Who's drying (dehydrating) food?

[Mark A]

Now that I have the canning thing pretty much down I am looking at dehydrating.

I pretty much know what I am going to can next year and about how long it is going to take to put back the amounts we need/ want.

I've been reading about drying and it looks like if it is properly dried and then vacuum packed that the shelf life is just about forever on most things. Plus the space requirements are great.

A bonus is that for whatever reason there are lots of fruit that I don't like fresh but do like dried.

My plan is to read a bit more then start to practicing to see what I do and don't like. I want to dry things and then use it in recipes to see how it tastes. I have 2 goals:

1) to develop a menu of things that I can put together in buckets for long term storage. It would be nice to put 7 days worth in one bucket so that I would only have to open one bucket at a time.

2) drying fruit when it comes in season. I have proven to myself that I will apparently always be a snacker so I might as well snack on something healthy.

I am curious as to others experience, Mark

[I_Like_Pie]

I dehydrate a lot of bananas.  The $1 bags at my grocery has 4 or 5 pounds in there sometime.  I have no doubt they would last years in the right conditions.

 

Tomatoes and Peppers are also a favorite.  They both have a LOT of sugar that really pops when dehydrated.  I must have dried 5 gallons of each this summer due to an unusually large crop.  

 

Almost all veggies will work just fine....makes great soup mixes.

 

Thing is that you have to make sure everything is fresh and clean from start to finish...The bad apple rule applies here.

 

I do a lot of jerky also.  London Broil honestly makes the best...after all the different meats I have tried...everything else is distant 2nd.  Lean and a grain that sucks up the seasonings.

[UncleJak]

I do jerky too.  Top round is the best (london broil) and bottom round is the 2nd best.  I usually get the bottom because they go on sale often and i just cut them myself.  I use the hot and spicy allegro to soak.  It is delicious!

[Guest 6.8 AR]

My wife is dehydrating anything she can. Had some of her powdered cheese on dehydrated broccoli last night 

for supper. Very good. I've been hearing that dehydrator noise in the house for quite a while. :D

She has been on a role with it.

Edited December 23, 2012 by 6.8 AR

[Jonnin]

my wife is on a dehydration and canning and preserving kick.  

 

We operate off an "eat the old, make more" agenda -- so we only preserve stuff that we enjoy, and to do that she has learned to preserve the sauces alongside the raw materials. 

[AdotOdot4]

I dehydrate all kinds of fruits and vegetables (bell peppers and sweet potatoes are probably my favorites) as well as lots of jerky.

I like to munch so none of it ever seems to last.

[lunarpowered]

[quote name="UncleJak" post="867314" timestamp="1356306404"] I use the hot and spicy allegro to soak.  It is delicious![/quote] +1 - Allegro makes the best jerky marinades.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

my wife is on a dehydration and canning and preserving kick.  

 

We operate off an "eat the old, make more" agenda -- so we only preserve stuff that we enjoy, and to do that she has learned to preserve the sauces alongside the raw materials. 

We try everything she cans or dehydrated. You have to test it. :D So far, so good.

[gregintenn]

We've put up several apples and a couple of deer with the dehydrator this year.

[UncleJak]

We've put up several apples and a couple of deer with the dehydrator this year.

How do you make the apples? That sounds good.

[gregintenn]

How do you make the apples? That sounds good.

Peel and slice them, and place them on the dehydrator. You can soak them in a citric acid solution first if you don't like them turning brown. They are great for fried pies or fried apples, as well as just snacking on them as is.

[Jonnin]

its a little wasteful, but we use one of those hand crank peel core and spiral cut apple gadgets.   They cut a little deep on the peel, and leave a little bit in the middle of the core, but it saves an amazing amount of time and produces a thin ring that dehydrates very well.  

[subsonic]

I just dehydrated a 3 pound bloom of oyster mushrooms.....in a cardboard box. I built some 1x4 cedar frames and covered them with rat wire. I then took an 18" square box and cut a hole in the bottom to hold a clip on utility lamp (with clip arm removed) with a 40 watt bulb. The box and lamp sit on a milk crate, box is lined with deli size foil. Cut the shrooms into pieces, arrange on racks and stack inside box. Loosely tent a piece of foil over the top with vent holes every few inches. Plug in lamp and fix a drink. Have dinner, go to bed and by the next morning, they're bone dry. I've also done apple slices this way. Cheap and effective.

[UncleJak]

I just dehydrated a 3 pound bloom of oyster mushrooms.....in a cardboard box. I built some 1x4 cedar frames and covered them with rat wire. I then took an 18" square box and cut a hole in the bottom to hold a clip on utility lamp (with clip arm removed) with a 40 watt bulb. The box and lamp sit on a milk crate, box is lined with deli size foil. Cut the shrooms into pieces, arrange on racks and stack inside box. Loosely tent a piece of foil over the top with vent holes every few inches. Plug in lamp and fix a drink. Have dinner, go to bed and by the next morning, they're bone dry. I've also done apple slices this way. Cheap and effective.

Do you have a pic of this setup?

[dou44]

i have about 6ibs of jerky in the works now.

Edited December 26, 2012 by dou44

[subsonic]

Do you have a pic of this setup?

 

I can take a few shots and upload later. I got the idea from watching Alton Brown (TV food science guru) make a smoker with a cardboard box and smoke a whole side of salmon in it.

Edited December 26, 2012 by subsonic

[subsonic]

Here ya go UncleJak:

 

http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o526/subsonic55/IMG_0203_zps967a0219.jpg

 

http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o526/subsonic55/IMG_0204_zps9e6f5e49.jpg

 

http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o526/subsonic55/IMG_0205_zpsd79c82d2.jpg

 

I experimented with different wattage bulbs and 40W is the best for not scorching food on bottom rack or setting the house on fire.

[Jamie Jackson]

We have a 9 tray Excalibur dehydrator and use it frequently. We also pressure and waterbath can, but this unit extends our food storage options tremendously.

 

Whenever we have excess from our garden, or run across great loss leader deals at grocery stores, we dehydrtae the foods, toss them into pint or quart jars with an o2 absorber and put them in the pantry.

 

We have an island/table in the center of our kitchen. The bottom shelf is loaded with jars of dehydrated foods...bell peppers, soup mixes (mixed vegetables), mushrooms, onions, garlic, celery, herbs and many other daily use items.

 

A Mandoline slicer is a big help in prepping the foods. But a good sharp knife does fine.

 

A good resource for food dehydration is Dehydrate2Store.

 

Another great resource for canning and preserving food is Jackie Clay's "Growing and Canning Your Food" and well as [url=http://www.backwoodshome.com/blogs/JackieClay/]Jackie Clay's Blog[/url]. The book is "canning centric", but well worth the price. The blog covers pretty much everthing related to homesteading and food preservation and Jackie is quick to respond to questions.

Edited December 27, 2012 by prag

[Paladin132]

Received a dehydrator for Christmas, and looking for recipes. Hope to make some trail food with it.

[UncleJak]

Thanks subsonic, that looks easy enough.

[Jamie Jackson]

Received a dehydrator for Christmas, and looking for recipes. Hope to make some trail food with it.

 

 

Various recipes:

 

http://www.dehydrate2store.com/recipes/

 

http://www.backpackingchef.com/dehydrating-fruit.html

 

 

 

http://feedyourskull.com/2012/11/10/banana-chocolate-cherry-trail-mix-clusters/

 

:up:

 

edited because I'm a technotard...

Edited December 27, 2012 by prag

[Mark A]

Prag, you mentioned putting an O2 absorber in the jars. Is there any reason they couldn't be vacuum sealed instead? I have had pretty good luck using my lid sealer attachment.

 

I think I will order my dehydrator tomorrow.

 

Mark

[Jamie Jackson]

Prag, you mentioned putting an O2 absorber in the jars. Is there any reason they couldn't be vacuum sealed instead? I have had pretty good luck using my lid sealer attachment.

 

I think I will order my dehydrator tomorrow.

 

Mark

 

That should work just as well Mark. I simply don't have an attachment for that with my old Black and Decker sealer. You should be good to go my Friend.

 

I think you'll see a great benefit in your food storage endeavors with a good dehydrator. :up:

[Mark A]

Well, my dehydrator showed up on Thursday. I am now munching on a few kale chips and some zucchini chips. Sweet potato chips for my wife are drying over night.

We spent the last couple of weeks looking at what we typically eat for dinner and how much of it could use various dried components in at least some part of the preparation. We were pretty surprised...

Next up is jerky of some kind.

I think I am going to like this thing a lot.

Mark

[Jamie Jackson]

Congratulations on your dehydrator Mark. :up:

 

It's pretty phenomenal how much benefit they can be my friend.