If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. Anne Bradstreet

And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them. Ether 12:27

Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season therof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart; Yea, for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul. And it pleaseth God that he hath given all these things unto man; for unto this end were they made to be used, with judgment, not to excess, neither by extortion. D&C 59:18-20

Monday, December 22, 2014

Dehydrating

I'm doing research on dehydrating because I want to add some to my food storage.  I don't want to do everything dehydrated because of the potential for not having enough water in emergencies.  But it does save a lot of space and extends the shelf life of a lot of foods.

I had some leftover rice in the freezer from the last batch of chicken rice soup that I made in the crock pot.  I watched a YouTube video on making instant rice by dehydrating cooked rice.  That doesn't shrink up as much as some foods, but it does free up the freezer space.  So I did some in my oven, and it appears to have turned out nice -- at least it dried very well.  The proof is in the pudding, so to speak, so I'll find out when I reconstitute it and use it.  I plan to do this with some ready-to-eat soup that is excellent over rice.  I think that will be the best test of this method of oven drying, as the rice quality will be more noticeable than if I put it into a soup.

I also found a YouTube video on dehydrating commercial spaghetti sauce and condensed cream of mushroom soup.  She then powdered each of these to use in recipes.  Here's the link to that video.  She put hers in mason jars with oxygen absorbers. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poX75bxHA7E

I'll add links to other YouTube videos as I find them.

Here's another one, dehydrating homemade spaghetti.  The plan for these guys is to use the dehyrdated meals while camping.  They vacuum-sealed their dehydrated spaghetti in plastic bags. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw1biAa2oeg

Another one from the same guys, dehydrating homemade chili.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSaflBRWaJo

Linda's Pantry shows how to dehydrate frozen hashbrowns. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkbgMcLaUak

Edited to Add:

I dehydrated some canned corn.  On Monday, 12-22-14, I opened the can and used one serving (1/2 cup) and then dehydrated the rest over night as an experiment.  I rehyrdrated some for supper last night.  It took longer than I expected to rehydrate.  It was good, but I used it mixed with mashed potatoes and chicken & noodles.  I don't know that it was good enough "looking" to serve as a side dish by itself. 

I'm going to restrict my dehydrating to recipe-specific items.  I am going to try dehydrating both apples and bananas to be used in my muffin recipes.  If that works well, then I'll buy more at one time, and dehydrate some to be used later, to save on trips to the store and to gradually build up a stock of deyhdrated.
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