# drying pasta?



## mesa123 (Jan 15, 2009)

I don't understand the concept of drying pasta. The pasta you buy at the store is already dried...so what do you do? Cook it and dry it again?

However, I do make lots of homemade pasta, mostly egg noodles and sometimes ravioli. I usually store that in the freezer after air-drying for about an hour. 

So, I can understand drying homemade pasta. It might be better than storing in the freezer...but drying store-bought pasta I just don't understand.


----------



## Murray in ME (May 10, 2002)

mesa123 said:


> I don't understand the concept of drying pasta. The pasta you buy at the store is already dried...so what do you do? Cook it and dry it again?
> 
> However, I do make lots of homemade pasta, mostly egg noodles and sometimes ravioli. I usually store that in the freezer after air-drying for about an hour.
> 
> So, I can understand drying homemade pasta. It might be better than storing in the freezer...but drying store-bought pasta I just don't understand.


I have no idea about how to go about drying homemade pasta. I do know that almost all dried pasta is made using a different recipe than fresh pasta. The majority of store-bought dried pasta is made with no eggs while most fresh pasta does contain eggs. I'm not sure the affect that would have on drying. I just wanted to point out the differece in how it's made.


----------



## mesa123 (Jan 15, 2009)

hmmm...you are right...homemade pasta is primarily eggs. That's why I make so much of it. If you lay it flat and air dry it for a few hours, you can store it in an airtight container for a few days. I usually just freeze it though.

Maybe I misunderstood what I was reading about drying store-bought pasta.


----------



## olivehill (Aug 17, 2009)

Where were you reading this? I've never seen anything recommend drying store bought pasta, it's already dry, are you sure it wasn't in reference to homemade?


----------



## mesa123 (Jan 15, 2009)

I was reading this here...

http://www.trailcooking.com/dehydrating101/pasta-grains

There isn't a lot of text about the pasta at the top of the page. But it looks to me that she is dehydrating store-bought pasta after cooking it. She labeled the picture as a 6 oz box of Mac & Cheese pasta.


----------



## Ohio dreamer (Apr 6, 2006)

OK, I think I know what she's doing. By cooking the pasta and then drying it you can make it like ramon noodle. Just "get it wet" and you can eat it. Store bought pasta need to be cooked still. Since the link is to "trail cooking" I am assuming they don't want to bring along a pasta pot and a few gallons of water and get the it up to a boil to cook. So she is making "instant pasta" like one would have instant rice.


----------



## NEfarmgirl (Jan 27, 2009)

You can cook store bought pasta and dehydrate it to make it a lot faster to prepare. I tried it out of curiosity and instead of 12 minutes it took about 3 minutes in water I heated in the microwave--no one knew the difference. I am making up some meal bags with cooked dried pasta and dried pasta sauce sheets for camping or emergencies if we lose power. It would be a quick meal to throw together with a little water boiled on a fire. You can also do the same with regular rice and brown rice and the cooking time is cut down a lot too. It seems a little strange but it is nice to be able to have something to throw together that is fast--I do like the cooked dried rice since it knocks so much time off cooking it and if you dry it when it is colder out in the summer you don't have to heat the kitchen up trying to make it!


----------



## mesa123 (Jan 15, 2009)

farmgirl--how do you store your meal bags once they are prepared? In ziplock bags in the freezer? Or are they shelf-stable?


----------



## Murray in ME (May 10, 2002)

NEfarmgirl said:


> You can cook store bought pasta and dehydrate it to make it a lot faster to prepare. I tried it out of curiosity and instead of 12 minutes it took about 3 minutes in water I heated in the microwave--no one knew the difference. I am making up some meal bags with cooked dried pasta and dried pasta sauce sheets for camping or emergencies if we lose power. It would be a quick meal to throw together with a little water boiled on a fire. You can also do the same with regular rice and brown rice and the cooking time is cut down a lot too. It seems a little strange but it is nice to be able to have something to throw together that is fast--I do like the cooked dried rice since it knocks so much time off cooking it and if you dry it when it is colder out in the summer you don't have to heat the kitchen up trying to make it!


Thanks for the information. It's a good thing to know. This is one of the reason I love HT. You can learn something new every day.


----------



## NEfarmgirl (Jan 27, 2009)

mesa123 said:


> farmgirl--how do you store your meal bags once they are prepared? In ziplock bags in the freezer? Or are they shelf-stable?


The ones I make without meat and homemade dried sauce are shelf stable because of the very little amount of oil in the sauce. If I make one with meat I keep them in the freezer only because the meat can go rancid, but for short term you can keep them in the fridge too. They are nice for camping and are ok to keep at room temp for short periods of time. I have a vacuum sealer so I put them in the bags. I try to reuse the vaccum bags when I can by cutting them open right below the seal, washing and drying well.


----------



## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

Seems like if you make Hamburger Rocks, they would go well in one of your shelf stable meal mixes. The fat is washed off the meat before drying it, so it doesn't go rancid. The fat is what causes the rancidity.

I'd love the recipe for some of your homemade dried sauce - is it as simple as dehydrating spaghetti sauce? Do you do it in a dehydrator or in the oven/on a wood stove/?


----------

