www.excaliburdehydrator.com
Why would you want to make your own beef jerky? Because…you can. And it’ll be less expensive and way better tasting then most of the stuff you find clogging the convenience store shelves (Slim Jim…shame on you).  You can make jerky in your oven—but in our experience it can have unpredictable results, make an ungodly mess, and ties up your appliance for at least six hours. Instead, we’ve gravitated to the Excalibur 3500 dehydrator. The five-tray appliance offers enough space to make over two pounds of beef jerky; just pull the beef out of your secret marinade and lay ‘em across the mesh covers over the racks, slide ‘em in, and turn on the dehydrator (don’t be fooled by the lid; it’s designed to fit loosely). A clearly marked temperature gauge spells out the exact settings for all items, and a timer means you don’t have to stick around for the hours it takes to dry your food.  The temps will fluctuate during the cooking cycle—and the noise it makes is comparable to a box fan at medium setting, but no heat radiates from the unit. You can set it up on your countertop and let it run.  Of course, the dehydrator can do much more than just jerky.  Your next backcountry meal could include homemade dehydrated chili, kale chips, one-pot spaghetti, scrambled eggs, or your favorite dried fruits or granola—you could even perfect your own personal energy bar (the instruction manual conveniently includes a bunch of recipes).  But yea, we admit we’re pretty addicted to testing out new jerky recipes (where beer plays a large role in the marinade).
Check out a few recipes for a variety of great camp-friendly foods that can be made in the dehydrator.

www.puredark.com, 4.9 ounces
We’re perfectly okay with run-of-the-mill trail mix (as our site name confirms). But if you want to truly elevate your GORP to something that you lust after, even when you’re not in the backcountry, let us introduce our latest obsession: Pure Dark’s Chocolate-Covered Almonds. The anchor of this artisanal creation resides in the dark chocolate, harvested from a blend of premium cocoa beans hand-crafted to produce the perfect mixture of bitter and sweet, complimented by the hearty crunch of hand-roasted almonds.  A much-needed burst of energy has never tasted so good (unless you’re partial to, say, dried cherries or blueberries—which Pure Dark also offers, both smothered in the same deep dark chocolate). Oh, and the Pure Dark Rounds—discs of dark chocolate covered in sea salt—will also elevate your fireside S’mores to the heavens. But for mid-trail, we keep coming back to the almonds (at least until they’re all gone).