Call them hash browns, hashbrowns, breakfast potatoes, or skillet potatoes, we all love those crispy golden hashbrown potatoes, especially with breakfast but have you ever thought about how to dry potatoes for hash browns?
There certainly not limited to breakfast though. You can use them to make so many meals.
Have you ever taken the time to consider what you're paying for those bags of frozen hash browns? Even the small pound and a half bags of generic branded hash browns are going to cost you $2.25 give or take. That's a full $1.50 per pound for potatoes.
At the moment, a ten-pound bag of potatoes can easily be found for as little as 45 cents per pound and I've got to be honest here, I watch the sale papers and it's not uncommon for me to spot them for 20 cents a pound or even less.
Why Pay More?
No, you don't need to learn how to dry potatoes for hash browns. You can prepare your hashbrowns from scratch and cook them right away. You could also prep them ahead of time and freeze them in small packages. You could even quick-freeze them so you can dip out as many frozen hashbrowns as you need but all that is quite a bit of work.
Personally, I'd rather save my precious freezer space for other things, and learning how to dry potatoes for hash browns, in my opinion, is easier to do than freezing. The nice thing about dehydrated hash browns is they become shelf-stable and don't require any refrigeration.
Once you learn how to dry potatoes for hash browns you can store them in portion-controlled packages such as mason jars or in bulk, using large food-safe containers such as five-gallon buckets and a gamma seal.
Personally, once I learned how to dry potatoes for hash browns I discovered that I like to store them in vacuum-sealed jars. The sixteen-ounce mason jar seems to be the perfect size for my house. Then when I want to make hash browns I simply open a jar of crisp dry dehydrated hash browns and fill it just above the potato shreds with hot water. Lay the lid back on the jar and let the hashbrown potatoes stand for 10 or 15 minutes. Then I just drain any excess water off and cook them up the same way you would any other hash browns. What could be easier?
When you learn how to dry potatoes for hash browns or make you'll discover it's easy to dehydrate a great number of other things as well. Then you can create gifts that are uniquely you. Add your blend of seasonings and a recipe card, to a mason jar or other container decorated up for the occasion.
It's easy to do, and you can rest assured no one else will be bringing the same gift.
- So Think Again
It wasn't just a few things that came up missing from the shelves across America during the pandemic.
Panic buying caused shortages of everything from toilet paper to common sense. Canned goods, dried foods, meat, bread, and even pet food began vanishing from grocery store shelves everywhere.
It didn't stop there either. Many things like bleach, rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide all became difficult to find. In some cases, impossible.
The scariest part. It will happen again, and it will likely be even worse.
Were The Well Prepared
Before the pandemic, many people looked at the whole prepper thing as just a fad. History, however, tells quite a different story, and after the pandemic, the idea of becoming a prepper has gone viral.
The prepared were not the ones looking for bags of pasta or potatoes. They weathered the storm by opening their well-stocked pantries and storerooms filled with staples, canned goods, dehydrated foods, toilet paper, and napkins. They relied on their forward-thinking and well-laid plans. Our grandparents did it before we started shopping in supermarkets on practically a daily basis so why can't we?
Costs You More Than You Think
Another great reason for learning how to dry potatoes for hash browns, sliced potatoes, diced potatoes, and more is because there is always a trade-off between cost and convenience. Dehydrated hash browns are no exception to this rule. Store-bought convenience puts food manufacturers in charge of your family budget and well-being. Not to mention they add ingredients you would never add to the food you prepare for your family.
Add the words no artificial preservatives, and the salt content goes up. Telling us it's fat-free usually means more sugar. No salt added often means other preservatives were added. Armed with that knowledge alone was enough to make me want to learn how to dry potatoes for hash browns and how to dry every other vegetable I could find.
Of course, if you learn how to dry potatoes for hash browns as well as other food items yourself, you would be in control of all of these ingredients. The trouble is making these things yourself may seem anything but convenient.
My question to you is, why can't we make learning how to dry potatoes for hash browns convenient? We build skyscrapers, fly around the world, launch people into space, and we've even walked on the moon, but we can't make cooking homemade convenient? There's only one reason this could be. Homemade convenience is not where the money is for corporations.
Should Be A Daily Routine
Dehydrating at home isn't only how you dry potatoes for hash browns but it's an excellent way to preserve fruits, vegetables, and with care, even meat. When stored in an air-tight container, dehydrated foods can keep for years in a cool, dry place, out of direct sunlight. Your needed storage space becomes dramatically reduced, and the food weighs a fraction of what it did before dehydration. Better still, there is no refrigeration required making them perfect for long-term storage, camping, backpacking, and so much more.
There are some excellent dehydrators available on the market today that will not only do a great job of preserving your food they'll make it easy to do regularly. The right dehydrator can take the task of learning how to dry potatoes for hash browns or other dried foods as simple as and as routine as making breakfast.
A truly useful dehydrator should have more than one use in your kitchen. A box design with sliding trays rather than stacking on top of one another allows you to remove trays and use the machine as a proofing box, for example.
Want to have great homemade hash browns without the expense? Want to prevent your extra potatoes from going bad? Dehydrating just may be the solution for you. What's more, you can make your own for just pennies.
Peel and wash all the potatoes, keeping them submerged in fresh clean water until you are ready to shred them
Bring a large kettle of water to a full rolling boil
Shred the washed and cleaned potatoes into a large bowl of water or one side of your kitchen sink filled with cool water.
Transfer the shredded potatoes (in one large batch if possible) to the kettle of boiling water cover and return to a boil. Once the water begins to boil again set a timer for 3 minutes to lanch the potato shreds
While the potato shreds are cooking, fill the other side of your sink with cold water. Add ice if needed to make the water good and cold. You want to stop the cooking process
Using a large slotted spoon or strainer remove the blanched potatoes from the boiling water and place the shredded potatoes into a sink full of ice water to stop the cooking process as quickly as possible.
Repeat these steps until all the potatoes have been blanched and are sitting in the cold water.
Once the potato shreds are cold, transfer them to a strainer or colander and let them drain.
Pro Tip: use the empty side of your sink with the strainer in the drain.
Once the shredded potatoes have drained and most of the water is gone you can begin transferring them to dehydrator trays lined with parchment paper, silicone mats, or other suitable trays.
Dehydrate your potato shreds between 125° and 150° for 6 to 8 hours or until completely dry
Servings 6
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily value may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
Store your dehydrated shredded potato in an airtight container kept in a dry, cool, & dark, place.
Pro Tip: For long-term storage, and a measure of portion control, store your hash browns in vacuum-sealed mason jars. To use the hash browns simply open the jar and fill it with boiling water. Soak for about 10 minutes or until most of the water is absorbed. Then simply drain off the excess water and cook like you would any frozen shredded hash browns.
Properly stored, these shredded potatoes can keep for years.