Produce > Recipes
Dehydrators ...does anyone onhere own one? I am after your opinions
Duke Ellington:
We harvested a large amount of soft fruits this year and I have loads of chillies and small tomatoes in the greenhouse. My freezer is full again and thinking of investing in a dehydrator.
Duke
ACE:
Yes we have one, a cheapie from Amazon, it is running full pelt at this time of year, fruit leathers, beans, 'sundried' tomatoes, beans, prunes, beans, squash, beans and more beans. I expect we will get another next year as the plastic trays are getting brittle and I cannot find any replacements. We dry using 5 trays at a time as the electric could work out expensive although my leccie bill does not seem to peak while it is on. Get the best you can afford and have a room where you can site it in use as the smell although not unpleasant can spread around the house on some fruits. Mine is a few years old now and I think we paid somewhere in the £25 area. I is not left on at night or unattended as like all of them they are made in China which does not have the best reputation for quality control and we don't want a fire. Just being safe really as we have not had a problem. You know that you can dehydrate in a warm oven, but it does tie the cooker up for a quite a few hours. They all seem the same but put a celeb chefs name on it and you will pay extra for it. And they do take up quite a bit of room for storing away. You will still need space for storing your food, we use a vacuum sealer to keep some of the stuff. One of the things we found useful was drying squash really dry then powdering it up for storage and use it for flavouring and thickening soups. Oh, nearly forgot put the fruit leathers between two rich tea biscuits, better than any jammy dodgers ;)
BarriedaleNick:
--- Quote from: ACE on August 30, 2018, 06:48:54 ---One of the things we found useful was drying squash really dry then powdering it up for storage and use it for flavouring and thickening soups.
--- End quote ---
Now that is a great idea!
We have a cheap Lakeland one - does the job but I am not very inventive with it using it mainly for chillies and toms..
lezelle:
Hi Ya, My interest has been revived as I bought a book an dehydration but then could not see why I would do it. What do use the fruit etc for? Can you use dried apple to make a pie? does it re-hydrate as required? I have so many questions as I would like to preserve more home grown fruit. Storage, store in vac bags or fridge/freezer? Do eat tme dry. I saw what I thought was pot puree once and people eating it so it is good they said. Might open a whole new topic. The machines and I looked on amazon there are loads from £20 to 3000. How many stars may help as a novice. Will be giving it some thought
ACE:
You can tell the apple has be rehydrated, but it is not unpleasant when used along with other fruit. But at least the apples are not wasting away when there is a glut. But for anybody buying one, don't get a round one, they are buggers to store, get 5 trays and pay about£30/ £40. I did notice some of them have timers which could be handy. Temperature does not need to go over 70c but a variable one will give you more options. Read the revues and avoid those that have had trouble with. flimsy trays
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