I'm a dehydration noob with a lot of bananas.
So far I've made bendy, leathery slices. They taste nice, but they're not the crunchy chips I had in mind. Are those achievable on my home dehydrator?
Is it a temperature thing? I've used about 40C so far.
Hey everyone, I recently came across a company selling dehydrated sauces/pastes specifically for restaurants. They claim the product is preservative-free and FSSAI-approved.
The concept is basically: add water, blend/grind it in a mixer, and you have the sauce/paste ready to use — so there’s no need to cut and process onions, tomatoes, garlic, etc. This could potentially save a lot of prep time, labour, and wastage.
I’m considering trying it for my restaurant, but I’d love to hear from people who have actually used similar products.
Would love to hear your experiences or recommendations before I try it.
Hello, I got a circular fruit leather tray off of Amazon UK. Advertised as food grade silicone but it looks, feels and behaves like plastic. I expected it to feel rubbery and be flexible, but it feels plasticky and is rigid.
How does one tell if it's true silicone?
Edit: added picture - top one is what I bought, bottom is advertised as plastic. Look identical to me. Some Amazon listings describe them as both plastic AND silicone.
I’m still pretty new to dehydrating, but I rent a house with fruit trees and dried fruit is one of my favorite snacks. The Italian plum has a bumper crop this year (branches are breaking from the weight of the fruit 😅)
What is the easiest way to dehydrate the plums? The fruit is pretty small, maybe 2-3 inches in diameter. Last year I cut them all in half and removed the pits but that was super time consuming. I read somewhere that you could dry them whole and pop the pits out later?
The Ball Blue Book talks about cutting them in half and popping the backs to make prunes, would the advantage of that method only be that they dry faster?
I have a batch going now, they are whole but I have slit the seam with plans to pop out the pits halfway through drying. The dehydrator is set to 135. I’m just hoping to learn from you all the most efficient way to dry as many plums as possible during a busy time of year.
Thanks for your advice!
We just upgraded to the latest Digital Excalibur. The fan has a 'pulse' where the old one was continuos.
Is this part of the new 'airflow' feature? or is something wrong with it?
Its sort of without rythym, and maybe every 15-30s or so?
Hello all,
I was thinking of dehydrating my own dog food on my Excalibur . What are your thoughts? Should I purchase a commercial dehydrator? Or is it more a freeze dried machine process ? Has anyone done this?
Thanks
They are still a little chewy, but I'm keeping them in the fridge. 10 hours for all of them. I'm getting a mandolin because I cut them uneven🤪
Hello peoples! First time posting here, I made a go of making fruit leather last night with oranges, mandarins, golden kiwi, and pineapple, and the mix before dehydrating tasted very nice! But afterwards turned out rather bitter
So I'm here to ask if anyone has any recipe recommendations with these fruits or suggestions even
Thank you!
I have a lot of fresh ripe cantaloupe from my garden and was planning on blending it and making fruit leather in my dehydrator tomorrow morning.
Some I will blend with wild blueberries from frozen that I’ve thawed first. I may add honey but I’ll taste first and decide.
My question is should I add anything else, like pectin? I saw that floating around in past posts about fruit leather made with low pectin fruits. I’d rather it come out really good then be crap since it’s a LOT of my home grown fruit lol
This was my first time making dehydrated tomatoes, and I’m really happy with how they turned out.
I cut fresh tomatoes in halves and dehydrated them until they lost most of their moisture but were still slightly flexible rather than completely crispy.
The first photo is probably my favorite — I held one up to the light and was surprised by how beautiful the structure inside the tomato looked after dehydration.
After drying, I packed them into jars with extra virgin olive oil, garlic, herbs, a little rosemary, and mixed peppercorns.
I’ve already realized that a dehydrator is one of those things you buy for one purpose and then suddenly want to dehydrate everything 😄
How far do you usually take your tomatoes — completely dry and crispy, or do you prefer them slightly soft/leathery like these?
I bought some kangaroo but it comes frozen so once it thaws out do I need to cook the meat first on the stove? or can I just put it into my cookie batch along with my other ingredients? then bake them in the oven and then dehydrate for 10 hours or so. I wanted to make some dog biscuits/treats out of it. just not sure if it should be cooked or not.
Followed one of the recipes from a Google search(used Tender-quick) . Came out a bit bland. Might have to tweek it a little.
I have a bunch of applesauce squeezes and wanted to try making fruit leather. Six hrs later, however it was stuck to the trays, I had run out of parchment paper. This is 3 trays worth, 4 squeezes each tray.
Not sure why I’ve never thought of this and have also never seen it in this sub, but why aren’t dehydrated pickles a common thing?
After some brief googling I did see that people do this, but very surprised this isn’t top of the list. What’s your experience with dehydrated pickles?
I’m wanting to do this as a chip, not a seasoning, so let me know your thoughts!
I have way too many tomatoes so I tried dehydrating them, I used too much seasoning which is Nori Komi Furikake rice seasoning 🤤
The first time I have done zucchini, I tossed them with olive oil and everything seasoning but ran out😅
I bought two bundles of bananas because I'm obsessed with them!! 🤪
We recently got a dehydrator and want to make Jerky. We bought top round, sliced it thin, and it's been marinating for 24hrs. I want to start it this morning and was planning to just put it right into the dehydrator at 160°F for 4-8 hours and call it a day.
Our instruction manual (Hamilton Beach) says that after this you should bake it at 275°F for 10-12 mins. My husband did some research on his own and says that I should bake it at 350°F for 7-10mins BEFORE dehydrating it, so that it reaches a good safe temp before going in.
Is it necessary to bake it? I can't find anything that says to bake it beforehand and I'm worried it will ruin it. If I just follow the manual and bake at 275°F after it dehydrates, will that be safe?
Thanks in advance
I have a package of dried (i.e., not in a jar/not in oil, but in a cellophane bag) sun-dried tomatoes with a best-by date of April 2019. The package is unopened (tomatoes in a plastic tray, covered with sealed cellophane bag - but probably far from air-tight).
Safe to eat? Not worth the risk, even if small?
Thanks!
