My brother in law just finished training in A/C repair & Maintenance. He fixed my A/C unit so the Heat strips came on at the same time as the A/C unit. The winner? The utility company! Did I mention he works cheap?
@Kyeh@thechilipepper0
been a while since I made any but seem to remember it was an overnight sort of thing. Partially depends on the thickness and type of meat (generally used a lean piece of steak cut in about 1/8"-3/16" slices)
I’m a reloader, this (or one similar) could be useful for drying batches of brass after wet tumbling. I’ll probably buy one at a second-hand store though, seems a waste to use a brand new unit for something other than food.
Looks fun, but I’m saving up my money to someday get one of those countertop freeze-drier units. So in the meantime will have to settle with plain old fresh fruit and grilled meat on my camping trips.
I have had a food dehydrator for 30+ years. In fact, I have two of the same unit.
Depending on the model and the capacity, they work well–if you want to go through the time and trouble.
Make no mistake, while drying food for future use is many, many centuries old, the heyday of such was before refrigeration and freezing, and in some cases canning.
Most commercially dried foods are based on freeze drying (lyophilization), which gets to much lower residual moisture (~98-99% water removal) vs. dehydration (~70-90%) without heating which destroys cell walls and results in loss of vitamins and phytonutrients.
Reconstituting foods that have been freeze dried vs. dehydrated is both faster and gives better mouth feel and appearance, hands-down.
I haven’t used my dehydrator in many years now, but when I did, I dehydrated many vegetables and fruits, when they were in abundance or super-abundance from my garden and in the case of fruits from local orchards. And I made a lot of jerky.
I have extra trays and sheets for my unit as I soon found that the original set of four trays wasn’t enough for most jobs. It usually took from 2-4 days to dry stuff. The unit doesn’t get very hot and uses forced draft to remove moisture. The bottom trays get hotter than the top of the stack. So it is good to rearrange the trays every now and again.
All in all, after a short learning curve, I found that they worked well for what uses I put them to.
The catch?
Well, that’s coming now.
What I found after a couple of years of use, was that we really had little use for the dehydrated foods, which I could produce.
What happens is that whatever you’ve dehydrated has to compete in your food space menu with fresh, with frozen, or with canned foods of the same ilk.
While one can certainly use dehydrated tomato powder, for instance, in soups, why would you want to, when you can use much superior canned or fresh?
Sure one can make powdered habenero or jalapeño peppers, and I did. But a pint of such powder can last one a lifetime, and will become less and less appealing as it ages.
Since dehydrating doesn’t achieve the low residual moisture levels of lyophilization, the shelf life of most dehydrated veggies and fruits is less than one would expect. Putting the dehydrated foods into Mason jars or vacuum bags, both of which should be stored cold and under as much vacuum as possible gives the best shelf life. This sort of removes some of the whole rationale for dehydration in my book.
I made a lot of dehydrated fruits such as peaches and apples at first. I liked the dehydrated peach slices pretty well, but I didn’t eat them often, and I was the only one in the household who would eat them at all.
The dehydrated peaches turned out to be the final song of my dehydration days.
Back in about 2000, I was eating a dehydrated peach slice, when I broke a tooth. Now that tooth could have broken with something else, but it was a dehydrated peach. That incident ended up costing me in the neighborhood of $4,000 as I had to have an implant.
My enthusiasm for all things dehydrated waned after that. Big time.
I still use my dehydrators occasionally. The last time was about 5 or 6 years ago, but I can’t remember what I was dehydrating at the time.
@Jackinga That is a nearly perfect illustration of the big difference between that which is possible and that which is a good idea. Something that’s a good idea in one scenario may be a “why would you ever do that?” in another.
@sammydog01 Peppers dehydrate very well and easily, so if you have such, go for it.
A word of warning: If you dehydrate and decide you want to powder dried hot peppers, such as habenero, Scotch Bonnets, ghost, or Carolina Reapers, and you use a blender to do so:
do it outside,
pulverize the peppers to the degree of fineness you prefer,
wait several minutes before attempting to open the blender top for the fine mist and dust to settle
stand up wind when opening the blender,
wear a mask,
wear eye protection
wear gloves (actually, if you have a spare Hazmat suit, this would be perfect),
@Jackinga@Kyeh@sammydog01
I frequently make chipotles in the smoker and leave them in until they are dry enough to crumble. They get processed in a (cheap) coffee grinder that I bought just for that purpose. Chipotle powder is a go to seasoning at our house.
@chienfou@Kyeh@macromeh@sammydog01 You betcha! Else, if you just dump the contents randomly, you stand a good chance of creating a SuperFund site and have the EPA on your back.
A friend of mine, who did this with an abundance of habeneros from his and a neighbors gardens late one summer, went on (after recovery) to make something he called, “Atomic Barbecue Sauce.” He came up with that as he had no earthly other use for the amount of powder which he had. He also couldn’t give it away unless the recipient had a current Hazmat license and was up to date on training.
It was a great sauce, but you first had to fill out a questionnaire, have a recent physical exam, and a valid will, before he would share it with you.
I loved it (in small quantities), as a little went a long way. When he ran out of his habenero powder, that was it. Having had the experience, he vowed never again.
I attempted to make his sauce with some of my own habenero powder, but mine wasn’t nearly as potent as his. All in all, that was a good thing.
I no longer have any habenero/Scotch Bonnet powder, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing as I developed an allergy to hot peppers after having been a chili-head for many, many years before. One day, I overdid it in eating half a jar of preserved peppers, and ever since, I get severe gastrointestinal pain a few hours after I eat hot peppers.
Dry socks.
True story, my wife turned on the humidifier when I was trying to dehydrate some fruit leather. It was an exercise in utilities.
@show_the_maw
/giphy rim shot
@show_the_maw
My brother in law just finished training in A/C repair & Maintenance. He fixed my A/C unit so the Heat strips came on at the same time as the A/C unit. The winner? The utility company! Did I mention he works cheap?
I’ve used mine (not this model) for figs and tomato slices most recently but I have made some pretty kick-ass jerky in the past.
@chienfou Do you cook the meat first for making jerky?
@Kyeh
nope. Marinate and into the dehydrator.
@chienfou @Kyeh how long does it typically take to dry out?
@Kyeh @thechilipepper0
been a while since I made any but seem to remember it was an overnight sort of thing. Partially depends on the thickness and type of meat (generally used a lean piece of steak cut in about 1/8"-3/16" slices)
I love dehydrated water!
@hchavers
doesn’t it fall thru the little holes in the trays??
@chienfou @hchavers Nah! You freeze it first, then dehydrate it. Badda bing!
@hchavers @Jackinga
D’oh… why didn’t I think of that??
Strips of sweet potatoes for the dog, probably
I have a food dehydrator, but I use it solely for drying my filament for my 3D printers.
Peppers
Apple chips, raisins, fruit leather.
I’m a reloader, this (or one similar) could be useful for drying batches of brass after wet tumbling. I’ll probably buy one at a second-hand store though, seems a waste to use a brand new unit for something other than food.
Yogurt
Looks fun, but I’m saving up my money to someday get one of those countertop freeze-drier units. So in the meantime will have to settle with plain old fresh fruit and grilled meat on my camping trips.
Green beans! Surprisingly addictive snack.
@ahacksaw Do you use fresh or frozen?
@sammydog01 Frozen could probably work, but I’ve only ever used fresh. Blanch them briefly, drain, and then dehydrated.
Can you make dry wines in this? Asking for a friend; I don’t do wine.
Tomatoes (for use in pasta dishes - yum!) and fruit from our trees (dried asian pear slices are a favorite).
I have had a food dehydrator for 30+ years. In fact, I have two of the same unit.
Depending on the model and the capacity, they work well–if you want to go through the time and trouble.
Make no mistake, while drying food for future use is many, many centuries old, the heyday of such was before refrigeration and freezing, and in some cases canning.
Most commercially dried foods are based on freeze drying (lyophilization), which gets to much lower residual moisture (~98-99% water removal) vs. dehydration (~70-90%) without heating which destroys cell walls and results in loss of vitamins and phytonutrients.
Reconstituting foods that have been freeze dried vs. dehydrated is both faster and gives better mouth feel and appearance, hands-down.
I haven’t used my dehydrator in many years now, but when I did, I dehydrated many vegetables and fruits, when they were in abundance or super-abundance from my garden and in the case of fruits from local orchards. And I made a lot of jerky.
I have extra trays and sheets for my unit as I soon found that the original set of four trays wasn’t enough for most jobs. It usually took from 2-4 days to dry stuff. The unit doesn’t get very hot and uses forced draft to remove moisture. The bottom trays get hotter than the top of the stack. So it is good to rearrange the trays every now and again.
All in all, after a short learning curve, I found that they worked well for what uses I put them to.
The catch?
Well, that’s coming now.
What I found after a couple of years of use, was that we really had little use for the dehydrated foods, which I could produce.
What happens is that whatever you’ve dehydrated has to compete in your food space menu with fresh, with frozen, or with canned foods of the same ilk.
While one can certainly use dehydrated tomato powder, for instance, in soups, why would you want to, when you can use much superior canned or fresh?
Sure one can make powdered habenero or jalapeño peppers, and I did. But a pint of such powder can last one a lifetime, and will become less and less appealing as it ages.
Since dehydrating doesn’t achieve the low residual moisture levels of lyophilization, the shelf life of most dehydrated veggies and fruits is less than one would expect. Putting the dehydrated foods into Mason jars or vacuum bags, both of which should be stored cold and under as much vacuum as possible gives the best shelf life. This sort of removes some of the whole rationale for dehydration in my book.
I made a lot of dehydrated fruits such as peaches and apples at first. I liked the dehydrated peach slices pretty well, but I didn’t eat them often, and I was the only one in the household who would eat them at all.
The dehydrated peaches turned out to be the final song of my dehydration days.
Back in about 2000, I was eating a dehydrated peach slice, when I broke a tooth. Now that tooth could have broken with something else, but it was a dehydrated peach. That incident ended up costing me in the neighborhood of $4,000 as I had to have an implant.
My enthusiasm for all things dehydrated waned after that. Big time.
I still use my dehydrators occasionally. The last time was about 5 or 6 years ago, but I can’t remember what I was dehydrating at the time.
YMMV
@Jackinga I looked for things to dehydrate this morning and found lots of doomsday preppers. I just wanted snacks.
@Jackinga That is a nearly perfect illustration of the big difference between that which is possible and that which is a good idea. Something that’s a good idea in one scenario may be a “why would you ever do that?” in another.
@sammydog01
While I’m not a big fan of doomsday preppers, I think dehydrating them is probably illegal.
@sammydog01 Peppers dehydrate very well and easily, so if you have such, go for it.
A word of warning: If you dehydrate and decide you want to powder dried hot peppers, such as habenero, Scotch Bonnets, ghost, or Carolina Reapers, and you use a blender to do so:
Ask me how I know…
@Jackinga @sammydog01
Doomsday Peppers! 🌶
@Jackinga @Kyeh @sammydog01
I frequently make chipotles in the smoker and leave them in until they are dry enough to crumble. They get processed in a (cheap) coffee grinder that I bought just for that purpose. Chipotle powder is a go to seasoning at our house.
@Jackinga @sammydog01 @kyeh @chienfou
Re: drying hot peppers, you forgot the last (and most important) step:
@chienfou @Kyeh @macromeh @sammydog01 You betcha! Else, if you just dump the contents randomly, you stand a good chance of creating a SuperFund site and have the EPA on your back.
A friend of mine, who did this with an abundance of habeneros from his and a neighbors gardens late one summer, went on (after recovery) to make something he called, “Atomic Barbecue Sauce.” He came up with that as he had no earthly other use for the amount of powder which he had. He also couldn’t give it away unless the recipient had a current Hazmat license and was up to date on training.
It was a great sauce, but you first had to fill out a questionnaire, have a recent physical exam, and a valid will, before he would share it with you.
I loved it (in small quantities), as a little went a long way. When he ran out of his habenero powder, that was it. Having had the experience, he vowed never again.
I attempted to make his sauce with some of my own habenero powder, but mine wasn’t nearly as potent as his. All in all, that was a good thing.
I no longer have any habenero/Scotch Bonnet powder, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing as I developed an allergy to hot peppers after having been a chili-head for many, many years before. One day, I overdid it in eating half a jar of preserved peppers, and ever since, I get severe gastrointestinal pain a few hours after I eat hot peppers.
@Jackinga @Kyeh @macromeh @sammydog01
Dropping the excess in armadillo or ground hog burrows has always been an option for me.
I dehydrate peppers, and make my own volcano dust (finely milled peppers to sprinkle on food).
All this talk of food makes me want dinner. Wait, I just ate. Well, this poll makes me hungry again.