Dehydrated Food

[NativeUSAindian]

Originally Posted by roverhi

We bought an assortment of dehydrated basics in #10 cans from a Mormon supplier. The Mormons are supposed to keep a years supply of food stored just in case so there are a lot places to get them.

I wouldn't want to eat the stuff exclusively but we found it great for adding to stews, Maranara sauces, etc. We liked the dehydrated cheese as an addiive to soups, onions, green peppers, garlic, etc. We got awfully tired of a desert mix that was supposedly apples processed into a tasteless but sweet powder. I'd check out what's available as the price was definitely attractlve. The place we went to let us sample what they had to offer. Took a bit of imagination to translate the dried stuff to what it was going to be like cooked with other ingredients.

Yes and you can buy a can sealer and cans you need to fill and get packets the suck the air out. But some things you do not want to put in a can. But will be great for the 30 days Emergasy supply on a trip do you thank?

[markpierce]

Originally Posted by roverhi

We bought an assortment of dehydrated basics in #10 cans from a Mormon supplier.

Do Mormon suppliers sell to Gentiles (non-Mormons)?

[NativeUSAindian]

Originally Posted by markpierce

Do Mormon suppliers sell to Gentiles (non-Mormons)?

After I get my club going and I get my boat and put a Garden on it than I can sell to you but right now I am in a no selling zone.You I am only in a Buying zone.

[smithy]

These guys make a pretty good deal for what you get. I fed 16 Boy Scouts for a week on mostly these sorts of supplies.

Nitro-Pak: Nitro-Pak Products: Freeze Dried Food, Food Storage, Emergency Supplies & More

Can't say how they hold up aboard, but taking them from the can, and repacking in either ziplock or foodsaver bags for smaller portions, is certainly a possibility. Some menus are better than others - but I'm a big fan of the breakfast scramble, it blows old fashioned powdered eggs out of the water. Makes for a fantastic breakfast burrito in the time it takes to boil water.

[Dockhead]

I think backpackers have a different problem set from cruisers. For backpackers, weight is everything -- since you hump it all on your own back. So they don't mind paying 2x, 3x, or 5x as much for a couple days' rations, if it saves their backs.

Cruisers don't have this problem. Provisions, even for a year, don't usually weigh too much for the average cruising boat. And we're usually out much longer than backpackers, so instead of buying for a few days or maybe a week, we are often buying for a month or months.

So I don't personally really see that dehydrated foods are such a useful solution for cruisers. They are too expensive and don't really have any advantages which are of much benefit to us.

I think canned goods are much more valuable for cruisers. They are cheap, available everywhere, and these days you can buy an amazing variety of things. The variety is important considering what a problem monotony of diet is for so many cruisers.

Another boon for those cruisers who have separate freezers (and enough power to run them) is frozen food. Frozen vegetables and meat are nearly perfect substitutes for fresh, for most purposes.

[JJB]

We always keep a couple of dozen dehydrated meals on the boat on the freak chance we run out of food during a passage, for the most part we just stock up on cans at every port, and use powdered milk during passage rather than long life milk.
We do have freezer space on the boat, depending on what tinned food is available we won't always use this esp on shorter passages. When we do use it we keep quite a lot of frozen veg in it.

[NativeUSAindian]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

I think backpackers have a different problem set from cruisers. For backpackers, weight is everything -- since you hump it all on your own back. So they don't mind paying 2x, 3x, or 5x as much for a couple days' rations, if it saves their backs.

Cruisers don't have this problem. Provisions, even for a year, don't usually weigh too much for the average cruising boat. And we're usually out much longer than backpackers, so instead of buying for a few days or maybe a week, we are often buying for a month or months.

So I don't personally really see that dehydrated foods are such a useful solution for cruisers. They are too expensive and don't really have any advantages which are of much benefit to us.

I think canned goods are much more valuable for cruisers. They are cheap, available everywhere, and these days you can buy an amazing variety of things. The variety is important considering what a problem monotony of diet is for so many cruisers.

Another boon for those cruisers who have separate freezers (and enough power to run them) is frozen food. Frozen vegetables and meat are nearly perfect substitutes for fresh, for most purposes.

Cans can rust and freezers can lose there coolent and Dehydrated foods can last 7 years when made right. I plan to put a small freezer on my new boat design but for long trips I do not want to count on it.
You know to run a freezer it takes power and any lost in power or coolent
you will lose your frozen foods. So I thank that is for me.
Caned goods are good but they have to much salt in them that make some people have High blood pressuer untell you know what other food to it with them. Surger food rought teeth rob you of vitamen C like smoking.
So I can live at sea on Cans of Vetable Beef Soup,wheatiys with no surgar,rains,nuts,oatmeal,dry foods home dryed:apples,pineapples,rains,watermealens,peaches ,pears,and so on.

[NativeUSAindian]

Hay who wants to talk about how to make garden on a bout?

[Bruce626]

I think that a small dryer could be made from a stack of large diameter (four liter?) cans, such as those used for milk powder by carefully cutting the bottom out and then cutting the cylinder in half so there are two short large diameter cylinders. These will need four connection holes at the top and bottom while in the center a series of holes through which bamboo skewers can be inserted to make an open rack (a less labor intensive way to do this might be to make circular drying racks separately and suspend them at varying heights inside the uncut can using three or four lengths of line that vary in length so space the racks – just weave the racks and trim to fit, load, and lower into the can and secure by clipping a hook over the top rim).

It would probably be most efficient to paint the outside of the cylinders flat black to help absorb heat. The top and bottom cans in the stack will get screens to keep the bugs out (and hanging should reduce the ant problem, possibly with some liquid insect poison on the upper support line), and a clear plastic cylinder may be needed on top to help power the airflow (and might have a stack of small diameter black cans in the center to help gather heat).

An optional addition might be a wide flat cone to act as a ‘hat’ above the rack so that in case of a short rain shower the drying contents will not get wet. The cans are loaded separately and then clipped closely to each other using (to prevent the entry of bugs) “C” shaped wire clips. The rack in each can is loaded with thinly cut food to be dried and then the cans are assembled into the drying stack and hung in direct sunlight. Some experimentation will be needed to determine the necessary drying time for each kind of food.

[SabreKai]

Many years ago there was an article in Cruising World about drying things. The author made up a drying set up by taking a baking sheet, putting two sides on it that were about 2 inches high, and a lexan top. The food was placed on the baking sheet, and the end openings covered with screen. The whole deal was placed on deck in the sun and wind, and left. Apparently it worked very well.

It occurs to me that if the pan were put on a lazy susan, (two circular plates, with bearings in between) and the top have a wind vane on it, that it would always point the open ends into the wind, and dry faster.

@NativeUSAIndian: "Cans can rust and freezers can lose there coolent and Dehydrated foods can last 7 years when made right. I plan to put a small freezer on my new boat design but for long trips I do not want to count on it.
You know to run a freezer it takes power and any lost in power or coolent
you will lose your frozen foods. So I thank that is for me.
Caned goods are good but they have to much salt in them that make some people have High blood pressuer untell you know what other food to it with them. Surger food rought teeth rob you of vitamen C like smoking.
So I can live at sea on Cans of Vetable Beef Soup,wheatiys with no surgar,rains,nuts,oatmeal,dry foods home dryed:apples,pineapples,rains,watermealens,peaches ,pears,and so on."

All very valid points. Your people lived for centuries at peace with the earth, and never had power or refrigeration. I hope that their skills are not gone from the earth, they will be needed in the future once again.

Sabre

[Me-and-Boo]

Other than cost - MRE's are good for those times when fresh and delightful is not available.

[zopi]

I certainly would not want to live off camp food, but provisioning dehydrated staples is a must...various kinds of pasta, long pasta takes least space, sketti and fettucini, littes stuff...couscous, pastini, rice, beans, especially rice and beans...as they are extremely easy to fit into meal plans..

Hit an asia grocery and indian grocery..those folks are the past masters at producing and preserving by freeze dry and dehy, vacuum, etc...
my big thing in the asia markets are the rices, large variety, and mushrooms, ans well as various fish stock bases, and some fermented stuff..red soybean paste springs to mind, and of course wasabi powder..

The indians are a great resource for spices, rice, and recipes...so if ya have a box of curry, soak some of the aforementioned beans, say a cup and a half for two people, couple of cups of basmati rice cooked, once the beans have soaked overnight, make a curry sauce with some sort of veggie, maybe add some chicken or dried sausages, or reserve a bit of fresh caught fish..lionfish springs to mind...simmer the cooked beans in curry sauce, and serve over the rice...

dried seaweed makes a nice soup accent, and is a not bad spinach substitute in some dips and sauces...

Buncha stuff you can do with dry food off the beaten path..esp without paying camping store prices...

and do get yourself one of those sweet new pressure cookers that allow you to relieve pressure, and add ingredients and pressure right back up...those are sweeet..

Do carry a variety of canned and dry, and top up the fresh as you get a chance..it will make you a more creative cook..

oh...dehy mashed taterz...butt tone of recipes work well with them...a little canned butter, some wasabi powder, and a little powdered milk...makes a heck of a midwatch snack...

[Phisher]

My dehydrator will be joining me when I move aboard. I have dehydrated venison, pork and fruits. Then I vacuum pack them for shelf life. Nothing better than venison jerky, pure protein.

[Amgine]

Dehydrated foods are wonderful; commercial products are able to be nutritionally useful for literally decades. But like all things boating, they are not a panacea but a compromise: they require water. If you rely extensively on dehydrated stores you may need to increase the water budget per person. (Obviously this is easily overcome by RO, ready supplies of shore water, etc, but it's something to keep in mind when managing stores.)

[sailingfool]

I can't really add much to these great responses, other than my observation that dehydrating foods can be really inexpensive. I use a basic "American Harvest" food dehydrator that I got at Goodwill for $10. They can be had new for as little as $30.

A 4qt pressure cooker of beans ($15 per 25 lb sack) will only fill 5 of it's 6 trays. Same with a large pot of rice ($18 per 50 lb sack). Throw the beans/rice/spices/etc. into a single foodsaver bag and there you go. A meal for less than 50 cents (guesstimate). Just add hot water. I have been making these "meal bags" for months, as it's something I can do in the meantime while I look for a boat.

My pressure cooker, foodsaver, and dehydrator will be going on the boat for sure, as well as my Sun Oven (cooked a whole chicken in an hour in that thing!).

I also enjoy sprouting in small batches. Lentil, mung and other large seeds are easy to sprout in just a few days with very little water in "sprout keepers". Keep the seeds in foodsaver bags until you are ready for them, of course.

Funds are tight for me right now, so if I can save money on food, it's a good thing.

Looking forward to more great ideas! Thanks guys