During my social media hiatus, I filled my time doing many of the things that I never had time to do. To say I was amazed at the amount of time I had wasted is an understatement. One of the things I accomplished was learning how to make hamburger rocks.
I don’t consider myself a hardcore prepper, more like a person who wants to be prepared – much like the ant from Aesop’s Fables – The Ant and the Grasshopper. For those who don’t know, hamburger rocks is nothing more than dehydrated ground beef.
In May of 2021, I made my first batch of hamburger rocks. The process was easy.
- Brown lean ground beef and drain off excess grease.
- Put the cooked meat in a colander and rinse with hot water. This step can’t be stressed enough. Rinse and rinse some more. It’s really important to remove all the grease as the grease will become rancid if not properly removed.
- Once the meat is rinsed, some folks put it back in the pan and heat it to remove the excess water. I chose to dump the meat on several paper towels and sort of patted/squeezed the hamburger dry.
- Next, I lined the dehydrator trays with parchment paper and spread the hamburger, making sure the meat wasn’t clumped. (I put one pound of cooked meat on each tray.)
- Dehydrate 8-12 hours (time varies depending on the dehydrator). My dehydrator is pretty basic. There’s no temperature gauge – just on and off – and I was pleased with how well it performed.
- Once the hamburger is dehydrated (and you’ll know if done when it looks like little brown pebbles) put in clean jars along with an oxygen absorber pack and BAM! – Hamburger Rocks!
This method will allow you to store the hamburger for 2 years although I have read that others have stored it for a longer period of time.
To rehydrate – cover rocks with hot water for 10-12 minutes.
So – today (Feb. 28, 2022), I decided to see how the hamburger held up. I rehydrated the meat and tasted it. Honestly, it tasted like unseasoned hamburger. I made spaghetti sauce with mine. It was delicious.
For all my fellow ants – Hamburger Rocks are worth the effort.
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