; > >I just got a food dehydrator and I'm eager to dehydrate meat. I would like >to use ground meat, because it's cheap and it has some fat which I need for >the calories. In all the recipes/instructions I find, there's no mention of >ground meat, in fact everything I read says to use ONLY lean meat. > >My questions for this list are: > >1. Is it possilbe to dehydrate ground meat? Any suggestions how? >2. Is it SAFE (in terms of bacteria/parasites) to dry ground meat or ANY >meat without cooking first? I'm very particular about this because I am >recovering from an auto-immune disease. My immune system is weak and I've >had problems with intestinal infections. I always wash raw foods carefully. it is not a good idea to store Dried ground meats because of the oxydation of fats . when the cells of foods are broken down ( thawing frozen meats , cooking , grinding ) .The content of the cells are reacting to each other creating new coumpounds not present in the whole cells . the taste is different and the nourishing quality of the food can be questionned . From my point of view of a person with autoimmune tendancies ,this creation of potentially triggering molecules is way more of a concern than the ingestion of bacterias, parasites ( this critters are demonstrating themselves as maybe of utmost importance for the organism to establish a healthy balanced immune system ) more and more research seems to reveal that. a comment about the concern for cheap food . The race to produce cheap food since the industrial revolution brought us to that non sense situation where the health of humans and the environment is going down the toilet. From over 80 % of food producing peoples we end up to a 5 % or even less , The rest being busy reaping the earth of other ressources to produces more material things that one can appreciate , then more services than one can benefit from, to care for the diseases or to fill the emptiness , of living removed from the nourishing earth . that is the aim of this economy to gather in few hands what was a given to everybody . The inconscious desire to get a good deal out of this unfair system of exchanges , is exactely what is maintaining that system ( making you a good consumer) By boycotting the industry of producing cheap ground meat and asking farmers for high standard of quality, may be there is a chance to stop the downward spiral of unhealthy life styles for you ,the farmers , the animals .and the plants they eat. jean-claude