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Lamentations | 11-30-2009 09:32 AM
Recommend a food dehydrator Looking into using a dehydrator to preserve meat and vegies, maybe fruit too. Any models/brand names to look for? What about methods of drying, recipes etc? Use vaccum sealer to put the dried meat in - or glass jars? I was considering using a vacuum sealer to place dried meats into sealed bags, then put those bags into sealed 5gal buckets. Thoughts?

J in AZ | 11-30-2009 09:35 AM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator I have an Excalibur, it is an excellent dehydrator. http://www.excaliburdehydrator.com/

Professur | 11-30-2009 09:45 AM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator How about a foil lined cardboard box with a worklamp (with a 100W incandescent bulb) at the bottom of it. Plans for it are about here somewhere.

PhysicalAsset | 11-30-2009 10:10 AM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator The concept that is most critical is, high air volume, cool temp. You don't want to cook the food, just dry it out. Anything above 95 deg F is probably too high. Especially for meats. Look for the highest CFM and adjustable temps down to 80-85 deg. Air movement is the critical piece.

nickelless | 12-01-2009 01:26 AM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator Quote:
Originally Posted by PhysicalAsset (Post 2051068) The concept that is most critical is, high air volume, cool temp. You don't want to cook the food, just dry it out. Anything above 95 deg F is probably too high. Especially for meats. Look for the highest CFM and adjustable temps down to 80-85 deg. Air movement is the critical piece.
You need to do some research before you start throwing out arbitrary numbers like "Anything above 95 deg F is probably too high", which is not at all the case. Take a look at these temperature ranges that according to your figures would be "probably too high": http://www.living-foods.com/marketpl...orcompare.html You're right that air movement is the critical factor, but the temperature ranges in dehydrators don't at all compare to the temperatures in ovens, as you seem to imply. As for dehydrator models, I've heard a lot of people say that Excaliburs are the best high-end consumer dehydrators on the market, although I've got a dozen dehydrators by Nesco American Harvester that I've picked up on eBay the past few years and I've recommended Nesco to anyone who's expressed interest in dehydrators. I'm also passionate about quashing misinformation about food dehydration because I'm passionate about promoting food storage and emergency preparedness in general. Here are some helpful links you should check out: http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/dehydrators.aspx http://www.fsis.usda.gov/FactSheets/...fety/index.asp http://www.living-foods.com/marketpl...nfomation.html

Bullion_Bob | 12-01-2009 05:21 AM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator +1 on the Excalibur. It's the best one out there from what I was able to collect. I have the 9 tray, it's big, but that's precisely part of how useful it is a getting the job done volume wise.

RichG | 12-01-2009 05:28 AM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator Quote:
Originally Posted by Bullion_Bob (Post 2052694) +1 on the Excalibur. It's the best one out there from what I was able to collect. I have the 9 tray, it's big, but that's precisely part of how useful it is a getting the job done volume wise.
Ditto ...... Excalibur here also. :smokin:

Glass | 12-01-2009 05:49 AM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator that excalibur looks the biz. I didn't want to know they sell those down under. Pricey but I can see a couple advantages over the round stacker one I have. It is a bit like the nesco one except the controls are off and on only. (mine that is) The exalibur would be easier to check one tray at a time. The stackers, you have to turn it off, find somewhere to put the fan unit, which is hot, take of the trays to get to the one you want, then put them down somewhere. The food closest to the fan always dries the fastest. Can you turn the trays around in the excalibur, so you can slide them in otherway round and start drying the stuff that was as the front? The stacker ones you have to shuffle them around because the trays on the bottom dry slower. Trying to think of anything else makes one better than the other. Maybe the usability of the space on the tray. Round things are round though so not sure either one wastes more space than the other there. Straight/square things would be much more space efficient in the excalibur.

Bullion_Bob | 12-01-2009 06:15 AM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator The problem with stacking from what I've read is the flavor mixing issue if you do different items at the same time. No such problem with the Excalibur one.

Glass | 12-01-2009 06:24 AM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator Quote:
Originally Posted by Bullion_Bob (Post 2052729) The problem with stacking from what I've read is the flavor mixing issue if you do different items at the same time. No such problem with the Excalibur one.
yep, thats a very good point.

nickelless | 12-01-2009 06:53 AM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator Quote:
Originally Posted by Bullion_Bob (Post 2052729) The problem with stacking from what I've read is the flavor mixing issue if you do different items at the same time. No such problem with the Excalibur one.
I don't see a reason to do different items at the same time with my Nescos. In fact, it makes more sense to just dehydrate one type of product per dehydrator session so that you can have a more uniform drying cycle. If you're wanting to dehydrate, say, jerky and spinach (which I'm dehydrating at this moment), they have very different densities and composition, and they dry much faster if you keep the jerky in one dehydrator and spinach (or whatever else) in another. No problem with mixing flavors. And like I said above, I'd rather have a dozen cheaper dehydrators (albeit the best of the cheaper models) and not have to worry if one breaks down than to put all my powdered eggs in one basket.

Andy9999 | 12-01-2009 06:54 AM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator I have one and I love it http://herbgardens.about.com/od/prod.../excalibur.htm

diversified2 | 12-01-2009 07:00 AM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator Hands down Excalibur 9 tray. I bought one last year for my husbands Birthday/Christmas present. He loves it...Says you get fantastic results and it's easy to clean.:coolbeer:

Merlin | 12-01-2009 08:58 AM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator Quote:
Originally Posted by diversified2 (Post 2052765) Hands down Excalibur 9 tray. I bought one last year for my husbands Birthday/Christmas present. He loves it...Says you get fantastic results and it's easy to clean.:coolbeer:
I have a small garden, so the 5 tray Excalibur works fine for me. I just dehydrated sliced, blanched potatoes and ran out of space for the very first time in 3 years -- needed a 6 tray, LOL.

PhysicalAsset | 12-01-2009 09:33 AM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator Quote:
Originally Posted by nickelless (Post 2052557) You need to do some research before you start throwing out arbitrary numbers like "Anything above 95 deg F is probably too high", which is not at all the case. Take a look at these temperature ranges that according to your figures would be "probably too high": http://www.living-foods.com/marketpl...orcompare.html You're right that air movement is the critical factor, but the temperature ranges in dehydrators don't at all compare to the temperatures in ovens, as you seem to imply. As for dehydrator models, I've heard a lot of people say that Excaliburs are the best high-end consumer dehydrators on the market, although I've got a dozen dehydrators by Nesco American Harvester that I've picked up on eBay the past few years and I've recommended Nesco to anyone who's expressed interest in dehydrators. I'm also passionate about quashing misinformation about food dehydration because I'm passionate about promoting food storage and emergency preparedness in general. Here are some helpful links you should check out: http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/dehydrators.aspx http://www.fsis.usda.gov/FactSheets/...fety/index.asp http://www.living-foods.com/marketpl...nfomation.html
Thanks for the input. I think we have differing objectives WRT dehydration. I look to preserve the food in its raw state. ESP meats. Heat will alter the protein structure of meats and change the raw texture. I look to remove water from the food without the introduction of external heat. A window fan actually does a great job. If you are looking for convenience, fast dry times and a relativity acceptable product for basic food preservation, you are correct. I would use freeze dehydration if I could. I doesn't alter the food with heat at all.

Big Country | 12-01-2009 09:33 AM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator Is the case on the excalibur made out of plastic? I tend to like things made from metal a little better...no BPA! also they seem like the last a lot longer usually. Any advantages to going with the more expensive TSM Model D10 over say the excalibur? Can you repair the excalibur yourself if something goes bad like the heating element or the fan bearings? does exaclibur sell replacement parts?

diversified2 | 12-01-2009 01:11 PM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator Quote:
Originally Posted by Merlin (Post 2052856) I have a small garden, so the 5 tray Excalibur works fine for me. I just dehydrated sliced, blanched potatoes and ran out of space for the very first time in 3 years -- needed a 6 tray, LOL.
:coolbeer:Buy a 6 tray...Then you will have 11 trays and should be good to go!!!!:shine:

Merlin | 12-01-2009 01:49 PM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator Quote:
Originally Posted by diversified2 (Post 2053371) :coolbeer:Buy a 6 tray...Then you will have 11 trays and should be good to go!!!!:shine:
The last time I looked, Excalibur made a 5 tray and a 9 tray, no 6 tray. Darn!

Bullion_Bob | 12-02-2009 04:15 AM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator Quote:
Originally Posted by nickelless (Post 2052757) I don't see a reason to do different items at the same time with my Nescos. In fact, it makes more sense to just dehydrate one type of product per dehydrator session so that you can have a more uniform drying cycle. If you're wanting to dehydrate, say, jerky and spinach (which I'm dehydrating at this moment), they have very different densities and composition, and they dry much faster if you keep the jerky in one dehydrator and spinach (or whatever else) in another. No problem with mixing flavors. And like I said above, I'd rather have a dozen cheaper dehydrators (albeit the best of the cheaper models) and not have to worry if one breaks down than to put all my powdered eggs in one basket.
I find I often end up mixing stuff, because I like to fill the thing to full capacity when it's on ($$$), and the ingredients don't always work out to fill it just right. It's nice to not have to worry about it, just fill it up with whatever..

Big Country | 12-02-2009 02:47 PM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator I just bought an excalibur 9-tray from the factory direct site... They have a deal right now (sounds like its one of those always-on kind of marketing sham deals...) but it was pretty good! 9-tray with timer (could prolly use an external timer for cheaper then the price difference...) 1)a Poly screen "pack" (guessing this is screens for each of the trays...) so you can dry smaller things... 2)2 fruit leather "non-stick" inserts for the trays 3) dehydrating tips/tricks and recipe book 4) 10 YEAR WARRANTY!!! 5) free shipping total $249 If you go to their website and click products...the specials are across the top. Looking forward to getting it in the mail, I'm bummed I've missed all the farmers markets for this year though!

Big Country | 12-09-2009 08:54 AM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator Got my dehydrator in the mail yesterday, I unboxed it and cut up a container of strawberries I got at the store the other day and put them on the trays, set it for 135 deg. and to dehydrate for 8 hours. I cut the strawberries too thin, I had little paper thin wafers at the end of the drying. They taste fine though and I'll prolly eat them in oatmeal or wheat-meal that I make in the mornings. They will be good in that role! Looking forward to trying other things as time permits...and figuring it out so I end up with sizeable peices!

Bullion_Bob | 12-10-2009 02:37 AM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator One nice tip is to keep the temps higher at the start (food will not get too hot due to higher water content) then reduce it down to enzyme preserving temps to keep the food alive and whole after a few hours. Reduces the drying time, while not "killing" the food. Do some searching on ideal temps for various foods.

Professur | 12-10-2009 08:39 AM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Country (Post 2055784) I just bought an excalibur 9-tray from the factory direct site... They have a deal right now (sounds like its one of those always-on kind of marketing sham deals...) but it was pretty good! 9-tray with timer (could prolly use an external timer for cheaper then the price difference...) 1)a Poly screen "pack" (guessing this is screens for each of the trays...) so you can dry smaller things... 2)2 fruit leather "non-stick" inserts for the trays 3) dehydrating tips/tricks and recipe book 4) 10 YEAR WARRANTY!!! 5) free shipping total $249 If you go to their website and click products...the specials are across the top. Looking forward to getting it in the mail, I'm bummed I've missed all the farmers markets for this year though!
Kinda scary just how much water was in there, eh?

FreeMyLand | 12-12-2009 03:50 PM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator I just picked up one of the 9 tray dehydrators that Cabelas has. It was regularly $149, was on sale for $99 and then I got an additional $20 off with a coupon - so it came to $79. I haven't opened it up yet. I was planning on waiting and getting the Excalibur 9 tray - but after looking the Cabelas unit over - it looked very similar to the Excalibur. Does anyone have one of these units, and have any comments? http://www.cabelas.com/p-0061371518667a.shtml http://images.cabelas.com/is/image/c...?$main-Medium$

WillieTheKid | 12-12-2009 10:02 PM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator I just bought a couple of Nescos. Didn't know if we woud really use them, so we didn't want to put out the cash. Besides, they were available locally when we had some fruit to dry. We couldn't wait for the mail order. They work pretty well, but one time I tried upping the temp to speed things up and ended with charcoal fruit and had to throw the batch out, so like others have said, you do need to watch the temperature. --Willie

nickelless | 12-12-2009 11:48 PM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator Quote:
Originally Posted by WillieTheKid (Post 2072851) I just bought a couple of Nescos. Didn't know if we woud really use them, so we didn't want to put out the cash. Besides, they were available locally when we had some fruit to dry. We couldn't wait for the mail order. They work pretty well, but one time I tried upping the temp to speed things up and ended with charcoal fruit and had to throw the batch out, so like others have said, you do need to watch the temperature. --Willie
I've never had a problem with "charcoal" fruit. Surely it wasn't actually charred, was it? Did you try reconstituting it? What kind of fruit was it?

Bullion_Bob | 12-13-2009 04:50 AM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator One fruit to not bother dehydrating is oranges....they end up bitter and nasty. The oranges were super sweet and organic as well. Odd. I tend to do everything (except meat) at 135F for a few hours then reduce temps to 110F for the remainder. Usually takes about 10+ hours depending on how thick you slice.

melbo | 12-14-2009 03:48 PM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator I think I see an excalibur under the tree with my name on it. Not sure what else would come in a 24" sqare box. My wife lurks on GIM so maybe she read this thread!

bjgnome | 12-14-2009 04:26 PM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator Solar dehydrators are child's play to build, assuming you have the right climate. Search internet for plans, but though your imagination will suffice.

WillieTheKid | 12-14-2009 04:30 PM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator Quote:
Originally Posted by nickelless (Post 2072955) I've never had a problem with "charcoal" fruit. Surely it wasn't actually charred, was it? Did you try reconstituting it? What kind of fruit was it?
I think they were pears and peach/plums, both fairly thinly slice--and yes, they were very dark and tasted of charcoal. They were inedible and we had to throw them out. --Willie

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- - Recommend a food dehydrator (http://goldismoney.info/forums/showthread.php?t=428090)

WillieTheKid | 12-14-2009 04:32 PM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator Quote:
Originally Posted by Bullion_Bob (Post 2073154) One fruit to not bother dehydrating is oranges....they end up bitter and nasty. The oranges were super sweet and organic as well. Odd. I tend to do everything (except meat) at 135F for a few hours then reduce temps to 110F for the remainder. Usually takes about 10+ hours depending on how thick you slice.
The little canned mandarin oranges are GREAT, however. They come out like candy. I gobbled them all down first thing, so they didn't work well for long term food storage. I also liked drying canned pineapple. --Willie

nickelless | 12-15-2009 12:10 AM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator Quote:
Originally Posted by Bullion_Bob (Post 2073154) One fruit to not bother dehydrating is oranges....they end up bitter and nasty. The oranges were super sweet and organic as well. Odd. .
Yeah, I had that same experience with oranges about 10 years ago. It was pretty bad. I haven't bothered to try dehydrating citrus fruits at all since then. I think it might be because of the citric acid that they turn sour when they're heated.

democopy | 12-15-2009 10:22 AM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator This i what I purchased 3900 R Excalibur � $159.95 available with Black or White Case - FREE Shipping and 10 Year Warranty

democopy | 12-15-2009 10:23 AM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator Food Drying By Marcella Shaffer http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/shaffer58.html

agmom | 01-11-2010 01:35 PM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator Question: Timer or no timer? I'm trying to decide between the 9 tray Excalibur with or without the timer. Is the timer actually helpful? My inclination is to buy the one without, as it would be one less item that could potentially break. OTOH, if the timer is actually useful, I'd prefer to buy that one. My only experience with a dehydrator is an old American Harvest that was more trouble than it was worth. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

obilly | 01-11-2010 02:02 PM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator i have dehydrated in conventional oven,,using the oven light,,,,by changing bulb size you can obtain exactly the temp. you want,,,,it works very well,,,,,a gas oven with active pilot light and oven light on is just about all you need sometimes,,,,

Big Country | 01-11-2010 02:10 PM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator I bought the exacalibur with the timer because it is less hassle (dont have to get up in the middle of the night to unplug it) but I think you can go to walmart and buy a timer for lamps and such for like $5 so I don't think it is worth it to get the built in timer. I wasn't thinking when I bought it, you can do the same thing cheaper with the external timers you can get in any lighting section of any store.. Though if your outlets are hard to get to/packed then it may be worth it to pay the extra $20 to have it built in...

mayhem | 01-11-2010 07:40 PM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator No timer here on my 9 tray Excalibur. I use the 'living foods' method and it is almost impossible to time.

lessoil=+pm | 01-11-2010 10:11 PM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator http://www.geopathfinder.com/9473.html check these solar ones out. i have most of the mat'ls but yet to make one. the 'cat's meow' i believe.

RKaz | 01-15-2010 02:50 PM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Country (Post 2052926) Is the case on the excalibur made out of plastic? I tend to like things made from metal a little better...no BPA! also they seem like the last a lot longer usually. Any advantages to going with the more expensive TSM Model D10 over say the excalibur? Can you repair the excalibur yourself if something goes bad like the heating element or the fan bearings? does exaclibur sell replacement parts?
Agreed on the plastic! I try to stay away from plastic whenever food is concerned - especially at high temperatures. I bought this model and I'm very happy with it: http://www.kitchengadgetry.com/kitch...1w-p-6976.html

RKaz | 01-15-2010 03:06 PM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator Question for the group here - the dehydrator i have (link in post above) has trays made out of steel that have good sized holes in them. Can anyone recommend a good material to put over the trays when drying small items (like corn for example)? TIA!

The Great Ag | 01-15-2010 03:58 PM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator I just found this thread and was dreading doing canning this fall. So getting a dehydrator would be a great addition. Thanks everyone. To answer your question, I would think wax or parchment paper would work fine. You can get them at any grocery store. NOt sure if this will work, but I think it would. The Great Ag

bjgnome | 02-09-2010 11:48 PM
Re: Recommend a food dehydrator Relatively simple solar dehydrator made from broken fridge: http://www.youtube.com/paulwheaton12#p/u/0/5U1JgAkW-xY

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