Dehydrators?
Allen E. Perrel
and what brand do you recommend? Also, what foods have you particularly
enjoyed on the trail that you have dehydrated?
Roger Davis
wrote:
> Can anyone advise me regarding food dehydrators? Where can I order one
> and what brand do you recommend? Also, what foods have you particularly
> enjoyed on the trail that you have dehydrated?
Real Goods (mail order) 1-800-762-7325 has three different sizes of a fan
and heating element dryer that is excellent. All three sizes are over a
hundred dollars, though.
They also have a hanging ambient air model.
Bananas, apples, peaches, and beaf jerky are my staples. All simple and easy.
Roger
Steven C. Dopp
Steven Dopp (afn...@freenet.ufl.edu)
On 24 Jun 1995, Allen E. Perrel wrote:
> Can anyone advise me regarding food dehydrators? Where can I order one
> and what brand do you recommend? Also, what foods have you particularly
> enjoyed on the trail that you have dehydrated?
Good question. I wish I knew. I just ordered a catalog from a company
called "Perfect Health" which I've been informed sells food dehydrators
of various makes. They have an 800 telephone number. Give them a call.
Now, if I could only buy a home food freeze drying machine! Why not?
B. Wills, Esq.
"Allen E. Perrel" <per...@infi.net> wrote:
>Can anyone advise me regarding food dehydrators? Where can I order
one
>and what brand do you recommend?
Harvest Maid.
---
Yes, social friend, I love thee well,
In learned doctors' spite;
Thy clouds all other clouds dispel,
And lap me in delight.
Sprague
Henrietta Foster
Merchandise, a chain discount department store. The two essential
features for a dehydrator are a fan and a thermostat.
In article <3shltt$2...@lucy.infi.net>, "Allen E. Perrel" <per...@infi.net>
wrote:
> Can anyone advise me regarding food dehydrators? Where can I order one
Chris Salahub
>Can anyone advise me regarding food dehydrators? Where can I order one
>and what brand do you recommend? Also, what foods have you particularly
>enjoyed on the trail that you have dehydrated?
I have a Ronco food dryer ($40) from the infomertial. It works okay
for what I paid for it. No fan. Just a heating element at the bottom
which causes hot moist air to flow out the top and cool dryer air in
at the bottom. I find that I end up rotating trays quite often but
this I do not mind. Great deal over all.
I like drying:
apples- dip in citric acid and water solution (to eliminate browning)
then lay on tray and dry for 24-48 hrs.
peaches- same as apples
onions- chop then dry
garlic- chop then dry
herbs- chop then dry
fruit leather- I puree apples, apricots, strawberries and pour on
fruit leather tray for drying.
spaghetti sauce- just cook as always then measure volume before
spreading on fruit leather tray. Dry for about 24 hrs until leathery.
To rehydrate simply add to boiling water equal to original volume and
stir for a few minutes. Great for backpacking.
Jerky- get butcher to slice flank steak into 1/2 cm thickness, with
grain then marinade in soya sauce, black pepper and tobasco sauce or
cayeen pepper (I like it HOT!). Some add liquid smoke but I have heard
that it causes cancer. After marinading for a day I lay it out on
trays and dry until leathery.
Used2bBear
which can still be seen. Harvest Maid is sold locally at Wal-Mart and is
also a good brand, although more expensive. Harvest Maid (at least the
model I saw) has a fan, the Ronco does not. It takes about 12 hours in my
Ronco to dehydrate 7 trays of jerky meat. I also dehydrate all kinds of
fruit and have a 'fruit roll-up' tray for the Ronco dehydrator. Works
great. I also do herbs, green pepper, onions, carrots, etc for trail
soups. I have dehydrated several jars of salsa on the fruit roll-up tray
and break it up for spice. Works great. Just drop a chunk in the stew,
soup or whatever and it gives it a nice kick. You know all those little
tiny cloves of garlic in the inside of the head? I peel and dehydrate
those, too, put them in the blender and refill my garlic powder jar. It's
a zillion times better than the store bought stuff.
Once you have had your dehydrator for awhile, just let your imagination
run wild. And don't be afraid to experiment. By the way, there is a
major problem with dehydrating any type of fruit if you have children in
the house - You will go to empty the dehydrator and find your children
have cleaned it out long before!!!
Henrietta Foster
The trays are the things you dry stuff on. The dehydrator you mention
comes with two trays which are about 11-12" diameter (I think). The
add-a-tray accessories allow you to increase the capacity of the dehydrator
so that you can dry a larger quantity of food at once. I think the
maximum capacity is 12 trays (they stack vertically). I suspect the
14.97 is for a pair of trays. Another useful accessory, if you anticipate
making fruit leathers, is extra roll-up sheets (the dehydrator comes
with two of those).
The jerky works allows you to make jerky from hamburger by forming the
meat into strips. You do not need it to make jerky from steak.
I can recommend this dehydrator. I've used it to: dry herbs, dry
tomatoes, make fruit leathers, and warm the bathroom when bathing
my newborn last winter!
Henrietta Foster
In article <3snqn2$1eo...@angley.nando.net>, ang...@eisner.decus.org
(Kevin Angley) wrote:
>
> Best Products has an American Harvest Snack Master Dehydrator which they
claim
> retails for $89.95 on sale for $49.97. It lists as a separate item a Harvest
> Maid Add-A-Tray. So .. is this dehydrator the one you recommend? What
does the
> add-a-tray do for you? Also available are a Beef Jerky Works (looks like a
> caulking gun). The two accessories are $14.97 ea.
>
> Kevin Angley, President
> Network Knowledge, Inc.
Kevin Angley
b...@nando.net (B. Wills, Esq.) wrote:
>In article <3shltt$2...@lucy.infi.net>,
> "Allen E. Perrel" <per...@infi.net> wrote:
>>Can anyone advise me regarding food dehydrators? Where can I order
>one
>>and what brand do you recommend?
>
Tim Hewitt
Campmor sells them for $80 and they're worth every penney. You can
contact Campmor at 1-800-230-21561 or on the Web at
http://www.campmor.com/.
As for the best foods to dry, the list is really nearly endless. We dry
all sorts of cooked meats, nearly every fruit and vegetable grown, and
most sauces into leathers. There are some good books available on
drying, one of my favorites is just out. It is called "The Lightweight
Gourmet" by Alan Kesselheim. It's published by Ragged Mountain Press, a
McGraw-Hill company. Alan gives great practical experience along with
recipes and factoids about drying. There are other good books,
including "The Hungry Hiker's Book of Good Cooking," "Kayak Cookery,"
"How to Dry Foods" and others that are good sources of recipes and
hints/tips.
Whatever you do avoid the cheap driers that have no fan, no thermostat
and typically sell on the Home Shopping Network or other paid TV ads.
They take much too long to dry anything, dry unevenly, and aren't worth
your time.
Welcome to the world of lightweight, good-tasting, home-prepared meals.
You won't be sorry you came here.
-Tim
Tim Hewitt
President, Downeast Chapter
Wooden Canoe Heritage Association, Ltd.
Terry Norton
trays, a jerky press for ground meat, and a single leather tray. Additional trays
were ~$15/pair. Additional leather adapters were ~$7/pair.
The first unit I picked up failed in less than 24 hours. Wal-Mart happily replaced
the defective unit. I have been very happy with the unit.
I have found Wal-Mart stocking to be very regional...so it may not be available in
your area.
Virginia Pokoj
>Can anyone advise me regarding food dehydrators? Where can I order one
>enjoyed on the trail that you have dehydrated?
>
I have four RONCO dehydrators that I am currently using. Mostly for
beef jerky right now. They are great, not very expensive (watch the
QVC or Infomercials), and do not take a lot of time - approximately
2 full days for 7 trays of jerky. I am going to start to dehydrate fresh
vegetables and fruits to see how it goes.
When my husband and daughter go backpacking I also make a dehydrated
(of sorts) spaghetti and meat sauce. Just brown your ground beef (or
turkey) with onions and spices and thoroughly drain it. I even press
through cheesecloth to remove as much grease as possible. I then mix
it with my spaghetti sauce and them spread on a cookie sheet or two,
put in a very low heat oven (300 F), prop open the oven door with a
wooden spoon. I usually put it in the oven at 10:00 at night and then
it's done by 5:00 the next morning. It needs to be thoroughly dry.
Just put in heavy duty baggies and its ready to take. It has lasted
up to 5 days in a pack and you can use it for sloppy joes, spaghetti
or what ever. Just reconstitute with water on the trail (you decide
how thick you want it) and walla, it's ready.
So far, that's all I've experimented with. I tried to do the above
sauce on a dehydrator, but it doesn't work because the dehydrator would
take to long and then the food gets rancid. Not good for packing.
Hope this helps and good luck.
Ginny Pokoj
QUIT
helps and good luck.
Ginny Pokoj
Tim Hewitt
Peter Miller
company in Grants Pass,OR the no longer exists. The heating unit and fan
work fine but the thermostat has finally died. Does anyone know a a
source for a 80-150degree thermostat that will handle 1200 watts (1000
watt heating element plus fan)?
In reply there are many units out there-choice depends on what and how
much you want to do. I do quantities of fruits, vegies and jerky for
packing and out of season snacking. I wouldn't get anything that doesn't
have a fan, a heater and a theromstat or less than 10 square feet of
shelf space-anything less is a toy and not worth your $ for what you get.
Please let me know about the thremostat as I have exhausted all local
resources looking.
Thanks in advance
pmi...@cks.ssd.k12.wa.us
Scott McClanahan
timer. Be sure to buy extra fruit roll-up trays for sauces. You may even
want some extra trays. Once you use it for backpacking meals, you will never
buy another freeze-dried meal.
Scott McClanahan
Wren Computing
Houston, Texas
a...@sam.neosoft.com
John S. Manotti
(Scott McClanahan) wrote:
I have the same model. It works great. We dry apples, pears, fruit
roll-ups,
bananas, potatoes/zuchini, and spag. sauce. So far, they have been great
on the trail. It comes with a "cookbook" with instructions. We've found
that taking notes on each item you dry works a little better.
E-mail me if you want specific directions.
john manotti
university of oregon
john_m...@ccmail.uoregon.edu
Tim Hewitt
..snip...
>I have four RONCO dehydrators that I am currently using. Mostly for
>beef jerky right now. They are great, not very expensive (watch the
>QVC or Infomercials), and do not take a lot of time - approximately
>2 full days for 7 trays of jerky. I am going to start to dehydrate fresh
>vegetables and fruits to see how it goes.
I dry jerky in my American Harvest drier in less than 8 hours. The number
of trays you have going makes no difference. I have stacked 12 trays on my
unit with no problem and no decrease in drying ability or increase in time.
The only thing you need to do is to turn the meat over at about the halfway
point if you are drying on a tray rather than a rack - as the bottom of the
meat touching the tray will dry faster if it gets turned over. Drying on a
tray is required for jerky from hamburger or ground turkey.
..snip...
>So far, that's all I've experimented with. I tried to do the above
>sauce on a dehydrator, but it doesn't work because the dehydrator would
>take to long and then the food gets rancid. Not good for packing.
..snip...
Spaghetti sauce dried into leather is a major staple on our trips. It dries
overnight in the American Harvest. I put up dozens of batches a year, and
never worry about spoilage. A batch for me is 6-10 trays of sauce, with 2
cups on each tray.
Don't get tricked into the Ronco because they have an info-mercial, buy
quality and you will not be sorry. Remember this guy RONCO was the inventor
of the Popeal (sp) Pocket Fisherman...
-Tim
ps American Harvest has a free video they will send you if you call
1-800-328-7403.
Tim Hewitt
should be able to search for thermostats, then call the companies listed
until you find someone who makes one with the specs you need. They
should be able to give you the name of a distributor or retailer.
Good luck,
On the Web, Thomas Register is: http://www.thomasregister.com/
-Tim