# Rehydration 101



## *Andi

gypsysue ... had a good question, one which I have no clue about ... 

So how about some rehydrate tips ...


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## Emerald

Most of my dehydrated veggies tend to just go right into soups or stews so I just dump them in and if it looks like the soup/stew is getting too thick I add a bit more water.
But for my potatoes I put them in a heat proof bowl, pour boiling water over them and set the timer for 15 to 30 minutes depending on the shape(less time for shreds, more time for cubes) after that time I test one to make sure that they have absorbed the liquid and then I either fry them or put them in cheese sauce or milk sauce for scalloped taters. Then finish them in the oven like a store bought box mix.
Mushrooms get the same treatment-either boiling water to cover and let them sit for about 20 or so minutes and then carefully strain but not throw out the liquid and use the mushrooms in what ever I am making(like stir fry or hash browns for breakfast or right into the eggs) and then I use the "mushroom broth" so to speak right in the sauce for my stir fry's to make them extra schroomy! Now I have soaked mushrooms in other things other than water and that really is nice- like white wine for making a mushroom Alfredo sauce for pasta. Soy sauce and water for the stir fry's or other fancy Mandarin cooking stuff. They do great in egg rolls too.

Not that it has happened to me but I have heard that hikers that go to higher altitudes have gotten sick by not letting their dehydrated foods "rehydrate" enuf before eating and they end up with quite the tummy upset-only cure-drink water and wait- not life threatening but I was told they thought they was gonna die! Lucky for them they had a guide with them that had had it happen before and knew exactly what it was.
I've been told also that if you don't have a lot of water then don't eat too much as your stomach really does need liquid to digest well. In fact I think one of those survival/doomsday shows on Nat. Geo was talking about it too.

One thing I did do lately was dry a jar of canned mushrooms and some fresh and the fresh dried much nicer than the jarred ones. Plus I just dried 6 morels that struggled up in an odd spot in our yard-not where the rest used to be.. I haven't seen them yet, but I have high hopes!


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## *Andi

Mushrooms are on my list... first thing in the morning. I did :scratch when I was watching you tube and reading...

Some said HOT water and others said NEVER use hot water only cool/cold water ??? I'm so lost ... lol


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## goshengirl

Ground meat (beef, pork, chicken) I just pour into whatever dish I'm making and let it rehydrate that way. (Hamburger helper, lasagna, fettucini alfredo, etc.)


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## gypsysue

Boy, this is a useful thread! :2thumb: More, more. And someone tell me the best way to dehydrate fresh peas...raw, blanched, cooked? Mine are "chewy" when rehydrated. :scratch:


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## neldarez

Emerald said:


> Most of my dehydrated veggies tend to just go right into soups or stews so I just dump them in and if it looks like the soup/stew is getting too thick I add a bit more water.
> But for my potatoes I put them in a heat proof bowl, pour boiling water over them and set the timer for 15 to 30 minutes depending on the shape(less time for shreds, more time for cubes) after that time I test one to make sure that they have absorbed the liquid and then I either fry them or put them in cheese sauce or milk sauce for scalloped taters. Then finish them in the oven like a store bought box mix.
> Mushrooms get the same treatment-either boiling water to cover and let them sit for about 20 or so minutes and then carefully strain but not throw out the liquid and use the mushrooms in what ever I am making(like stir fry or hash browns for breakfast or right into the eggs) and then I use the "mushroom broth" so to speak right in the sauce for my stir fry's to make them extra schroomy! Now I have soaked mushrooms in other things other than water and that really is nice- like white wine for making a mushroom Alfredo sauce for pasta. Soy sauce and water for the stir fry's or other fancy Mandarin cooking stuff. They do great in egg rolls too.
> 
> Not that it has happened to me but I have heard that hikers that go to higher altitudes have gotten sick by not letting their dehydrated foods "rehydrate" enuf before eating and they end up with quite the tummy upset-only cure-drink water and wait- not life threatening but I was told they thought they was gonna die! Lucky for them they had a guide with them that had had it happen before and knew exactly what it was.
> I've been told also that if you don't have a lot of water then don't eat too much as your stomach really does need liquid to digest well. In fact I think one of those survival/doomsday shows on Nat. Geo was talking about it too.
> 
> One thing I did do lately was dry a jar of canned mushrooms and some fresh and the fresh dried much nicer than the jarred ones. Plus I just dried 6 morels that struggled up in an odd spot in our yard-not where the rest used to be.. I haven't seen them yet, but I have high hopes!


I think I want to live with you Emerald, you sound like the most knowlegeable and best cook in the entire country! I think you can do anything....well, I'll just keep reading you, goshen, gypsy and I'll learn lots of stuff also. Keep up the good work all of you and thanks for sharing all that you know..........:congrat:


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## goshengirl

Wow - you just put me in the same category as GypsySue and Emerald! I'm gonna live off that compliment for a WEEK! :kiss:


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## catsraven

gypsysue said:


> Boy, this is a useful thread! :2thumb: More, more. And someone tell me the best way to dehydrate fresh peas...raw, blanched, cooked? Mine are "chewy" when rehydrated. :scratch:


Always blanch. You have found out what happens if you don't, Chewy vegies.
Vegies you don't have to blanch,
tomatoes
onions
peppers
All others blanch. Just like when you freeze. Different vegies have different blanch times. Peas are 1 1/2 min.


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## gypsysue

goshengirl said:


> Wow - you just put me in the same category as GypsySue and Emerald! I'm gonna live off that compliment for a WEEK! :kiss:


I'm honored to be in company with the likes of Emeral and Goshen! I want to include a lot of forum members in our imaginary neighborhood, since I'm constantly learning things here!

Catsraven is one of them! Thanks for the answer on the dried peas. I'll blanch the peas this year and see how it works.

Andi (also someone I'd like to move into my imaginary neighborhood! ), I've just rehydrated mushrooms in room-temperature water and it's worked out quite well. It never occured to me to use hot water, and it also never occured to me to look for some of these answers on youtube! It was like a lightbulb coming on when I read your post!


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## DJgang

catsraven said:


> Always blanch. You have found out what happens if you don't, Chewy vegies.
> Vegies you don't have to blanch,
> tomatoes
> onions
> peppers
> All others blanch. Just like when you freeze. Different vegies have different blanch times. Peas are 1 1/2 min.


Do you blanch in the oven or boiling water?

like, when I freeze squash, I blanch in the oven, corn in boiling water...so does it matter with dehydrating?


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## mmszbi

My wife and I have lots and lots of dehydrated potatoes, we sliced them in a mandarin slicer, blanched them and dried them. They turned out exactly like the taters that come in the box, so I think we did good.
What I need now is a good, heck, any recipe to make a powdered mix like the boxed au gratin or scalloped potato things that can be stored with the taters.
Anyone??


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## Emerald

mmszbi said:


> My wife and I have lots and lots of dehydrated potatoes, we sliced them in a mandarin slicer, blanched them and dried them. They turned out exactly like the taters that come in the box, so I think we did good.
> What I need now is a good, heck, any recipe to make a powdered mix like the boxed au gratin or scalloped potato things that can be stored with the taters.
> Anyone??


I have been giving this very problem lots of thought lately... When I can afford it I want to pick up some of the powdered cheddar that several of the survival food places have.. Like Honeyville and I have also found that many of the big online spice houses seem to have powdered cheese.
I do make my own cheese sauces at home but they are all from fresh and liquid stuff.
But I think that a mix of powdered cheese, powdered milk, maybe some corn starch and then herbs or spices of your choice(powdered onion, powdered garlic a bit of powdered mustard and some salt and pepper maybe a bit of cayenne pepper for luck all come to mind right off)... Once you play a little and come up with a good formula then you could probably make it in bulk and then parcel it up and make our own style "box kits" in a mason jar like they do with cookies! 
Anyone on here buy that powdered cheese from Honeyville and can give us a lowdown on flavor/texture/ease of use? Etc.....


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## Possumfam

mmszbi said:


> My wife and I have lots and lots of dehydrated potatoes, we sliced them in a mandarin slicer, blanched them and dried them. They turned out exactly like the taters that come in the box, so I think we did good.
> What I need now is a good, heck, any recipe to make a powdered mix like the boxed au gratin or scalloped potato things that can be stored with the taters.
> Anyone??


 :gaah: I had a recipe for the hamburger helper version of potato stroganoff - but I CAN'T FIND IT! It was very close and I used my dehydrated potatoes. If I find it, I'll get it to ya.


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## gypsysue

DJgang said:


> Do you blanch in the oven or boiling water?
> 
> like, when I freeze squash, I blanch in the oven, corn in boiling water...so does it matter with dehydrating?


I didn't know you could blanch in the oven! How do you do that? I can see where something like squash, with an already-high water content, would be a good candidate for NOT blanching in water.


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## catsraven

I prefer steaming my self. You can do what ever works for you.

Your welcome and Thanks for the complement gypsysue! I hope others are learning things from me as well. I know that I am learning things from others as well. Every one who posted something here I have learned something from.

Thank you one and all :congrat:


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## neldarez

I'm still taking baby steps, but hey, at least I'm steppin! Dehydrated pineapple, carrots, hamburger,tomatoes,bananas and celery......yay. Now if I would just learn to cook! hmmmm. anyway, planted sweet potatoes here, hope they will make it, wash. state is not known for growing them but I sure do like them and they're really good for you. Our weather is crazy though, no heat,,,rain.. I'm so not use to this much rain. We are under flood watch right now ( I live up high but the town is in the floor of the valley) 
I love that you folks share so much, I'm learning all of this cuz of you guys...thanks, I'm grateful..........:2thumb:


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## neldarez

mmszbi said:


> My wife and I have lots and lots of dehydrated potatoes, we sliced them in a mandarin slicer, blanched them and dried them. They turned out exactly like the taters that come in the box, so I think we did good.
> What I need now is a good, heck, any recipe to make a powdered mix like the boxed au gratin or scalloped potato things that can be stored with the taters.
> Anyone??


I would like to try potatoes myself, did you blanch them after you sliced them? How long do you blanch? Then do you just scoop them out and dry them off? Thanks for the info........


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## *Andi

I'm doing taters in the morning, well hashbrowns ... my book said to blanch one minute, then cool in cold water and drain then go with dehydrating.


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## Meerkat

Never would have thought of dried food giving you a stomah ache,glad I read this,thanks for the info.


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## Salekdarling

I didn't blanched my sliced potatoes that I did recently. Those will probably come out chewy. I did soak them in a lemon water bath to keep them from browning as they dried.

Tried drying hamburgh as well. Success! I'm still keeping the dried version in the freezer. I dont have a vacuum sealer or oxygen absorbers to keep the meat from going rancid quicker.

:2thumb:
Bumping this thread baby! :threadbump:


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## JustUs

I just came across a blog where the lady used dehydrated food to make meals in jars. I am currently cooking beans to dehydrate to make a few of these. They will be very handy when we need a last minute meal, someone is sick and one of the "non primary cooks" is cooking, etc.
http://cheftessbakeresse.blogspot.com/2011/04/emergency-preparedness-and-everyday.html


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