BS: Food dehydrating.

Subject: BS: Food dehydrating.
From: Raptor
Date: 19 Oct 12 - 12:01 PM

I'm new to it. So far i've only done pineapple apples, lemon and orange slices as well a beef jerky.
Who does it?
What do you like do do?

Subject: RE: BS: Food dehydrating.
From: Rapparee
Date: 19 Oct 12 - 01:52 PM

I've done cantaloupe using a gas oven. I cut the melon into wedges and used a cheese slicer to slice the wedges lengthwise into roughly quarter-inch thick slice. A true dehydrator should work a lot faster than the pilot light in a gas oven! (The flavor is wonderful, if you like cantaloupe.)

Subject: RE: BS: Food dehydrating.
From: John P
Date: 19 Oct 12 - 02:14 PM

I've been dehydrating lots of stuff for years. I do a lot of fruit, which I use for snacks at work. Apples, plums, pears, apricots. I do jars full of chantrelle mushrooms when they are in season and a little more affordable. I've done tomatoes, carrots, peppers, onions, and marinated tofu. It's really handy to be able to buy stuff when it's fresh and well-priced, and then to eat it all year.

Subject: RE: BS: Food dehydrating.
From: Raptor
Date: 19 Oct 12 - 08:24 PM

Anyone else?

Subject: RE: BS: Food dehydrating.
From: maeve
Date: 20 Oct 12 - 08:20 AM

Fresh herbs, mushrooms, strawberries, cherries, carrots, apples, kale, beans, tomatoes, onions, leeks...

Carefully dehydrated veggies and herb makes good winter soups even easier. Kale, for instance, can be stored in ziplock plastic bags and crumbled into the soup or stew.

Subject: RE: BS: Food dehydrating.
From: Janie
Date: 20 Oct 12 - 08:39 AM

Blueberries!

Subject: RE: BS: Food dehydrating.
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 21 Oct 12 - 02:23 AM

Drunks!

GfS

Subject: RE: BS: Food dehydrating.
From: Raptor
Date: 21 Oct 12 - 06:03 AM

How do you do blueberries?

Subject: RE: BS: Food dehydrating.
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 21 Oct 12 - 06:13 AM

I have a dehydrator, and I must admit that all I've used it for is mushrooms and herbs. Must try pioneapple. Do you blot it dry on a kitchen towel first, to stop the juice dripping through the trays of the dehydrator?

Subject: RE: BS: Food dehydrating.
From: Raptor
Date: 21 Oct 12 - 06:20 AM

I don't but you can.

Subject: RE: BS: Food dehydrating.
From: Sooz
Date: 21 Oct 12 - 08:48 AM

Pineapple is gorgeous - pick one that is not quite as ripe as you would for eating fresh. I have on in the dehydrator now and my kitchen smells wonderful!

Subject: RE: BS: Food dehydrating.
From: Little Hawk
Date: 21 Oct 12 - 08:56 AM

This is a great idea. I've seen the dehydrator at Raptor's place and I figure to get one soon and start dehydrating lots of stuff.

One idea occurs to me. If one could get a very large, industrial-sizes dehydrator, it might be possible to succeed in getting Shane sober if he was in there for maybe 24 to 48 hours.

Subject: RE: BS: Food dehydrating.
From: Janie
Date: 21 Oct 12 - 10:24 AM

Pretty much the same way you dry anything else. Spread them on the trays in a single layer and don't crowd them too much so the air can circulate around them.

As with other dried fruits, the flavor is intense and sweet. Great for eating out of hand, and particularly handy for camping and kayaking trips.   We load up on them during "U-Pick" season.

Subject: RE: BS: Food dehydrating.
From: Raptor
Date: 21 Oct 12 - 09:41 PM

Do you slice them to dry out quicker?

Subject: RE: BS: Food dehydrating.
From: Little Hawk
Date: 21 Oct 12 - 10:29 PM

Are you still up?

Subject: RE: BS: Food dehydrating.
From: Little Hawk
Date: 21 Oct 12 - 10:33 PM

And do you want to go to song circle tomorrow?

Subject: RE: BS: Food dehydrating.
From: Janie
Date: 22 Oct 12 - 05:59 AM

No. Leave them whole.

Subject: RE: BS: Food dehydrating.
From: Janie
Date: 22 Oct 12 - 08:20 PM

Raptor - pick through the blueberries well and remove any that are getting squishy, are split, or showing signs of mold. We have a couple or organic u-pick blueberry places here, but still rinse them well, then turn them out on paper towels (lots of paper towels) and jostle them gently to dry somewhat. 10-20 hours at 120F. In our southern humid climate during blueberry season, and in a non air conditioned house which will have higher ambient humidiy - at least 20 hours. If you stack on a lot of trays, rotate them about halfway through. We find storing in glass preferable to storing in plastic bags. We also probably over-dry to compensate for the moisture that will be reabsorbed in our humid climate during cooling.

Some good info at at pickyourown.org re: drying fruits and veggies.

Subject: RE: BS: Food dehydrating.
From: Raptor
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 08:17 AM

Thanh you that is great.

Subject: RE: BS: Food dehydrating.
From: Janie
Date: 26 Oct 12 - 12:37 AM

One rather serious caution re: food dehydrators based on personal experience.

Have had two dehydrators on which the thermostats failed, resulting in actual meltdowns of the plastic on the bottom trays. (Heavy use, not occasional use.) Could have caused a house fire. As a result of that, we never, ever, leave a dehydrator running overnight or while no one is at home. (could still easily keep it running all day when I was married and my ex was home all day, but never once we went to bed.) That does slow down the drying process and means we don't even think about using the dehydrator unless some one is gonna be home all day, and also results in greater degradation of nutritional value because the foods reabsorb moisture during the night when the dehydrator is turned off.

Beats the heck out of having the house burn down.

Subject: RE: BS: Food dehydrating.
From: Little Robyn
Date: 26 Oct 12 - 05:54 AM

Bananas go well - either sliced or mashed up and smoothed onto a tray.
They're much sweeter dried and make great fruit 'leather'.
I used to mash other fruit for leathers as well.
Robyn