I would be into having a freeze dryer.
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That book (The Gift of Southern Cooking) is a national treasure.
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True that! She certainly left quite a legacy. Scott Peacock is doing a fine job in keeping that legacy alive.
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I’ve never had a food dryer and always kind of wanted one. Now our two new ovens go down to 80 degrees and I can finally dry stuff. My husband has experimented with a few types of jerkey and has made some trahana that needs drying or even slight toasting. ( Kind of like Israeli couscous)
I’m looking forward to drying some tomatoes, possibly some other fruits, and fresh corn, cut off the cob. I’ve heard dried corn is really good in soups. I wonder if you could then grind the dried corn to make cornmeal? Has anyone here ever done this? Oooh, wonder how dried eggplant would be?
It would be cool to have a freeze dryer but neither myself nor DH is mechanical enough to trouble shoot it or maintain it. It would be great to co-own one with a few other people I think.
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Lots of herbs. Mushrooms. Banana. Apple.
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Some Onions here said sun-dried tomatoes are way better than dehydrated by machines. More here:
Agreed! Especially when one of my cat’s favourite expensive snack is just freeze dried chicken.
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Dried tomatoes are the main use for us. I dry some to a crispy dry state and use them crumbled onto sandwiches or in cooking. Also do batches of partially dried, which are kept frozen. They have a dif/more fresh texture than the totally dry ones. One year I saw mention of soaking the tomatoes in wine overnight, then dehydrating them. They were delicious.
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Thanks Naf, will check that out!
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Has anyone tried dehydrating green onions and then just grinding them and placing it on top of rice? Had a terrific rendition of that at Benu. Just wondering if there’s an optimal way to do so with green onion
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Thanks for the idea. Green onions are abundant at our farmers Mkt now.
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One of my favorite jerky when trailing, but alas, developed allergy.
can get some very decent ones here in Asian store.
Just dehydrated for the first time since I received the Harvest Fiesta 8 tray dehydrator last week.
Still waiting for cart to arrive so, in the meantime, it is temporarily on top of my 1860 antique wood burning cast iron stove ( dismantled for fear of fire, now mainly ornamental in my DR)
Son dehydrated a few days ago , the cherry tomatoes were the best. He did not care for the poblanos
Here is my first try
Some of the cherry tomatoes fell thru the dehydrator shelves into the parchment paper underneath although the spacing for the dehydrator shelves are 3/4 ".
I coated the tomatoes with olive oil and let them sit for a while, cut them in half, then coated the halved tomatoes again with more olive oil . My son added S/P but I was too tired to do that. I included one regular tomato to see what happens.
at 125 degrees, set it at 9 hours, they tasted pretty good. Maybe S/P would be nicer if added . Will ask son’s opinion as he packed the ones he dried for his batting trip.
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I hope u receive this message a reply to. your comment August 1.
I love dried mango, and also prefer the sour dried ones but they are difficult to find.
In the Philippines, fresh mango juice is wonderful but fresh sour mango juice is something I have never had, until I went back home for the first only time since I left in 1964. My uncle sent me quarts of fresh sour ( from unripe green mango)mango juice. It was one fo the best things I have ever had!
Costco has different dried mangoes. They carry Tropical Fields Dried Mangoes in 30 ounces bag , regularly for 12.99 ( I believe). I was at Costco 2 days ago. They are on sale $3.00 off per bag til 9/15. Just like the last time they went on sale, I bought 10 bags/
They are good, addicting for me!
Correct me if I am wrong re sugar content, hope you think this is OK for you.
Per serving of 4 pieces of mangoes- there are 42 gms
Per serving of 42 gms,( 4 pieces ) —————35 gms of CHO
Since mango is a fruit and itself is considered a carbohydrate
Total sugar—————————————— 23gms.
Total sugar includes 8 gms sugar added
So, 23-8= 15 gms of natural sugar in the mangoes with 8 gms of sugar added per 4 slices of mangoes
8 gms of sugar per slice of mango is then 2gms sugar per slice.
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@presunto
oooppps ! I made mistake
Sorry
I guess if there is a total of 35 gms of CHO per serving of 4 pieces of mangoes, and there are 8 gms of sugar added, then the carbohydrate county the mango itself is 27 gms, ( 35-8)
I hope my8 calculation is correct this time.
Have not use my fiesta dehydrator since I purchased it Aug.
Have not used my Fiesta dehydrator since I purchased it August except twice, no more tomatoes!
So, decided to dehydrate the 8 apples I purchased. 4 small organic Fuji and 4 large honey crisp
Problem with the honey crisp is it is too large for the Kitchen Aid Food Processor, so I had to cut it in half. I used the 3 mm blade, Did not remove the skin nor soak it in acidic juice ( read the difference is very slight,. I do not care if it browns a little and skin may not bother me )
130 degrees- 10hours
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Tomatoes, as you mentioned. I like to make tomato powder out of the dried slices. Apple slices get very sweet and make a nice snack. Onions, corn kernels; hot peppers that then become powder.
Her. 
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Noted! It took me a while to figure out what you meant. I may be dehydrated, myself.
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How do you use tomato powder?
As you would tomatoes, or in other ways?
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Yes, I add it to sauces, soups, chili and the like. It takes up a little less space in powder form but still has all the tomato taste.
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