Food Storage-Part Two
Dehydrated Food
by Carrol Draginis
Why dehydrate ??
1. To Preserve foods in the most natural way possible. Foods retain more of their nutrients & beneficial enzymes during the drying process. Baby foods are more nutritious when blended from dehydrated vegetables and you control the quality!
2. Foods that are packaged properly and stored in a dark cool environment can last for 30+ years! Canned foods generally are out of date after 2 years. Freezing usually only lasts for up to a year (best case scenario) and is dependent upon electricity.
3. Extremely convenient to have a store of dehydrated onions, peppers, vegetables and herbs for cooking purposes, really easy to prepare a soup or other dish from your own pre-packaged meals. You always know exactly what is in the food! No sulfites in tasty fruit snacks, use crushed vitamin C tabs mixed in water or lemon juice instead, or ascorbic acid.
4. Takes up less room than canned or boxed foods, weighs much less, can be placed in 72 hr. packs or taken on road trips or camping. Backpackers have been using dehydrated meals for years. Makes food prep a breeze for Dutch oven cooking while camping.
5. Initial outlay of $$ is less than buying a freezer, less than buying a canner and jars, etc. Can be very modest if a stackable type is purchased. If you can do the initial outlay of $219.00 - The Excalibur is by far the best of the home dehydrators. It has a 10 year warranty, and is top of the line.
6. Very easy to learn and to fit in to a busy schedule! Can do a little or a lot and lots of ways to take the “work” out of it. Perfect for the home gardener!
www.Dehydrate2Store.com
This is an amazing website and the one that inspired me to take up dehydrating! There are videos showing the actual process of preparing foods for the dehydrator. Showing what to expect after dehydrating, packaging and storing for best results, cooking with dehydrated foods.
Also recipes, helpful hints, and she even has a two part video showing all the steps on building a storage rack!
Freeze dried foods
These can be extremely useful for food storage. It permits us to store foods long-term that we otherwise could not, without commercial equipment to work with. It enables us to build our own prepackaged soup mix with the addition of meat or poultry, and baking mixes with powdered eggs, honey powder, shortening or butter. We can add to our long-term pantry such items as cheese, sour cream and buttermilk. Some of which can be dried but using commercial equipment (ie. Instant milk, buttermilk).
Food storage should be a mixture of dehydrated, freeze-dried, and canned or bottled foods.
Don’t forget to store water! Its needed especially for the dried foods.
Websites for obtaining Freeze-dried and Dehydrated foods:
www.providentliving.org. (Church website for the LDS Cannery)
www.Dehydrate2Store.com (Highly informational-with instructional videos and links to Excalibur dehydrator and DC Interprises for equipment and bags for sealing. Also drawings for winning a dehydrator and discounts for Honeyville Grain.)
www.Honeyvillegrain.com
www.survivalacrers.com (Will honor lower prices from other websites. Read his Blog, very interesting comments about the state of world, etc.)
www.beprepared.com (For emergency essentials)
www.freezedryguy.com
These are just a few, do some research and you might come up with even better ones than these!
Also, tune in to www.youtube.com as there are a lot of informational videos to be seen both for dehydration and in general survivor preparations.
Promised recipes!!
Chicken Chili Soup
¼ cup dehydrated onion
2 cups dried beans (soaked overnight) or use canned
1 cup dehydrated sweet corn (or add last 10 min. of cooking if fresh/frozen)
½ cup tomato powder (or 2 cups tomato sauce)
1 tblsp chicken bouillon powder (continue next page)
1 package chili seasoning (I use McCormik-mild)
2 cups of freeze dried chicken, TVP, or can use fresh cooked
3-4 cups of water (may need to add a little)
Place all of the ingredients in a saucepan and simmer 45 min. OR place in a crock pot and cook on low heat for 2-3 hours. Correct the seasoning.
Beef Barley Soup
½ cup dehydrated carrots
¼ cup dehydrated onion
¼ cup dehydrated celery
2/3 cups Quik barley (if using regular use longer cooking time)
4 cups freeze dried beef dices
6 tsp bouillon or 6 cubes, 1 tsp garlic, 1 tsp dried parsley
6 cups of water
Place all ingredients into a crock pot with 6 cups of water and slow cook for 2-3 hours. If using reg. barley, slow cook for 5-6 hours. Good with dehydrated peas and corn added. Correct the seasoning.
Vegetable Soup
½ cup dehydrated zucchini
½ cup dehydrated potatoes
1 cup dehydrated tomatoes
½ cup dehydrated bell pepper
¼ cup dehydrated celery
¼ cup dehydrated onion
1 cup dehydrated corn
½ cup dehydrated spinach
½ to 1 cup macaroni (optional)
6-8 chicken or vegetable bouillon cubes (or tsp) of granulated/powdered
1 tsp dried parsley, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp black pepper (if desired)
Place ingredients in crockpot with 8 cups water and slowcook for 3-4 hours.
Banana Nut Bread
1/3 cup of oil (I used corn oil)
½ tsp vanilla
3 eggs
½ cup sugar
1 ½ cups mashed banana
1 cup chopped walnuts
2 tsp cinnamon
2 ½ cups bisquick
½ cup honey
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom of loaf pan or use muffin pan with liner. Beat with a spoon (I used an electric mixer) for 30 seconds. Bake 55-65 minutes for loaf pan/15min. For regular size muffins.
Note: On this you could use freeze dried shortening, powdered eggs, dehydrated bananas and powdered honey in this recipe in order to prepackage and store long term!
Deep Dish Apple Pie
1 tbsp apple pie spice
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3 table spoon butter
3 tbsp corn starch
5-6 cups dehydrated apples
1 cup sugar
1 pie crust
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place dehydrated apples into a large bowl and fill with enough boiling water to completely cover the apples, cover and let sit for 5-10 minutes. While the Apples are still hot add the other ingredients and mix then dot with butter. While this mixture cools prepare your pie crust. Assemble your pie, remember to cut several vent holes. Sprinkle liberally with sugar and bake for 40 minutes. Will probably need to protect your outer crust with a tent of foil to prevent over browning.
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