Food dehydrator? What's the best?
tropicals9b
13 years ago
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arley_gw
13 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
Favorite food dehydrator?
Comments (50)I own one of the Ronco dehydrators. We originally bought it for drying a few things for backpacking trips. It does OK for small trips for two people, but it has been seriously underpowered keeping up with the garden production of what we had wanted to dry in order to preserve food. That happened last year with tomatoes, and this year with figs. We went around the problem learning how to can (last year) and learning to make fig/fruit wine (this year). You can figure that the freezer space was shrinking rapidly with full summer garden production, so freezing was not an option. Nothing against canning, and certainly nothing against wine, but I would have preferred to have a larger capacity dryer. I love drying tomatoes and then grinding them up into a tomato powder that can reconstitute into a sauce out in the woods in a backpacking trip. It is also great to have at home, easier than canning and you can actually store them without refrigeration. I love their taste too! For figs, I use dried figs in breads, muffins, energy bars I make myself (mixed with nuts and other things). Lately I have also found out that zucchini slices dry very nicely, and so do green beans. I also have peach and nectarine trees, they ripen with the figs, so yes, more space in a dehydrator! We are considering making one of the solar ones, but out of nice materials that we already have (not cardboard). The main model plan that is going around the internet has a tilted black air duct, it should work just by the principle that hot air rises. Also, it is very sunny and very dry where I live, so solar should be good for us, save energy and avoid heating the room in the summer. The food is confined so critters should not be a big problem. Has anyone had any experience with the solar types? any advice?...See Morebest food dehydrator
Comments (2)I don't know the answer, but I think you might get more responses in one of the On-Topic forums (choose one). Kitchen Forum On-Topic Discussions Appliance Forum<?a> There's also a , but it doesn't get as much traffic....See Moredehydrating foods
Comments (9)1. Storage is best in a vacuum-sealed jar (using the jar sealer on a FoodSaver). Air, light and heat are things that degrade dehydrated foods - so avoid those damaging elements when possible. - Jars are best because the food remains free-flowing. If you vacuum-seal in bags it will crush "crispy" dried foods, and those that still have a fair amount of moisture remaining will stick together in a bag. - The colder you store dehydrated foods, 0F or colder, the longer the food will keep. You can use a method called DEHYDROFREEZING for this purpose. Fruits dried at home normally have about 80% of the moisture removed; vegetables, 90%. When dehydrofreezing, you remove only 70% of the moisture and you MUST store these foods in the freezer to inhibit microbial growth in foods with that much moisture remaining. Benefits: - These foods take up less space in the freezer then if they were left whole. - They have better flavor and color than completely dehydrated. - They reconstitute in about 1/2 the time it takes for traditionally dried foods. 2. Storage time. Depending on the "expert" you read... Recommended storage times for dried foods range from 4 months to one year. The quality is affected by heat, the higher the temperature the shorter the storage time. Most dried fruits can be stored for one year at 60°F, six months at 80°F. Vegetables have about half the shelf-life of fruits. 3. Hints for storage. - I keep my dehydrated apple slices, which we use for snacking as well as cooking, stored in small "snack" size zip-lock bags, and store the bags of apples in a 1/2-gallon jar, vacuum-sealed shut. When we're ready to use from this jar, I exchange the canning lid for a Universal Lid that vacuums shut and can easily be opened and re-sealed, unlike the canning lid. This lid works with the FoodSaver and is one of the best things I've used with the FoodSaver. It comes in two sizes - 4-inch and 5-inch. You can use it on jars, cans, etc. Anything with a smooth rim. (Just Google - FoodSaver Universal Lids for more information.) When you open dehydrated foods, the food reabsorbs moisture from the air. This way we can take a snack-size amount out without the rest of the apples being exposed to moisture. - Some foods are nortorious for mold - like potatoes - when they aren't prepared properly. Slicing foods, like potatoes, with a cutting mandoline will assure the same thickness, unlike cutting with a paring knife. The same thickness will help it dry evenly. Place like-sized pieces on a tray. So those smaller end pieces of the potato, place all on one tray, and larger pieces on other trays - this will help assure they dry in approximately the same amount of time. When you load a tray with a variety of sizes, you risk over-dehydrating the smaller pieces, and under-dehydrating the larger ones - which will lead to mold. NEVER consume dehydrated foods with mold on it. DON'T pick out the few pieces that contain mold and eat the rest - the entire container of food has mold spores on it whether it shows mold or not. - Store foods that tend to mold in smaller amounts. This way if one small bag develops some mold, you won't have to toss a large quantity. - I dehydrate cooked, mashed, sweet potatoes (NO butter or milk added - just plain mashed sweet potatoes) on fruit roll-up sheets in a very thin layer until it is crispy dry. When completely dry and it has cooled to room temperature, I stick it in the blender to make a powdered form of it. I stick the powder in small jars or zip-lock bags and stick a "pillow pak" (moisture absorbing packet that you find in pills/supplements) in the jar/bag to absorb moisture that will cause the powder to clump. Store the sweet potato powder in the freezer or refrigerator (which is a dry environment) to prevent the powder from getting hard. I've also stored it in "snack" bags (which are stored in a jar with a pillow pak) in amounts that equal 1/2 c. sweet potatoes when reconstituted for easy serving sizes. Once again, this prevents the powder from rehydrating each time it's open. -Grainlady...See MoreShare your favorite dehydrated food recipes
Comments (10)I use a lot of dehydrated produce in a lot of recipes. Like last night there was dehydrated corn, kale, and wild chives in the potato and ham chowder. A few nights ago I made stuffed shells, and the tomato sauce had a heap of dehydrated quartered tomatoes and dehydrated sliced mushrooms in it. I always have dehydrated celery and carrots in the house so I have the stuff on hand for mire poix for whenever I need it without having to use up my fresh produce. When onions go on sale for super cheap, I run a few days worth or minced onions and usually have a few quarts in the pantry- right now I've run myself down to the last couple handfuls in the pantry to prep up for restocking onions soon. Herbs of course too, we use heaps of fresh and dried herbs around here. I do up tomatoes sliced, quartered, or halved depending on the kind and size. They get powdered up for instant tomato sauces and pastes, and left in bigger pieces to stew up in soups, stews, and sauces. Summer squashes get grated and dried up- used in all sorts of stuff like soups, casseroles, stews, or even rehydrated for zucchini breads. Winter squashes get cooked, pureed, and dehydrated on jelly sheets till crispy dry- then made into squash flour for baking- it is wonderful in quick breads and hearty breads- you simply replace some of the flour with squash flour. Actually you can make flour out of pretty much any pleasing combination of produce- add veggie kick to any breads, or make tasty veggie crackers. Sometimes I'll grate winter squash raw and it can get added into soups, stews, or sprinkled on pizza like cheese. I do this with sweet potatoes too- we love garlic, spinach, sweet potato, and mushroom pizzas with either white or tomato sauce. Dried and minced/powdered, you can make your own seasoning mixes, dip and dressing mixes, dry vegetable broth mix, and more. For recipes that use the green beans, try looking for it under "leather britches" recipes. Leather britches is what the old timers called the green beans they would hang on strings to dry out and eat up during the winter. I use them mostly in soups and stews, and a couple casseroles. Peppers can be dried up- I tend to do them either in rings, halved, or quartered depending on the size, but I never leave them whole. They are great for additions to all sorts of foods, or ground up into spice powders. If you have a smoker, you can smoke them before drying them too :)...See Moremustangs81
13 years agolast modified: 9 years agotriciae
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13 years agolast modified: 9 years agoLars
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13 years agolast modified: 9 years agoannie1992
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13 years agolast modified: 9 years agograinlady_ks
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7 years agoInna
6 years ago
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