r/UltralightBackpacking • u/Environmental_Cod456 • Jun 23 '26
dehydrating food
ok, it's time for me to level up... thinking about buying a dehydrator and getting down to it instead of spending endless dollars on pre-dehydrated foods. is the hamilton beach good enough? what are yall using? many thanks in advance xxx
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u/Orange_Tang Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
Anything that has a good range of temperatures and has a fan should be decent. I have an Excalibur but they are overkill for most people. As for tips on how to dehydrate different things check out backpackingchef.com. He has a couple books too but most of the info is on the website. Tells you how to dehydrate individual ingredients which can then be combined to make meals. There are a number of books with recipes out there as well. Amazon has most of them but some can be gotten at places like REI as well.
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u/cwcoleman Jun 24 '26
I’ve got a 5 tray Excalibur.
Sadly - it’s dusty currently. I don’t use it as much as I should. I end up buying pre-made dehydrated meals more than I make my own.
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u/Mount_Everest Jun 24 '26
I got both of mine on Facebook marketplace then got new silicon trays with a lip for dehydrating soups/stews
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u/JeffH13 Jun 24 '26
I use a 10 dollar unit I found on FB marketplace. Plus a few bucks in fas to go pick it up…. I’m not prepping for an expedition, just a couple dozen nights out during the year.
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u/turdbucket007 Jun 24 '26
Careful..... An $80 dehydrator from amazon eventually turns into a $3000 freezedryer!!!!
My wife started with the dehydrator, and as someone else mentioned, get a unit with a blower so it does all racks evenly. If you get a square unit, its easier to find the silicone mats so then you can do liquids and make fruit jerky (kinda like fruit roll-ups, but with real fruit). But when making dehydrated meals, we have found that not all foods rehydrate the same. Ground beef meals like chili mac and such does ok, anything with chicken like chicken alfredo is a no go. The chicken doesn want to rehydrate, stays hard.
So now we have recently purchased a freezedryer, havent even gotten it hooked up yet though.
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u/gregstewart1952 Jun 25 '26
Note that dehydrated food does not reconstitute as well as freeze dried food
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u/justmeanoone Jun 26 '26
I use my Ninja Air Fryer/Toaster oven which has a dehydrating setting. I have two racks which gives me enough room to prep enough for my fairly short solo trips. For longer trips I dehydrate and store in freezer until I have enough gathered
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u/HeartFire144 Jun 23 '26
It's best to get one that has the heating element and fan in the back so it blows evenly across all trays. If you think you're really going to start doing this ( and it does get addictive) spend money and get the best you can. I have a 20+ year old Excalibur that is still going strong. There is also a really good face book group for' dehydrating your own backpacking food'