[pct-l] dehydrating food

[hiker at godlikebuthumble.com (Hiker)]

At 04:48 PM 1/16/04, Judson Brown wrote:
>I'd like to get into the whole dehydratin' thing rather than spending my
>huge teacher's salary on freeze dried. Are all food dehydrators more or less
>the same, or are there some recommendable models out there?

Get one with a fan. Otherwise I think they are pretty much the same

You can also make one fairly cheaply, if you are so inclined.

Personally I use the "snackmaster" mode of the popular American Harvest 
dehydrator. Lots of dealers our there for them.
http://www.google.com/search?q=american+harvest+dehydrator

I bought some extra trays. The only caveat I have is to limit the number of 
trays you use if you are dehydrating wet stuff, especially with cooked 
meat, like soups, chilli, or stews. You are racing the dehydration against 
the meat spoiling.

I still use mine for making fruit  leather, when fruit gets really cheap in 
the fall. I also like dehydrating frozen fruits and vegetables. The pain of 
preparing fresh fruit by hand  (for me anyway) outweighs the cost of the 
commercial stuff, so except for fruit leather, I usually buy dried fruit

I also noticed a significant increase in my electricity bill the 2 months 
my dehydrator was running 24 hours a day. I sometimes wondered if the 
electricity bill would have offset just buying the stuff commercially, but 
I like the stuff I make better than the commercial stuff, so I keep doing 
it anyway.

YMMV