Food drying - Dehydrators (merged)

Living_proof

Quick Reply


I have just been given two lovely books on dehydrating for my birthday - The Complete Idiot's Guide (that says something) and the Dehydrator Bible. It's great to get a gift you will actually use - I have been looking for these in charity shops for a couple of years so they are very welcome.

Angelina-M

mlarmour wrote: »

Could any recommend me a good dehydrator that is inexpensive, ideally I want to find one under £40 but I think that might be pushing it. I've wanted to start dehydrating for ages, especially as I got into making cabbage crisps and fruit leathers but no matter now closely I watched them, they always burnt. It would also be another way of getting plenty of fruit and veg into me, not that I struggle with that.

Do you have a halogen oven at all because I've read that these can be used as dehydrators and they can be bought for about £20. This is what I was going to do as I don't use mine much at all.

Just a thought to get you going

mlarmour

Angelina-M wrote: »

Do you have a halogen oven at all because I've read that these can be used as dehydrators and they can be bought for about £20. This is what I was going to do as I don't use mine much at all.

Just a thought to get you going

Funnily enough, I do. My nanna gave us one not that long ago and we've been figuring out what to do with it. I'll give it a go.

Angelina-M

mlarmour wrote: »

Funnily enough, I do. My nanna gave us one not that long ago and we've been figuring out what to do with it. I'll give it a go.

Ooh if it works it saves money and its one less thing to store. I tried a bulb of garlic in my halogen oven and it dehydrated really nicely. No dark bits or anything. However I had to put a mesh sheet over the minced garlic to stop it flying everywhere.

I guess it depends on your needs. I go 51 weeks of the year hardly dehydrating anything, then I have a splurge so i'm thinking if the halogen handles most things well I can just do a little bit everyweek in it.

Angelina-M

Guys I have posted on another thread about my tomato sauce and I've got frightened by the idea of canning. Another kind MSE'er mentioned me dehydrating them so I thought I would ask here. At the moment I have three pints of a mix of roasted tomatoes and garlic that is very thick. Would it be ok to spread this out as a leather and if so, what do I do then? I use a lot of sauces but i'm not sure how I would use this to its best?

Ken68

Not an expert, Angel, on leathers, but guess it would be ok. Dollop small portions onto the sheets, and when you think they are dry, seal some into jars and freeze some. This is what I done last year with a fruit and yogurt mix and the jars came out normal.

Living_proof

Hi Angelina,

One of my new books has a recipe for tomato leather which the author uses as tomato paste by dehydrating for 8 to 12 hours. Apparently it doesn't come smoothly off the sheets and flakes but if you are using it as sauce I can't see that it would matter.

Angelina-M

Thanks guys.

In my book it also talks about just spreading the thickened sauce around, but then they eat it like you would a fruit leather. I think I prefer a powder that I can sprinkle on things.

I bet thats possible as long as the leather is brittle enough.

Oh and I'm going to give dried coconut a shot!

nuttybabe

mlarmour wrote: »

Could any recommend me a good dehydrator that is inexpensive, ideally I want to find one under £40 but I think that might be pushing it. I've wanted to start dehydrating for ages, especially as I got into making cabbage crisps and fruit leathers but no matter now closely I watched them, they always burnt. It would also be another way of getting plenty of fruit and veg into me, not that I struggle with that.

Check out amazon, I got mine for £39.99 and I love it. I didnt go for the cheaper round one.

sillyinthepast

Hi I am after a dehydrator does anyone have any thoughts on this one

http://www.marisota.co.uk/shop/freeformat/page.action?pageId=7758

I have about £60/£70 budget.

I am looking at drying fruit and making roll ups for the children.