A friend of mine sent the following instructions (pulled from ANOTHER forum) for dehydrated ground meats for use in spaghetti, lasagna, stews, and other mixed meat recipies: Hello all, Yes I am a lurker, but after reading a couple of post recently about dehydrating hamburger patties and them breaking them up for spaghetti etc...I thought I would share my recipe for hamburger rocks with you.

You take your hamburger and fry in pan, then pour into a colander and rinse under hot running water.. wipe out the skillet you fried the hamburger in and pour the hamburger back into the skillet. (Make sure all the grease is off) I fry it again, slightly crispy add onions, garlic (powders are fine) ( you may also add chili powder in some and/or Italian seasoning in the other) then you can either put it in you dehydrator trays . or cook in your oven under low heat for a few hours until hard rocks. If you don't have enough fruit roll up trays for your dehydrator you can use wax paper and dry till they turn into hard hamburger rocks. Afterwards I store them in sealed bags or in canning jars. I have kept it successfully for 1 and 1/2 years so far with no problem.

When I need hamburger meat for: hamburger helper, spaghetti sauce, lasagna, Mexican casserole etc....I just boil 2 cups water to 1 cup of hamburger rocks and let set till it rehydrates then drain if any liquid and add to my mix.

My family laughs at my hamburger rocks, but they have been eating it for over a year and not knowing.

I recently made a mock lasagna dish using it for a Y2k ladies meeting and they were surprised and impressed. So start dehydrating your Hamburger Rocks today...



-- busy (busy@the.kitchen), May 13, 1999

Answers

I'm slow today, do you mean the meat gets hard as a rock? And then you boil two cups of water pour over the meat and let soak? or do you boil it in two cups water for how long? Thanks

-- Johnny (jljtm@bellsouth.net), May 13, 1999.

You gotta be kidding, right? Canned meat would tasted better. YUCK!!!

-- NotBusy (WhatNext@gag.com), May 13, 1999.

The hamburger should get very hard, yes, like rocks.

Boil the water first, then add the hamburger to let it sit and soak to rehydrate. Then use in recipies. - busy

-- busy (busy@the.kitchen), May 13, 1999.

Not Yuck. It isn't full of all the preservatives like "canned meat". It is dehydrated to a compact, storable size that yeilds more meat than canned. Would you prefer to eat SPAM? THAT, my friend, is yuck; not dehydrated, herb seasoned, defatted, nonpreservative, HEALTHY meat that is useful in many different recipies. - busy

-- busy (busy@the.kitchen), May 13, 1999.

I have been doing this also. If you didn't know that you were eating dehydrated ground beef, you could not tell the difference. Reminds me to do some more tonight.

-- (cannot-say@this.time), May 13, 1999.

Sounds good to me. Like 'jerky'.

-- David (C.D@I.N), May 13, 1999.

dear busy, this is great to know... How hot a oven do you dry it in. Also, do you know of places on the net that I could go to that describes this method for meat and canning, dehydrating in general? Thanks

-- lurker13 (lurker13@at.home), May 13, 1999.

You said.... "Afterwards I store them in sealed bags or in canning jars. I have kept it successfully for 1 and 1/2 years so far with no problem. "

I am wondering if you have to store it in the refrigerator. Even homemade jerky goes bad before 1 1/2 years if not refrigerated or frozen.

Sylvia

-- sylvia (msbrit@usit.net), May 13, 1999.

Fascinating idea. We'll try, definitely.

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), May 13, 1999.

It is best if you use the leanest ground beef that you can find, as it is the fat that causes the spoilage. Make sure that you drain the cooked beef in running hot water for a while. I drain it until I cannot see any oil in the water run off. Then I pat dry. I place the ground beef into the dehydrator, and in about 3 to 4 hours, I store. It will feel hard and very dry. Try to crumble up the beef as much as possible while you are browning it.

-- (cannot-say@this.time), May 13, 1999.

My family's big on ground turkey. Anyone have experience with dehydrating turkey or chicken (ground or otherwise)?

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), May 13, 1999.

Mac,

I do not see any reason that you could not do ground turkey the way described for the beef. Just make sure that it is cooked. Shouldn't take near as long to rinse the fat out of the cooked turkey. Don't know about the chicken however.

-- (cannot-say@this.time), May 13, 1999.

I'm not that opposed to spam. What you suggest does work. It is safer to buy your own sirloin and grind it. Chicken and turkey. Don't know. I follow the advice of Mark Twain. Never eat anything that walks on the same number of legs as you.

Best wishes,

Z1X4Y7

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), May 13, 1999.

Busy:

One more note that I forgot: Preservatives! Why do they put those in there. To keep you from dieing. People have been using them from the beginning of human development [at least the ones who survived]. In the old days they mostly used extracts of plant secondary metabolites [many related to modern preservatives]. Sometimes they used much worse. e.g. you can extend the life of many foods by storing in lead containers. Enjoy them!

Z1

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), May 13, 1999.