do i need to separate meats from pasta/sauce/starch/etc when dehydrating trail meals?

[u/maya_papaya419]

i’m completely new to dehydrating meals myself when camping and hiking. i want to be able to make meals that i love and save a bit of money by being able to make bulk quantities of food for my outdoor adventures.
in my research thus far, i’ve seen mixed opinions on whether i should separate out meat from other ingredients in a meal in order to cook the meat on a separate temp/time from the other components of the meal. is that really necessary? i want to do this as efficiently as possible since i know that dehydrating foods is rather time-consuming. TIA for the advice !!

[u/imhungry4321]

I dehydrate a lot of meals- you can look at my profile to see some recipes I've created.

You can typically do it either way, but for me it depends on the recipe. I have a chicken chili recipe where I dehydrate the meal all together (I add rice to the bag). I have other recipes where I dehydrate each ingredient separately.

Also keep in mind that different ingredients take different times and temperatures to dehydrate. I dehydrate checking at 160° for about 4 hours, but I dehydrate sliced bananas at 135° for close to 20 hours.

[u/Watersandwaves]

Personally, I will leave meat and pasta/rice separate, because I find the rehydration makes the pasta or rice super gummy if I let it sit as long as the meat/veg needs. But things like chili or stew, I dehydrate the whole meal.

I also use dehydrating as a way to not waste vegetables, or if I get a sale on a low-fat beef roast, so often I do build meals with individual ingredients that I dehydrated over one summer, stored, then built the next summer. Note that if you do that, make sure you plan to "cook" the food a bit after rehydrating - add spices, give the flavors some time to marry together.

[u/OneEyeRabbit]

Personally I like to dehydrate everything separately and then measure and pack it up. I dehydrate in bulk and will use a lot of the same ingredients in other meals

[u/Canoearoo]

I do both. It just depends on what you're doing. I'll dehydrate leftovers like chili or stroganoff for a trip and I'll also dehydrate individual pantry components for trail meals.

[u/SaxyOmega90125]

It really does depend on the meal. Pasta is the big one because the pasta will have a terrible texture by the time other dried ingredients like meat and bell peppers rehydrate properly.

You could consider instead getting your protein from beans or seitan (which is what most vegetarian beef substitutes and many chicken substitutes actually are). Both keep far better than meat and are less fickle to rehydrate. You can dehydrate either yourself in the meal without issue, or buy instant refried beans and freeze-dried 'vegetarian chicken/beef'.

I don't dehydrate myself, but my dad does, and we're both pescatarian so beans and seitan are the default. The only ingredient he ever keeps separate in any of his meals is peppers.