Food drying - Dehydrators (merged)

OneSpike

Hi. I've been reading this thread with great interest as I've been after a dehydrator for quite a while, but can't afford the £70+ they seem to go for on eBay. The QVC one is therefore very appealing at around £30 inc postage, but I don't want to make a bad buy. Is the no-thermostat thing a problem? I like the idea of only £30 but don't want to make a bad buy.

I'd be making fruit leathers, fruit and veg crisps and drying mushrooms, tomatoes etc, and maybe making the odd lot of crackers.

Thanks.

Smiley_Mum

OneSpike wrote:

Hi. I've been reading this thread with great interest as I've been after a dehydrator for quite a while, but can't afford the £70+ they seem to go for on eBay. The QVC one is therefore very appealing at around £30 inc postage, but I don't want to make a bad buy. Is the no-thermostat thing a problem? I like the idea of only £30 but don't want to make a bad buy.

I'd be making fruit leathers, fruit and veg crisps and drying mushrooms, tomatoes etc, and maybe making the odd lot of crackers.

Thanks.

Don't you have a 30 day cool off period, whereby if you buy the product and you've given it a go and it's not what you expected then you can return it. I've just used mine for crisps so far, and just rotate the trays every few hours or so for even drying. £30 over £200, it's not a bad price. Rotating the trays is the only thing I'd advise, don't leave it unattended.

culpepper

You can make fruit leathers on cling film too.Dont cover the central vent if it has one as the air still has to circulate somehow.
I think the thermostat is really only useful if you are going to be drying meats which need a bit higher temperature than fruit and veg.
Ive just started making soups with the dried veg that I powdered in the summer and it is really quick to do. So that could be another use.

OneSpike

Great, thank you. I think I'm going to take advantage of this, it's too good an offer to miss really.

I'll no doubt be back with lots of silly questions about how to use the thing!

Smiley_Mum

OneSpike wrote:

I'll no doubt be back with lots of silly questions about how to use the thing!

From the top of the site:-

Please be nice to all MoneySavers. There’s no such thing as a stupid question,...

Toxic_Lemon

I thought I'd share a recent purchase with you and the money-saving reasons for buying it.

I purchased it for £26 (identical to an £80 model seen elsewhere). I bought it to make vegetables and fruits for healthier, cheaper snacks instead of the expensive shop bought snacks and crisps. Also, oddments of left-over (raw) fruit & veg can be dehydrated and preserved ratehr than thrown away or left to rot.

You can dehydrate meat and chicken (beef jerky). You can also make semi-dried or sun-dried tomatoes and leave in oil ata fraction of the delicatessen prices. I plan to dry onions, mushrooms, garlic, celery etc. and then blitz into a powder in the food processor to add to soups, stew and casseroles as flavourings instead of the packet mixes of E numbers you can buy. Someone even suggested drying left over egg white (if you've been baking with egg yolks) which can then be powdered and used in other recipes.

Also, I want to dry herb leaves from the pots I occasionally buy that normally die and I then throw them out. I can dry them to preserve instead!

You can dry flower leaves, orange/lemon rind to make pot pourri.

Pink.

Hi Toxic Lemon,

I've merged your post into the current thread on dehydrators as it helps to keep all the suggestions together.

Pink

Angelina-M

Ooh that mix does sound good. I've got some celery that I wont use, what do you do, just dry it in sticks. Also, do you just use this powder like a gravy? It sounds fab!

organic_wanabe

Hi Toxic Lemon, can I ask where you got your dehydrator as I've been thinking of getting one? Also, let us know how you get on with it. Thanks.

Toxic_Lemon

Angelina-M wrote:

Ooh that mix does sound good. I've got some celery that I wont use, what do you do, just dry it in sticks. Also, do you just use this powder like a gravy? It sounds fab!

I've powdered the celery after drying from thick slices. I suppose I could have done sticks. I'll try that next time. I used it in the gravy of the casserole. So may people don't like celery so it's a good way of hiding it as it's so tasty in casseroles, etc.