Re: [CH] dehydrators

VoodooChile (rael64@qwest.net)
Thu, 27 Jun 2002 08:26:26 -0600

>Hi There!  I too am interested in gettig a dehydrator this year. 
>Thanks all for the suggestions.  I get the feeling I'll be best 
>served by just going and seeing what is for sale (at a good deal!)in 
>my area, rather than set out for a specific one.  Everybody seems to 
>be more-or-less happy with thiers.  The better question might be, 
>are there any that we should avoid?

I've only experience w/my American Harvest, so no evil tales of other brands...

>Are these dehydrators also good for fruit and "fruit leather"?

Never made fruit leather as I've never discovered just how in hell 
they *do* make edible (fruit leather) undies.  Ah well.  As for 
drying fruit, no problems really.  Blueberries didn't do too well 
because there's a fine line between truly dried and too/over- dried, 
at least in my experience.  Just wasn't satisfied w/the product.  It 
may be a "berry thing".  Except strawberries.  They dry wonderfully 
(got a bowl full of oatmeal here w/dried sliced strawberries...good 
breakfast, jes!). Mango dries wonderfully. Peaches, pears (so-so), 
apples, bananas, kiwi (dried quickly, but not particularly 
"good"...seeds become Grit From Hell), tomatoes, etc.  Fairly 
limitless as to what one wants to dry.

>I'd also be interested if anyone knows a good way to make those 
>"dehydrated meals" - it could be fun... and they are so expensive at 
>camping stores.

Something I've been turning over in my head a good bit lately.  Seems 
to me it's just a problem of drying all/various ingredients and then 
concocting the meal in dried form.  Not nearly as easy as throwing 
together, say, a soup from fresh, though, as dried tends to 
expand/etc.  But experiments on small (single serving) scale 
shouldn't be too difficult/tedious/horrible.  Things like beans, I'm 
not certain how they are handled.  I'd assume such is either 
pulverized in dried (commercially) state to where it will "cook up" 
w/relatively little time.  No whole beans, but bean 
flavor/thickening/etc., *or* beans are cooked to an al dente stage, 
drained well, and then dried.  Have not done such so don't know about 
it, but what I said seems to be plausible at least.

I don't know how creating such meals approaches health/food safety 
either, but such is always, of course, a concern.

>Finally... I used the oven at low temp for last year's chile's.... 
>and left 2 full trays of habanero's in the oven... and a family 
>member decided to pre-heat to 450 without checking inside first...
>...not pretty

ouch.

-- 
Peace, Hendrix, and Chiles.......

Rael64
Monk of the TCS
Order of Enlightened Twister [TM!]