What can I do with a dehydrator if I can't cook?

Easy. If you are someone who uses prepacked sauces or tins of food, (even baked beans) simply pour the contents onto the tray and leave to dry.

In the case of shop pasta, chinese and curry sauces we have found it better to heat them through first, let them cool and then do as above.

Once dry they are smaller, lighter, and much less bulky than when they started. Most supermarket shopping can be turned into lighter camping packs in the same way, pasta suaces, soups, stews, puddings in fact anything within reason, which contains moisture can be reduced ready for the hills.

I keep mine in marked sealed plastic bags in the freezer to ensure there is no taste loss.

How do I rehydrate them?

From experience I have found that if you measure the product (such as in a mug) before you put it onto the tray to dry, all you need to do is add the same volume of boiling water to the contents (I use a small nalgene sealed pot) and it will rehydrate. In practise this can be anywhere from an hour or so, to a few hours, if the food is in larger pieces or contains big pieces of meat.

When you come to eat your meal, simply add it to the pan with perhaps a little more water (experience will tell you how much) and heat through.

It really is that simple!

Other trail food ideas

Anything you carry into the wilds you need to carry out and thick bulky packaging soon adds up after several days.

Bread soon hardens or falls apart, but many people now seem to be using ‘pitta bread’ and ‘tortilla wraps’ to eat as snacks, filling them with ‘tuna with a twist’ packs.

Obviously they are light, flexible and quite tasty, with minimum equipment need to prepare them.