Dehydrated Hash Browns and Gravy
Store-bought frozen hash browns dried at home, rebuilt in camp under country gravy.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 4.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 138
- protein
- 16 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 10 min
- total time
- 15 min
- water
- 500 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Breakfast
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Backpacking
- Canoe / raft
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Nut free
- One pot
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Frozen shredded hash brown patties | 3 patties | already cooked; that is the point |
|---|---|---|
| Country gravy mix | 1 packet | about 2.75 oz, makes 2 cups |
| Dried chipped beef or dehydrated ground beef | 1.5 oz | chipped beef needs a desalting soak |
| Black pepper | 1/2 tsp | |
| Olive oil or ghee | 1 tbsp | optional, for body |
Method
- At home: break the frozen patties into rough pieces and spread them on dehydrator trays. Run at 135°F until they snap, roughly 6 to 8 hours. Crumble the dry pieces down and bag them.
- In camp, if you packed chipped beef, cover it with cold water for ten minutes and pour the water off. Skip this for dehydrated ground beef.
- Boil 500 ml of water. Pour about half over the potato crumbles in a mug or spare bag, cover, and leave it five minutes.
- Whisk the gravy mix into the remaining water in the pot over low heat until it thickens. Watch it, it goes from thin to paste fast.
- Stir the rehydrated potatoes and the beef into the gravy. Add pepper and the oil. Warm it through and eat.
Raw shredded potato oxidizes and goes grey-black in a dehydrator unless you blanch or acidify it first. The shortcut is to skip raw entirely: frozen hash brown patties are already cooked and already treated, so they dry clean and rehydrate in about five minutes with boiling water. Break them up before drying, then crumble them again once brittle. Small pieces take on water evenly; a dried slab stays hard in the middle.
Gravy mix does the work that eggs and butter would do at home. It is powdered, shelf-stable, and thickens on its own heat, which turns dry potato crumbs into an actual meal instead of damp shreds. The beef is there for protein and for salt; if you use chipped beef, soak it first or the gravy will be inedible.
Packing
Potato crumbles and beef in one bag, gravy packet whole beside it. Crumbles compress, so a rigid pocket keeps them from becoming powder.
Variations
- Cut the water in the gravy by a third if you want it to hold a spoon upright.
- Fry the rehydrated potatoes in a fry pan first and serve the gravy over the top, if you are car camping and have the fuel.
- Dried onion and a pinch of cayenne in the potato bag wake the whole thing up.
https://www.canoetripping.net/threads/dehydrating-potatoes.673