Dehydrating Garlic and Onions

I peeled, minced and dehydrated all of my garlic in the outdoor dehydrator box. It dried nicely and I stored in a canning jar.

The onions don't want to crisp, staying soft and flexible. I want to make some powder from each but the onion bits I tried made a sticky powder.

Any hints? TYIA

Yeah, it's the sugars in them that cause the stickiness.... I'd put them in the oven at about 150 to see if they'll crisp up a bit more. Just keep a close eye so they don't burn.

I've never really gotten them CRISP. That's a frying thing. But was still able to cut them into bits for storage.

AM, thanks. I was thinking about a low oven, maybe cracked open. I just don't want them to spoil over the winter in the canning jar.

Yep. So after you dry them, they need to be "conditioned." Put them in a jar/bag. Shake it twice/day for a week to 10 days. This will allow whatever moisture is left to redistribute evenly.

When you shake them, look for ANY condensation on the bag/jar. If you see any, put them back on the dh immediately. Rinse & repeat.

I store them in jars that I vacuum seal. The onion odor will migrate through plastic bags... Ask me how I know, LOL!

Thank you for the tips AM. They never made it into the oven, but I've been shaking the pint jar and they are fairly well separated. No condensate noticed.

Right now, there is a pound of mushrooms, sliced and drying, in the box. Tomorrow I will prep celery by washing and dicing. I prefer fresh food, but I want a little emergency back up produce for winter.

I dried red onions once. They were so um, pungent, that it just about drove us out of the house. 

Sanderson, I hope you get yours to crisp up.

I saw an infomercial on an air fryer that is also a dehydrator - I think it was called Power Airfryer Oven, or something close to that.  Has anyone tried anything like that for dehydrating fruit & vegetables?

Pungent? Yep. That's why I use the outdoor dehydrator! Someone on the Forum mentioned putting their electric dehydrator outdoors or the whole house would stink. The other reason is that I wanted to try to do all things gardening without electricity, sort of like a Prepper. The third reason is that our electricity costs an arm and a leg.

@OhioGardener wrote:I saw an infomercial on an air fryer that is also a dehydrator - I think it was called Power Airfryer Oven, or something close to that.  Has anyone tried anything like that for dehydrating fruit & vegetables?

Unless you can get the temps down, I don't think it's going to work. I'm about to start a new thread on dhing fruits & veggies & go in to details...

I looked up some pdf owner's manuals for that brand. It looks like some only go down to 180*F and maybe one down to 80*F. One would have to research which model(s) would be good for dehydrating.

I like having both an outdoor passive tail-less dehydrator and the electric one.

AM, I know I could sure use some information on dehydrating. I've got herbs, and peppers for powders, down pat.

I dehydrate a lot of onions - dice them and put in the dehydrator at 115 degrees (low temps keep the enzymes in the onions alive) and let it run overnight - in the morning I turn it off and set it in the sun, then that evening I run it overnight again, then pour the onions into a large bowl, cover with a towel and leave out in the sun for another day, When I get home that night I check them and if its totally dry I vacuum seal in Mason jars.  I grind some in a coffee maker to make onion powder - it works well, but after about 10 days it collects moisture and clumps.  I do it in small batches to avoid a large brick of onion powder.  You can always redehydrate and regrind.  I have also sliced the onions in rings and dehydrated - the result is like french fried onion strings - just not fried.