Rehydration

[Moorland Prepper]

We've had a couple of goes at dehydrating food.

The first time we did apples, oranges and some veg. We stuck to the time shown in the book that we used which was a mistake and I don't think that we made a good job of it. Second time was much better with apple, banana, carrots and parsnips - just leave them until they are properly reduced in size and dehydrated.

Our problem comes with rehydration, we can't seem to make it work. We have tried soaking apple in warm water and have just put deydrated carrots in a stew. While they tasted Ok they did not get back to anything like their previous size.

The book we are using states:

REHYDRATING
The true wonder of dehydration lies in rehydration. Rehydration brings a dehydrated product, which is often very small, shriveled, and hard or brittle back to its original large, plump, soft self!

It makes it sound so easy.

Anyone any tips or ideas please?

Thanks

[jennyjj01]

REHYDRATING
The true wonder of dehydration lies in rehydration. Rehydration brings a dehydrated product, which is often very small, shriveled, and hard or brittle back to its original large, plump, soft self!

It makes it sound so easy.

Anyone any tips or ideas please?

Thanks

Hmmmm.... To confess, I think someone overstated the success of the rehydration process. I don't claim more success. Maybe someone else will enlighten us both.

The secret, so far, seems to be to have small pieces to begin with. Add JUST ENOUGH water from a hot kettle, and cover for a while. Don't discard the water as it will soak up flavour. So cook with whatever water doesn't soak in.

I also think that too hot a dehydration damages the cell structure, so dry for longer, cooler?

Fruit, I seldom fully re-hydrate. I love chomping on dried fruit, like a supercharged opal fruit. Little chunks of fruit, seem to rehydrate better and I like them in porridge. Expect to get to about 3/4 original size after an hour or so in water straight from the kettle.
Some expansion in the soaking, and some more in the cooking.

Peppers, Carrots, swede and parsnips, I store as different shapes. The root veg seems to stay in shape and proportion better as round slices. When diced or matchsticked, the core of the veg seems reluctant to expand and pulls chunks out of shape. I'm usually happy with 45 minutes soak time, but 24 hours gets closer to full size.

For all these things, they've already pretty much been cooked by the blanching and drying, so only short final cooking, though I've seen recommendations to cook longer..

Onions, re-hydrate very well and quickly. Thin garlic slices just go straight in the pan.

Of course, lots gets processed into powder, to be used as powerful flavouring.

Now.... I still haven't cracked dehydrating spuds.

I can feel some 'speriments coming up.

[GillyBee]

Mine are mostly going into stews and soups etc where they get quite a long and hot rehydrate including pressure cooker on occasion. Loss of shape and structure is not then an issue Cherry Tom's go in hot water and a minute in the microwave which seems to do the trick.
There is a reason dried veg went out of fashion when the freezer came into household use. It does not give anything like the same result

[Moorland Prepper]

Thanks jennyjj01 and GillyBee, things are a lot clearer now. I think that I was expecting a bit too much.

It's still early days and I'll have another go this weekend, concentrating on root vegetables. OH wants to try broccoli so we'll give that a go as well.

We haven't really gotten into dehydrating yet so we are still learning. Thinking back to when we started making our own bread and vacuum packing things didn't always go too well. As for potatoes, we use Idahoan Buttery Potato Mash that seem to keep forever:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Idahoan-Butter ... B071WLPG5G

When I was young I occasionally had powdered potatoes (possibly called Smash) and they were pretty awful. The Idahoan ones are very good by comparison. Shows how far food preservation has come.

Very cold here in the moorlands (about -10c last night). The outside tap had frozon up despite being covered up well. It's now got even more layers on it! At least it's staying lighter for longer.

Thanks again

[jennyjj01]

Thanks jennyjj01 and GillyBee, things are a lot clearer now. I think that I was expecting a bit too much.

I reckon we should all report on our 'speriments till we collectively master this.

We haven't really gotten into dehydrating yet so we are still learning. Thinking back to when we started making our own bread and vacuum packing things didn't always go too well.

Stick with it

The Idahoan ones are very good by comparison. Shows how far food preservation has come.

I adore Morrisons Dried mash with onions. Truly better than DIY mash and 50p a sachet and we eat it all the time. Or for cheapest, Asda smartprice at 29p which makes 5 portions.
But I intend to master making my own if it kills me. Why bother? It's the principle of it.

[GillyBee]

Potato is off menu in our house (food intolerances) but I really ought to try sweet potato mash.

[ForgeCorvus]

If you're dehydrating something for the first time (or even if you're just unsure if you're drying it enough) keep weighing it (just pop the whole tray on the scales), no more weight loss means no more moisture.

I think your book is exaggerating just how well you can reverse the drying process.
Think about raisins, even when soaked for days or baked in apples they never end up looking like grapes.

I quite like the texture that drying gives stuff, when you cook with it it doesn't turn to mush...... Except maybe peas, but you're doing that on purpose

[Lemne]

I agree with what others have said. I use my dehydrated food for when I have run out of fresh and not as a substitute. I have had the most success with onions as they rehydrate and fry up nicely. I put in cold water overnight in the fridge. Peppers also plump up nicely. I personally do a lot of powders for adding flavour.

[jennyjj01]

I agree with what others have said. I use my dehydrated food for when I have run out of fresh and not as a substitute.

It's a bit of a quandry because we do need to use what we stash in our regular diet, just to rotate stock. That leads us to maybe a bit of compromise in regular meals. I suggest persisting in experimental use till we get it to be a go-to substitute.

Also, there's something to be said for introducing healthy peasant food like broths and, as someone said, pottage, into regular diet. Dried veg makes great soups and broths.

As Lemne says, Onions are great from dried stash. Mushrooms are pretty good too and I always lob a few bits of rehydrated carrot strips, tomato slices and peppers into cooking sauces to boost texture. I don't yet have the knack to re-plumping peppers as they always look limp and cooked: Dried too hot?

Latest discovery: Home made breadcrumbs. Quick, virtually free, easy and delish. Transforms lots of meals. Just dry and smash any old bread.

[Moorland Prepper]

I’ve just done our third lot of vegetables - carrots, green beans and onions. All very hard and dry, unlike the first lot. The oranges from the first lot had not been dried out enough and when tasted were quite moist.

I now know what we should be aiming for. It seems that the best way to use dehydrated fruit and vegetables is to incorporate it into something else. OH is an excellent cook and tells me that this shouldn’t be a problem.

The dehydrated food is now vacuum packed and in a coolish garage. I’m dating each batch and wondered if anyone advise on how long it will keep like this?