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Does dehydrating count as preservation? Looking for options to dehydrate food for home use and hiking. (self.canning)
submitted 6 months ago by to c/canning@midwest.social
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Hi all, I recently did a 7-day hike and realised how expensive it is to buy freeze-dried food.
So i'm thinking to buy/acquire a dehydrator somehow.

Anybody have experience with what brands to look for, and what kind of food to try first?

I'm planning to use it for making food that we can prepare on a hike, preferably just by adding hot water. I also want to have some stored at home as 'emergency' meals for when we are too tired to cook!

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[–] 4 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Yes, it counts as preservation. It's not bullet proof. I've made jerky and it lasted forever, but then next time it only lasted a week because I didn't dry it enough.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    Wow, so jerky can be tricky then? Do you need higher temperatures to dry it correctly?

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  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago

    You need to get the water activity low enough to where disease-causing or spoilage microbes can't grow on or in the food.

    Different foods have different susceptibility to different microbes, especially at different salt levels, sugar levels, fat content, even smoke. And the size and shape and underlying three dimensional structure (muscle fibers, intramuscular fat) affects drying rates, so a process for dehydrating one piece of meat may not work as well for a different piece, and it may need more time.

    Start with closely following established, safe recipes and understand what you're doing first, before branching out and trying variations.

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