Food Dehydrator

Anyone use a food dehydrator? If you do what are your experiences with it?

They seem pretty cheap this one seems common at about $50 (£25) (comes with various brand names but they all look the same)



I would use it for drying common fruit when they are in season and cheap, eg mango, pineapples, bananas, strawberries, apples etc. My problem even with common staples like bananas I buy them with a tinge of green but if I buy more than four or five by the time I eat the last one it is going brown and sugary. Yet bananas can vary in price from $1.50 Kg to $3.50 a Kg, it would be nice to buy several Kg when they are $1.50 and dry them (at least that is the theory.

I also like the taste of dried fruit. However I have a dislike of appliances that do only one job they tend to just clutter the place up and not get used. My appliances are basically rice cooker, toaster and steamer even the latter I only keep because I do actually use it a lot otherwise the rice cooker is a good steamer too.

Anyway do you dry fruit, meat etc on a regular basis or was it just a fad?

Re: Food Dehydrator

I have never even seen one of those for domestic use, Bruce. How would you reconstitute the food to use it and wouldn't it lose some of it's nutritional value ?


Would one of these fit the bill:-

http://www.jmldirect.com/kitchen/kit...w&gclsrc=aw.ds

Re: Food Dehydrator

I own this dehydrator Bruce



Works very well and these stackable devices mean you can use as few trays as you need without wasting any of the warm air.

I've tested various veg using it, including drying onions, potatoes etc. It works a treat. I also use it for drying sprouted wheat, spelt and rye grains. That's a bit of specialist bread making stuff. I make flour from grains using a domestic electric grain mill. The healthiest way to eat grains is to start them sprouting first by soaking them in water and leaving them in a dark place until little shoots appear. Then you have to thoroughly dry them out before you can grind them into flour. The dehydrator makes short work of the drying process and the trays are perfect for laying out all the grain.

The very best thing I've made with the dehydrator is beef jerky. I was amazed at how good they were. Just bought a chunk of the very best fillet beef, sliced it thinly, marinated it in lovely spices then simply dried in the machine. Really tasty.

At the moment the device is sat in the garage as I haven't used it in a while. I originally bought it as a survival tool for when shops start to run dry of goods or if I need to store veg that I have grown myself. It's also good to know different ways to preserve foods imo.

Re: Food Dehydrator

Sounds good, realist, but how do you then use the food ?
Is it better/more efficient than the vacuum packer?

Re: Food Dehydrator

I wouldn't reconstitute the fruit just eat it dry, it is basically a way of preserving food, I presume you just add water if you want to. I have a Chinese friend who also dries vegies but personally I wouldn't bother as I don't eat them.

You must have come across dried fruit in the supermarket.

$80 for a vacuum sealer?? Personally I would just use zip lock sandwich bags. I need to find out if freezing dried food makes it last longer (no idea).

Re: Food Dehydrator

You are confused Tabby. It's nothing like a vacuum packer, that's a different machine altogether. What the dehydrator does is pass warm air over the fruit/veg/meat/grain/whatever and that takes a number of hours. Once done the produce is completely dried of all its moisture.

The best way to think about it is to imagine buying sundried tomatoes (when they are completely dry). To use them you obviously have to soak them in some water.

The same goes for any veg. So for example if I had dried a load of onions and potatoes and maybe leeks, I could throw them in a opot with some water, them maybe use them to make a soup.

Dried fruit can obviously be eaten immediately as dry just as in those mueslis or trail snacks.

In terms of storing the dried produce, I do tend to vacuum pack them. I have a small machine for that which I only paid a few quid but which has proven invaluable.