Food drying - Dehydrators (merged)

Ken68

Thank you OP and many others for a good read. Have took the plunge and just ordered
a 5 tray Excalibur from UK Juicers.
Lots of plums and apples to do.

Sunnyday

Ken - you`ve just reminded me that i`ve got a huge bag of frozen plums from last year in the freezer Thankyou, i shall soon be turning them into wine

My excalubur has been working overtime, all the carrots are now done and vac packed, i have lots of onions done and again packed away and many many more to do. I`m just waiting on the tomatoes and peppers so that i can start on them and i should be a few more courgettes too :j

I used the strawberries for wine this year but i shall be dehydrating the raspberries.

Enjoy your excalibur!

SD

ceridwen

Ken68 wrote: »

Thank you OP and many others for a good read. Have took the plunge and just ordered
a 5 tray Excalibur from UK Juicers.
Lots of plums and apples to do.

- and you DO realise that you gotta come back and tell us how it went...its The Law...:D

Ken68

Yes of course, with pictures later. Victoria Plums, Apple tree and Doyenne de Comice Pears.
Have the jars already. Kilner screw type and the compress sort. And sugar to make a syrup,or do you think I could use Tesco Value Double Strenth Lemon Squash 27pence.
5 minute soak ?
And already have a steamer for veg though how to steam blanch for just one minute???
Might do it all in the garage.
Just need to give it a name.

Angelina-M

To be honest Ken, I haven't bothered with the lemon juice yet. My apples were absolutely fine. Yes they went a touch brown but that was ok because they were only for my granola and to eat as a snack. I haven't tried the other things yet.

The women on the youtube videos looks to use the lemon from concentrate. Tesco sells this for 44p and I imagine it going a very long way, especially if it is decanted into a spray bottle.

Ken68

Thank you Angel...Have Cinnanom (sp) could use that. Like that spray idea.
Syrup way not so keen on . Will just have to experiment.

lizzyb1812

I strongly recommend dehydrating without lemon, syrup, blanching, etc. I just slice and dehydrate. If you're prepping quite a bit of apples, as you peel (if you peel) and slice, drop them into a bowl of water with about 1 tsp of salt or 1 tbspn lemon juice in it - that will stop them browning whilst being prepped, then shake/pat them dry and dehydrate.

Do a small batch this way - if you like the end product that's great, if not go on to more prepping.

I did this year's first "sun-dried" tomatoes yesterday. Cut small ones in half, bigger ones in quarters. Now have a jar full of really dry tomatoes that taste fabulous. Next lot to be dried will be going into oil to be used in salads.

It's a great way to preserve food.

Oh, mine is a small round one, big enough and efficient enough for single me. It's a bit noisy so I used to put it in the spare room. But now I put it in my bedroom because even though it is very low wattage, because it is on for quite a while it keeps the room nice and warm - espcially beneficial if you time your drying session to end just before bedtime

Ken68

Do you suppose glass sweet jars would do to store? And I believe sweet shops give away the plastic type.

lizzyb1812

Anything that is airtight has worked for me.

Angelina-M

lizzyb1812 wrote: »

I strongly recommend dehydrating without lemon, syrup, blanching, etc. I just slice and dehydrate. If you're prepping quite a bit of apples, as you peel (if you peel) and slice, drop them into a bowl of water with about 1 tsp of salt or 1 tbspn lemon juice in it - that will stop them browning whilst being prepped, then shake/pat them dry and dehydrate.

Do a small batch this way - if you like the end product that's great, if not go on to more prepping.

I did this year's first "sun-dried" tomatoes yesterday. Cut small ones in half, bigger ones in quarters. Now have a jar full of really dry tomatoes that taste fabulous. Next lot to be dried will be going into oil to be used in salads.

It's a great way to preserve food.

Oh, mine is a small round one, big enough and efficient enough for single me. It's a bit noisy so I used to put it in the spare room. But now I put it in my bedroom because even though it is very low wattage, because it is on for quite a while it keeps the room nice and warm - espcially beneficial if you time your drying session to end just before bedtime

Lizzy how far do you take your sun dried tomatoes because I never seem to get them right? Mine look dried but then if you put your thumb in the middle it does move around a bit.

I get very nervous that I haven't dried them enough and usually just make a pasta and bang them in