Outdoors
Whether you are a hunter, hiker, camper, backpacker, or extreme skier … this section is for you! We know you’d rather be outside so we wrote this section straight to the point, cut and dry.
Jerky, Jerky and More Jerky!
A dehydrator is one of the best tools you can have when making homemade jerky. Good news and most important … Excalibur dehydrators meet FDA regulations. For meat, the internal temperature of the food must reach 160F. If you read the fine print of other brands, the instruction manuals say something like *Not safe for drying meat or *Heat in oven prior to drying. With Excalibur, no worries, no added step, simply prep, dry and store.
How to make jerky: You can dehydrate all types of meat and fish for jerky. To start, we like to have the meat cold, hard to the touch but not frozen. It’s easier to cut. Slice the meat against the grain, approx. 1/8” thick. If slicing a lot of meat, use a jerky slicer. If drying ground meat, use a jerky gun. Make your marinade, then cover the meat evenly with the marinade. Marinate the meat in the refrigerator for 6 to 24 hours. Remove from fridge and pat the meat dry. Removing excess liquid speeds up the drying process. Turn the temperature on the dehydrator up to 155+. Drying time will be 5 – 12 hours depending on the thickness of your slices. The thicker the slice, the longer the drying time. Jerky is done when it bends and cracks but does not break. Storage! Most important. Let the jerky cool prior to storing. Using a Ziploc bag, jerky will stay good for 7-10 days. Use a vac sealer and vac seal bag with an oxygen absorber for jerky to last months.
Jerky Essentials:
FOR STORAGE: Vacuum Sealer Machines, Bags, & Oxygen Absorbers: Recommended if storing jerky longer than 1 week.
Just Add Water: Trail Food
Lightweight, nourishing and delicious. Dehydrated foods and dried ingredients are the best options while trekking or camping. Imagine, it’s late in the day, you’re sitting by a waterfall or a campfire after a beautiful hike. You’re hungry! You won’t find a restaurant in a forest, but you can always carry easy-to-cook ingredients. Relax and re-energize with some crab chowder or chicken, rice and vegetables. Or when the sun is rising, you’re thinking about the day ahead while enjoying a breakfast meal of scrambled eggs and beef porridge or cheddar hash brown potatoes w/chicken. It’s easy to cook (or reconstitute) dried vegetables and meat. As a rule, add 1 cup of food for 3 cups of water. Once the food is plump, it’s ready to eat. For reference, we do tap into expert Chef Glenn, Backpacking Chef. He’s covered thousands of miles on foot primarily fueled by dehydrated meals he’s made in an Excalibur. Chef Glenn, we thank you! It’s time to make your own, hearty, nutrient-rich food and forget the expensive, not enough vegetables, freeze dried foods. Find recipes on our site, Chef Glenn’s site or searching the web.
TRAIL FOOD ESSENTIALS: All Excalibur Dehydrator styles and sizes are suitable
Drying Sheets: Recommended for drying applesauce, stews, stroganoff, any liquid based recipe.
FOR STORAGE: Vacuum Sealer Machines, Bags, & Oxygen Absorbers: Recommended if storing jerky longer than 1 week.
Snack Attack
Hikers, extreme athletes, runners, cyclists, etc. have been known to burn up to 6,000 calories a day. Epic adventurers need snacks that are self-portable, lightweight … snacks that provide quick energy, free from chemicals, nutritious and dare we say delicious. We get it. It’s safe to presume most of you are rather active and require energy while doing what you love to do. You snack, a lot! The issue often times is snacks are heavy, space is limited in what you are wearing or carrying. Plus, the heavier the items, the quicker you tire.
Excalibur can help you consume a lot of macronutrients to balance out the high burn-rate.
- dry fruit for snacks (apples, bananas, cherries, pineapple, etc.)
- dry vegetables for snacking or rehydrating later
- dry nuts and seeds
- dry meat for jerky
- make your own granola bars (here are some of our favorite granola recipes)
- make your own fruit rollups (here are some of our favorite fruit leather recipes)
- powdered eggs, powdered milk
- sweet potato bark, pumpkin pie bark
- Find more energy-filled snack recipes on our site or searching the web
Snack Essential: All Excalibur Dehydrator styles and sizes are suitable
Recommended: Drying Sheets
