I have a dehydrator and have dehydrated many things,including beef jerky using ground meat,trail mix,even steaks when stuck with fire ban and would rather put in soup starter than pan fry,but never tried just hamburger,also how to rehydrate the hamburger.thanks and would appreciate your thoughts on the subject.

Google is amazing -

We do this . Very good in spaghetti or as taco meat. Here's how I make it ( thanks to Bannock ) : Brown the burger in a fry pan , rinse with hot water in a colander , reheat , rinse again , this removes the fat. Then dehydrate for a few hours. The meat will look like Grape Nuts cereal. Don't worry. Rehydrate with some water in camp ( takes about 30 minutes I think ) and then use as you would use regular cooked burger. Try it at home to make sure it works for you. This stuff packs lite , is small ,and is pretty good.

I do the same thing [as izzy], and also do ground pork sausage. you can fit 3 lbs dried into a qt. 'Ziplock'.

butthead PS, my method is also in 'beemers', link.

Same as above but I toss a little beef bouillon in the water as I rehydrate. Adds a little flavor back into the the boiling off removes. Stuff works great.

Just like above methods. I also dehydrate venison breakfast sausage for making scrambled eggs or breakfast burritos. It is nice to have on the 3rd or 4th or 5th day in.

Whiteh2o -- Thanks for the beef bullion tip. Good idea.

OK call me nuts but I don't rinse all the fat off when I dehydrate burger. I used to rinse as posted, but I missed the enhanced flavor you get with some fat.

Here is my process:

I brown my burger and drain the excess fat. I then put the burger in papertowel and soak up as much fat as will abosrb.

I then dehydrate the burger and as soon as it is done I vacuum pack it in one pound equivalent packs. I write the date I packed it and then I pop the vac packs in the freezer until the trip.

I keep the dehydrated burger frozen on the way up and the night before until we head into the BWCA.

Remember,I usually travel in spring and fall when temps are cool to cold so I don't worry as much about spoilage. Leaving some fat in keeps the flavor better. If I was traveling in sumer I probably would either rinse or I would be sure to use the burger early in the trip.

You're probably right Bogs, I just wouldn't want to chance it during warmer weather. I like the beef bullion tip. Might have to try it.

I used Bog's method in mid-August last summer. Started with the "97 percent lean" burger, otherwise followed Bog's steps except I do not vacuum pack.

Served the rehydrated burger with brown gravy, mashed potatoes and rehydrated mixed veggies for dinner our thirteenth night out. Everybody loved it; nobody got sick.

thanks for the tips,was going to use it for a goulash,will deffinatly take some boullian,going early june so may leave some fat for the added flavor

I never worried about it until we had an "incident" a few years ago. Now I'm a little gun shy.

snakecharmer,incident with the fat?

We will never know for sure, but everything pointed to some kielbasa sausage gone bad. The result wasn't pretty, and if it's within my power, I'd like to avoid a repeat performance.

SC - We had an "incident " years ago with some bad sausage on Alpine Lake. I did notice that the fire on that lake seemed to burn a little hotter in that particular area. Izzy

A couple of books to read: 1. Cooking in the Outdoors by Cliff Jacobson. (page 6 tells you how to dehydrate hamburger.) 2. Freezer bag cooking, by Sarah Svien Kirkconnell. Both books are great and well worth your reading. I got both of them at REI.