Making dehydrated hunting food

My new dehydrator just arrived and im keen to get into making my equvalant of back country cuisine or what ever its called

Iv been reading up a bit ahead
Sydney Bush Walkers Club | Dehydrating - A 'how to dehydrate food' step-by-step guide

that is a good one for the basics and soforth, im just wondering who else out there gets into it to try keep hunting food costs down and still have good tucker while bush,

im tired of paying close to $20 for something that dosent fill me up when im out chasing shadows

I used to dehydrate bolognaise sauce, banana, apple, fruit leathers and a few other things. The sauce worked really well and comes out as a leather that you can just cut up and use with instant noodles.

Sounds yum

Get hold of one of these

http://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co.n...17/#post128048

How does that nz outdoor cook book compair to the nz forestry service cookbook?

Much more variety. Aimed more at stuff that gets carted on your back than is dropped or carted in for you. Only $10.

One thing that Marcelle talks about in her book is using an insulated bag to bung your pot in when it gets to temperature to save on fuel. Something I've always meant to look into. She also goes into dehydrating, how much liquid to add, storage, etc. And only $10, will get some copies for the gadgettes I think.

My new dehydrator arrived today ,,,,,haha should be fun

Can you do fruit in it 2.

Sure can. Slice banana and dip in orange juice. Place on racks and dehydrate. The orange stops them going brown. They don't come out crisp like the freeze dried stuff at the supermatket, but are more leather like. I prefer them like this. Good when you get a big dose of really ripe "bendy nanas" going cheap.

Kiwifruit is also good but it needs to be ripe, if a bit under ripe it can be quite bitter. Also do mushrooms and crush them up to add flavour to whatever you're making.

I bloody left my dehydrator at the girlfriends house over the weekend, now iv gotta wait a week before it gets here.

so that is a pain in my ass.

I had baught and defrosted the mince i wanted to try before realising.

my dehydrator is designed for fruit by the way, Im just repurposing it
tryed salmon over the weekend that was left over from the sushi, and it was good. but im a real salmon fan so your mileage may vary

how much are they if you don't mine me asking.

Dehydrators? Mine was 50$ second hand off trademe

What make/model?

sunbeam something

Dehydrator | Trade Me

Try this Bill, Its primo.

http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/...r-candy-recipe

Good score.

Mine is a really old Harvest Maid with 14 trays. Now sold as the EziDri FD-1000 or something. Cost huge dollars many, many years ago. Went halves with my mother to buy it.

yea mate iv tryed that before with back steak, fricken delicious, ill give it a go with that recipie when i next get a deer, those spices look like theyl make a gem of a addition

the better the cut the less chewy it was, its perfect snacking food to keep you away from macdonalds when travelling

yea basically iv worked out that they are a hair dryer and a box

be easy as pie to jimmie one up if you wanted to test if you like drying meat/fruit without the outlay
just set on the lowest setting for both fan and heat

Guy we hunt with has been doing it for yrs
He finally gave up last trip after waiting forever for it to rehydrate and tasting like arse.
Seems to have been a theme for the last 10 yrs lol

Cheers for the thread Bill, my partner has one, uses it for fruit, might have to hijack it, i love jerky/biltong.....

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Originally Posted by Spanners

Guy we hunt with has been doing it for yrs
He finally gave up last trip after waiting forever for it to rehydrate and tasting like arse.
Seems to have been a theme for the last 10 yrs lol

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haha, ah well, I hope I have better luck.
I have a few tricks up my sleeve yet

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scouser

Cheers for the thread Bill, my partner has one, uses it for fruit, might have to hijack it, i love jerky/biltong.....

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let us know how you get on mate, Im keen to learn and share what works and well, what doesn't

I dehydrated 5 kg of honey dipped apricots in my Sunbeam dehydrator , my power bill that month was $35 more than average , so don't forget the cost of power.
You can make non smoked jerky in them

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Originally Posted by Druid

I dehydrated 5 kg of honey dipped apricots in my Sunbeam dehydrator , my power bill that month was $35 more than average ............

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Really? Our charge for using 1 kwh of electricity ( 1 kwh is 1000 watts) is $0.2426 so for a $35 charge using your dehydrator, it would need to have used 144,000 watts of electricity.

$35 divided by $0.2426 = 144+ kwh or to be precise 144,2704 watts......


My Sunbeam dehydrator power usage is rated between 340 watts to 370 watts but assuming it was running on full at 370 watts usage per hour , then you would have had to run it continuously for for 3899+ hours

144,2704 watts used (remember kwh stands for 1000 hrs) divided by 370 watts used per hour = 3,899.2 hours running time, or to put it another way non stop for 23+ weeks.

It appears you have a problem if my calculations are correct. Your kwh charge may be higher but it shouldn't make that much difference to the end result.

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Originally Posted by Kiwi Sapper

It appears you have a problem if my calculations are correct. .

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And they arnt :)

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Originally Posted by Spanners

And they arnt :)

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I have an uneasy feeling in my colon,that you are correct, but I can't put my finger on it.............:)..

Where have I gone wrong?

You have too many watts

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Spanners

You have too many watts

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Watt?

I have looked at another way. 370 watts for 24 hrs = 8,800 or $0.2426 x 8.8 which = $2.134.88 per 24 hr period.
Hence, $35 divided by $2.134.88 =16 days.
That sounds better than my 23 weeks.....................or am I still up the booey as even 16 days seems an excessive drying time for the sunbeam with it's multiple trays.

Your units are a bit up the wop but you have come up with the right number this time. Of course being thermostatically controlled it probably only has the heat on half the time.

All ill say is Gazza home made dehy chilli con, looked like dirt, took about 2 hrs to cook and only got half eaten.
He's been doing it for years and finally given up
It has it place, meat, fruit etc but full meals?? Not for me pls :)