Home Dehydrating

[Son-of-Liberty]

One thing I am looking into as part of my food preps and self sufficiency is dehydration.

I have done a fair bit of canning but it is very time consuming and the finished product is heavy and takes up a lot of space. Whenever I have done canning I pretty much need an entire evening or day on the weekend put aside for it. Dehydrating for the most part is much less time consuming and the finished product if stored right has a shelf life that is equal or greater then a canned product. Dehydrated food also tends to have higher nutritional value because many of the vitamins are not destroyed as they are with the high temperatures involved in canning. I also like how many of the products like dried bananas or apples make for good storage foods but also are good for everyday snacks.

Here is a pretty good website with lots of information on dehydration. If anyone else has websites or recipes they recommend please feel free to add.

http://www.dehydrate2store.com/

[Andy9999]

Very high energy cost :conf:

[Mouse]

dehydration is great for things that are easily dried....otherwise it's a big pain.

I dehydrated small tomatoes over the last summer.....excellent results. You can put them in oil, I just froze them dehydrated. They are good.

Herbs.....I had ridiculous amounts of basil crop this year. They dehydrate great and you just stick them in a canning jar.

Hot peppers....cayenne, tobasco, small peppers dry very well. I have a few years worth of tobasco dehydrated. I tried doing jalapenos and larger peppers and was not pleased.

Fruits: DYODD....I dried up apricots that a neighbor gave me a couple years ago and they were not good and would not store well. Same for peaches, nectarines, apples. The stuff wasn't very good when done and it was not easy to store it. Fail until I find better sources....


Canning is the ultimate. Can fricken everything under the sun. I started cheating on my boiled bath canning by just using pressure canning for everything last summer when there was just too much to can. The pressure canner uses way less energy to heat up to and can. Boiling water is very inneficient in terms of btu's to get your canning done.

[CrufflerJJ]

dehydration is great for things that are easily dried....otherwise it's a big pain.

I dehydrated small tomatoes over the last summer.....excellent results. You can put them in oil, I just froze them dehydrated. They are good.

Herbs.....I had ridiculous amounts of basil crop this year. They dehydrate great and you just stick them in a canning jar.

Hot peppers....cayenne, tobasco, small peppers dry very well. I have a few years worth of tobasco dehydrated. I tried doing jalapenos and larger peppers and was not pleased.

Fruits: DYODD....I dried up apricots that a neighbor gave me a couple years ago and they were not good and would not store well. Same for peaches, nectarines, apples. The stuff wasn't very good when done and it was not easy to store it. Fail until I find better sources....


Canning is the ultimate. Can fricken everything under the sun. I started cheating on my boiled bath canning by just using pressure canning for everything last summer when there was just too much to can. The pressure canner uses way less energy to heat up to and can. Boiling water is very inneficient in terms of btu's to get your canning done.


Watch out for botulism if storing semi-dried foods in oil. Same with garlic cloves in oil.

When trying to dry larger peppers with thick flesh (like jalapenos), it sometimes helps to either cut them in half, or at least stab through the side wall to let moisture escape more easily.

Was color change the problem you were having with peaches/nectarines/apples? If so, I wonder if using vitamin C or Fruit Fresh would help.

[big country]

dehydration is great for things that are easily dried....otherwise it's a big pain.

I dehydrated small tomatoes over the last summer.....excellent results. You can put them in oil, I just froze them dehydrated. They are good.

Herbs.....I had ridiculous amounts of basil crop this year. They dehydrate great and you just stick them in a canning jar.

Hot peppers....cayenne, tobasco, small peppers dry very well. I have a few years worth of tobasco dehydrated. I tried doing jalapenos and larger peppers and was not pleased.

Fruits: DYODD....I dried up apricots that a neighbor gave me a couple years ago and they were not good and would not store well. Same for peaches, nectarines, apples. The stuff wasn't very good when done and it was not easy to store it. Fail until I find better sources....


Canning is the ultimate. Can fricken everything under the sun. I started cheating on my boiled bath canning by just using pressure canning for everything last summer when there was just too much to can. The pressure canner uses way less energy to heat up to and can. Boiling water is very inneficient in terms of btu's to get your canning done.


Watch out for botulism if storing semi-dried foods in oil. Same with garlic cloves in oil.

When trying to dry larger peppers with thick flesh (like jalapenos), it sometimes helps to either cut them in half, or at least stab through the side wall to let moisture escape more easily.

Was color change the problem you were having with peaches/nectarines/apples? If so, I wonder if using vitamin C or Fruit Fresh would help.


I've dried apples many time in my excalibur dehydrator. as I'm cutting them I stick the slices in a large bowl of canned pineapple juice, the Vit C keeps them from turning brown and the pineapple juice leaves a nice light "candy coating" on the apples. I've never had to store them long term though as they don't last longer then a month at our house. Last time I dehydrated 40 apples, thinking that would be enough to try to store them. Nope, gone at right around day 30.



EDIT: forgot to add, I core the apples then slice them in rings (thinner is better as they dry better) with the skin on.

[Son-of-Liberty]

I have also had success with apples. Left the peel on as well and cut them into half rings because the first batch I did of full rings took up too much space in the dehydrator. Also tried some other fruits. Kiwi, mango, pineapple, banana. They all turned out pretty good. The apples I can get cheap at a local produce market. They have bags on a special rack for damaged or old product, usually the apples are just a little bruised and I get about 4 pound bags of them for $1.