So I'm taking the plunge and starting to do my own meals instead of prepackaged....

I'm going to dehydrate some ground beef;I have a couple questions;

I have my own beef going for butcher; so I can have strait ground beef done with no fat; Is this better than 90%?Can I be to lean?

Since I see instructions to rinse and drain well after browning; will having no fat screw up the process for rehydrating;texture/taste/time?

On that end is there a good rule of thumb on how much water per gram/ounce of dehydrated ground beef should be added?

Thank's for any help;learned a ton here!

Dan,

I generally dehydrate kangaroo, at about 3% fat. No problems. There will always be SOME fat, but less is better. I have to say I have NEVER washed my meat after cooking. I feel like this would take a lot of the flavour with it. However I've never used 10% either.

I generally work out amount of water needed by weight. Weigh your mince before dehydrating, and again after you're finished. This works out how much water you have taken out. I write this on the portion, to know how much to add back.

You can't go too lean. Leaner the better.

Enough water to cover the dried stuff when rehydrating (or approx equal parts dehydrated food to water when rehydrating)

Smaller the chunks the easier it rehydrates.

I've always heard leaner the better. When I fry mine I try to break it into as small of pieces as possible with a spatcula. I do wash mine in a colander and dry it with some paper towels before putting it into the dehydrator. When rehydrating I use equal water and equal meat. For my freezer bag meals I use 1/4 cup of dehydrated hamburger + 1/4 vegies + 1 cup rice + seasoning. I also dehydrate chicken the same way (ground chicken).

Jamie

Thanks for the help;

I'll have some ground done strait with no fat added,should be less than 4%.

D