DUMP-AND-GO BEEF GRAVEL
about 30–35 minutes cooking, then 6–10 hours drying · tested

TESTED 2026-11-03. Made at home and it worked as written.

Straight into the pressure-cooker pot, then onto the drying trays.
Extra-lean beef keeps grease cleanup small. An ingredient for expedition
meals, like Backcountry Chili Mac.

INGREDIENTS
     1000 g   extra-lean ground beef (thawed; Prefer 95–97% lean)
      500 g   water (Use more if your cooker's minimum requires it)
        6 g   salt
        2 g   MSG (Optional)
        3 g   onion powder
        2 g   garlic powder
        1 g   black pepper

STEPS
    1. DUMP: Put water, thawed beef, and seasonings straight into the
       pot. Break the beef into loose small chunks with a spoon, about 2
       cm across. Keep liquid on the bottom; do not leave one solid
       block of beef.
    2. COOK: High pressure, 5 minutes. Let pressure release naturally
       for 10 minutes, then vent as your cooker directs. Check a few
       large pieces reach 160°F / 71°C. If needed, cook 5 minutes more
       with enough water and check again.
    3. CRUMBLE AND DRAIN: Break up the cooked beef with a potato masher
       or sturdy spoon. Pour into a fine colander and drain.
    4. DRY: Spread hot crumbles thinly on fine-mesh-lined dehydrator
       trays. Break up big pieces. Dry at 145°F / 63°C, or your
       manufacturer's higher cooked-meat setting, roughly 6–10 hours.
       Stir once halfway; blot visible grease. Cooled crumbs should be
       hard and brittle with no soft or moist centers.
    5. PACK: Cool, seal, label, and freeze until needed.

EQUIPMENT
  Pressure cooker, spoon or potato masher, fine colander, thermometer,
  dehydrator with fine-mesh tray liners.

FOOD SAFETY
  Beef must reach 160°F / 71°C before drying. Start drying promptly
  after cooking. The pressure time is a starting schedule; check
  temperature. This home-dried recipe has no validated room-temperature
  shelf life. Store frozen; use commercially shelf-stable beef for trips
  needing a documented ambient shelf life.
  NCHFP meat-drying guidance
  (https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/dry/recipes/jerky/) supports checking the meat temperature and cold storage for best keeping; it
  does not validate this adaptation's shelf life.
  Home-dried meat (beef or chicken): cook it fully first, use the
  leanest meat you can find and blot off the fat, and dry it until hard.
  Fat goes rancid. Pack it within a few weeks of drying, or keep it in
  the freezer until the trip.

SEE ALSO
  https://longproof.duckdns.org/recipes/backcountry-chili-mac.txt

STORAGE
  Freeze in sealed portions. Let frozen packets warm while sealed before
  opening to avoid condensation. Eat promptly once rehydrated.

LICENSE
  CC BY 4.0: share and adapt freely, credit longproof and link to
  https://longproof.duckdns.org/recipes/dump-and-go-beef-gravel.txt
  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/