Dehydrating Noob

“My wife picked up a couple of Am. Harverstor 2200 Dehydrators from a garage sale. No manuals. I've searched the archives and read the threads regarding the food types some of you have had success and failures with. Great info.

Here is my question...

Timing and Temps? How long do I dry a product? Fruit. Spag Sauce, etc...without a manual I have no idea how to properly time the drying process or at what temps certain foods should be dried.

Any help would be appreciated.”

“I dunno.
I've never dehydrated a noob.”

“lol.. lol..

Drying a newbie is a slow process. Sun drying takes three to five days while solar drying takes one or two days. It is difficult to do sundrying or solar drying in Wisconsin because humidity is often too high. In a dehydrator, it will take 6 or more hours to dry a noob, and in your oven, it will take 8 or more hours. Drying time depends on type of newbie, thickness, and type of drying method you're using. Don't be tempted to speed up the drying time by turning up the oven. You will cook the noob on the outside before it dries on the inside. This is called case hardening. The newbie may appear dry on the outside but may be wet on the inside. Moisture left in the noob will cause it to morph into a troll.”

“Honestly, I thought this would be about dehydrating on the trail...


pakratz, I found this page that has links to download the manuals for some of the American Harvest dehydrators, but not for the 2200/FD-30. But the one for the FD-35 might be close.”

“There's been a bunch of good threads about this . I tried to find a couple of the good ones for you but there is a bunch to sift through.

Give it a whirl.
http://www.thebackpacker.com/trailtalk/index.php?title=dehydra&age=9999”

“Man, you got yerself a nice dehydrater if it has temperature settings! Good score.”

“Honestly I just turn the sucker on and check it after many hours.

Ground beef and most sauces we leave overnight. Fruits go longer.”

“I turn mine up to high.. .. give it several hours.. check it.. and turn it off and package once it is done.. It's easy.. LOVE my dehydrator.”

“Fruits should be pliable when dry, veggies should be crisp. Haven't tried meat in my new dehydrator yet.”

“bit..thanks..I looked at the mod# on the bottom of the unit. It's an FD50. I dowmloaded and printed the manual for my wife to begin reading.

HPM..I've did a search and read thur quite a few of the threads. Your link however picked up a couple of more threads that I didn't see. Thanks!

Sass. Both units are the same. They say 2200 on the box, yet Mod50/30 on the bottom label. Both have temp controls.

I'm stoked about trying them out. I want to get beyond fruits and veggies. I'm an excellent cook and really want to prepare and dry complete dishes for out on the trail.”

“OK cool, glad I could help.”

“Yeah I re-read your post and saw that after I posted. whoops

Search tip.
Truncating (shortening) the word you are seaching for will return more results.

Searching for Dehydra also picks up:
Dehydrator
Dehydrating
Dehydrate
Dehydration

Back to your regularly scheduled thread....”

“Backpack Gourmet by Linday Yafee is a pretty good book with nice recipes on dehydrating... :-)

My hubby and I have tried several of hte recipes... Our favorites:

Canyon Country Chili (Veggie, but very hearty!)
Tuna Spread
Black Bean Salsa
Some LIke it Hot Spread
Beef Jerky

She also has some really great recipes for breads and cookies... :-)”