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Can I dehydrate chicken cooked in water, purreed and mixed with purreed vegetables and mashed potatoes. Like a stew. Something that would be crisp like a chips then dissolve easily when eaten. All precooked. Blended then dehydrated. This is for someone that struggles with swallowing and it needs to be tender and soft. Can you mix things like that?

Sylvia
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  • I see lots of recipes for dehydrated dog treats but can this be done for human consumption? – Sylvia Jul 25 '14 at 01:56
  • Would I be right to think that you're looking for a baby food consistency, but palatable for an adult? – Jolenealaska Jul 25 '14 at 02:04
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    I'm confused why you're asking about dehydrating it. It's not going to be soft if you take out the water! Are you trying to make it as a portable snack version of the purée? – Cascabel Jul 25 '14 at 02:28
  • To eliminate enough water fast enough to avoid spoilage, you're looking at the domain of freeze drying: https://www.google.com/search?safe=off&client=firefox-a&hs=ux2&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&channel=sb&biw=1142&bih=675&q=freeze+dryer+home&oq=freeze+dryer+home&gs_l=serp.3..0i7i30l5j0i8i7i30l2j0i30j0i7i5i30l2.76966.80329.0.82136.13.13.0.0.0.0.285.1777.0j12j1.13.0....0...1c.1.49.serp..0.13.1760.Eey0O1PtbLs – Wayfaring Stranger Jul 25 '14 at 14:34
  • I want it dry like chips for my grandson to eat. He has trouble swallowing, but I would think the pureed when dried like chips will dissolve in his mouth when eaten. I am having trouble getting meats into him and he takes the snack type stuff that dissolves nicely. He refuses to eat anything off a spoon. Seeing a OT for help with his swallowing. – Sylvia Jul 25 '14 at 16:24
  • @Sylvia Okay, that's what it sounded like you meant. I just wasn't sure what was wrong with the puree in the first place - usually soft things are easier to swallow. Does he find normal chips easy to eat? If so, guess I'm wrong, but chips don't usually fully disintegrate into powder. And even if they did, in order to swallow the powder, you'd be essentially rehydrating it in your mouth, turning it back into something puree-like, except probably thicker (harder to swallow?) and it'd dry your mouth out and make you thirsty if you ate too much of it. – Cascabel Jul 28 '14 at 17:06
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    For what it's worth, you could also ask a question or two on http://parenting.stackexchange.com/ - they might have some ideas you haven't thought of for coaxing him to eat from a spoon. (They might also have suggestions for foods that are good for situations like this.) – Cascabel Jul 28 '14 at 17:09

2 Answers2

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1 - Get the paste flat and very thin

Use what's available: pastry machine; wide, flat icing tip; jerky "gun"

Make sure the paste has as little water as possible when preparing, different methods will require different amounts of water

2 - Dehydrate it

Use a home dehydrator or look up home oven dehydrating articles on jerky or fruit leather

pleasePassTheCheese
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  • The OP is looking for something more like chips, not fruit leather. – Cascabel Jul 28 '14 at 17:07
  • @Jefromi : what would happen if you continued dehydrating it past when you'd pull it for fruit leather? (and I would assume you'd be drying fruit leather on a film of some sort ... so make the leather, remove from film, continue drying). I'd personally be more concerned about not having enough salt as a preservative while it's drying. – Joe Jul 28 '14 at 17:34
  • I agree with the fruit leather or jerky gun advice. I would also add that for jerky in your average home dehydrator to be shelf stable, it has to reach 165 (I believe). This means you have to cook the jerky to that temp before or after dehydrating (I tried both, and prefer after). I assume it will work similarly for a puree product, so perhaps dry it to leather stage, and finish it in a 200 degree oven to cripsness. – JSM Jul 28 '14 at 23:05
  • was not suggesting OP make fruit leather, however making fruit leather requires a technique that is useful know and appropriate to the problem at hand – pleasePassTheCheese Jul 29 '14 at 16:22
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You can just dehydrate baby food. That's what we did when taking babies canoe camping (no electricity, no ice, and jars/bottles/cans are not allowed, and even if you brought them, the weight would kill you, and partial jars can't be refrigerated.)

We own a home dehydrator and some teflex sheets for making fruit leather. We just spread a jar of pureed baby food onto the teflex and dried it. We didn't trying handing it to a baby to eat - we reconstituted it with a little boiling water and let it cool - but you could certainly try it.

I think doing this with one jar would let you know if it's a viable technique or not without investing a whole lot of effort and mental energy into the process. If you're going to be doing it for a while (because you know it works) then making the puree yourself would become a useful plan.

Kate Gregory
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