Food dehydrator help.

[sheena]

well, its arrived and so far the things that we have tried have been a brilliant success.
Wish i'd bought one ages ago now!!!

[Milims]

I just came to this thread - and guess what I've just ordered from the site E-Emma recommended! Ooohh! I'm all excited now!

[carolinew]

I have a Stockli ... what can I say ? It works fine, dehydrates loads of stuff at the same time, it's a bit noisy ... about the same as a fan heater.
It's easy to clean and I've had it for about 3 years now ... that's about it ... not much else you can say.

On the other hand, the stuff that comes out of it, dries tomatoes, soft chewy pineapple, soft chewy bananas, dried apple ... etc all dried at home with no sulphur or any other additives, what could be better ?

I've just been reading that the temperature controls on the Stockli make it possible to preserve much more of the nutritional value, which makes it that much more interesting for me. Just one concern, though - given the length of time they're left running for. Have you any idea of the electricity efficiency of them at all? Are they cheap / medium / expensive to run?

I'm seriously interested in getting one of these now, as a result of this thread (which prompted me to look into it further). I didn't realise that fruit leathers, pineapple, etc stay so chewy. I'd just assumed they'd be tough.

I'm getting quietly excited, but trying to sit on it in case it's too expensive for us to run...

[Odsox]

Have you any idea of the electricity efficiency of them at all? Are they cheap / medium / expensive to run?

I don't really have any idea but as mine is rated at 600 watts, it could be quite thirsty.
It does have a thermostat so is not necessarily using 600 watts all of the time though. If you are concerned I could run mine for a hour with my electric usage gizmo and let you know.

[Thomzo]

Mine has also arrived. I've done bananas and strawberries so far (the strawberries were cheap in Co-op after valentines day). I found that if I sliced the fruit really thinly it dried much quicker than the book said it would so presumably saves electricity.

Cheers
Zoe

[starchild]

I bought a cheapie too, from an online store and it's one of my most-used kitchen gadgets. We eat a lot of dried fruit and it's so expensive to buy if you want the healthiest options. I reckon even an expensive dehydrator would pay for itself in no time.

This year I want to try 'sun' dried tomatoes in there. Hubby is always buying them in olive oil from the deli counter at great expense and we always have a glut of tomatoes. Has anyone done this?

[Odsox]

This year I want to try 'sun' dried tomatoes in there. Hubby is always buying them in olive oil from the deli counter at great expense and we always have a glut of tomatoes. Has anyone done this?

Yes, this is the reason I have one.
I have "sun" dried tomatoes everywhere and they go in lots of meals and I do two different sorts, one hard dried that I store dry in a cupboard that goes in casseroles and stews and the other is soft dried that is stored in jars of olive oil and gets used in pasta sauces and other fairly quick meals.
Mushrooms are very useful dried too, I get a load whenever the are on special offer.
All the other fruits and vegetables that I dry are looked on as "extras"

[starchild]

I'd never thought to 'hard dry' them to add to stews - what a fab idea!

Do you use any particular type of tomato? We grow gardeners delight because hubby eats a high raw diet in the summer and these are the ones he likes.
Would it be better to grow some larger ones for drying? Are plum tomatoes better?

[Odsox]

Do you use any particular type of tomato? We grow gardeners delight because hubby eats a high raw diet in the summer and these are the ones he likes.
Would it be better to grow some larger ones for drying? Are plum tomatoes better?

For soft dried ones I use any old tomato that's surplus to requirements at the time, but hard dried needs to be a more meaty, less juicy tomato.
Other wise you end up with a shrivelled piece of tomato skin.
I always grow at least 4 different varieties and one is always a beefsteak type for puréeing and bottling and that's the one I would use for hard drying.

[eccentric_emma]

What sort of info are you after? There's a lot of very interesting things you can do in a dehydrator other than just preserving things. You can make crackers and things as well. My favourite dehydrator recipe is sprouted lentils.

Soak some brown lentils overnight.
Then rinse them twice a day in a jam jar until they have sprouted little 'tails'
Marinate overnight in soy sauce, garlic and onion (can use fresh garlic and onion or powdered, doesnt matter)
Then dehydrate until crispy.
As I have a cheap dehydrator that doesn't come with sheets - it just has drying racks with holes in, I use greaseproof paper cut to size and this works fine.

[MatC]

I've been using a dehydrator for a few years now, and it has become absolutely indispensable. If you grow your own food, I'd say you NEED one of these! I use it to dry and store stuff when there is so much that we can't get through it all fresh (eg, kale), and also to save crops which we would otherwise be at risk of losing (eg, onions, as someone mentioned earlier, and pears).

Many of the foods, you can't tell the difference between dried and fresh when you come to use them - eg, onions and garlic.

In fact, I am so keen on dehydrating now that the reason I'm here today is to see which brands people are reccomending - I'm buying a second dryer, because I need the extra capacity. (And the brand I've got is no longer in existence).

Possibly the best kitchen/garden gadget I've ever bought - by allowing us to "time shift" crops, it has taken us a HUGE step forward to being self-sufficient in veg all year round, from an ordinary-sized garden.