Dehydrator? What do you do with yours?

[Miss Peregrine]

Just bought one. :)

[Melissa in Australia]

I have these terrific drying racks that DH made that hang from my kitchen ceiling over my wood combustion stove. this year I have used them to make:

fruit leather ( decided it was not good for teeth so haven't made any more)

dried prune plumbs (form our tree)

 about 5 washing baskets of apples  (From our trees)

 dried cherry tomatoes

and am currently drying chilies

[Miss Peregrine]

I have these terrific drying racks that DH made that hang from my kitchen ceiling over my wood combustion stove. this year I have used them to make:

fruit leather ( decided it was not good for teeth so haven't made any more)

dried prune plumbs (form our tree)

about 5 washing baskets of apples (From our trees)

dried cherry tomatoes

and am currently drying chilies

What would you do with dried tomatoes? The book that came with it had instructions to dry cucumbers. Why? Haha. I need help thinking outside the box.

[AndyJoy]

I'll be following as I haven't done anything adventurous yet with mine.

 

I dehydrate LOTS of apples in October after we go to a U-pick farm.  When they are $1 a lb. at the grocery store I do some then.  I've also done orange rings which I just hang with raffia for Christmas decorations

[Melissa in Australia]

What would you do with dried tomatoes? The book that came with it had instructions to dry cucumbers. Why? Haha. I need help thinking outside the box.

 

it was the first time of drying tomatoes . After they were dry I put them in a jar and covered with a very thin layer of olive oil. I see sundried tomatoes in the deli for some outrageous price ( like $45 /kg or something like that) . I believe you can use them just like an ordinary tomato - add a few to a salad or sprinkle a few on top of a pizza...

[Miss Peregrine]

it was the first time of drying tomatoes . After they were dry I put them in a jar and covered with a very thin layer of olive oil. I see sundried tomatoes in the deli for some outrageous price ( like $45 /kg or something like that) . I believe you can use them just like an ordinary tomato - add a few to a salad or sprinkle a few on top of a pizza...

Yum. That sounds good.

[Rosie_0801]

I had a go at making "scoby snacks" from left over kombucha mothers a few months back. They are rather like dog chews, but if you marinade them, they taste better than dog chews smell. I intend more experiments next summer.

 

My aunt likes my dehydrator better than hers and has used it for drying onions for winter. Raw, they pack a wallop, blanched they are like onion chips and really munchy. We also make stock powder.

[abba12]

My family don't like dried fruit much. The only successes we had were things like melons and pineapple which turned into a kind of chewy sugary sweet thing that they ate like lollies (candy). And citrus slices have some uses. Other than that we don't bother with fruit in it.

 

We use ours when we are given a large amount of produce, to store it in a much smaller space than the freezer. I dehydrated a huge box of carrots once, and I've done a load of lemons. I did a bunch of green beans when the store had them for next to nothing due to the season, and once when I NEEDED freezer space I dried like 3 or 4 bags of frozen peas/corn, which made them MUCH smaller and freed up my freezer. Basically the idea is to dehydrate instead of freeze when there's a glut. They rehydrate really well, I don't use them on their own personally, though they are usually good enough quality, but if you put them in stew/soup/bolognese/curry/chilli etc you can't even tell the difference. They also last forever, I threw some dehydrated carrot from a year ago into a stew last week and they were perfect, taste/colour/texture all there. I like to keep them on hand in my natural disaster storage, since flooding is a genuine concern here.

 

I also make green powder. I get spinach, baby spinach, silverbeet, bok choy, whatever dark leafy greens I have, and dehydrate them. They shrivel into almost nothing but my research says they retain most the nutrients due to the slow drying process, only the water and living enzymes are missing. I then pound them into a powder (they are very, very brittle) and I can add a spoonful into things like spaghetti or stew without anyone noticing or tasting, no green wilty things floating in the food, but I know it's a boost of nutrition. Also good for smoothies if you live in an area where leafy greens can't be easily gotten year round. When you see the amount they shrivel to, you'll realize a spoonful is equivalent of a HUGE amount lol

 

I want to try biltong (south african beef jerky) but I haven't been game enough to try meat yet. Also want to try drying some herbs this year.

[Carrie12345]

We LOVE homemade jerky.  It stinks up the house and it's nearly gone in less time than it takes to make, but it sure is yummy.

The kids love dried apples and pears when we pick our own.

Dh loves dried strawberries.  I think they're too bitter, but I make them for him now and then.

 

I haven't gotten all that creative yet, but I'd say it's been worth it for just those few things so far.

[G5052]

Primarily herbs here.  Home dried parsley is much more flavorful.

[Lizzie in Ma]

I wish I had one!  If I did, I would buy fruit when it is in season and dry it to keep for all sorts of stuff.  Have fun!

[Miss Peregrine]

My family don't like dried fruit much. The only successes we had were things like melons and pineapple which turned into a kind of chewy sugary sweet thing that they ate like lollies (candy). And citrus slices have some uses. Other than that we don't bother with fruit in it.

 

We use ours when we are given a large amount of produce, to store it in a much smaller space than the freezer. I dehydrated a huge box of carrots once, and I've done a load of lemons. I did a bunch of green beans when the store had them for next to nothing due to the season, and once when I NEEDED freezer space I dried like 3 or 4 bags of frozen peas/corn, which made them MUCH smaller and freed up my freezer. Basically the idea is to dehydrate instead of freeze when there's a glut. They rehydrate really well, I don't use them on their own personally, though they are usually good enough quality, but if you put them in stew/soup/bolognese/curry/chilli etc you can't even tell the difference. They also last forever, I threw some dehydrated carrot from a year ago into a stew last week and they were perfect, taste/colour/texture all there. I like to keep them on hand in my natural disaster storage, since flooding is a genuine concern here.

 

I also make green powder. I get spinach, baby spinach, silverbeet, bok choy, whatever dark leafy greens I have, and dehydrate them. They shrivel into almost nothing but my research says they retain most the nutrients due to the slow drying process, only the water and living enzymes are missing. I then pound them into a powder (they are very, very brittle) and I can add a spoonful into things like spaghetti or stew without anyone noticing or tasting, no green wilty things floating in the food, but I know it's a boost of nutrition. Also good for smoothies if you live in an area where leafy greens can't be easily gotten year round. When you see the amount they shrivel to, you'll realize a spoonful is equivalent of a HUGE amount lol

 

I want to try biltong (south african beef jerky) but I haven't been game enough to try meat yet. Also want to try drying some herbs this year.

This is helpful! Do you use the vegetables measure for measure?

[zoobie]

Currently, I dust it. 

 

I've made banana chips and beef jerky. Yum. A friend dehydrates sweet potatoes for doggie snacks. That is on my list to try.

[Cera]

If you dry veggies you can make easy soup mixes.  There are a lot of recipes online.  Herbs and fruit slices are our other big ones.  Dried berries are great in oatmeal and cereals or for muffins.

[Dory]

I dry a huge amount of apples every year. At least half of them are with coconut sugar and cinnamon (tastes like apple pie).

I dry lots of cabbage and use the dried pieces in my soups.

A fairly large amount of herbs also go through it and then into containers for the winter.

 

I have done some pumpkin seeds in mine as well, but I prefer them in the oven.

[Seeking Squirrels]

I have these terrific drying racks that DH made that hang from my kitchen ceiling over my wood combustion stove. this year I have used them to make:

fruit leather ( decided it was not good for teeth so haven't made any more)

dried prune plumbs (form our tree)

about 5 washing baskets of apples (From our trees)

dried cherry tomatoes

and am currently drying chilies

I read this three times as "terrifying drying racks" and was trying to figure out if it would randomly fall on you or what. Yea, baby woke me up too early this morning, I blame sleep deprivation!

 

 

As for what I do with mine...dust it off about once a year when I think of it and pull it down. I really do mean to use it, it just never happens.

[HelenNotOfTroy]

Let it collect dust on top of the kitchen cabinets.

[Lady Florida.]

Mine had been collecting dust, but I recently brought it out to make beef jerky. Dh and ds love it, and it's so expensive to buy. It does stink up the house, and for someone (yours truly) who hates jerky it's a horrible odor. Fortunately it doesn't linger.

[shukriyya]

I make yogurt roll-ups, dry soaked nuts, various fruits and I use it to incubate my yogurt. Comes out perfectly every time.

[LostSurprise]

Apples, Peppers, and Herbs the most. 

 

Perfect for incubating yogurt and rising bread dough. 

[Donna]

We just got a dehydrator a few months ago. We make fruit leather and dehydrate any veggies or fruit that might go bad if not used. I am hoping it will be especially useful when the garden is in full swing this summer. We can the dried produce to use in soups and stews (veggies), in baked goods (fruit), or just to snack on. Dried fruit hardly lasts a couple days with the kids snacking on it.

 

Will also be drying all our extra herbs from the gardens. Hoping to not have to buy any more dried herbs in the winter.

[phathui5]

First one to say it....

 

I encapsulate placentas in it.

[abba12]

This is helpful! Do you use the vegetables measure for measure?

 

No, the veggies take up much less space once dehydrated so a cup of fresh veg is much less than a cup of dehydrated veg usually. How much less depends on the water content of the vegetable. You'll get a feel for it eventually, but a good place to start is probably about 1/3rd of the amount. So one cup of bell peppers or celery or zuchinni dried is about 3 cups of fresh. But this is REALLY variable based on the vegetable (corn becomes much smaller than green beans for example) the variety (some celery is quite 'meaty' while some is quite watery) and even the time of year (strawberries overswollen and watery because of excess rain will shrink a lot more than strawberries during a good period of the season, we found this a few years ago). It becomes a matter of looking, guessing, and throwing a few more in later :)

[Trilliums]

Kale chips.    Tear up washed kale leaves, toss with olive oil and salt, dehydrate.  They also have a pungent smell, but I love munching on them once done.