Food Dehydrators

sanderson ... that home made one looks great.

I decided to go with the $40 Mr Coffee dehydrator. It is brand new in the box, never been used. One outlet in Canada sells the same one for $132 plus 13% sales tax (about $150 total). 

Since I like to experiment I may still try a DIY dehydrator as well. If it works as well or better than I could resell the Mr Coffee one.

Here is the ad for the Mr Coffee with photos of what it looks like.
http://www.kijiji.ca/v-processor-blender-juicer/ottawa/food-dehydrator/1132883921?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true

It was listed at $60. Did you get it at $40? or were you doing a conversion for you southern friends? I use both the electric one and the 2 outdoor ones. Produce seems to come in waves.

That's a really nice one, Sanderson!

You can find all sorts of plans online for free for various types of dehydrators. Just do a search...

sanderson ... I'll be picking it up tomorrow for $40 Cdn which at today's exchange rate is about $28 US. 

As well, prior to seeing this one for sale I've spent a whole bunch of time looking online at various DIY dehydrators. The ones made of cardboard boxes with light bulbs inside look like a formula for a fire disaster. But there are many interesting designs to choose from. I still find the one with the box fan and furnace/ac filters to be interesting for a try.

Picked up the dehydrator at noon today. While doing so I got to see how the upper class or maybe I should say the overly in debt class live. The seller lives in a MacMansion and his three car garage is bigger than our very modest house. I'll be cleaning up the dehydrator as described in the manual and then will give it a try tonight. On the way home I picked up bananas and apples at Costco and will give some of them the first go in the dehydrator.

Photo op!

I jumped the gun ... couldn't wait until this evening so I filled up the dehydrator with a grand total of two big bananas (sliced 1/8" thick), two apples (sliced 1/4" think) and one tray of spinach (steamed before drying). The Mr Coffee dehydrator does not hold very much produce. I did not make very efficient use of the available space but now I see the wisdom of Sanderson's DIY dehydrator with the multiple large trays. 

Here is the requested photo. There are actually two trays of bananas, the second one being underneath the apples. I removed the skin from one apple and left it on the other apple. I didn't bother to presoak the fruit (e.g., to prevent browning). As usual I am always experimenting. BTW this photo was taken about 30 minutes after the drying started so I had to take the dehydrator apart to take it.

Happy for you. It's fun to play around in the kitchen during the winter. I predict the food will disappear within 10 minutes from being done.

I'm playing with sauerkraut and later today, sweet potato chips.

@trolleydriver wrote:Picked up the dehydrator at noon today. While doing so I got to see how the upper class or maybe I should say the overly in debt class live. The seller lives in a MacMansion and his three car garage is bigger than our very modest house. I'll be cleaning up the dehydrator as described in the manual and then will give it a try tonight. On the way home I picked up bananas and apples at Costco and will give some of them the first go in the dehydrator.

Well, at least they have a little cash for dinner, now! Should have been growing food and using the dehydrator!

Outcome from the first dehydrating session ... bananas, apples, spinach.  All good.

Do you peel and core the apples. TD?

I just cut the apples in half and then slice.  Most of the pips falls out when dry and I do not peel.

Nice! Worked like a charm, right?!

KJ ... I peeled one apple but left the other one unpeeled.  I made 1/4" thick slices and then took out the core/pits from each slice. Thanks for letting me know how you do it. I may give that a try.

SR ... Yup ... worked great.

This afternoon I am snacking on the things I recently dehydrated ... bananas, apples and yes, even spinach. They are all bursting with flavor. Combine this with my morning green smoothie (spinach, green grapes, banana, yogurt and I even threw in some Quaker oats) and I think I should be doing pretty well toward my daily intake of fruits, veggies and fiber.

Does anyone use one of the mandolin type slicer devices to get even thicknesses of produce for dehydrating ?

 I've been playing with one this afternoon,  thin slicing raw potatoes to layer on top of a stew in a lidded cast iron  casserole dish .
I though then would it work be better if we got one of the bigger better  variable thickness mandolins for canning and other things .

Reading the thread just now has made me thing it would be a good idea for slicing dehydrate-able  food.
It's certainly a very fast accurate safe way of slicing things that's for sure .

TD - be aware that since you didn't treat your apples, they will turn brown more quickly...

Am ... Thanks. The instructions that came with the dehydrator provided a way to treat the apples, etc. but also said it was necessary. I didn't bother treating them and yes they did turn a bity brown. It didn't matter because they still tasted good and in fact I just finished eating the last one!

@sanderson wrote: I predict the food will disappear within 10 minutes from being done.

Guess I was a little off on my prediction. Still, it's hard to resist eating what you dehydrate.

@trolleydriver wrote:Am ... Thanks. The instructions that came with the dehydrator provided a way to treat the apples, etc. but also said it was necessary. I didn't bother treating them and yes they did turn a bity brown. It didn't matter because they still tasted good and in fact I just finished eating the last one!

Ooops ...I meant to say that the instructions "also said it was not necessary".

BTW ... everything has now been consumed ... need to start another batch.

Reading about dehydrated apples made me look at my stash to find they are not lily white but just slightly not-white.  They tasted good.

It is my feeling that treating apples and bananas etc. so that they remain white is only done for cosmetic purposes and does not really save any of the nutrition there.

In fact, I am so strong in my opinion that seeing the blanched packets on the supermarket shelf makes me wonder what on earth they used.  They look so artificial.

Probably they are  dipped in a strong sugar solution  & run on a conveyor belt in a 15 mtr long drying tunnel
 that uses precise directed hot air like the latest Pizza cooking ovens .

OR

As a factory product sprayed with a strong sugar solution from both sides as soon as they are sliced , then on to a wire conveyor belt  done as above from here on or put into a vacuum chamber , put under a slight vacuum to take off some of the moisture and then flooded with ice cold dry nitrogen  to further exclude the air & freeze dry them  .
The partial vacuum is destroyed  by letting in cold nitrogen gas , it almost embalms the product with it .  
The use nitrogen is also used for other food processing & is often termed as , " Packed in a protective environment  "  as it is non oxidising they will stay almost natural coloured .

@yolos wrote:I tried a whole pineapple that I cored, peeled and sliced.  It was a lot of work.  Then I saw a youtube video where the person just bought the canned, sliced pineapple in juice, dumped it on a tray to drain a while and then dehydrated it.  So, if you like the pineapple, watch out for sales on canned pineapple.

I'm sitting here slurping down a quarter of a sweet pineapple (Del Monte Gold), thinking of Rosina and Nan in Hawaii.  Then I got to thinking about someone dehydrating pineapple.  Yolos, how thin did you slice it? Does it have to be cored for dehydrating? I normally eat the core when it's fresh.

If you're going to dehydrate it, I'd remove the core. It's already harder than the fruit. Dehydrating will just make it worse...

@sanderson wrote:

@yolos wrote:I tried a whole pineapple that I cored, peeled and sliced.  It was a lot of work.  Then I saw a youtube video where the person just bought the canned, sliced pineapple in juice, dumped it on a tray to drain a while and then dehydrated it.  So, if you like the pineapple, watch out for sales on canned pineapple.

I'm sitting here slurping down a quarter of a sweet pineapple (Del Monte Gold), thinking of Rosina and Nan in Hawaii.  Then I got to thinking about someone dehydrating pineapple.  Yolos, how thin did you slice it?  Does it have to be cored for dehydrating?  I normally eat the core when it's fresh.

I only did it once with fresh pineapple and once with canned pineapple so do don't rely on me.  The thickness of the canned pineapple worked well for me.  The fresh pineapple I cored and sliced a little thinner than store bought.  But it did take a long time to dehydrate.