I have a nice dehydrator and mostly use it for dried tomatoes. One year I got some huge purple grapes, cut them in half and they were great. I’m sure there are lots of other good ideas for dehydrating. What is your favorite?
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Don’t have one but if I did I’d dehydrate mushrooms and beef/salmon jerky.
I had the best salmon jerky in Hokkaido, Japan. Got enough to last me some time and I was sad when it was all gone. That good.
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I used to use mine alot. At that time I worked for a natural foods market and employees got lots of bruised/battered produce free. Bruised areas were cut away, fruits that oxidize (apples) dipped in lemon juice. I made a lot of dried apple slices, some pear slices too. Dehydrated celery was nice for soups, stews and my own concoctions for camp meals. I had variable results with berries, strawberries worked best but the texture was odd. Harder fruits and vegetables had better results with the exception of mushrooms. If something is past prime dehydrating won’t improve it!
I never tried meats. Jerky is not a food I lean towards.
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Except trying to dehydrate tomatoes and some odd vegetables and fruits for a certain recipe with my oven. I read that a dehydrator works faster and consumes less than an oven.
You have to try this pork jerky, I bought it in Hong Kong, it’s from Singapore, very juicy and tender. Not “dry” at all, maybe due to the fatty meat they used.
If anybody knows how to make meat jerky, please share.
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Oh yes!
Apples and mangos are favorite fruits
Beef jerky
I made my husband a gift of hot peppers (habaneros and scotch bonnets). I dried them and then pulverized them. WEAR A MASK AND GLOVES BECAUSE HOLY SHIT.
I also made my own garlic powder when my mom had a ton of garlic that she grew that was starting to sprout
When we were kids my mom would make us fruit leathers in the dehydrator too. She does lots of herbs as well.
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OMG can I just say the topic when I first saw it sounded like a category on the $25,000 pyramid game show.
That said, I’m interested. I have a newish dehydrator too, and am probaly not getting enough use out of it.
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I thought the exact same thing.
Well, it’s not like Alladin and The Lion King (which has the same plot as Hamlet) were exactly new stories when Disney first made them!
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This makes me curious as to how Dick Clark and the Lion King relate to dehydration.
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I can clear that up for you. Sasha initially responded to my commiseration about The $25,000 Pyramid by noting that Pyramid, along with Aladdin and The Lion King, had been re-vamped. I said that essentially, there’s nuthin’ new under the sun. But then Sasha deleted her/his post, so now mine makes no sense! But it used to.
Please overlook my misspelling of Aladdin, upthread, as it pains me.
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I can talk about about jerky for a while but it is super easy and fun to make. A smoker is better but you dont need one. You just need an oven. Look here, good summary…
The fun part is you can make it spicier, sweeter, saltier, etc. It all depends on how you like it 
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I’d love to have an excuse to get a dehydrator. I’d be more about it if I ate all the things I canned, froze, and even refrigerated. I ocassionally do tomatoes, peppers, stonefruit and figs outside. But it’s precarious.
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I am on my second dehydrator in 20 years, and got the same brand when the motor died on the first, but kept the old racks and now have double the capacity.
I grow chiles from medium like cayenne to superhots and I de-seed them and dry to use crumbled or ground. I also make my own dried tomatoes. First drying, then vac packing or soaking first in vinegar and then stored in olive oil in the fridge.
You name the fruit or veggie and I have probably dried them. I have friends with apple orchards and get as much as I can pick, especially over night windfalls. I dry apples all late summer and through fall, and then vac pack, and/or freeze for long term. I send out huge bags during the holidays to friends. Plus other stuff I dried, or sauces, etc.
I have made every type of fruit and veggie “leathers” both sweet and savory, that you can imagine. The squirrels love my mistakes.
I make all kinds of jerky, some in the smoker first, then finished in the dehydrator. Others start to end in the dehydrator.
I make sourdough breads and pancakes, and I dry the sourdough slurry on the lowest heat setting, around 95F. It becomes a powdered starter that reconstitutes easily, quickly, and is usable much faster than revitalizing or starting a new batch. Plus I can give the dried starters to friends. My fav, and popular with friends, is a rye flour sourdough starter for breads and pancakes. 100% Rye flour, in a sweet batter, pancakes are great.
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I forgot to mention figs! I used to have access to two huge trees and could have all the figs I could pick. I’d dehydrate slices - so good!
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Love figs every which way! I also love dried/dehydrated mango slices. They are expensive!
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If you have a Lidl near you, I buy bags of dehydrated mangos for my kid. I think they are $2.50 or $3 a bag.
Coincidentally, this dried mango is on sale today. Lidl doesn’t have this in their assortment, only when there’s an organic theme. I shall check it out this weekend. The main thing that makes me hesitate is the high sugar content. 60g sugar per 100g mango. I have a low sugar threshold so this is a big amount of sugar. I prefer my dried mango sour. I often eat fresh mangoes, on the other hand.
I just went to look but we ate all the mango ones! Here is what the strawberry bag looks like plus nutritional info. Not organic. The organic ones are double price. My toddler LOVES these.
Nice. My Lidl doesn’t carry (freeze) dried strawberries. I can get them somewhere else but they tend to be too sweet (to me/us, always).
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