Food drying - Dehydrators (merged)

Angelina-M

Ooooh and I have another question to everyone!

Right I went to the supermarket last night and i'm in the process of drying all my reduced to clear goodies. Because this stuff is at its best by date, some bits are a bit wilty and i'm wondering if I could make a soup with all the bits? I know that may sound daft to some of you more experienced but with soups I generally keep quite close to recipes but i'm thinking of doing leek, asparagus, onion and potato.. would that be ok? I don't want to add any milk as its going to be frozen, so watcha think peeps?

It would break my heart to throw the wilty bits away you see.

[Deleted User]

my excalibur is working non stop too as I am getting various gluts on the allotment. I do blanch but I do it the easy way with a big metal steamer that I have had for years (cuisinart) eg beans are steam blanched for jus 3 minutes and potatoes for 5, then I don`t cool down, I just tip them on the dehydrator trays and in the meantime the dehydrator is already switched on and warming up. Yesterday I did 9 large onions ie 1 to a tray, probably 4 kg. I cut the slices thicker this time and gave them longer but I got a very good result. Onions don`t need to be blanched

My mixed herbs are very good and I dehydrate at 95 every time I get a glut of them. Also lemon balm for cups of soothing herbal tea

lock and lock boxes work tremendously well, the genuine ones and I am still using perfect porcini slices that I dried 3 years ago. They also stack well. They are absolutely air and water tight

Angelina-M

Well I decided to just try the soup.... whats the worst that could happen!!

Kittie, I got about six bags of organic onions yesterday, reduced to 25p a bag! So what is your preferred method of dehydrating as I know you do lots? I'm thinking of just roughly chopping then dehydrate until crisp and brittle. No blanching.

Do they come out ok like real onions or are they mushy?

I am also thinking about freezing some of the onions but I have limited freezer space now, due to the fact I bought loads of lovely white caulis for 35P!

Ken68

Bought an Excalbur recently, delivered to the wrong address, brought round and left near my front door. All night in the rain
Wet thru, am negotiating a part refund.
Seems to be working OK though but but but.

lizzyb1812

Angelina-M re sun dried tomatoes. Last year I dried them until they had a bit of give in them, this last lot I dried to hardness - by accident - but I'm sure they'll be OK, they'll just need a bit more rehydrating. Last year's ones were perfectly OK to use many months later. Think of the texture of shop bought ones - they have a bit of give in them. Just don't dry them whole - the wet inside needs to be exposed.

HTH Lizzyb

Angelina-M

Brilliant, thank you Lizzy. I really panic with these things. I get so scared that mold will grow and kill me dead when I accidentally eat it!

ceridwen

Not so much a dehydrator question directly - but as the dehydrator I have is the Excalibur model - then I also bought those flexible "sheets" (Paraflex or summat similar name???) - so that I could put them on the trays to dry out fruit leathers.

Have just bethought myself that "Maybe those sheets could do double duty to help out with freezing things?"

So - the question is that I have to "make do" a bit when it comes to open freezing anything - as I dont have one of those quick freeze trays in my freezer. This being the case - I put whatever fruit I want to freeze (cut in pieces if big) spread out onto a baking tray and balance it in the fast freeze section of my freezer to freeze it up and then I bag it up in my freezer bags and store in the freezer. That way - things keep separate and I dont get a bag that is just one frozen lump and can just take the amount of fruit I want from the bag.

However - I wonder whether I could these dehydrator flexible sheet thingies to put one on top of a baking tray BEFORE putting my fruit on top of it and then it wouldnt stick so to that metal baking tray.

Whaddya think? Has anyone tried to see if those sheets will stand up to freezer temperatures and do "double duty" like that?

Sunnyday

Hi Ceridwen,

i`ve not tried using the paraflex in the freezer but i can`t see a reason why it wouldn`t work, it has a shiny side so i presume that if the fruit is put on that side then it shouldn`t stick.

If it does stick then it should be far easier to peel off the frozen items as its flexible. I`ll bear this in mind when i next have to freeze something like this, i have to confess though that i`m mostly a freeze in a clump type of person and then bash the plastic bag around a bit to break off what ever i need lol

SD

lizzyb1812

I don't have paraflex sheets but I do have those oven liners/grill pan liners - Aldi/Morrisons do them for bout £2. I have cut one to fit my round dehydrator. You can also use them instead of baking parchment, and yup, they go on a baking sheet for non-stick open freezing. I love stuff that has multiple uses, especially if it makes clean up etc quicker. If the paraflex stuff is basically a non stick sheet I'm sure it would work.

Ken68

Will have to get some para sheets eventually but made do yesterday with a cornflake packet inner. Got that tip from the BBC food board.
Rolled off easy.
Bye the bye...checked electric meter this morning. 10 extra kwh's for the week, works out at about 80pence per load for a 5 tray Excalibur.