Dehydrators

[MaxBaz]

Several months ago I was looking for a recipe for oven dried tomatoes and quite by chance I read about dehydrators that you can buy to - obviously - dry fruit, vegetables, fish/meat (think beef jerky) and was DESPERATE to find one. To cut a very long story short - I eventually found a company in the north of England and am thrilled with it. Suggested to Grow Your Own to contact them and "spread the word" and am really pleased to see an advert/feature for them in this months issue.

I don't work for this company or have any other connections to it, but just really recommend these things to make dried mushrooms, dried tomates, dried courgettes (dipped in soya sauce and herbs first) and all sorts of things. Great great present for any foodie and about £100ish or a bit less.

food tastes are really really intense - used three punnets of strawberries yesterday to brighten up breakfast cereal. Pineapple particularly is DIVINE!!

[Sue]

Maxbaz
You're speaking to a convert here, I love using mine, great way to store veg when the freezer is overflowing.
Have you got the Mary Bell Dehydrator book, it's on Amazon and a very useful guide with recipes.
Sue

[pigletwillie]

I shall buy that Sue, I am also converted and have lots of "sun" dried tomato's, mushrooms, soft fruit and more ready for use

[MaxBaz]

Mary Bell - Dehydrator Cookbook

I've got the Mary Bell book, it does have some really good ideas, but to be honest the main reason I got the dehydrator was simply to preserve raw fruit/veg from the garden, rather than use it as part of a recipe to make something else.

Haven't tried any meat/fish yet, but can thorough recommend dried mango, pineapple, apple and bananas particularly.Only problem is, you wait hours for them to be ready and my husband has eaten them within 48 hours - either in his cereal or just by themselves.I try not to put it on more than once a week as it does seem to be expensive to run - mine is a Stockli which I am really pleased with. I got it from UK Juicers.

Another great way to preserve courgettes (but not using the dehydrator) is to grate them/use a kitchen wizz and then squeeze all the juice from them and put in small "balls" in a tray in the freezer - it works really well

[Sue]

The one major problem I have with my dehydrator is keeping Georgie the cat from lying on the top for the warmth with her tail down the middle air vent - very hygenic...
I have to balance kitchen implements on top to discourage her and I often hear a clattering when she's decided to try anyway.
Sue

[wellie]

The Raeburn, when 'ticking over' and not actually cooking dinner, (Is the Pope a Catholic?) is a brilliant dehydrator, and I must give Trousers SALAD for dinner very soon, so that I can dehydrate some more tomatoes!!!

[Seahorse]

I'm tempted to get one of these. Do things come out soft and chewy or hard and brittle? Or is that something you can control with timing temperature for yourself?

Claire

[Polly Fouracre]

Can you say where you got your de-hydrator?I have been drying things in the oven for years and now find myself making excuses not to bother(age I dare say!)

[Sue]

Polly
The big or specialist kitchen shops have them, but not Lakeland surprisingly as they are so good at gadgets.
I've got an Eezidry, which is a round one, with five tiers, think it cost about £85 ish and you can get more layers, I think it will take 15.
Trying to do my bit with food miles, I've stopped buying foreign nuts and only buy Kent produced cobnuts now, so I need to preserve them as the season is short, lots of nut cracking (and mulch for the garden, you don't get that with a packet of walnuts) and I then dry them in the dehydrator.
And instead of buying Californian prunes, you can dehydrate your own or locally produced plums.
And when my grapes eventually grow, I'll be drying them for raisins, they are a world away from those you can buy.
A dehydrator would be ideal for anyone who goes mushroom foraging too, they dry very well and keep for ages.
My other favourite things are
drying celery, grinding it in a coffee grinder and mixing it half and half with salt, great for winter soups
Lavendar, dry and grind to powder and mix with corn starch to make body dusting powder
Citrus peel, scrape off the pith dry and grind to powder for cake flavouring.
Dry and grind chillis to make your own chilli powder.
Sue

[shirlthegirl43]

I have just purchased an American Harvest dehydrator on ebay. It was cheaper to buy from America though you have to watch out for the voltage difference. We have lots of US bought gadgets in the kitchen so I have a 110V power supply in there anyway. Even with postage it was just over 30 quid - much cheaper than those you see over here.

Looking forward to getting to grips with it for toms, chillies, apple puree and suchlike. Can you dry most veggies with it and then chuck them into casseroles and soups in the winter? I don't have much freezer space and hoped that drying would be an alternative storage solution.

[Flummery]

Sue, why don't you contact Lakeland and suggest that the machine you have be stocked in their catalogue? I recently had an email from a friend of mine saying that she had suggested an item (cost about £100) to them for their catalogue and they sent her the new catalogue with her suggestion in it - and the suggested item free.
(Then you can give your old one away - lots of us here fancy one!)

[Sue]

Flummery!
That made me laugh, well worth a try anyway. You'll be the first to know if I'm successful.
However they didn't take me up on my suggestion of compostable freezer bags, still waiting for that one.
Sue

[Flummery]

Maybe they haven't been invented yet? Your gizmo certainly has!

[Sue]

Flummery
They are available, made from corn starch. They are very thin so I only use them for short term freezing, got freezer burn on some stuff last year, so I feel you need to use the thicker plastic for that.
The only place I can find them from is Ecotopia by mail order, they also have the recycled aluminium foil and the full range of biodegradable plastic bags from bin bags to compost bin bags.
Sue

[Flummery]

Now aluminium foil is something I get worried about. I always want to wash and re-use as often as possible. Comes from being born just after the war - people saved tiddly bits of string etc. and foil was always collected for guide-dogs for the blind. Did they eat it?