Dehydrating...share your fav's!

“I use instant potatoes all the time when backpacking.

The dehydrated watermelon has been my fav so far.

Thanks to stikmon for turning me on to that. When he shared the watermelon when we hiked at LBL in '04, I was hooked.”

“I've dehydrated my own shredded potatoes. They work great. I get the potatoes that are frozen and dehydrate them. I've used them in cheezy potato soap and beef stew.”

“I have used the dehydrated hash browns. The potatoes had a funky seasoning. Presalted or something. Not a good taste.”

“dehyd. watermelon rawks!!! so do strawberries! I use instant taters (prepkgd store bought) all the time w much success. Goes great w chicken n dressing.”

“I've dehydrated shredded, boiled potatoes, along with dehyrated chicken and onions for hash. Be forewarned: They really do a number on the ziplock bags though, so double up or you'll have a fountain when it comes time to rehydrate.”

“Don't the potatoes end up turning brown?

I use the instant mashed all the time but I suppose if you're going for chunky style that shredded is the way to go.

Are the boxed potato dishes (scalloped, etc) dehydrated or freeze dried?”

“Nah, they stay nice and white. Do 'em a little underdone and they shred better (you fry them up in a pan and cook them further). I find the solid platic tray inserts for the dehyrator are the best.

I dunno about the boxed pots...”

“boxed scalloped potatoes are raw dehydrated i think.
thanks everyone.
and i'm going to try the watermelon as soon as i can find them for under 8$ each.

why can't i find plastic inserts for my dehydrator up here :(”

“Potatoes that are frozen will not turn brown. They have already been blanched. If you are dehydrating freshly peeled potatoes, you will need to put them in boiling water for about 5 minutes before you dehydrate them. That will keep them from turning brown.”

“Interesting, windi. i have never had to do that.

hel, try finding them on-line for your model of dehyrator...”

“Have lots of red Bell Peppers to dehydrate to use in stir fries and soups, etc. Will be cutting them into small pieces like small diced tomato size. Others I want to leave in long slice size so I can add the to sausages. but how do I set this dehydrator up?

As I mentioned before: I have a Bee Beyer's “The Original” Food Dehydrator, Model # B B 50001.

There is no on/off switch and no Temp. Switch. I have large vents on the bottom with a Disk marked A, B, C, D, E. "A" closes off all the vents and "E" leaves all the vents open.

On the Lid of the dehydrator There are 5 holes labeled 0, 1, 2, 3, 4. These also are adjustable. If you place the adjustment on "0" all the holes are are closed off. If you place the adjustment on "4" then all the holes are open.

That is all the adjustment for temp. that there is on the dehydrator.

So I guess just set it up in the middle settings and let it go? Any idea on the length of time until they are finished? An hour, two, half a day, 24 hours or more...?

We run into a lot of produce that we have to purchase in large lots and only need a little bit of it. Instead of throwing it out we want to freeze what we can and dehydrate what we can. can someone recommend a good website that at least will give me a starting idea on how to do this.

We use a lot of Jalapeno Peppers to put into Hot sauce. We roast them then cut off the tops and the clean out the insides and cut the peppers in half.

I then want to dehydrate them so that when they are needed to flavor the hot sauce I can drop six pieces(3 peppers cut in half) into the mix and have it done with.

Our local store sells Jalapenos Peppers for 3.99 a lb, ridiculous! When I run across them at .99 a Lb or less I stock up on therm. That is when we begin roasting and freezing but want to start dehydrating them too.

Any help out there as to where to look to get an idea on how to set up this dehydrator and not ruin the food? Thanks ahead of time for any suggestions. before.the.rainz@gmail.com”

“http://www.nesco.com/category_449f7f01f1ea/subcategory_39febe0b9343/product_425bff160394/session_90b979923b62/

I use this one, I think I paid right around $40 for mine. There are many things that dehydrate well, and some that don't. In my limited yet growing experience, I find things I cook in a crockpot, like pot roast or chicken, come back really well. Use very lean meat! Stay away from creams..”

“We do some deer jerky every year and this year we tried ground meat instead of sliced meat. If you've never butchered a deer, there's lots of connective tissue in between the muscle layers and slicing it thin by hand is tedious. The ground jerky was ok but the texture is a little wierd. Not as good as sliced...
The End”