Posted on 06/08/2013 2:36:26 PM PDT by djf
I wuz at a yard sale and bought a couple do-it-yourself type handbooks.
Gal had a Ronco food dehydrator but I didn't get it then... after driving around a bit I went back and got it.
Hitting it with bleach and all the cleaning stuff now.
So! Any FReepers use a dehydrator? Experiences? Good things to dehydrate or not-so-good?
Manual says you can use it to make jerky. Anybody tried that?
All ideas welcome!
We have one by Nesco. We love it. Just finished drying a bunch of oregano leaves, which we then grind up and use on pizza/sauce etc. I dried some Stevia (sweetleaf) and the kids were actually snacking on the leaves all winter. I kid you not...they would go into the pantry themselves and just munch on leaves.
Fruit leather turns out well—like a fruit rollup only all natural. Some fruit like berries end up kinda watery and thin, so with anything like that, just mix in some apples to thicken it up. We never tried jerky but I’d like to.
By far the biggest success was dried apple rings. We get apples from an orchard, run them through our peeler/corer and then slice downward through the stack to make rings. Dip the rings in lemon or orange juice (the acidity will keep them from browning) and then spread them out on the dehydrator. No sugar or anything. They come out fantastic. We couldn’t make them fast enough.
I know for a fact potatoes don’t work. Don’t ask. :)
The stuff in my fridge gets pretty dehydrated after a few months in there. I’ve never tried to rehydrate it though, since it usually looks pretty nasty at that point.
Granola, really? How does she do that? I’ve only made it in the toaster oven.
Doesn’t one of you dehydrate?
Someone gave me 50 lbs of onions last winter. I tried dehydrating them in the mud room but it as too cold. I ended up dehydrating in the attic. It drove the mice crazy. They moved downstairs becoming easy prey to a feline.
no my mil does its called everdays dinner
What type dehydrator did you get?
Jerky is always great in the dehydrator as are fresh mushrooms.
Oregano - good idea. I have it in my garden and every year hang some upside down in a plastic bag and let it dry.
Comes out super, just not very efficient and I lose alot.
Also, try drying apples with it...they're fantastic. Just slice them the very same width and put your slices (pealed) in a zip-lock bag. Add some lemon juice and shake to coat them, then put them in, making sure not to overlap them, and have at it.
I dry my Habaneros for my friends. Pack them in baby food jars with “Radioactive” stickers on them. Cut them in half, and scrape out the seeds.
As for zip bags, the ones from the store are cr@p. Reuse the zip bags that frozen fish come in. Everything about them is stronger and thicker. Food lasts much longer.
I’ve used mine for everything and love it. The only bad experience I had was drying wild chives....I cut them up first and then once they dehydrated the blower blew little chives everywhere. What a mess. :)
Almost anything extra from the garden/fridge that doesn't get eaten or canned gets dehydrated.
/johnny
I dehydrate potatoes. You have to blanch them first.
/johnny
Fruits and veggies — some will do better than others. Drying times will vary also. Apples turn out pretty good, also banana slices, most anything really. It’s been a while since we’ve used ours, but we liked what we did.
I have dehydrated potatoes as a puree on the jerky tray. Boil potatoes, puree, add water then pour on the tray in a thin layer. Thinner is better because it dries faster and the end result easier to work with. When dry, I break it up, place through grinder and then store it in a canning jar.
Thought you might want to chime in on this and/or ping the prepper list?
We have two. We use them for produce when we can’t eat it fast enough. We dried spinach this year for the first time because we grew a lot of it. Works great in omelets.
I’ve had the same Nesco American Harvest food dehydrator for 10 years. I make jerky, dehydrate veggies and fruit, and make fruit leather almost weekly. It was incredibly cheap but just continues to work like a champ. I highly recommend the brand.
We dehydrate fruits, veggies and venison. The marinate recipe listed is a good one. Just one caveat: When drying meat, put the dehydrator in the garage overnight. The meaty smell in the kitchen can get overwhelming.
Aha! So potatoes are possible! Thank you both, that makes sense.
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