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I’m sure your first reaction is “What?! You can dehydrate ground beef?”. That was my reaction, too when I was researching how to make dehydrated meals for my boyfriend and his buddies. It was easier than I thought!
Read on to learn my tips and tricks so you can successfully dehydrate ground beef (or venison) to use in your lightweight trail meals.
What type of beef (or venison) should you use?
If you are going to purchase ground beef to use in dehydrated meals, look for options that have less fat. This means you will want to use ground beef that has a lean meat-to-fat ratio of 90/10 or 95/5. Ground sirloin is a good choice for dehydrating, but can be more expensive.
An alternative to purchasing already ground beef is to buy a roast and grind your own. This will allow you to better control the fat content. Look for round roasts, such as eye of round, bottom round, or top round.
To grind your own beef (or venison):
- Cut the roast into small chunks that will fit into your meat grinder while trimming off any visible fat. Dispose the trimmed fat.
- Put the beef chunks into the freezer until it’s firm, about 30 minutes.
- Use the coarsest grinding hole your meat grinder has for best results. Remember the ground beef will shrink as it cooks and shrink as it dehydrates.
Pro Tip: If grinding your own meat, put the grinder parts in the freezer for about an hour prior to grinding. This helps get a better grind and prevents the meat from being mushed.
What do you need to do to prepare the ground beef?
- Cook the beef so there is no pink left to the beef and it is well cooked through.
- If there is any liquid in the pan, drain excess liquid.
- If a fattier meat was used, such as ground round (typically 85/15), put the cooked beef in a strainer* and rinse with hot water to remove any remaining fat.
- Put the cooked ground beef on fruit leather trays* (make sure to get trays to fit your dehydrator brand/model) to prevent small pieces from falling below as it dehydrates.
How long will it take to dehydrate the meat?
Dehydrate at a temperature of 155-165 degrees F or the highest temperature setting on your dehydrator. It will take about 6 hours to dehydrate.
What can affect the dehydration time?
- Size: larger pieces of ground beef will take longer to dehydrate than smaller pieces.
- Spacing: too much ground beef piled up will not allow air flow around all the pieces so more on a dehydrator tray will take longer.
- Humidity: the higher the humidity, the longer it will take to dehydrate the ground beef.
How do you know when the beef is dried?
When the ground beef looks dried on the top, remove a larger piece and break it in half. If it looks and feels wet inside, it’s not done. Flip some pieces over to ensure the underside that is touching the fruit leather tray is dry.
If you are unsure if the ground beef is dehydrated enough, it’s ok to continue to dehydrate longer. Unlike jerky that you want less crunch to and some give to, the ground beef is ok to completely dry out since it will be used in ultralight backpacking meals.
How should you store dehydrated ground beef?
Dehydrated ground beef should be stored in a cool, dry and dark area, such as a pantry.
Dehydrated meals using dehydrated ground beef
- Deconstructed stuffed peppers
- Beef barley stew