Food drying - Dehydrators (merged)

JB_York

D&DD wrote: »

Fry off a few onions and a punnet of mushrooms with a clove or two of garlic.Add any herbs knocking around (thyme and resemary go well in this one)
Blitz up in liquidiser and spread on leather sheets.

I use bits of this in soups and stews and its especially nice added to stuff in the slowcooker

This is a great idea - I've limited my leathers to tomato based stuff so far, but I always have mushrooms which are past their best. Definitely be on for this

JB

D&DD

JB I'm sure I remember reading Kittie had had a problem sealing her courgettes,might have been in the gardening forum?? Mine have been so dire this year I haven't got enough to dehydrate

JB_York

D&DD wrote: »

JB I'm sure I remember reading Kittie had had a problem sealing her courgettes,might have been in the gardening forum?? Mine have been so dire this year I haven't got enough to dehydrate

Thanks very much for that - I'll have a root around and see what I can find.

FYI, many of my crops have been dire this year with the damp summer, but for the last few years I've been using courgette varieties which cope well with this type of weather. Parthenocarpic varieties like 'Cavili' are really strong, and 'Midnight' is a climbing variety so gets really good air circulation and just doesn't care about the damp. It also has the best flavour!

JB

boultdj

I'm so excited!! my dehydrator has come:j, now working away in the kitchen doing a load of apple's:D

dogstarheaven

soz folks. got the excalibur last tuesday and i've made a lot of apple, courgette, toms on it since. with the 3 sheets of Paraflexx i've been making apple and cinnamon leathers, and yummmm, they're so good! unfortunately, yesterday when i used up all my apples i didn't have enough paraflexx sheets and used baking paper instead... it didn't work, and i had to scrap 4 sheets of leathers in the end...

SD i think - you were right about increasing the time on the timer for the excalibur. yesterday's leathers took over 12hrs for 7 sheets! the other veg were done in 7hrs.

i had to order the apple corer-peeler-slicer thingy at the cost of £26 last week but as it was taking time for it to arrive, i ended peeling all 4kg by hand yest!

thinking about doing onions and bananas next - any tips.. ?

Sunnyday

dogstarheaven wrote: »

thinking about doing onions and bananas next - any tips.. ?

Slice the onions in the food processor or "you`ll be sorry" *said in a singsong voice* :rotfl:

Believe me you need to do this, i was sat in the garden for ages with tears streaming down my face after trying to do the onions. Even with the FP it was a bit grim lol

I`ve just put my excalibur back into the cupboard and it may stay there. I`ve dried absolutely everything except for a few pointy peppers and i can now get these in the freezer. I`ve still not tried leathers yet so it may well be back out soon. I needed the space on the side to make chutneys in the huge baby bath size slow cooker

I think that i need to go to bed, i keep buying things

Todays haul includes 6 radiator trv valves, some upvc door replacement seals and a rug runner - oh and some special flour that has cost me a fortune but can`t find it in the shops. I will NOT look at anymore kitchen gadgets

Your now skint pal

SD

[Deleted User]

Nice to see this thread up again. I have used my excalibur all through the summer too and also my vacuum sealer and have come to some conclusions.

Don`t believe the given times for dehydrating as they are often not long enough, I often dry at the correct temperature during the day and then turn it down during the night, to get up to perfectly dried foods

Storage works best for me in lock and lock boxes (the genuine lock & lock ones) or in vacuum sealed canisters. I have had too many of the special vacuum bags lose their seal. The vac bags are good just prior to freezing stuff though, rather than de-hydrating. I am especially impressed with the vac jars, they work better than I expected and I like the fact that they are re-useable

lol sunnyday, I have been spending too. Economy is on the turn upwards now (I deal in shares and stock market) and we have a safety savings base in place, interest rates for savers are ziltch so I am buying again. 46" top of the range, thin, tv yesterday, singing and dancing (well we have had our aldi one for years now and it is going to someone dd knows, who cannot afford a tv)

JB_York

dogstarheaven wrote: »

thinking about doing onions and bananas next - any tips.. ?

DS, One comment for both - isolation! Personally I find the intense perfumey smell of dehydrating bananas REALLY unpleasant. Unfortunate, as the finished article is great, a terrific way to get rid of those browning bananas that nobody likes. Shut the doors, open the windows, enjoy the outcome.

Apparently, the same goes for Onions, but more so. That's the one reason I haven't tried onions yet - just about every review I've seen highlights that if you don't want the house to be smelling of onions for ever more, you need to find an alternative location. I'm planning to set mine up in the garage to run over the weekend

JB

JB_York

How many posts do I have to make to get rid of this annoying newbie tag???

JB

brenda50

Good too see this thread. I am new to dehydrating and not too thrilled at how long it takes to prep the fruit and veg especially the apples due to having to coat them with lemon juice. I got a mandoline the other day and it helps. The end result is worth it though. I love the dried bananas! I am busy with apples atm as I have been given bags of them. The eating apples I did on the low temp to keep the enzymes, but the cooking apples which I peeled, I did on a warmer setting as they will be cooked though I was surprised at how sweet they are when dried.

I have done some elder berries to eat raw with mueseli for my immune system. They are fine dry.

I am putting the produce into zip bags at the moment and into a plastic container with a moisture absorber but I need to find out about vacuum sealing them. I want to get as much done as I can then think about long term storage when I have a breather.