Food drying - Dehydrators (merged)

Ken68

Luverly price MoS, is it a useful size?

Living_proof

I found that using a dehydrator in winter caused a terrific amount of condensation in the house MofS. All that moisture has to go somewhere and in summer you could just open a window. Right now though it's not something I'd be too keen on doing.

Ken - rosehips are absolutely full of Vit C and I am trying to think of a way of utilising dried ones without the use of too much sugar. Any ideas anyone?

Ken68

Same here LP...had to put on the de-humidifier to finish off a batch...laughable really. both on together. And living in a low lying area and not far from the coast seemed like I was draining the North Sea.

moments_of_sanity

Ken68 wrote: »

Luverly price MoS, is it a useful size?

It is 9" high x 11" deep and 17"" wide, has 6 trays and a fan in the centre of the machine.

moments_of_sanity

Thanks LP, I seem to run our dehumidifier most of the time anyway so shouldn't cause too many problems but will certainly keep an eye on the amount of condensation we are getting.

Ken68

moments_of_sanity wrote: »

It is 9" high x 11" deep and 17"" wide, has 6 trays and a fan in the centre of the machine.

Excal trays are 15"x15" five of them so very similar capacity you got a fantastic bargain.

moments_of_sanity

Ken68 wrote: »

Excal trays are 15"x15" five of them so very similar capacity you got a fantastic bargain.

Any hints on prepping the veg for dehydrating? Do I need to steam them first, dunk in lemon juice etc. I am planning on doing sweet potato, carrots and parsnip crisps and also some green and red chillies. DD also wants some apples doing.

Ken68

For crisps you will need to slice thinly and if already cooked that will be difficult, Maybe partly cooked would work, though I only dry them raw.
Again I don't use lemon juice, down to image, they taste just fine even though apples go a little brown. Peppers need to be chunky.
Onions and mushrooms about quarter inch thick is OK. With crisps maybe use a dip to get the flavour of crisps, though have never done it.
Everything dried has an enhanced taste.

moments_of_sanity

This is going to be harder than I thought!....

I sliced the carrots, sweet potatoes and parsnips with a cheese slice 'thingy' which gave me all the same size slices, however, I think they may have been too thin and they taste too lemony (I dunked the. In lemon and water before dehydrating them). So not a great success really, will need to go back to the old Youtube and see where I can change things.

My dehydrator goes up to 70 degrees and it certainly worked in dehydrating the veg but certainly wasn't perfect!

Oh and courgette crisps are vile!!! :rotfl:

Ken68

LOL...Courgette,know what you mean, but had a bumper harvest so gotta eat 'em.