# dehydration 101



## *Andi

Now I KNOW lots of folks here use their dehydrator (s) for all kinds of fruit and veggies ... My Excalibur will be here in a day or two so I'm looking for tips and such from you all. 

I have a still air dehydrator that I use for my herbs (and it works great for that) but now is the time to expand ... 

Fruit leathers, now that sounds yummy ... 

Come on folks give me your 101 tips! :flower:


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## Emerald

Hum... This is a tuffy!
Tomatoes/onions/hot and sweet peppers/mushrooms can all be dehydrated without blanching.. Just cut and dry.(I have to blanch corn to have a good flavor in the freezer so I am assuming that sweet corn should be blanched before drying)
Potatoes/carrots/broccoli/cauliflower/asparagus/green beans (these are the ones I have done personally) all need to be blanched before drying. The enzymes in these can make the foods nasty flavored, blanching deactivates them.

Most fruits are fine to just cut and dry but some that turn brown do nicer if you dip them in a bit of lemon juice/citric acid mixed with water.
I have found that while some fruits do great as a fruit roll up most I like better if I puree them and mix them with good applesauce(preferably home made with low sugar, if any sugar).
Strawberries/Raspberries/Blueberries/mulberries all do nicer if pureed and then I push them thru my sieve to remove the seeds(you don't have to do that if you don't want to) and then mix with applesauce or pureed peaches(blueberry and peach and raspberry and peach is just lovely).
Applesauce/poached and pureed peaches/poached and pureed pears are all yummy as fruit leather but I do tend to squeeze a bit of lemon in just to preserve color.
These are the only ones that I personally have tried.
If you make refried beans they dry very well in the dehydrator just powder them up a bit after drying to crispy dry and then all it takes is a bit of boiling water to rehydrate into dip or for burritos.
I've don't the jerky thing to death!
I like a mix of liquid smoke(just a teaspoon is enuf) soy sauce a bit of Lea and Perrions a bit of brown sugar or honey or even maple syrup and any other spices and herbs. I personally love a good hefty dose of Franks Red hot in there too.
I do dry my jerky to hard dry as to leave it softer will leave it open to molds and try to get as much fat off as possible as it goes rancid.
More sugar in the mix for jerky marinade will make the meat much more soft and bendy. The sweet and hot combo goes over real well.
I always dry meat on my highest heat.
Drying potatoes on highest heat turns them dark, so now I dry them at about 110°F is my favorite temp for nice colored taters.

Quite a bit of my info is from one of Mary Bell's food dehydrator books but since I get them from the library I can't remember exactly which one right now.


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## Cud579

*Bananas & Eggs*

I just received my dehydrator a week early for Mother's Day. So far I have dried banana chips and raw eggs. The banana chips were dried to a crisp without any citric acid or lemon juice. I have done this in years past with a cheapie dehydrator, they always turn out wonderful. We had tons of eggs from our lovely girls and I just hate purchasing eggs in the winter while giving away excess eggs in the summer. So I just scrambled up 8 eggs per tray and dried 3 trays worth at a time. I dried the eggs at 135 degrees for 18 hours. At 12 hours, there were still some greasy spots on the dried eggs. Once dry, I allowed them to cool and then ran one tray at a time in the blender until they were a powder consistency. I have rehydrated one trays worth and cooked them. They are not as good as fresh, but still very flavorful and tasty. I just scrambled them after rehydrating them.  3 dried trays worth of eggs = 2 dozen eggs. This fit nicely into a quart jar which I vaccuum sealed. On the bananas I had 3 bunches and after drying and eating some, They all fit into 2 quart jars which were vaccuum sealed as well.


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## OldCootHillbilly

Ifin yall find a good deal on canned goods er frozen vegies an fruits, they to can be dehydrated, most a the work bein done fer yall already.

We got a real good buy on frozen hash browns, straight from the bag onta trays an dried em. Works great.


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## tortminder

*Malt*

Sprout barley and then dry the sprouted barley in the dehydrator. Powder the resultant product and add some of the powder to a milk shake,,, old fashioned Malted milk, (also makes a great addition to home made whole wheat bread).


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## Moose33

Hi Andi,
I got my Excalibur a few months ago. I started out slowly to get the hang of/feel for it. I started with frozen corn, peas, mixed veggies, hash browns and green beans. All turned out great. I'm going for mushrooms and green peppers next. I know its nothing fancy but it works for me.
Take it easy,
Moose


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## tsrwivey

Peppers need to be blanched first to break down the tough outer skin or they will be chewy after being rehydrated. (unless you are going to cook them for a long time like in a stew or something) 

I use hamburger for a quick, no fuss, tender jerky. Just add spices, mix, & dry. I love my jerky gun, works like a caulk gun.


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## Emerald

tsrwivey said:


> Peppers need to be blanched first to break down the tough outer skin or they will be chewy after being rehydrated. (unless you are going to cook them for a long time like in a stew or something)
> 
> I use hamburger for a quick, no fuss, tender jerky. Just add spices, mix, & dry. I love my jerky gun, works like a caulk gun.


Interesting.. I usually only use my peppers(hot and sweet) for grinding into spice powder so I guess I never noticed that they are a bit chewy.:dunno:
For stews and omelet's and such I freeze my peppers now. But later if we don't have any electricity then I will be dehydrating more and that is good to know.
While I don't mind chewy things I know that some probably will. Texture is a funny thing when it comes to eating. I love gristle/fat off from steak and bones and I haven't had a seafood that I haven't liked(or loved) Kelp can have an odd texture if you're not used to it. Not to mention sea cucumber.I've know many folks who don't like sun dried tomatoes due to the chewy texture but then love my super dried beef jerky which is hard.
I myself can not stand the jerky from hamburger-too fatty and gritty. Just one of those texture things I guess.


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## BuggingIn

You are SO going to love your Excalibur. I dehydrate hamburger rocks in mine. They rehydrate very nicely in cooked dishes later.

Another use that you might not have thought of is re-crisping stale cereal, crackers and chips. It works really well for that, without "cooklng them" like my oven seems to do. 

You can also use it to make yogurt and raise bread.


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## gypsysue

Peas would seem to be so simple for dehydrating, but it's the one food that I'm still having trouble with. They just don't rehydrate to nice, soft peas. Instead they're leathery or chewy. I've tried drying them raw and untreated, drying them after blanching, and drying them after cooking. I've also tried soaking them longer before adding them to what I'm cooking. Someone have an idea what I'm doing wrong? Emerald? Anyone? :dunno:


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## *Andi

Great tips everyone ... Thanks!

My Excalibur is here and on the job! My first test subjects (lol), celery and strawberries are dehydrating as I type ... :2thumb:

And gypsysue ... good question! For which I have no answer ... :dunno:


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## Emerald

gypsysue said:


> Peas would seem to be so simple for dehydrating, but it's the one food that I'm still having trouble with. They just don't rehydrate to nice, soft peas. Instead they're leathery or chewy. I've tried drying them raw and untreated, drying them after blanching, and drying them after cooking. I've also tried soaking them longer before adding them to what I'm cooking. Someone have an idea what I'm doing wrong? Emerald? Anyone? :dunno:


I've never done sweet peas.I am gonna have to go do some "searching" on that one. Most peas that I "dry" are the ones that I let go for seed and I just let them mature on the plant. Then give them a few hours in the dehydrator on the lowest temp to make sure that they don't cook but dry enuf so that they don't mold. Be back soon. And I will put up some of the hints I have for re-hydrating on the other tread too!


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## Emerald

I just did a simple search and found that most of the sites have been barfing up the same old info from one to another-
Pick clean, blanch for 3 minutes cool and then dehydrate at 100° F for 'x' amount of time till crispy hard dry and then soak for 30 minutes with boiling water then drain and cook or just add to soups/stews.
Supposed to taste somewhat between fresh and canned.:dunno: Maybe I'll pick up some of the cheap frozen veggie at the store(they are on sale this week) and give it a shot for myself.


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## *Andi

The strawberries are GREAT!

I can see more of them going in the Excalibur ... :2thumb:


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## tsrwivey

Emerald said:


> Interesting.. I usually only use my peppers(hot and sweet) for grinding into spice powder so I guess I never noticed that they are a bit chewy.:dunno:
> I myself can not stand the jerky from hamburger-too fatty and gritty. Just one of those texture things I guess.


The bulk of my dried bell peppers are used for chicken spaghetti so griding them may work better. I usually steam them in the microwave before I dry them.

We use ground sirloin for our jerky, not greasy or fatty.


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## tsrwivey

*Andi said:


> The strawberries are GREAT!
> 
> I can see more of them going in the Excalibur ... :2thumb:


Love strawberries dried to a crisp! Very tasty!


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## Emerald

tsrwivey said:


> The bulk of my dried bell peppers are used for chicken spaghetti so griding them may work better. I usually steam them in the microwave before I dry them.
> 
> We use ground sirloin for our jerky, not greasy or fatty.


Yum Sir Loin-my favorite knight! Maybe that would be better.
I don't cook any veggies in the microwave-it kills them nutritionally by killing off some of the good enzymes that our bodies use... Like antioxidants and such..
I ended up with a nice steamer combo when I got my good stainless steel cookware and I steam blanch everything as it is so much easier than trying to fish veggies out of boiling water. Once I get my assembly line going I can clean/blanch/ice/dehydrate or freeze pretty simply and quickly...


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## *Andi

*Blueberries*

Found some blueberries on sale ...I'm thinking blueberry leathers/roll ups (first )???

*Tips* ???

The strawberry learthers I made, must have turned out alright ... they are gone.  lol

Oh and the pineapple chunks took forever! (but very tasty. )


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## UncleJoe

Make sure you do some pears when they come in season. Absolutely out of this world! How thick did you slice your strawberries? I do mine about 1/4" and they still come out flat as a pancake.

I quit dipping my fruit before it goes in the dryer. Yes it does darken a tad, but it doesn't affect the taste and it's not as messy.

A little trick to tell if your fruit is dry enough to store. When you take it off the trays, put it in a baggie, close it up and let it set for about 24 hours. If you get condensation on the inside, put it back in the dryer for a couple more hours.


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## *Andi

My pear trees got hit by the bore bugs and got the saw last fall ... but as no one but hubby like 'pears' :dunno:

I did get a mater slicer to help with the strawberries ... so I would say 1/4" ... 

and thanks for the tip ... I'm looking for all of them I can get!


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## JustAPrepper

I also have an Excalibur. I had *zero* luck with Blueberries, after standing in the kitchen for hours poking holes in them with a toothpick.  After two days, non stop, they just weren't getting where they needed to be. They ended up in the freezer and we put them in cereal.

I've found I have better luck drying things low and slow. 110 - 115 works best for me for most everything. I think it's because of our high humidity. If I go higher or faster it seems as though things Hardcase on me.

I slice my Strawberries with a Boiled Egg slicer. I have one that has two slicing wires, one is straight, the other scallopped for decorative egg slices. The scallopped one works best. I actually broke my first Egg Slicer that only had a straight blade. Some of the berries were larger or harder than others and popped the little wire right out of the thing.

Sweet Potatoes dry fabulously! I peel, slice, blanch then dehydrate.

Have fun! You're gonna love it!


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## tsrwivey

I have a couple questions & hope ya'll can answer. Will the flavors mingle if different foods are dried together? For example, I have corn & strawberries on the drier together now. Will my corn taste like strawberries?

I have been using separate trays to dry things like onions & jalepenos because I'm afraid the odors will permeate the plastic & leech into other foods dried at a later time. My logic is it's nearly impossible to get the smell out of your hands after cutting so I was concerned the smell may stay in the plastic as well. Am I being too cautious or just plain :nuts:


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## *Andi

I have done different fruits together with no problem. I did read somewhere that onions sould be dried alone but I have not tried it. Sorry I new at this ... so not much help.


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## tsrwivey

Just took the strawberries off the dryer & they don't taste like corn! Yay!!!


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## JustAPrepper

I read that onions needed to be dried "outside" because of their odor. The only ones I've dehydrated were Vidalia's, when they come in season. I did over 15 pounds, inside the house, over a period of about a week. I was especially careful because of the dogs (two Chihuahua's). I watched them non-stop, looking for any kind of irritation with their eyes or noses. They exhibited absolutely no sign of discomfort and I didn't notice a thing. It may be different with a hotter, spicier onion but I'm convinced I can do sweet onions indoors with no problems. I also wouldn't hesitate to dehydrate them with other things. Maybe not fruit, that just seems kind of wrong, but I'd definitely do them with most any other veggie, especially peppers and/or tomatoes.


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## Emerald

I'm sure that I mentioned this before but for goodness sakes dry your habenero peppers outside on the deck! I filled my dehydrator with hot peppers of all types including three trays of habs and it drove us all out of the house choking and gagging...! I now know why the cops like to use pepper spray!


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## gypsysue

Emerald said:


> I'm sure that I mentioned this before but for goodness sakes dry your habenero peppers outside on the deck! I filled my dehydrator with hot peppers of all types including three trays of habs and it drove us all out of the house choking and gagging...! I now know why the cops like to use pepper spray!


:lolsmash: Poor Emerald! I'm sitting here with tears in my eyes after reading that! I'm sure it's empathy, not from laughter!  I've never dried my peppers inside in my dehydrator, but I enjoy doing onions in them. I love the smell filling the house. Yellow onions are the only ones that do very good here, so that's mostly what I dry. They don't store well fresh, so I chop, chop, chop and slice and get them all dehydrated in the Fall.

I dry my peppers on drying racks set around the house or out on our covered porch. We have very low humidity, especially in late summer and fall, so it works well.

I have some old seed for these very spicy red peppers, and I decided to grow some this year so the seed wouldn't die out. Figuring the germination rate would be poor after 4 years I planted quite a bit of it, in pots inside the house. Well, they ALL came up! Oh dear!


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## tsrwivey

Emerald said:


> I'm sure that I mentioned this before but for goodness sakes dry your habenero peppers outside on the deck! I filled my dehydrator with hot peppers of all types including three trays of habs and it drove us all out of the house choking and gagging...! I now know why the cops like to use pepper spray!


Oh no! I've set 10 trays of onions to dry in the morning & came back 10 hours later & it would bring tears to your eyes. I can't even imagine what habenero would do!


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## gypsysue

JustAPrepper, I can't understand why blueberries wouldn't dry for you! I've had maybe half a dozen or so on tray of berries that, for some reason, just would not dry. I finally pick those out and put them in the freezer. But whole trays of them? :scratch: Maybe you could try a different kind of blueberries? Were they store bought or home grown?


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## Emerald

Ok I knew I had read that you should blanch blueberries briefly before dehydrating them and I finally found a blog that has that information on it... it is supposed to make them dry like a nice raisin and not a hard little bullet.
Dehydrating Blueberries


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## JustAPrepper

gypsysue said:


> JustAPrepper, I can't understand why blueberries wouldn't dry for you! I've had maybe half a dozen or so on tray of berries that, for some reason, just would not dry. I finally pick those out and put them in the freezer. But whole trays of them? :scratch: Maybe you could try a different kind of blueberries? Were they store bought or home grown?


They were store-bought. Like Emerald mentioned, they were getting kind of "raisin-like" but after two days, not "raisiny" enough for me to put up for storage purposes, even short term. They were still plenty plump and juicy. It was a pretty big disappointment since they are my favorite berry. After two full days I wasn't wasting any more electricity trying to dry them. :surrender: :dunno:


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## Emerald

I just had a head bonking thought! Raisins don't dry hard due to the sugar content-sugar in my jerky makes it softer too... I wonder if blue berries with tons of sugar content would not dry as well? Its an idea.:dunno:


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## *Andi

I checked my book on blueberries and in bold letters it said to make sure they were NOT waxed. Waxed berries need to be washed several times so that they could dry right.

Waxed berries have a shine to them while the nonwaxed berries are a dull blue. Not sure if this is what happened but something to keep in mind when getting berries from the store.

Guess I'll find out ... looks likes the one I bought were waxed. lol


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## Moose33

Good morning,
I got my Excalibur a while ago. I've only dehydrated a few things so far. One of those was frozen hash browns. I finally got a chance to try them this morning. I put half a cup in a bowl and just covered them with boiling water. I waited 20 minutes, drained them and fried them up with some onions. If I had not dehydrated them myself I wouldn't have known the difference. They were good and have a permanent place in my pantry.
Take it easy,
Moose


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## cybergranny

That's great Moose33. I've dehydrated my hashbrowns, but haven't tried them yet.

JustAPrepper.....Did you blanch them to split the skins? dehydratetostore.com has a video on blueberries and she says they are the most difficult to dehydrate.


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## Emerald

bumping up for harvest time so that they are easier to find.


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## neldarez

Moose33 said:


> Good morning,
> I got my Excalibur a while ago. I've only dehydrated a few things so far. One of those was frozen hash browns. I finally got a chance to try them this morning. I put half a cup in a bowl and just covered them with boiling water. I waited 20 minutes, drained them and fried them up with some onions. If I had not dehydrated them myself I wouldn't have known the difference. They were good and have a permanent place in my pantry.
> Take it easy,
> Moose


great idea,,,,,,,I'm going to try that!! I love hashbrowns........


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## Meerkat

Emerald said:


> bumping up for harvest time so that they are easier to find.


 Thanks,I'm about ready to start dehydrating again.I'm still new at it but will be using it soon.I want to get some potatoes to dry.
I have some black bananas in there and some rubber squash,did'nt parboil it.Tomatoes nd marshmellows came out good.


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## Dixie

Meerkat said:


> Thanks,I'm about ready to start dehydrating again.I'm still new at it but will be using it soon.I want to get some potatoes to dry.
> I have some black bananas in there and some rubber squash,did'nt parboil it.Tomatoes nd marshmellows came out good.


how did you do your tomatoes? That is my next venture. Also, how do you use dried tomatoes?


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## Salekdarling

How are y'all storing your dehydrated food? And how long does the stored dehydrated food last? I'm hoping to get an excaliber as a wedding present for myself so I'm learning what I can now before I buy one. =]


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## goshengirl

Salekdarling said:


> How are y'all storing your dehydrated food? And how long does the stored dehydrated food last? I'm hoping to get an excaliber as a wedding present for myself so I'm learning what I can now before I buy one. =]


I use mason jars with a vacuum sealer. I was vacuum sealing in FoodSaver bags, but because dehydrated foods can be brittle, my stuff got crushed and powdery in the bags. So now I use mason jars, and I got the attachment for the FoodSaver that vacuum seals mason jars. Love that thing.


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## zorro

I dry peas and all kind of beans simply by removing the shell, then putting the seeds on a thick layer of newspapers. I even make skyscrapers with that. My boyfriend just put an aluminum pan on the wood stove and try any veggies he feels like. He just cut the veggies in small thin pieces. Then, he stays near the stove and once in a while tosses the pan. He also used the aluminum pan for pumpkin and other squashes seeds, again tossing once in a while. The fire needs to be not too hot. Our stove top is not hot enough to burn food placed on top of it if the chimney thermometer indicates 400F or below. But my father's one top is much hotter at the same chimney temperature... May be worth trying if you have a wood stove. I also dry hot peppers simply by hanging them on thread (with a needle) near the stove.


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## *Andi

Red peppers are next of my list ... The health food store is getting to much of my money ... lol

I do wonder about the smell while drying ???


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## Davarm

I dont know if it was just the batch that I got on sale at the grocery store but I dehydrated a few racks of bell peppers a few months back and the smell was horrendous, did not try green bell peppers again after that. Red and yellow came out fine, will only dry the green ones that I grow from now on.

The green bell peppers were firm and crisp and seemed to be of good quality, have no ideal why they smelled as bad as they did drying. My daughters made me dump them before they completely dried.


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## JustUs

WOW...I dry peppers all the time. We love the sweet smell they give, like cooking peppers gives. I saw someone mentioned blanching them first. Never have and we don't find them tough at all....kids will eat them straight out of the jar if I let them.


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## *Andi

Any time I work with red (cayenne) peppers my nose and eyes both have a fit...


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## Salekdarling

So I have seen on youtube that I can dry and store my foods in mason jars with oxygen absorbers so I decided to buy 100ccs from Honeyville. Apparently it will vacuum seal. Testing out this theory tomorrow. Got veggies in the dehydrator right now.


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