Henrietta23
Yard Farmer
Nothing. I haven't progressed beyond using my dehydrator and it's too hot to turn it on. :/
What are you DEHYDRATING today?
- Thread starter Wifezilla
- Start date
noobiechickenlady
Almost Self-Reliant
The tomatoes are turning out okay, its more like tomato leather bits cause they were frozen to facilitate easy skin removal, so I might whirl em in the food processor to make the tomato powder mentioned previously. The last of our corn was ravaged by a family of coons, only a few ears left to eat fresh, so I skipped to the basil that was about to go to seed. Some was frozen, some packed in olive oil in the fridge, I dried the rest. I took the trays from my dehydrator and put them out on the trampoline and went to town. When we got home, they were crispy dry and still nicely green.
And I answered my own question about the bugs. Screen wire - duh moment. I need to screen our windows in anyways, so I'll use the excess to cover foods on the trampoline. Cool!
And I answered my own question about the bugs. Screen wire - duh moment. I need to screen our windows in anyways, so I'll use the excess to cover foods on the trampoline. Cool!
I stuck three trays of frozen veggies in the oven at 160 overnight with the windows open to let out the heat. They are almost done. It's so much easier and cheaper to do frozen than fresh, although I have a whole lot of dehydrated fresh in the vacuum bags as well.
While I am at it, let me ask something. I received a case of spaghetti sauce in cans recently, and ended up dehydrating it and vac sealing. I also have experimented with canned beef stew. But I want to try it with fresh stew. Has anyone tried that and are there any tips? The potatoes from the canned were awful, but otherwise it was really good. My nephew eats it dry as a snack !
I always keep the temperature as low as will get the job done when dehydrating, the idea being to dry the food, not cook it. The following is what made me start doing that, and I've always had good results. For whatever its worth, here is some information from a book I have: "Food Drying at Home, the Natural Way" by Bee Beyer, 1976. (Kind of long; sorry)
"... there are two schools of thought on the best temperature at which to dry. My experience based on years of experimentation and drying with all different recommended procedures and temperatures is that drying at low temperatures - between 110 and 118 degrees - is vastly superior on almost every count (color, flavor, nutrition) to high temperatures.
Let's look at the differences.
Nutrients:
Low Temperatures. One of the main reasons for drying is that you want to preserve natural nutrients. Low temperatures sustain life. Humans can live at this temperature, and so does the life in a seed ... Your goal is to create a dormant - not dead - state. Demonstrate this ... take some yeast dough. Spread it on ... parchment paper. Dry it at the low temperature. Then reconstitue it, and use to make ... some pizza .... The yeast will multiply ... The life and nutrients have not been destroyed.
High temperatures. High temperatures destroy food values. ... fruits and vegetables exposed to high temperatures are deprived of approximately 65% of their food value.
Quality:
Low temperatures retain "fresh" flavor and color. People ... are astonished at the the totally marvelous flavor, almost like fresh, that is maintained, and the retention of the natural colors ...
High temperatures can burn, caramelize, or scorch your food, especially if you use heat that is up to 140 degrees or over, changing not only the flavor, but color and nutrition as well.
Time and attention:
Low temperatures enable you dry a variety of food at the same time without constant attendance. If you have put in an assortment of food of different thicknesses and qualities, different drying times will be required. With the low temperature it is not necessary to remember which trays to pull out at which time. All the food can be left in until the very last piece is dry - with no damage to the others dried earlier. ....
High temperatures demand constant attention. Trays need to be rotated ... You need to carefully watch to take trays out at exactly the "right" time to prevent scorching ..."
I have shortened this somewhat, but what she says makes sense to me, so I always keep the dehydrator between 105 and 115 degrees, and it works for me.
"... there are two schools of thought on the best temperature at which to dry. My experience based on years of experimentation and drying with all different recommended procedures and temperatures is that drying at low temperatures - between 110 and 118 degrees - is vastly superior on almost every count (color, flavor, nutrition) to high temperatures.
Let's look at the differences.
Nutrients:
Low Temperatures. One of the main reasons for drying is that you want to preserve natural nutrients. Low temperatures sustain life. Humans can live at this temperature, and so does the life in a seed ... Your goal is to create a dormant - not dead - state. Demonstrate this ... take some yeast dough. Spread it on ... parchment paper. Dry it at the low temperature. Then reconstitue it, and use to make ... some pizza .... The yeast will multiply ... The life and nutrients have not been destroyed.
High temperatures. High temperatures destroy food values. ... fruits and vegetables exposed to high temperatures are deprived of approximately 65% of their food value.
Quality:
Low temperatures retain "fresh" flavor and color. People ... are astonished at the the totally marvelous flavor, almost like fresh, that is maintained, and the retention of the natural colors ...
High temperatures can burn, caramelize, or scorch your food, especially if you use heat that is up to 140 degrees or over, changing not only the flavor, but color and nutrition as well.
Time and attention:
Low temperatures enable you dry a variety of food at the same time without constant attendance. If you have put in an assortment of food of different thicknesses and qualities, different drying times will be required. With the low temperature it is not necessary to remember which trays to pull out at which time. All the food can be left in until the very last piece is dry - with no damage to the others dried earlier. ....
High temperatures demand constant attention. Trays need to be rotated ... You need to carefully watch to take trays out at exactly the "right" time to prevent scorching ..."
I have shortened this somewhat, but what she says makes sense to me, so I always keep the dehydrator between 105 and 115 degrees, and it works for me.
I wish that were possible. I know it's best, but my options are limited. I have been using my homemade dehydrator (it recently gave up the ghost) at a lower temperature and ended up with molded food. My tabletop is at my daughter's for apparently the long haul. All I have is my oven, and it only goes as low as 160. So far the results have been good. So, I know better...but it's not possible.
Well, we do what we can, right? Better 160 than not at all I would think. I should think in Visalia you could work out some sort of solar dehydrator couldn't you? But I don't know if I would want to use that for drying stew. I used the sun to dry fruits and veggies when I lived near San Jose, and I think Visalia is hotter and drier than that. Aren't you near Fresno?Ldychef2k said:
freemotion
Food Guru
If you have a car, you have a low-temperature dehydrator......or a kiln for lumber! 
I put some small birch trunks in dh's car to kill any lurking beetles before I make a headboard for our bed with them. He came in this morning and said, "What are those trees doing in my car?"
I said, "Oh, you mean the kiln?" It was 110 degrees in there this morning, perfect for kiln-drying. Probably got a little hotter mid-day, even better!
I put some small birch trunks in dh's car to kill any lurking beetles before I make a headboard for our bed with them. He came in this morning and said, "What are those trees doing in my car?" I said, "Oh, you mean the kiln?"
It was 110 degrees in there this morning, perfect for kiln-drying. Probably got a little hotter mid-day, even better!
. I thought I moved to Oregon to get away from the heat.big brown horse
Hoof In Mouth
So you are getting this horrible heat wave too?!!
