Food drying - Dehydrators (merged)

Ken68

Don't know WW, have only the Excalibur £189 5 trays two year ago.
Durable and I check on progress anyway and turn it then.
I would have said not worth buying one unless you have a regular surplus from the garden. Lots of produce will store or preserve without the need to dry, and most peeps have a freezer anyway.

Raksha

I bought a cheap round one from Ebay last year, the plastic trays are brittle and have cracked when dropped, but not enough to make them unusable

1cherish

hi all,
Hope you all had a great dehydrator harvest this year!

Have seen the advert for the nutribullet for making juices. Has anyone used one? Looks very easy to use and clean.Or any other recommendations? Liked the idea that it doesn't take up too much space either.
Look forward to hearing your replies.

Ken68

http://www.amazon.com/Nutri-Bullet-NBR-12-12-Piece-Hi-Speed/dp/B007TIE0GQ

Not much for your money, it seems.

Frugalsod

I am planning on camping in northern Norway during the winter and was planning to take some of my own food in a dehydrated form. I had the idea from a youtube video about winter camping.

The other use I was thinking of putting to use for was making my own crisp bread and bran flakes. Which need long low temperatures to dry the food out. Has anyone else tried this and if so how did it turn out?

I have you to buy a dehydrator so wondered what tips you have for me.

Ken68

Hi Frugal Buy a cheap dehydrator to start off sub £100. I am disappointed with the time (and electric)some fruits take to dry, for example, nearly a day for plums.
Maybe in your case buying dried food would be an option.
Never done bran flakes, aint that porridge cheap enough usually about 78p a kg.

[Deleted User]

1cherish wrote: »

hi all,
Hope you all had a great dehydrator harvest this year!

Have seen the advert for the nutribullet for making juices. Has anyone used one? Looks very easy to use and clean.Or any other recommendations? Liked the idea that it doesn't take up too much space either.
Look forward to hearing your replies.

I have a tribest personal blender as well as a singing dancing vitamix. The tribest is great for quick blends, I personally like to make green blends with a few berries in that machine. Beware of making too many fruit blends, ie the intake of fructose. I have been exploring the paleo/primal way of eating and am loving it

The vitamix is a very expensive purchase but heyho, might as well spend my savings for health. We use vitamix every day, at least twice

I have tonnes of dehydrated veggies lurking safely in cool dark places, they keep for ages, so am not doing much in the way of veg again this year. Re berries, I agree that they take a very long time so I don`t dehydrate berries. Bottled blackberries were extremely successful but I am avoiding sugar so freezing and blending is way to go, for me anyway.

I dehydrate raw foods, like various `breads` which have no grains and also various crackers and granolas. I would not be without my excalibur, even though my preserving processes have changed

I saw the nutribullet the other day when I was flicking channels, it looked good and is a good step in the right direction. Tribest is an excellent make, I started with a tribest green life geared juicer, in the 80s and it is still going strong so it is a make I heartily recommend and not a fad machine

http://www.ukjuicers.com/tribest-personal-blender-pb-350

moments_of_sanity

I am looking at getting a dehydrator but wondered if this would be a good starter model.....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Andrew-James-6-Tray-Digital-Food-Dehydrator-Fruit-Preserver-Beef-Jerky-Dryer-/370970840891

I don't have funds available for higher spec models (would love an Excalibur but funds won't stretch that far).

Frugalsod

Ken68 wrote: »

Hi Frugal Buy a cheap dehydrator to start off sub £100. I am disappointed with the time (and electric)some fruits take to dry, for example, nearly a day for plums.
Maybe in your case buying dried food would be an option.
Never done bran flakes, aint that porridge cheap enough usually about 78p a kg.

I am not really thinking of drying fruit, it is available in the shops anyway.

Bran flakes are cheap especially if you buy them from Aldi. So my only reason for making them is to have an easy supply and knowledge of what is in them. No additives for a start is a big plus for me. I reckoned that it would cost around 6 KWhr to dry each batch. So would cost around 120p in electricity just to dry. So I would need to make quite a lot for it to be cost effective.

The other regular use for me would be knackerbrod or swedish crisp bread and you cannot get the round ones here and I do eat quite a bit of it. So that would be my main use and would save me the flights to get the stuff. So could be viable.

The best savings for me would be dehydrating meals for long camps, and since each meal could cost me £8 it would make a huge saving to be able to prepare it all myself. That is where the substantial financial benefit to me will be. I estimate a long winter break of several weeks would more than pay for even an expensive version on a single trip.

The one I was thinking of getting was this

http://www.ukjuicers.com/stockli-dehydrator-stainless-steel-trays

I would get extra trays and silicon mats to dry out some of the meals but I think I could do it all with this machine.

If I were going to do branflakes I might need one of these for the sheer size of the drying area. It also seems very repairable.

http://www.ukjuicers.com/excalibur-9-tray-dehydrator-black

Frugalsod

moments_of_sanity wrote: »

I am looking at getting a dehydrator but wondered if this would be a good starter model.....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Andrew-James-6-Tray-Digital-Food-Dehydrator-Fruit-Preserver-Beef-Jerky-Dryer-/370970840891

I don't have funds available for higher spec models (would love an Excalibur but funds won't stretch that far).

I think one of the fundamental problems with them is that the trays are plastic and do not seem to hold up well. I have read loads of reviews on amazon and they seem quite good.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Andrew-James-Dehydrator-Adjustable-Temperature/dp/B00FF97SJ2/

Like you I would love an Excalibur but do not feel the need to spend so much. I am taking my time before deciding to buy.