Food Dehydrator

betterlife

Hi,
I’ve just purchased a food dehydrator and was wondering if any of you have or use one, what do you use yours for? What have you successfully dehydrated, etc.
Thank you

carolbee

Only had a week, a friend gave it to us. Many many courgettes and DH made biltong. We have two allotments and a huge freezer. Dried courgettes and frozen, we will pop into slow cooker stews in winter. Did some tomatoes and herbs, just to see what happened. Lots of info on web, but trial and error best.

Good luck!

betterlife

Thank you Carolbee, ive been collecting pins on Pinterest so looking forward to trying lots of new things

mumf

Tomatoes! Slice 'em, dry 'em, use 'em all Winter.

PollyWollyDoodle

I've been thinking about getting a dehydrator, to cope with the seasonal glut of tomatoes, apples et cetera. I searched on here, and found this thread, but judging by the very few responses I wonder if it's one of those things that sits in the cupboard and doesn't get used much?

Which one did you buy betterlife, and how are you getting on with it?

comeandgo

I have a dehydrator and I would say it saves me £100's a year but I use it to dehydrate normal meals ie chilli, curry, spaghetti Bol. We go long distance walking and wild camping so these meals are very light to carry and have no nasties unlike some of the branded dried foods for camping.

kathrynha

I've had one a number of years. It does sit in the cupboard a lot, but comes out periodically, and I do like it.


Favourites in mine are:
Dried apple - Core, slice (peeling optional), dip in diluted lemon juice, and dry
Dried strawberries - even if they are tasteless undried, the drying enhances the flavour so much. Half or slice depending on size and dry.
Dried grapes - Do you know when you have baked a Christmas cake, and you pick a raisin off the top when it has just come out of the oven. They taste like that. So gorgeous. Just dry them whole. Can half them if really big
Jerky - Slice cheap cut steak and marinade. Normally do mine in Worcestershire sauce, garlic and chillies for a few hours, then dry. A lovely high protein and reasonably healthy snack

VfM4meplse

This is an interesting thread. I always thought dehydrators to be a bulky and expensive piece of equipment, but a quick search of t'internet suggests that although there are plenty of state-of-the art ones around, there are also a few "budget" versions for around £30-50. I realise they have to run for a few hours and are noisy, what are running costs like?

I happen to like (slightly) dehydrated carrots for the crunch factor. Slicing them thinly and leaving them covered in the fridge for a while seems to do the trick - and is a MSE method!

spadoosh

I dont use mine as effectively as it should purely because im not producing a lot of food from the garden, got one at a silly cheap price (£20 as amazon seconds, rrp was over £100) and the plan is to grow more to use it more.

I use it when i know we've got too much stuff which will go to waste. Thigns like bananas, various berries, apple, kiwi etc all make good snacks. I dehydrate sweet potato mainly for dog treats but we eat them as crisps too. Dehydrating my home grown beetroots for crisps was probably my most enjoyable product. They where delicious. My daughter loves the apple and mango roll ups we make although im far from mastering the perfect roll up, theres a fine line between being too wet and soggy and too dry and brittle. First attempt came out more like apple and mango bark, second attempt they didnt roll too well because areas where more moist (basically took it out too early) the roll ups can make a mess which makes cleaning what is a fine mesh a bit of a pain.

I tried doing oranges around Christmas time thinking it would make the house smell festivey, it didnt work at all and the oranges looked horrible, thought it would turn out like pot pouri, it didnt.

Its probably worth getting something, if you dont have already or dont have the skill, that can slice in a uniform manner. Consistency throughout what youre drying seems to be key.



@comeandgo do you know of any guides for dehydrated hiking meals? That was a large part of the reason i got one but not really come across a good guide, i cant get past the thought of having to dry out a chilli or the likes over the course of a week or two! As mentioned above i tend to stick with the snack options.

spadoosh

VfM4meplse wrote: »

This is an interesting thread. I always thought dehydrators to be a bulky and expensive piece of equipment, but a quick search of t'internet suggests that although there are plenty of state-of-the art ones around, there are also a few "budget" versions for around £30-50. I realise they have to run for a few hours and are noisy, what are running costs like?

I happen to like (slightly) dehydrated carrots for the crunch factor. Slicing them thinly and leaving them covered in the fridge for a while seems to do the trick - and is a MSE method!

They are bulky, dont have to be expensive, and theres always the DIY option. The king of random on youtube has a video where they make their own and theres plenty of other designs variations you can go for.

Noise wise its about on par with a fan oven or a PC.

Mine is 500w so using a unit price of 14p per kwh youre looking at 7p per hour. Most things im drying take about 5 hours so a cost of 35p in general for a batch.

If youre buying food in the costs are less favourable but obvioulsy if youre producing your own youll save huge amounts with less wastage. If you compare it to say freezing your produce itll be a big saving.

comeandgo

I did have a paperback but can't find it at the moment, it was not very good and most of the books on amazon are written by Americans but I notice some on kindle are low cost.
I just use my normal recipes but have as little fat as possible to minimise it going rancid if not dehydrated properly. Also cook anything with a sauce till really thick. Cut up everything to small pieces, line the dehydrator trays with baking paper, leaving small slits in it for the hot air to circulate.
It does take time but it tastes so nice eating it outside and so much cheaper. A single dried meal to buy for camping costs around £7.