dehydrating burger and potatoes

[Diamon_Girl]

Hi! I've searched the forum and couldn't find anything on this subject, so I hope I'm not repeating something that already out there.
We want to try to dry some ground beef and shredded potatoes. Right now we're thinking this would be great for camping and hiking and later on might be a good way to store it long term when we get off grid and I'm looking for any and all advice.
I've dehydrated many fruits, veggies and even some jerky with my old dehydrator with mixed results, it was a super cheap model (I bought it for $10 at big lots when my son was a baby), but it's not a variable temp and I wasn't thinking long term storage wise.
I recently aquired an American Harvest by Nesco on freecycle (thanks by the way to whom ever posted the idea on the forum for someone else!! I took the suggestion and ran with it!), sadly it only has 3 trays and one of them is a little broken, but I am still excited and hoping to aquire more trays (diamonize@sbcglobal.net if you want to sell me some or fruit leather liners :P) and figured this would be good enough to get started with for practice.
Now, I am wondering, I bought beef ground from chuck, is this lean enough? I always rinse my ground beef in scalding hot water after I brown it, will that help make it leaner? Also, what about ground turkey? Most of that isn't very lean, but what if I was to rinse that? I am thinking of setting the temp around 140.
Also, what about shredded potatoes? Any suggestions for this? What if I tried slicing them? I can get a 50lb bag for $10 at my local Sav A Lot and thought it would be awesome if I could preserve what we could not eat before they went bad.
Darn it... am I rambling again??? I really need to work on that... :-/

[sbemt456]

Diamon girl some of the newer dehydrators have a thingy called a jerky press where you can make a jerky treat with ground burger and seasonings then press it out of the little gun thing into flat like strips and the dehydrate it. So if that uses ground beef I dont see why you couldnt dry ground beef, the only catch is the jerky does have salt and other seasonings that would help preserve it. I will try to find my instruction booklet for my dehydrator today and read up on that for ya. As for potatoes have you thought aabout canning them. For camping have you thought of maybe getting a huge bag of instant potatoe flakes at Sam's Club. I am not a lazy person but that would be my plan, easy to tote and light weight. I'll post later if I can find my instruction booklet. Maybe someone else has a better idea.

[Diamon_Girl]

Yeah, the old man won't eat instant mashed, he's a purist I guess, lol! I did bring up the idea of trying to make our own instant and that got me one of "those" looks, but I reassured him they wouldn't taste like the store bought ones. He's was convinced, lol, that instant potatoes were only potatoes, he did get schooled today when he read the ingredients, so that does bring me one step closer, tee hee! ;D
I am thinking about boiling potatoes mashing them and dehydrating them sort of like you would a fruit leather and then putting them through the blender. What ya think? I could then add boiling water to rehydrate them? Oh! Some butter buds and powdered milk!! They'd really be instant then! LOL! Ok, so I'm getting a little ahead of myself...

[sbemt456]

Well as ya know you can buy potatoe side dishes that start with dehydrated potatoes that look like chips, so if they can do it I'm sure an industrious domestic engineer could also. Maybe try slicing taters kinda thin then dehydrating them, just a few to see what happens. Let me know. Im too lazy to hike and dont camp out(too many creepy crawlies) so I can everything for my convience. Would like to know how the taters turn out though.

[annabella1]

No problem drying cooked ground beef or potatoes. You should rinse the ground beef but you said you do that already. I would stir the ground beef regularly during dehydration and make sure it is very very dry. You can dry potatoes in any form you want but you should dip them in acidulated water (lemon juice or vinegar or crushed vitamin c tablets in water), so they don't turn gray and look yucky. Again they need to be very very dry they should break not bend when you bend them. As far as drying already mashed I have not done that but I think they would be better if you stir them with a fork while you are dehydrating instead of blending them when you are done. If you blend after making a leather out of them you may end up with potato flour instead of an instant mashed.

[Shamrock1121]

Here's a good web site for more information:
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/dry.html

* When dehydrating meat, it's VERY important to have a temperature control on your dehydrator to avoid bacteria growth. *

* Dehydrated foods are actually considered short-term storage, especially when kept at room temperature. *Their shelf life at room temperature can be a few weeks, and up to 12 months depending on storage conditions and type of food. *Longer if vacuum-sealed, and even longer yet if vacuum-sealed and kept in a freezer. *

* Store foods in small, user-friendly, amounts. *Every time you open a bag/jar, moisture is absorbed into the dried food which can cause mold to grow. *Check dehydrated foods often for mold and never use it if there is mold on it.

Karen Notes: *I'd suggest buying very lean cuts of beef and grinding your own to control the fat content and the size of the grind. *I'd also suggest storing the dehydrated meat in the refrigerator for short-term storage, and in the freezer for long-term storage. *The fat quickly goes rancid when kept at room temperature, especially if it's not vacuum-sealed. *No amount of preparation will remove all the fat. *This also goes for jerky made at home.

Personally, I'd avoid ground turkey (and do roast turkey cubes instead). *Ground turkey includes some of the skin from the bird. *There is more bacteria on the skin than you ever find in muscle meat. *(You don't want to know the numbers - it will gross you out....) *I wouldn't want to chance bacteria from commercial ground turkey - even though it's cooked first before you dehydrate it. *If you freshly ground your turkey and quickly prepared it WITHOUT any skin, that would be better than commercial ground turkey.

1 pound lean ground beef

Cook the beef until no traces of pink remain and it's well heated. *Drain all the fat, then rinse under hot water to remove as much fat as possible. *You can go one step more and place the cooked burger between several layers of paper towels and press down with a rolling pin to eleminate any remaining fat.

It's the fat at room temperature that goes rancid.

At this point you can also add dried herbs or spices if you'd like.

Line your trays with fruit leather sheets and then top these with the mesh sheets and place the burger on top in a single layer.

Blot the meat with a paper towel at least twice during drying. *Dry the cooked beef at 145°F for about 6-8 hours, or until it is HARD.

One pound beef weighs about 4 ounces dried.
-----------------------------

You can also dehydrate 1/2-inch cubes of cooked meat (beef, ham, bison, chicken, turkey, fish etc...) *It's a good use for leftover roast beef/turkey, etc. *A few more uses than jerkey. *Check your local library for books on the subject, including my favorite, Making & Using Dried Foods - by Phyllis Hobson.
---------------------------

You have to be careful with potatoes, they tend to often be under dried and mold easily, so check them often. *This is usually from inconsistant sizes of slices. *Use a mandoline for making slices that are the same thickness and potatoes that are about the same size. *I store a lot of my dehydrated foods in the freezer to avoid mold. *I also vacuum seal most of it either in jars or plastic bags.

Potatoes: *(source: *Making & Using Dried Foods)

Wash and peel potatoes and cut into 1/2-inch shoestring strips or 1/8-inch thick slices.

Blanch in steam in small batches for 6-8 minutes or 5-6 minutes in boiling water. *Drain well.

Spread strips or slices in a single layer over trays. *Dry 12-18 hours at 120°F until brittle and semitransparaent. *Turn pieces and rotate trays once or twice during drying.
---------------------------

Dehydrated Potato Slices or Shreds (how I make them)

1. Wash and sort potatoes. Use like-sized potatoes if possible so they dehydrate in about the same time. Peel, if desired, or leave skin on.

2. Using a cutting mandoline (a really quick way to slice food for dehydrating) or knife, cut the potatoes into 1/8- to 1/4-inch slices and drop into cold water to prevent oxidation.

3. Then place the potato slices in boiling water and blanch potato slices for 5 minutes (or 6-8 minutes if using a steam blanch). *When blanching, count the time AFTER the water comes back up to a boil after you add the potatoes.

4. Drain and drop into a lemon juice/water solution - 2 quarts of cold water and 1/2 c. bottled lemon juice. Soak for 45 minutes. Stir occasionally. (Other recipes omit the lemon/water soak - your choice.) *The lemon juice helps to keep the potatoes white.

5. Drain and dry potato slices (I used my lettuce spinner and gently drained the water from the potatoes by spinning them.)

6. Dehydrate in a single layer, 12-18 hours at 120°F. (or temperature according to the manufacturer instructions of your model of dehydrator). Make sure the potatoes are brittle and semi-transparent. Incomplete dehydration will cause the potatoes to mold. Do not eat dehydrated potatoes with mold on them. Turn the potato slices once or twice during drying.

7. Store in an airtight container.

To re-hydrate: Mix equal amounts of dehydrated potatoes and boiling water and allow to sit for 25 minutes.

You can also slice washed potatoes into 1/2-inch shoestring strips for "hash browns" using the same method.
--------------------------

Another way to prepare potatoes when you have a lot and don't wan't to mess with dehydrating them is to mash and freeze them in dollops.

Freezer Mashed Potatoes

5# potatoes (washed well - you can peel them if you like)

Cook and drain per usual.

Mash in 6 oz. cream cheese, 1 c. sour cream and 1/4 c. butter (chives or other spices if you like).

Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and place dollops of mashed potatoes on it using an ice cream scoop. *Quick freeze them. *After they are frozen I place them if FoodSaver bags in a single layer and vacuum seal them shut. (Modified to say I store the vacuum-sealed bags in the freezer and take out the amount of potatoes I need and reseal the bag.) *The dollops quickly thaw in the refrigerator if you take them out the night before you need to use them, and can be heated through in an oven, toaster oven, in a pan on the stovetop, or nuked in a microwave.

-Karen

[Shamrock1121]

I also dehydrated mashed sweet potatoes, but have never done mashed white potatoes. The mashed sweet potatoes rehydrate with hot water. The trick is to dehydrate it until it is crispy-dry and then blend it into a powder. Here's the method. - Karen

2 pounds sweet potatoes = 4 single servings

- Cook, drain & mash sweet potatoes. (Use any cooking method you'd like - steamed, boiled, baked...)

- Flavor the mashed sweet potatoes with maple syrup, if you'd like, just do not add any butter or other fat.

I don't add anything until I rehydrate them because I often use them plain for sweet potato biscuits and don't need the additional sweetener. I also think they dehydrate better without any additional ingredients.

- Spread on lined trays (use fruit leather sheets, or line the trays with plastic wrap). Place 1/2 c. mashed sweet potatoes on 1/2 the sheet (leave a bit of space), and 1/2 cup on the other half. (Each 1/2-cup will equal 1 serving when rehydrated.)

- Dry at 135°F until crispy-dry.

- When dry, toss the dried 1/2 c. amount into the blender and mix into a powder. Store in small reclosable plastic bags (aka "snack" bags). This is equal to one serving.

- To rehydrate: Slowly add hot water until you reach the desired consistency. Add some butter and/or sweetener, if desired.

[Diamon_Girl]

Thanks so much for all the excellent info! Wish me luck! I'm gonna give it a try!!!