Food drying - Dehydrators (merged)

squeaky

Hi tine

We've got quite a long thread on these so I'll add your post onto it.

It's well worth a read

furndire

Tchibo sold out, QVC on waitlist only !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The power of MSE

furndire

Has anyone actually dried food in their oven? I have a fan oven, which has temperature as low as 40 degrees, I'm sure I read somewhere that you can, but can't find at present.

Queenie

furndire wrote:

Has anyone actually dried food in their oven? I have a fan oven, which has temperature as low as 40 degrees, I'm sure I read somewhere that you can, but can't find at present.

You might find the information on this website useful: - Drying Fruits & Vegetables (about half way down for oven drying)

julbags

Got my dehydrator from Tchibo last week :j (still in the box as I've had no time to play yet). I'm going to test it with some herbs, but one of the things I wanted it for was to dry bananas but not to the crunchy consistency of banana chips rather to the squishy consistency of apricots.

Does anyone do this?

I've read through as much as I can on dehydrators on this forum but have not found the answer to this question (though I might have missed it).

furndire

Thanks for your answer Queenie. After I posted found some Aubergines which were not going to last much longer in fridge, so thought nothing to lose - did them late last night. Had only juice of a lime (added to water) to dip them in
They've turned out brilliantly. At the same time I sliced up a couple of apples, a pepper, a tomato, and some small mushrooms.
All worked out fine. I left the fan oven on 60, with the door wedged open about an inch at the top, and dried them for about 8 hours. Perfect this morning. I've been eating the apple rings this morning.
Our local market sells rather large bags of fruit for £1 a go, so I'm going to have some fun with some later in the week.
Julbags......
I've just found this on dehydrating bananas. Just realised thats the word to use when googling different fruit etc. http://www.astray.com/recipes/?show=Dehydrating%20bananas

I've just been back to the above site - its an absolute wealth of recipes - a lot very unusual.

betterbargains4u

Hi guys

Been reading this thread for ages and just wanted to ask a couple of questions...if you don't mind.
1...How thinly do you need to slice apples, bananas and veg to make crisps?
2...Do you need to keep checking it as it dries..or can you just forget about it? Want to make crispy crisps.

betterbargains4u

If anyone has got any really unusual or fab recipes...why don't we start a new thread of them?

vivw_2

Really need some help. Tried my dehydrator yesterday. Dried my mushrooms for about 5 hrs [ 4hrs didn't seem enough] but this morning they seem very damp. What might I have done wrong?

moggins

Vivw I put my mushrooms on overnight as they have a lot of water in them so I presumed they would take a long time.