[at-l] Re: dried meatballs

[krk@speakeasy.org (Kenneth Knight)]

I've dried meatballs before. Yum.

Use lean meats and make your meatballs however you want. I add in a selecti=
on of spices with a nice emphasis on garlic. Make your meatballs as you nor=
mally would. After you make them drain them as best as you can. Plop them o=
n the dehydrator and let them dry until they're crispy dry. It'll probably =
take about a dozen hours. It helps if you slice the meatballs in half or ev=
en thirds if they're really big to start with.

They re-hydrate best if you give them a fair bit of time to soak in cool wa=
ter. Just dropping them into a pot of water that you're about to boil for r=
amen noodles is not going to be enough time. Expect the re-constituted meat=
balls to be a bit chewy but they'll still be quite tasty.

  ** Ken **

ps- There are several good books on dehydrating. One I really like (and hso=
uld exploit more) is the Complete Dehydrator Cookbook by Mary Bell. Trail F=
ood: Drying and Cooking Food for Backpacking and Paddling by Alan S. Kessel=
heim is another good one. While the meals they suggest are generally a bit =
more involved than boil-in-bag (or pot) meals they are full of ideas. Also =
check out the LightweightFoods email list hosted on <groups.yahoo.com>.

**  Kenneth Knight    Web Design, IT Consultant, Software Engineer  **
**       krk@speakeasy.org        http://www.speakeasy.org/~krk     **
**        Ultralight backpacker   http://www.speakeasy.org/~krk     **