Food Storage Made Easy - Latest Comments in Basics of Food Dehydration

Re: Basics of Food Dehydration

Sailingsoul — Sat, 24 Mar 2018 04:03:04 -0000

Your post was 6 years ago from this reply. You were most correct!. The benefit mentioned was "less space" Less wight can be a major benefit, not addressed. So,, anyone can decide less weight AND less volume under certain conditions is quite an advantage over other food options, weighing more AND taking more space. I life therde are many, many variables. They are not as valuable under different circumstances. What is life but if not constantly changing different circumstances?

Re: Basics of Food Dehydration

Jodi and Julie — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 21:50:44 -0000

The article was actually written by someone else as referenced in the beginning. This was written before we had any experience at all and have since tried more. Dehydrating is great.

Re: Basics of Food Dehydration

Bdadfdjkl — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 22:03:31 -0000

I like that the research says that dehydrating foods will never replace canning because it doesn't retain the appearance and nutritive value as well as canning... pretty sure dehydrated foods retain MORE nutrients than canning.

I've found that dehydrating has worked a lot better for me and my family. This article seemed pretty negative and would have discouraged me from dehydrating if I hadn't already been doing it. I'm actually disappointed in a Post from you guys... that may be a first!

Re: Basics of Food Dehydration

Ddthdfoster — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 11:37:38 -0000

Hi Connie -- we love our dehydrator, my next step is doing leathers. Though I have dehydrated many things, don't have enough experience yet with the rehydrating. Most things we are just eating, and love it! Yes, experimentation is key!

Re: Basics of Food Dehydration

Ddthdfoster — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 11:35:26 -0000

Hello - We purchased a dehydrator about a month ago, and we love it! We have dehydrated onions, zucchini, cabbage, peppers, watermelon, cantaloupe, bananas, tomatoes, strawberries,,,,hmmm have I left anything out? I have to tell you we are wonderfully pleased with the taste of everything. My husband is a very good eater anyway, and loves the dried tomatoes just out of the bag! Everything has a more concentrated taste. The watermelon was amazing....just like taffy....

Re: Basics of Food Dehydration

Connies Nic — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 14:55:41 -0000

I dehydrated a lot of tomatoes last year and developed a routine where I collected the juice and odd bits and pureed that for a leather. Some of the leather and some of the "perfect" tomato slices got dark--they were burned! I didn't think it was possible to burn anything in a dehydrator but it is, take my word for it--even at a low temperature. I like the flavour of slightly burned tomatoes so I didn't sweat it--I just used them up first. I had heard that it's impossible to dehydrate anything TOO much, and better too much than not enough, but I've learned that with some things you do have to be more careful. Now I know that tomatoes are one of those things.

I don't think all rehydrated stuff tastes just as good as the fresh stuff. Some tastes even better (pineapple for example). But I haven't enjoyed dehydrated apples as much, and I've had problems getting green beans to properly rehydrate--they seem to be one of those things you CAN dehydrate too much, but it's also possible it didn't work well because I didn't blanch them first. This year that's what I'm testing. I love, love, love the convenience of dehydrated sweet potatoes/yams. Just pour some boiling water on some broken up yam leather and voila, ready-to-serve! And they do taste just the same.

I think you just have to experiment until you find what works for you, and what works and what doesn't.

Re: Basics of Food Dehydration

Queenofkeyboards — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 22:58:17 -0000

I bought a dehydrator last summer and did apples, tomoatoes. strawberries, blueberries, and jerky. However, I have a question about my tomatoes. They turned out really dark and they taste different than regular tomatoes. I used them in chili and ended up adding some brown sugar to make the chili taste like my regular chili. What did I do wrong to make them taste so "dark" for lack of another word? I just broke them up into chunks and threw them in the chili.

Am I wrong in thinking that the rehydrated stuff will taste as good as the original before I dried it? Thanks for any help.

Re: Basics of Food Dehydration

Food Storage Made Easy — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:42:00 -0000

Thanks for the link ladies. Defintiely going to be adding that to our new links page!

Re: Basics of Food Dehydration

Cassie Salt — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:37:00 -0000

I got all my information from Tammy above, as well. She's the one who finally made me bite the bullet and by an excalibur dehydrater. So far, we've had great results. I'm still working on learning how to actually use the dehydrated foods, though.

Re: Basics of Food Dehydration

Cassie Myers Salt — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:37:00 -0000

Re: Basics of Food Dehydration

Susan Dollinger — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:00:00 -0000

Check out www.dehydrate2store.com. Tammy has LOTS of wonderful information and probably has answer to most of your questions right on the website.

Re: Basics of Food Dehydration

Darlene Burgess — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:37:49 -0000

Oh, guys! Dehydrating is SO easy. And you can make a lot of your own dehydrated meals. Fruit leather, mac and cheese, thicker stews, thicker chili. It's like freezing. If you see it in the freezer section, you can usually freeze it, though sometimes you have to make some prep before doing it. Same with dehydrating.

I was able to score 2 flats of 12 "clamshells" of blueberries for $.33 a CLAMSHELL! I didn't have room in my freezer, so I dehydrated them.
I simply sorted out the too-soft ones and tossed those (in 24 'shells, I had about 2 'shells worth of bad ones.) I was able to get 10 'shells at a time onto my little dehydrator. I had no idea how to dehydrate them, so I went on the internet. Info overload. So I just said, what the heck. The first batch I didn't both to break the skins first, I just plopped them on the tray and turned it on. Because blueberries have a lot of water in them, it took about 24 hrs to get them crisp dry - which is how I wanted them for storage. (If you want them less crisp, take them out sooner.) The second batch I too, a sharp, pointed knife and poked a hole in EACH one. That WAS time consuming, but they seemed to dry faster - only taking about 18 hrs to get crisp. After about 8 hrs, I checked on them. Some of them were already dried enough, so I took them out. I also chose to rotate the trays so they would dry a little more evenly. 24 'shells dried down to about two 2quart bags. Easily stored, easily snacked on or baked with. (you can either rehydrate them in a little warm water or plop them into what ever your making with a little extra water added to account for them "drinking" some of the water.

I probably spent about 2-3 hrs having to sort, rinse, prick, rotate, etc, but most of it was prepping them. The other bit of time was in checking and rotating the trays. $8 for 2 quart bags of dried blueberries and 2-3hrs work are worth it to me. I would have paid $$$$ in the grocery store for dehydrated ones. And I KNOW what's in them. NOTHING but berries!

Re: Basics of Food Dehydration

Christine Malone Scott — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:07:00 -0000

My family loves banana chips and apple chips. I did tomatoes this spring and they are wonderful to just throw in any dish and they rehydrate in about 10 minutes.

Re: Basics of Food Dehydration

Lisa Fortner — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:18:00 -0000

thanks

Re: Basics of Food Dehydration

Food Storage Made Easy — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:05:00 -0000

It depends on how you are using them. For soups I just throw them in. When I use dehydrated onions I use them dry. If you are using fruits for a smoothie or something you would want to rehydrate it first.

Re: Basics of Food Dehydration

Lisa Fortner — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:20:00 -0000

i was curious about dehydrate foods...do you have to rehydrate them before you use them or do they rehydrate as they are cooking?