Dehydrated & Freeze-Dried Foods

Our class on dehydrating showed us that making our own dehydrated food is easy and it doesn't take as long as I thought. Kelli had some great dehydrating tips which can be found HERE. She has a NESCO American Harvest dehydrator and has been very happy with it. Another brand she recommended was an Excalibur dehydrator. Some of the new convection ovens even have a setting for dehydrating foods (check your owners manual for details). Kelli suggested you look for a dehydrator that:

• has an adjustable temperature
• has the fan on the top or on the side
• is expandable (can add extra trays)

A mandolin cutter can help you cut food pieces thinly and uniformly.

Here are a few websites that give specific instructions on how to dehydrate fruits, vegetables, herbs, and jerky:

Pick Your Own
FarmGal

You can even make crackers in your food dehydrator! Kelli made some yummy flax seed crackers. She didn't have an exact recipe, but here are some basic directions:

Flax Seed Crackers

1 cup flax seeds, ground (use a coffee grinder or blender)
1 3/4 cup water
seasonings (Parmesan cheese: 1/2 - 5 Tbsp and garlic salt or powder: 1/8 - 1 1/2 tsp; or any other seasonings - you can even add finely chopped or blended vegetables)

Mix the ground flax seeds and water and let sit for 3 or more hours until gelatinous. Mix in seasonings to taste (remember that the flavors will concentrate somewhat as the crackers dehydrate.) Spread mixture as thin as possible (1/4" thick) on dehydrator trays with Teflon sheets. Dehydrate until crisp.

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We also talked about the difference between freeze-dried and dehydrated foods. That handout can be found HERE. We then had the opportunity to taste and see the difference in multiple foods. We even tried a few of the Mountain House freeze-dried entrees and they were all quite good. My family uses them when we go camping and they would be wonderful to keep in a 72 Hour Emergency Kit. It would be nice to have a real meal instead of just a granola bar in an emergency.

Here are some photos and thoughts on the food we sampled (you can click on any of the photos to enlarge them):

Pizza from the Pantry

Our Pizza from the Pantry class was a huge success - and delicious too! We even made a pizza with one half grated cheese that had been frozen and the other half rehydrated freeze-dried cheese. We couldn't tell the difference! They both melted equally well and tasted great :)

Here is a wonderful pizza dough recipe from Joeby. Click HERE for a printable copy.

Pizza Dough

1 cup warm water
1 package yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon salt

Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Stir with a fork and set aside for 10 minutes, or until very foamy. Add oil to yeast mixture. Combine flour and salt in a bowl and pour yeast mixture over and mix thoroughly. Let rest for 5 – 10 minutes.

Roll dough out onto an oiled pizza pan (or cookie sheet, etc.) or roll out onto a pizza stone. (I put a little corn meal under the crust - as I roll it out - to keep the pizza from sticking and it gives the crust a great crunch.)

Add your choice of topping ingredients (be creative!)

Bake in a hot 425 degree (preheated) oven for about 20 minutes. I usually start checking at 15 minutes. The type of toppings really makes a difference in how quickly the pizza browns.

Joeby made many creative pizzas, but my favorite was one with pesto, roasted red bell peppers, and diced tomatoes. It was delicious! All the toppings were from jars or cans since we were trying to use only shelf stable items, but of course you can use fresh ingredients when available.