I'm still somewhat new to dehydrating- I've pretty much only done it for veggies and simple items, but not whole meals or anything requiring butter.

How well do recipes including butter dehydrate?

Or am I better off just carrying butter and adding it later?

I.E.: Mac n' cheese...better to dehydrate and add butter later or cook a full batch with butter and then dehydrate? (I've often cooked it without butter on the trail but would like the extra calories for some upcoming hikes).

Thanks.

Butter will not dehydrate right. It is full of fat, and fat does not dehydrate right. Water-filled food will dehydrate.

You can carry butter, or you can carry olive oil.

--B.G.--

That's what I thought, thanks, Bob.

Best way to carry butter anyone?
Double ziplock?

I'm not the person to answer that, since I try not to carry any saturated fat to eat (it's a medical thing). I do have all sorts of tiny plastic containers for olive oil. They go from 5ml and 10ml up to 60ml.

--B.G.--

Craig, I use these containers for my sunscreen and so far they have been leak proof. You can always double bag to be safe. They also come in different sizes, (i think up to an oz)...should work fine for butter. Of course then you're limited to only a small amount.
http://www.rei.com/product/605887

For olive oil, i try to use a pouch of some sort. I was able to find these aluminum pouche drinks that are very similar to the ol' platy lil nipper. I found mine at the local asian grocery store...works very well. Its something similar to this:

http://www.meijifood.com/product/6/galley/l/(5)%20pouch%20drink%20total.jpg

If you liquidied your butter, you could carry a ton in one of these pouches. The one I found was actually twice the size of the linked picture. It was also ergonomic and hr glass shaped lol. If the butter solidifies during your trip, you could probably just dip the pouch into your pot while your boiling water. If this is of interest to you, then you can easily acquire some. I think your from socal, and I know there's tons of asian grocery stores in OC

Edited by Konrad1013 on 05/02/2010 14:51:46 MDT.

You have to ask yourself the question, am I carrying butter for nutritional purposes, or for flavor purposes?

That's why I carry olive oil instead. Then, to pick back a tiny bit of flavor, I carry some Butter Buds or granulated butter flavor.

--B.G.--

Packit Gourmet sells butter powder, which you mix with water and a little bit of olive or canola oil, and then spread it on your bread/crackers. Or, if all you want is a butter flavor, just add a bit of the powder to your pot as the food simmers.

Ghee needs no refrigeration.

"Ghee needs no refrigeration."

Plus it tastes REALLY good! One thing to be aware of it that sometimes ghee today is made from vegetable oils. It's good to check the label for the term Vanaspati, or Dalda. Both refer to vegetable oil based ghee, which is partially hydrogenated and contains a lot of trans fats. Check wikipedia for a more detailed explanation.

+3 on the ghee. You can make it yourself.

http://www.ayurbalance.com/explore_howtosghee.htm

Edited by kthompson on 05/02/2010 18:45:33 MDT.

Yep Ghee is the way to go if you want butter :-) (Though I usually carry olive oil and butter powder)

http://www.trailcooking.com/recipes/homemade-ghee-butter

we use butter, ghee and olive oil depending on the recipe and the time of year. I prefer, although heavier than a pouch, to use leakproof Nalgene jars or the little bottles. I place those in an OPSak (from LOKsak) in case of leakage. I don't ever want to have to deal with the mess that would be created if I relied on a mere plastic bag.

edited to add.... I generally add the fats in at camp... as others have mentioned, fats don't dry and you run the risk of rancidity if you are drying meals well before your trip.

Edited by Laurie_Ann on 05/03/2010 09:51:51 MDT.

for butter I use a small bottle with a threaded lid. In a zip lock bag.

We take a stick of butter and leave it in the paper wrapping and put it in a glad ware light weight tupperware dish and then of course place that in a ziplock bag. Everything goes in a ziplock bag for us. We have never had any trouble with it leaking.