Food drying - Dehydrators (merged)

annie-c

Fab idea - and I don't want to put a downer on it, but speaking as a [STRIKE]lazybones[/STRIKE] culinary scientist who makes porridge daily and rarely remembers to soak the pan afterwards, may I humbly suggest that the 'brickettes' will likely end up as just that - brick-like masses that will be as pleasant to eat as they are to scrape off a dried out milk pan

Let me know if it works though!!!

astep70uk

The Book People have an excellent book called 'Preserved' on special offer at the moment for £3 (RRP £25). If I remember rightly, there is a section in there on drying including fruit leathers and beef jerky (I've just moved and my copy is in storage at the mo, so can't check!)

And don't forget to go through Quidco for 10% cashback at Tchibo!

lil_me

Just ordered one, nice find, something that I could really do with my kids love dried fruits and it costs me a fortune buying it. Thansk for posting it Ted.

CFC

Give it a go - it's not going to break the bank or poison you off if it doesn't work!

wizzkid_3

Did you try Oatibix? I bought some on bogof - big mistake! Family hated them, even tried hiding them in Weetabix cake, not the same at all, you ended up with a pretty chewy mess!

amazon_spice

Could always light fire with them if inedible!

miggy

annie-c wrote:

Fab idea - and I don't want to put a downer on it, but speaking as a [STRIKE]lazybones[/STRIKE] culinary scientist who makes porridge daily and rarely remembers to soak the pan afterwards, may I humbly suggest that the 'brickettes' will likely end up as just that - brick-like masses that will be as pleasant to eat as they are to scrape off a dried out milk pan

Let me know if it works though!!!

Annie-c, IMHO all porridge eaters should have a microwave! I cook porridge on full power for 2 mins in the bowl in which it's going to be eaten, so there's just one small bowl to wash up per person, and it doesn't glue itself to the bowl like it does to a pan, though you do need to soak the bowl after, even just for a couple of minutes.
This is using quick porridge oats not the original sort.
OP, sorry I can't offer any more except to say to try it! My concern would be that it might be too hard to eat as there's such a lot of starch in porridge but you won't know unless you try.

annie-c

miggy wrote:

Annie-c, IMHO all porridge eaters should have a microwave! I cook porridge on full power for 2 mins in the bowl in which it's going to be eaten, so there's just one small bowl to wash up per person, and it doesn't glue itself to the bowl like it does to a pan, though you do need to soak the bowl after, even just for a couple of minutes.
This is using quick porridge oats not the original sort.

I've done that with OatsoSimple, but I find that porridge gets glueier (sp?) and looks nasty in the bowl that it's cooked in. I'd need to transfer it to a clean dish anyway, so I just might as well use a pan where you can stir it and have more control over the quality?? .

(I'm on a slimming diet at the moment and the thing that helps me keep going is that I always serve my (small) portions on beautiful white crockery - I couldn't eat from a porridgy bowl - I feel cheated enough only having half as much as I really want - if the bowl was messy I'd feel positively deprived!!!! :rotfl: :rotfl: )

Angelina-M

I've found this http://www.dehydrators.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=38&Itemid=41 and its definately worth a look for beginners looking at what they can dehydrate.

I've got cherry toms, onions, mushrooms and garlic in the dehydrator at the moment and im going to grind them up and make a powder to add bulk to soup/casserole's, gravy etc.

I've also done some celery and thats great for adding depth to chili etc.

Angelina-M

Hmm I see the tchibo dehydrators are already selling on ebay for £65.99 :eek: