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Re: dehydrating food

>Would anyone be interested in contributing to a thread about food 
>dehydration? I recently bought a dehydrator, and find I don't know much 
>about how to proceed. Would anyone care to offer advise, experiences, 
>recepies, and so on? 
>Vegetarian stuff is what I'm particularly interested in. 
>Seems like I've got about three months to store up a lot of dry goodies. 

My husband Ronin and I LOVE dehydrating food for our trips.  We bought a
dehydrator several years ago for a ten day trip along the AT in Maine and
found we saved a lot of money and had tastier food than had we bought the
prepackaged stuff you find in a lot of backpacking stores.  Other hikers
were truly envious of our black-bean soups and Huron stews.  The best advice
I can give you is go out and buy a copy of THE HUNGRY HIKER'S BOOK OF GOOD
COOKING by Gretchen McHugh.  It has a whole section devoted to using your
dehydrator.  It gives you dehdration times and also info on how long your
dehydrated foods will keep.  It also gives you some excellent guidelines on
how much food one should bring and of what types for different length trips.
It has been an indispensable guide to us!

Here's my favorite recipe from the book, it only takes ten minutes to
rehydrate and cook!

2 cups dried cooked black beans
2 beef bouillon cubes (optional - as a vegetarian you might try using dried
Miso soup as a base)
1 tablespoon dried minced onion
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons dried green pepper
2 tablespoons dried parsley
2/3 cup grated cheese (we carry a lot of parmesan on our trips - keeps
great!)
1 tablespoon butter or oil

Put all the dry ingredients together, carry the cheese and oil separate.

1. Smash the garlic cloves with the flat of your knife to remove their
skins.  Cut into bits and cook for a few minutes in the butter or oil in a pot.
2.  Add the remaining contents of the bean bag and 4 cups of water, and cook
10 minutes.  Add grated cheese.  Serve.

You can halve the recipe since it says it serves four, but let me tell you,
after a long day of hiking this double recipe really hits the spot!!

Good luck and happy dehydrating!!

                                     Sparrow