'm not saying a metal pizza pan can't or won't work--just that it won't work THE SAME WAY as a proper porous stone/ceramic base. For the same reasons that "everything" affects baking, plain physics. Even switching from a gas to electric oven will change the way baked goods bake, because the gas oven produces moisture while the electric is dry.

Heck, Stouffer's makes a decent frozen food called a french bread microwave pizza...and Domino's has most of the US convinced their "pizzoids" are pizza too.<G> Doesn't mean that's what you'd get in one of the better NY pizzarias, or that it matches Chicago's great deep dish pies.<G>

Now, a taco pie...that's real simple repeatable bachelor food. Of course, that's only authentic when cooked IN the mylar taco bag, so there's no cleanup.<G>

[Gallivanters]

Whenever we catch a big fish out on the high seas... we can eat it for weeks, waste none of the fish and do not need refrigeration.

I carefully remove the four loin filets and set aside portions for two meals.

With the remainder of the fish... I cut into long, thin strips (like beaf jerkey) and put into large zip-lock bag. Add enough soy sauce or seawater (or mixture of both) to saturate the meat. Next add whatever spices you may have - italian, cajun, pepper, wasabi, vegimite... anything you have on hand. Store in sink (incase of leaks) overnight and massage meat whenever you pass by. In the morning - lay strips of fish out on newspapers or old charts on deck in the sun. Flip at noon and you're done at dusk. Store fish strips in paper bag or unsealed zip lock to allow for more drying.

This method allows one to enjoy the entire fish without refrigeration. It keeps for weeks and is a great tasting snack and full of good protien.

My Hawaiian friends taught me this method.

Tuna & Mahi are my personal favorites.

Yum!

Kirk

[Talbot]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Talbot, I'm not saying a metal pizza pan can't or won't work--just that it won't work THE SAME WAY as a proper porous stone/ceramic base. ........Heck, Stouffer's makes a decent frozen food called a french bread microwave pizza...and Domino's has most of the US convinced their "pizzoids" are pizza too. Doesn't mean that's what you'd get in one of the better NY pizzarias, or that it matches Chicago's great deep dish pies.

Yes accept that.

BTW, the pizzas you are used to, bear little relationship with what is sold in italy, where in my opinion they are too parsimonious with the toppings

[GordMay]

Had home-made pizza, baked on a home-made wood-fired refractory oven last nite. Excellent Italian style pizza (parsimonious toppings), done in under 5 minutes (at 800 - 1,000 degrees).

[hellosailor]

Italy:
Many good things to eat (and apparently, at least in some major cities a new habit of charging "special" extra rates for tourists, tsk tsk) but to us Western Satans, not the place to get pizza.<G>

OTOH, I've never quite seen a cappucino hang updise down in a mug the way it does over there. I'm afraid to ask, if they've formally banned Starbucks from the place.

Speaking of which, in 1996 "Northern Italy" formally ceceded and there was a whole ruckus for a while. What ever happend to that, they reconciled and got back to business?

[salvor111]

I was in thailand about three months ago, a military cou took place ,I went to burma to hid out for a couple of weeks, I meet some sea gypies from the west coast, they said they coat eggs with vasiline, store in sawdust, the eggs last for weeks with no cooling at all, anybody ever hear about this

[Talbot]

Originally Posted by salvor111

I was in thailand about three months ago, a military cou took place ,I went to burma to hid out for a couple of weeks, I meet some sea gypies from the west coast, they said they coat eggs with vasiline, store in sawdust, the eggs last for weeks with no cooling at all, anybody ever hear about this

That and more are in "Sell up and Sail" by the Coopers

[hellosailor]

Coating eggs in vaseline (easier than wax) or putting them up in mud (Chinese style) or in tea or salted water, are all old-fashioned ways of preserving them. Best done with farm-fresh eggs that have not been washed and still have the hen's own protective coating on them, I'm told.

[NoTies]

Eggs:- A simple spray with cooking oil works well. We had freah eggs in Antarctic winter (6 months) right to the end. Less messy than vaseline.
Pizza:- Sue makes beautiful pizza on board. Yeast bread base, topping of choice and put in the oven at max. Our oven is only just hot enough to bake bread but does well for pizza. (Of course Sue is a chef so I guess that helps some)
Dehydrators:- I had a cunning plan to build a solar dehydrator out of flexible windscreen material, pyramid shaped with vent holes at top (facing down to stop rain ingress), stainless tray on the bottom and hang it from the shrouds. Any thoughts?

[hellosailor]

Interesting, but I suspect cooking oil would break down, taint the flavor, and attract critters in a warmer climate.

Now, your dehydrator *should* be able to do double duty as a solar still and recover that water for drinking. Solar still designs are out there...seems like one and the same job, you want to remove the water from the bottom of the still, you're just throwing away "the other half" compared to what they throw out.<G>