Food drying - Dehydrators (merged)

D&DD

I do use mine a fair bit and now I've started doing dog treats and more powders this year I'm finding its on an awful lot hence toying with the idea of trading up I'm just struggling justifying the price of the excalibur.
Mine was from Tchibo years ago less than twenty quid and I have the leather sheets (imported them from the states):D
Its really quiet too,I agree the toms and mushrooms come out lovely and really help my overstuffed freezers,have you tried cherries they are tooooooo yummy :rotfl:

moneysaverboy

http://aliveandaware.net/Excalibur-3500-Food-Dehydrator-5-Tray/M/B0028FLM8Y.htm?traffic_src=GB&utm_medium=CSE&utm_source=GB&id=uk

I know this is an american site and it looks like you pay via amazon.com, but it does show the price in £'s next to the american price, so I'm guessing they deliver to the uk. No idea what postage would be, did look briefly but couldn't find it, but I'm sure someone else could, but it's much cheaper than some people have mentioned on this thread, so thought it might be of benefit. Oh price shown is $189.95 (£127.40)

[Deleted User]

Oh I love my excalibur, having had two other makes in my lifetime (we were into making `raw` food earler in life eg sprouted grain bread, so I was an early user of dehydrators) I have the 9 tray and always manage to fill them. I dried turnip slices yesterday, small creamy white ones and a late sowing on the allotment. The excalibur has good and efficient features ie the horizontal flow of air, the very good thermostat which means that the outside of foods like peppers don`t get leathery so trapping moisture inside and herbs eg are dried at around 100 so that their oils stay in. The timer is also invaluable and best of all is that the drying is even and I don`t have to rotate the trays

Penelope_Penguin

Ooooh, I'm wanting a dehydrator now

As this has fallen from the front page of OS, I'll add it to the existing thread to give you more ideas.

dogstarheaven

hey kittie -

thanks for letting us know that you have the delectable Excalibur 9 tray with timer that i've just bought. what kinds of things have you done with it. are there any tips you can offer? i've picked about 5kg of apples today altho' about half of them are not quite so symmetrical and smooth as the usually are (knobbly!) and am wondering if they're still ok to use as i don't think i'll be able to get them to be of the same thickness and form for drying. ok, i'm not going to do all of the 5kg of apples. i have quite a lot of herbs, toms, kale, courgette, squash atm from the lotti that i'm intending to dry out. i shall look forward to the free book that comes with it, and that should hopefully give me some ideas on what i could do with it.

may i ask, have you worked out how much it costs to run per hour/or per batch? thanks!

Sunnyday

Hi Dogstar H,

i have the 5 tray excalibur and love it

To get all the slices the same thickness i use the food processor, sometimes i`m a bit naughty and use the knife but then everything isn`t ready at the same time

I find that my drying times are a bit longer than other peeps state too but i think that this is because my kitchen is very cold even in summer, i love my dehydrator and i can`t imagine life without one now.

If you enjoy yours half as much it will be a good buy!

SD

Ken68

Getting on OK with mine, Excal 5 tray bought from UK Juicers. £189. Not pleased with the price, but does the job. Got thru a tree full of plums and apples. Electric 80pence a load.
Found some mouldy plums the other day but my fault...hole in the plastic lid.
Sweet shops give away large sweet jars (plastic), just got four.

It's only a fan heater stuck in the back of a trayed container so probably DIY'able to make

dogstarheaven

ken68:

thanks for the tip about using plastic sweetie jars for storage. i thought it'd be best to use kilner ones as i have been doing for the preserves i've been making since i got into it last yr. how long have you used yours for, and what sort of food have you tried out so far?

Sunnyday:

i've noticed that a lot of ppl are using the Mary Bell's book. Is that worth getting, I wonder? re. the cooking times, i shall use the stated times and see how they turn out. Got my email back from UKJuicers and they've confirmed that they're out of the black version and are awaiting another delivery next week. Grr! My apples that i've just foraged (5kg) will somehow have to keep till then!!

re. the uniformity of the food. I forgot about using my Magimix for that - doh!

D&DD

DS the Mary Bell book is great it has recipes as well as timings see if you can get it on amazon secondhand
I also have the Dehydrator bible which has some fabulous recipes in it for using dehydrated stuff.

dogstarheaven

i'll try and find the books in the library first. atm, i've spent some of my wages already and my bills are yet to be paid!!