Food drying - Dehydrators (merged)

ceridwen

Pitlanepiglet wrote: »

Do you manage to get them to a fairly consistent size cutting by hand or does it not matter too much?

Personally - I've not been that good at getting the apple pieces to a similar size.

Hence - I tend to set the timer up for the minimum amount of time I think will be necessary and then check them over. At that point - I remove the bits that are "done" enough and put the dryer on again for the bigger bits that need a bit more time.

ceridwen

Pitlanepiglet wrote: »

Our apples are mainly windfalls so aren't always very nice on the outside so we peel ours. Horses for courses I guess.

I suspect the original reason as to why people were advised to remove the skin on apples before using them was in order to see if there was "bruising" hidden underneath the skin - rather than because it really really HAS to be done per se IYSWIM.

I think its the case - after a while - that one can tell whether there is likely to be some "defect" (eg bruising) just underneath the skin. If there IS a "defect" then one just removes the damaged bit only.

As with a lot of things - I think how-to instructions were "simplified" to avoid having to take time/effort to explain to everyone the how-to info in greater detail.

Hence - personally - I leave the skins on everything by now - having realised just why this "instruction" was set in stone back when. By now I can see when something is going to be a bit "faulty" under the skin and I dont want to waste the calories/food "value" on anything.

Confuzzled

ceridwen wrote: »

Isn't there some gadget that Lakeland stock (offhand - think its about £18?) that cores/peels/etc apples?????

Personally - for my 1 person storage quantity - I slice them manually and cut out the core..... Think drying might have a sorta "sweetening" effect on apples?????).

that's pretty much how i do my apples too.. the though occured to me tonight that i could rig up some sort of round or possibly square cutter that's about the right size to push through a few slices of apple to remove the 'stars' quicker though i may just plump for a corer as my daughter loves dried apples and apples are cheap so it wouldn't be a waste of money but would save a lot of time

as for sweetening yes, by removing most of the water you intensify any sweetness in the produce, even crab apples are edible without sugar when dehydrated but still tangy!

i have a theory about rowan berries actually... there are two ways to elimate the toxins in rowanberries, by either freezing them for about 2 weeks or so or by cooking. so you could in theory freeze then dry to use like one would sultanas or dried cranberries or you could cook into a puree and make fruit leathers... i do wonder just how much sweetness this would bring out though. appearantly freezing intensifies the sugars in them and is probably the reason why it's suggested to wait until after the first frost to harvest them (none left around here, the birds have eaten them all!) i do think possibly that by adding some bicarbonate of soda it would reduce the acidity and allow the flavour to really shine through if dehydrated, alas with the lack of rowans this year i shall have to wait til next year to try it but if anyone else does please let me know how you get on

midnightraven3

i have spent 3 days reading this thread (and all the links) reading everything i can on the net, i even watched the woman on youtube
the one who tells us loads of times how hygenic she is and uses antibac spray & uses gloves yet touches her hair constantly, then the food:mad:)

sorry, bugbear of mine:D

anyways
i need/want one

i cant decide
try the westfalia one, and see how i get on

or buy the one i REALLY want, the excalibur 9 tray, with the timer

hmmmmmmmm

the westfalia one is much cheaper, but i wonder about the middly bit

the excalibur is quite expensive, will i get THAT much use out of it to justify buying it

please help:(

Sunnyday

Midnightraven3 i almost bought the westfalia one too

I was going to see how i got on with it and then if it got used enough i was going to upgrade to the Excalibur.

In the end i just bought the Excalibur - the thing that helped me to decide was that the Excalibur has the timer and dries everything evenly and the westfalia seemed such a faff having to rotate the trays to get the same result and i didn`t want to have to keep an eye on it.

I`m lazy, i like to just shove everything in and leave it until its done

Read the reviews on a few different sites to help make up your mind.

Happy dehydrating whatever you choose!

SD

midnightraven3

thank you for that:beer:

i may just be adding to my own confusion now
but i am looking at this one

http://www.ukjuicers.com/lequip-fiterpro-dehydrator

maybe a middle ground?

Confuzzled

i have the westfalia but long for teh excalibur. if you don't know that you'll even like i'd recommend the westfalia as it's 1/10th the cost.

you could get an idea of what to expect then if you really like the things that come out of the dryer then you could upgrade, i'm sure someone would buy your old one off you on ebay!

though saying that if you love dried fruit, and have access to a lot of produce then it would probably be worth just going for the excalibur. i guess it really depends on your situation. this is my 3rd dehydrator over the years and i'm def going to save up for the excalibur, maybe get one second hand as i do love using mine and i keep coming up with new ways to use it.

i have apple and elderberry cordial fruit leathers in mine now and soon i will put some spiced pumpkin and banana fruit leathers in

i saw a recipe last night for yogurt drops, basically you plop down a big spoonful of yogurt of your choosing on a fruit leather sheet (i use silicone sheets i bought off ebay and cut to fit) and you can add in nuts if you like. we already love yogurt and banana leathers so i'm sure we'd like this

another idea i want to try soon is soup leather! basically any sort of lentil or pulse based soup. puree finely and put on the leather sheets as you would with fruit puree or you can put them in big spoonfulls. then just peel them off when they're done and take them with you for on the go snacks! i always make too much soup so these seems like a great thing, then i can have them on days out to save us having to go out to eat (or maybe we could eat our dried stuff and just treat ourselves to desert ) and to have at my desk as i constantly forget to eat

anyway, if you do find you keep coming up with ways to use the dryer then the excaliber is worth it...however if you do go for the excaliber and decide you don't like it, please pm me, i'll take it off your hands for you :rotfl:

midnightraven3

i think i will just go for the excalibur
i think i would regret buying anything else

i grow my own fruits veggies & herbs
and i think it means i may possibly be able to get rid of one of the freezers

so reeeeeeeeeeally i would be saving money:rotfl:

Pitlanepiglet

Hi Midnightraven, I've just been though the same process of deciding whether to buy a cheap one or to go for the Excalibur. I went for the 9 tray Excalibur with the timer. My logic was that it looks very easy to use, the flexible trays are apparently easier to get stuff off than the harder trays of the cheaper models plus I prefer the idea of the nice square trays.

I've only had mine two days - second lot of apples in it now. I reckon I've got about 15 full dehydrator loads to go with the apples that came off the tree in yesterday's storm! Hopefully I'm getting value for money with mine, just in apples!

What does everyone use to store foods? I've got some idea jars but I'm going to run out fairly soon at this rate!

Sunnyday

I was going to use jars to store al my dried goods but i`ve filled them with other things

Atm everything is in ziplock type bags, i just squeezed most of the air out and closed them and then threw them all in a basket in the cupboard, seems to work just fine and they hardly take up any space at all.

I`ve heard of peeps freezing dried food but to me that defeats the object a bit, have also heard of peeps vac packing once dried but tbh i don`t think that its necessary and it makes it quite expensive too.

Some dry food then vac pack and then freeze :eek: overkill for me lol

SD