Making Dehydrated Eggs

My only experience with powdered eggs is the $1.99 breakfast at Ikea's. I used to work right next door to the Ottawa Ikea years ago and the only way they could keep the price that low is powdered eggs. I'm assuming. Also, they only serve it for about an hour in the morning, open at 10, breakfast until 11. I tried it once with my co-workers, then just switched to their massive cinnamon buns. (Shhhh, I didn't really say that!)

I hear that powdered eggs are almost always gross. Chef Glenn has a solution. It takes a bit of work in the kitchen, but it produces palatable scrambled eggs in camp. He doesn't give the recipe for free on his web site, so I'm going to be respectful and not give you the proportions of ingredients. But I'll explain the process.

Having eggs for breakfast while canoe camping is great. We need protein, especially if it's going to be a travel day, something that's going to give us energy and strength to push through the morning.

This egg recipe is not just eggs, it's a hybrid version. The eggs are mixed with polenta. The first step is to make a batch of polenta. Once it has cooled slightly it is mixed into some eggs that have been beaten so the yolk and whites are completely mixed. The whole batch is put into the oven to bake, you need to stir it a couple of times during baking. I don't even add salt or pepper. I bring those along and much like my cooking at home, I salt when I'm going to eat it, except for baking when it's in a recipe.

Ready for the oven

Once it is baked, you take it out of the oven and put it on the dehydrator trays. His recipe says it takes about 4 hours to dehydrate. I have a less expensive dehydrator, so I often find that it takes a bit longer to dry for me. 

Out of the oven

Here's a picture of the tray ready to go into the dehydrator.

And this is what the 5 trays of eggs look like when they are finished drying:

I also dehydrate some canned ham to add to these eggs when we're going to eat them. I got these cans, 4 for $5, at Food Basics yesterday.

As I mentioned, I'm not a powder egg connoissuer. However, LT is and the first time he tasted these he really liked them. This batch I am making above is coming along with us for a 7 day trip we're taking in September.

Food Planning and Preparation: Breakfast

My favourite part of planning a trip is selecting and preparing the food we will bring along.  Don't get me wrong, I love talking about various routes we may take, but I get to take over when it comes to the food.  There's a lot of work involved and probably too much to fit into just one post so I'll be breaking it down into several posts. It might not be as exciting to follow as having a trip log broken up into several posts, no nail-biter content here.  But if you're interested in food prep, you might find some helpful ideas.

I have a food dehydrator I purchased at Walmart.  I picked up a Food Saver vacuum sealer from Kijiji this spring.  And my favourite source for recipes is from Chef Glenn.  

First of all, we decide how many days we will be in the backcountry.  We eat breakfast enroute the first morning.  We have a fresh lunch the first day and usually a fresh dinner the first night.  On our last day we will have breakfast and maybe lunch, but usually treat ourselves with french fries from a chip wagon on our drive home.

Here's the plan I made for our food for the three-day trip we took in June:
(* means it's a recipe from Chef Glenn)

Canoe Camping: 3 day trip Cedar to Carl Wilson  Meal: Contents DAY 1: Breakfast (in the car) Egg salad wraps Tea Lunch: Meat/fruit/cheese Water/Tea Snacks: Fruit and nuts Dinner: Chili Dessert: Banana nut pudding* After Dinner: Hot chocolate Chocolate DAY 2: Breakfast Eggs Bacon English Muffins Tea Lunch: KD with pepperettes Snacks: Fruit and nuts Dinner: Soft tacos Dessert: Pineapple cake* After Dinner: Hot chocolate Chocolate DAY 3: Breakfast Blueberry Pancakes Tea Bacon Lunch: Chip Truck on way home Snacks: Fruit and nuts

Actually we had to shuffle meals once we started that trip as someone forgot to bring the fresh dinner of chili with us.  I'm not naming any names, but it wasn't made by me or in my freezer, I'm just saying.

Breakfast Ideas:

We usually leave as early as possible in the morning and eat breakfast in the car.  We've tried the drive-through at Tim Horton's but honestly we prefer our own food.  Mostly we've prepared scrambled eggs and had them on a wrap with bacon and cheese.  But that requires cooking eggs at 5:30 a.m.  On our last trip I made egg salad and put that into wraps that morning, no need to turn the stove on!

We're not coffee drinkers, so tea is an easy thing to bring along and prepare in the woods.  I have a great kettle I use ALL the time.  I got it at MEC and after using it the first time, the button on the lid fell off, I located both the button and the screw holding it in, but the plastic in the button was stripped, so I returned it to MEC, no problem! They gave me a new one.  I noticed this summer that Canadian Tire had the same kettle a size larger than mine.  I almost bought it too.

For breakfast LT buys thick bacon at Loblaws and cooks it all up beforehand. He packs it in paper towels once it has cooled, then puts it into a small Ziploc baggie for transport.  I understand that the scent of cooking bacon attracts bears (can you blame them?).  We think that just reheating it doesn't emit the same amount of delicious smell, but it sure tastes just as good.  On our first morning in camp we usually have fresh eggs.  Sometimes we bring bread, like English muffins, to have with the eggs.

Another breakfast we like is blueberry pancakes.  We get the instant pancake mix from the grocery store that just needs to have water added.  I pack it in a Ziploc baggie with dehydrated blueberries.  When preparing to eat, I add the required amount of water to the baggie, mix, let sit for a bit to rehydrate the blueberries, then I cut a small corner out of the baggie and squeeze the mix out into the hot pan with melted butter.  I bring real maple syrup to top the pancakes.

We've had oatmeal a couple of times, but it's low in the rotation order.  It's usually brought along for longer trips.  I add dehydrated banana chips, cinnamon, and chopped walnuts or almonds to the instant oatmeal.

I tried a recipe for dehydrated eggs (Chef Glenn) that we both like.  I bake the eggs first in the oven with polenta.  Once cooked, I dehydrate that mixture.  I also will dehydrate a can of "Flakes of Ham" to accompany the eggs when eating them in camp.  This rehydrates very nicely and gets LT's seal of approval.  He's had his share of powdered eggs, so he knows what tastes good in the egg department. 

Having four different breakfasts to put into rotation is enough for the amount of days we've been out on so far. Although the fresh eggs only work for the first breakfast in camp.

One morning I even made cinnamon buns!  I had found a pizza crust dry mix that I added water to.  I let it rise a bit then used a plastic cutting board to stretch it out into a square.  I mixed up brown sugar, cinnamon, walnuts and butter and spread it on the square.  I rolled it up, sliced it placing each "bun" into the frypan with melted butter.  They weren't pretty but Oh My Gawd they were delicious!  But doesn't everything you make outdoors taste delicious?

Beginning to cook

Yummy cinnamon buns!

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