Dale,

Longer than I need to: overnight. It's a function of when I have time to prep the hamburger and put it in the dehydrator. It probably takes 3 - 4 hours in my simple dehydrator. There are variables.

Re-hydration time depends on how I'm using it. I suggest NOT using cold water (slight risks). Boiling water dumped into the hamburger gets the job done in about 15 minutes IF I keep it insulated. I would "plan" the meal for a 30 minute soak the first few times, though, until you get the hang of it.

Variables for drying:

1. Fineness of grind - coarser takes longer
2. How much moisture was cooked/drained/blotted out.
3. Your dehydrator or oven
4. How you load the trays (dense or sparse).
5. Ambient humidity.


Variables for re-hydrating:

1. Fineness of grind - coarser takes longer
2. Temperature of water used and how long you keep it warm
3. Recipies - depending on what you are making, you might be able to add the meat and water to the pot and use cooking time to re-hydrate. That's tricky until you get the hang of it, but a few crunchy 'flavor granules" of meat won't kill you.

There are TONS of websites that cover this - just Google "dehydrate hamburger" for a start. A couple of sites have some unsafe advice w.r.t. long-term storage (dry canning in the oven), but generally they give good, safe advice.

HTH,

Tom