Back Country Prep: Tomato Sauce Leather

Intro: Back Country Prep: Tomato Sauce Leather

Ok, so in past Instructables I have made for back country camping we always just brought canned sauces to go with the traditional spaghetti dinner.

I had multiple people tell me that they make sauce leather to take with them and it works great. So here are the steps for making dehydrated tomato sauce.

As you will as a an extra bonus you save over a pound of weight by making this from dying only one can.

Enjoy!

STEP 1: Stuff You Need...

Ingredients and materials:

• 680 ml can of tomato sauce
• Parchment paper
• Dehydrator
• Blender

STEP 2: Prep Your Dehydrator.

I use parchment paper for almost everything I dehydrate. To make leather or to dry liquid based ingredient you need to use it. Some dehydrators come with special tray but this works just fine.

STEP 3: Blend Your Sauce...

Blending you sauce down will aid in the drying process. You will add other dehydrated ingredients while cooking to bring back "chunks". You will get a more consistent end result if you do this step.

STEP 4: Spread It Out.

Spread your sauce out on your trays. Try to spread as even as possible.

STEP 5: Rack'em and Dry'em!

I usually dry everything over night.

So I used about 10-12 hours.

STEP 6: End Result.

My finished product was dryer than leather but was very consistent, and 100% dry.

STEP 7: The Amazing Part!

A new 680 ml can of tomato sauce weighs in at 1 pound 12 oz.

The same dehydrated can weighs in at just 2.1 oz.

Talk about saving weight. Saving a pound is a big deal when back country camping.

Now I can bring a pillow. LOL

Hope you enjoyed this Instructable.

Chadovision

Comments

[discostu956]

Have you rehydrated it yet? Some things I've read with various food have turned that leather into a powder. Just wondering if you recommend that or if it's a waste of time?

[chadovision]

It actually worked out really well. We added dehydrated hamburger and dehydrated peppers, mushrooms and onions as well as spices.
I will for sure do this every time.
Nothing beats a hot back country spaghetti meal.

[chadovision]

Since I am not an expert by any means here, my "leather" was more like died leaves. So you could grind it to powder. I left it in flakes and will re-hydrate from that. I am going on my trip next weekend and will experiment on the re-hydrating part.

I am positivly opomistic taht it will work out just fine.

[DIY-Guy]

Great idea!
Did it work out for you? Was the rehydration successful? What did you learn while making it wet again?
Thanks!

[jessyratfink]

That's fantastic!! What a great idea :D