how long will home dehydrated ground beef last?

I leave on a two week backpacking trip tomorrow. I have dehydrated some extra lean ground beef. Also I boiled it in water to get the extra fat out of it then I dehydrated it and put an oxygen absorber in a zip lock back. Just curious how long will it be good for

In two weeks, you'll know.

(Sorry - long workday, stress relief needed, and I couldn't resist. I really don't have anything helpful to add)

Check out "Sarbar's" Trail Cooking website.

I did this one year and had no problems with keeping. However, for long term storage, any dehydrated ffood is best stored in the freezer.

I did find the rehydrated results pretty crunchy (as was my dehydrated canned chicken). I also found that doing dehydrating extra lean organic ground beef cost more per serving than buying freeze-dried beef in bulk from Packit Gourmet, that comparison did not include the electricity cost for my dehydrator. That was 6 years ago, so I don't know if this cost comparison is still valid.

There should be no problems with dehydrated ground beef over the short term. I have jerky that has been stored at room temperature for months that is still good. When I dehydrate ground meat, I first marinate it in something salty like Worcestershire sauce, then thoroughly cook it, rinse it with boiling water and dehydrate it. I normally get about 25% of the weight that I started with. After that, I vacuum pack it and freeze it. Frozen, dehydrated ground beef should last practically forever. When I dehydrate, I keep the meat separate from the rest of the meal ingredients. This is partly so that I can interchange the ingredients for more variety, but also to avoid contaminating the meal with spoiled meat. I think that the real concerns with dehydrated ground beef are rancidity and loss of nutrition due to oxidation rather than spoilage. I've experienced oxidation over the long term, but not rancidity.

Another good source for dehydrating information is:

http://www.backpackingchef.com/

One of his suggestions is to dehydrate canned chicken. Canned chicken is retort cooked (in the can, in a pressure cooker)and appears to rehydrate well. Normal cooked chicken rehydrates tough.

Even using the canned chicken, the results are a bit crunchy, for me, anyway. If you don't mind a bit of crunch in your meal, it doesn't affect the taste!

wglies, I love your beautiful avatar!

When I used to dehydrate meat I mostly did pork.
Oddly enough lean pork has almost no fat.
First cubed to sugar cube sizes (do they still exist ?) marinated lightly with some spiced sauce (cinnamon is a good preserving spice...) then fried in very little oil then dried and vacuum packed. Kept for over 1 year.
I also did beef but it needs to be from very lean meat.

If buying in bulk (and re-packing) freeze dry could be less expensive and re-hydrates much better.
With the DIY version you should soak the meat for an hour or so before cooking if you want something sort of tender.

That photo was taken about half a mile from my house. Sadly, the pine tree is no longer there.