SnowPics.Ca! » Camping Recipes

Commonly know on our camping trips as rehy-refry, these are a great source of protein and are great in numerous dishes such as Burritos and others. I’ve even eaten them on their own (I was hungry). These are commonly available already dried in health food stores, but can be expensive. I find the most economical way to do these is to simply purchase the canned type refried beans (in the ‘Mexican’ aisle at the grocery store) and place these on the fruit roll up trays in the dehydrator. I commonly dry 4-5 cans at a time and simply freeze these for later trips.

These can be a bit dicey to rehydrate as you must replace the same amount of water as you took out of the beans at the start! This is easy to figure out if you have a kitchen scale. I will weigh a can of beans before drying, then weigh the beans after they are dried. This gives me the amount of weight removed from the beans. Since you are only removing water from the beans, use the original (now empty) can and our water into the can until it plus the weight of the dry beans weigh the original weight. You can then measure the amount of water in a measuring cup for reference. Once you know this for your beans you have a rough starting point. Mine for example is 1 cup of H20 for every 65g of beans.

When re-hydrating while you are camping – I suggest you start light on the water - re-hydrate, then add some more if it is still too thick. You can now use these as normal re fried beans – without carrying in cans of beans!

I’ve been asked this question many times. “How do you dry your ground beef?”

It’s a pretty simple process really that just takes time, like anything in a dehydrator.

Collect your ground meat, I use moose, venison and beef, and I have even done beefalo. Make sure this is as lean as you can find – leaner the better. Fat will go rancid faster as it doesn’t dry.

Cook your ground meet as normal in a frying pan, preferably non-stick to avoid using oils. Once done, remove from the pan and drain on a few sheets of paper towel. I put my towels on a drying rack over a cookie sheet to make sure all of the fat is separated.

Add this to your dehydrator. I use the ‘Clean-a-screen’ for my dehydrator to help with the cleanup, but regular trays work fine. The amount of time to dehydrate this will vary like all things dried, but about 10-12 hours should do. Just make sure you don’t over do this, as it will burn slightly if over-dried. The end result should be somewhat crispy like bacon bits.

I vacuum seal this in 1lb sizes (Before Drying!) and label and put in the freezer. This will last at least one year in the freezer or more (Mine never lasts that long) and will travel un-refridgerated if kept sealed for weeks!

I just grab my meat, and a meal, and mix on the site. For example if I feel like Beef Spaghetti then I grab a pack of dried spaghetti, and a bag of beef, and away I go. Or I can grab some moose chili just as quick!

Re hydrating this is the usual process of adding water. I like to put my pot near a warm bed of coals or mid-day fire to let the heat help the hydration process, but throwing this in your nalgene with the water at breakfast time during portaging allows the meal to re-hydrate and get ready to eat as soon as you reach camp.

This one is pretty simple but is always a favorite. When we go on our fishing excursions for Speck’s (aka. Speckle / Brook Trout) in the spring – this one makes it easy to put a new twist on normal pan fried trout in butter. Although there isn’t much better than that.

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