Dehydrating foods

[rufus]

I just read an article in a magazine on 50 ways to save money on food.

We live on a small farm and so grow some of our food. We can tomatoes and pickle peppers every year. We recently bought a portable smoker and a dehydrator.

I wanted to dry some of the vegetables this fall so I bought several large onions to try the dehydrator out. I read of the instructions that came with it and went to several sites on dehydrators. No where does it mention whether the vent at the top should be open or closed during the drying time.

Does anyone know if it should be open or closed? If you have one , what do you dry and preserve with it?

 

[karrie]

My dehydrator doesn't have vents that can close, and it works just fine like that, open all the time.

I've dehydrated onions, garlic, banana slices (these turn out sort of like caramels.. they're a big hit, but not the deep fried banana chips some have in mind), apple slices, and fruit leather (you need a proper tray for that).

 

[rufus]

My dehydrator doesn't have vents that can close, and it works just fine like that, open all the time.

I've dehydrated onions, garlic, banana slices (these turn out sort of like caramels.. they're a big hit, but not the deep fried banana chips some have in mind), apple slices, and fruit leather (you need a proper tray for that).

You think that I should leave the vents open then? How do you know when the food is dry enough? The book says to dry the sliced or chopped onions for 3-9 hours, that seems like quite a wide time spread.

I found a site that tells you how to rehydrate foods. Have you ever done dried apples and rehydrated them to make a pie or something else?

This is all new to me and I don't want to screw it up and waste food.

 

[karrie]

You think that I should leave the vents open then? How do you know when the food is dry enough? The book says to dry the sliced or chopped onions for 3-9 hours, that seems like quite a wide time spread.

I found a site that tells you how to rehydrate foods. Have you ever done dried apples and rehydrated them to make a pie or something else?

This is all new to me and I don't want to screw it up and waste food.

try to make sure your food is fairly uniformly sliced, and just test to see when it's done. It varies so much according to the food, the humidity of your house, how thick you slice, etc. But, with the onions and garlic, I erred on the side of too dry, and basically went until some were starting to turn slightly brown (closer to the 9 hr mark). It added to the flavor. With other stuff that I knew I was using up sooner, I didn't go for brittle dry the same way.

BTW, the garlic and onions are delish to chop up and toss into a mill with your preferred ratio of coarse salt and pepper corns, and it impresses the hell out of company. :smile:

 

[rufus]

try to make sure your food is fairly uniformly sliced, and just test to see when it's done. It varies so much according to the food, the humidity of your house, how thick you slice, etc. But, with the onions and garlic, I erred on the side of too dry, and basically went until some were starting to turn slightly brown (closer to the 9 hr mark). It added to the flavor. With other stuff that I knew I was using up sooner, I didn't go for brittle dry the same way.

BTW, the garlic and onions are delish to chop up and toss into a mill with your preferred ratio of coarse salt and pepper corns, and it impresses the hell out of company. :smile:

Thank you for the info, that is good to know since we were planning to plant garlic and onions this year. Have you tried to dry any types of pepper (ie. green or Jalapeño), if so how do they come out?

 

[karrie]

Thank you for the info, that is good to know since we were planning to plant garlic and onions this year. Have you tried to dry any types of pepper (ie. green or Jalapeño), if so how do they come out?

I haven't tried drying those no. I only dry what I can get cheap and in bulk, and living in Northern Alberta, my access to cheap bulk peppers is zero.

 

[karrie]

Oh, another thing... dry your onions and garlic outside or your whole house will smell like body odor for ages.

 

[rufus]

Oh, another thing... dry your onions and garlic outside or your whole house will smell like body odor for ages.

I noticed the odor. It smells like frying onions right now, so we lit several scented candles to offset the pungent aroma.