Food drying - Dehydrators (merged)

furndire

Thanks for that info Si99, I knew if I waited someone on here would let us know if one of these came in at a decent price again . Just ordered.

skinnygirlnot

Well, I've used my dehydrator a few times now and I'm not overly impressed.
I dried celery, mushrooms and carrots and used them in a casserole, so I can see an advantage in drying things like that- but only if there was a glut of those vegetables.
I really wanted to dry some fruit. The bananas were ok but the apple rings, though ok-ish, were not really worth the bother.

Can someone persuade me not to ebay it, because deep down I really don't want to. I did buy the Mary Bell cookbook too.
I think it's because I don't feel the need to dry fresh food for reconstituting for the sake of it if I can easily get it whereas I like the idea of dried fruit and veg as healthy snacks- I'm not sure I'm explaining myself well.

Anyway if someone can kindly advise me I'd be very grateful.

Softstuff

I only dry things to eat as snacks. I enjoy the apple rings best if they are sliced very very thinly, otherwise they're chewy. Banana slices are great, mango is a firm favourite in this house and pineapple was surprisingly also great. I do intend to get around to some yoghurt coating before drying too, that would improve the snacks.

Also tomatoes are great to semi-dry before popping them in herby oil - they're a cheap version of sun dried then.

If I had more time I'd try some other stuff, but have been working too much recently.

[Deleted User]

My dehydrator has been working constantly for a whole week now because I`m drying any veg that I think will become more expensive since the flooding and constant rain. Good job there is a 12 year guarantee on it but it is working very smoothly

so far loads of carrots, parsnips, onions, leeks and some cabbage. Also peppers to make life easier later on. Its amazing how little space the dried veggies take up

I got fed up of the constant slicing then I remembered the russell hobbs express slicer that I use for salads and by golly it made short work of the carrots and onions last night

Today I am trying a tray of cooked chick peas and while I`m at it, I`m drying 2 trays of leeks and three of cabbage. More parsnips and carrots are waiting in the wings

Anybody done celery? I had a go but I think it was too wet and I abandoned it

skinnygirlnot

Hi Kittie,
I've done celery and chopped them up into 1/2 cm pieces. They were dry enough to ground up in my coffee grinder.

What do you do with the veg that you've dried-add them to casserole type meals?

Sorry for asking but I don't think I'm making the most of my dehydrator. I just use it to dry sliced bananas and apples. I need some ideas.

Gingham_Ribbon

Hmm. I'd love one of these to make snacks for the kids but didn't want to spend more than about £40. Anyone seen anything decent? The tchibo (sp?!) one doesn't seem to be available any more.

GREAT thread by the way. Thanks everyone.

LearningToSave.

glad you asked gingham!!! i was going to but couldnt for the life of me find this thread yesterday when i tried to look!

astep70uk

npsmama wrote: »

has anyone got the fruit leather sheets?

do you think the reusable nontick liners like Lakeland sell would do the trick?

I got some of the teflon non stick liners from Home Bargains for something like £1.99 each. Over the holidays we made fruit leather in the oven (took 10 hours :eek: ) I spread the leather onto the liners and it was fine, so I guess you could use them in a dehydrator

ravylesley

I have had one of those moments that I can best describe as odd.I got a dehydrator for Christmas have unpacked it and recycled all the packaging and now that I've come to trying it out I cant find my instructions.Can anyone who has a dehydrator please give me a few basic tips like how strong is the lemon solution I'm supposed to soak the fruit/veg in supposed to be and how long do I soak it.How long do I leave the fruit/veg in the dehydrator and how do I know when its done.I know this seems stupid but I have never used one of these and really havent got a clue

Lesleyxx

Bongedone

Have you looked on the manufactures web site as they often have copies of the instructions in PDF format.