Dehydrating Problems

[UndeadCircus]

Me and my fiance bought a Nesco American Harvest (Amazon.com: Nesco American Harvest FD-61WHC Snackmaster Express Food Dehydrator All-In-One Kit with Jerky Gun: Kitchen & Dining) and have so far only been able to dehydrate apples and jerky. We've tried dehydrating pineapples, strawberries and bananas yet they've all three turned out WAY too gummy. I don't even know if gummy is the right word.. They were REALLY chewy and gummy, if that makes sense?

The pineapples were canned, so that could be the problem with those. The strawberries, no clue what happened with those but we soaked them overnight in sugar, and yet they taste horrible; despite tasting pretty delicious straight out of the sugar. The bananas turned out chewy and gummy... We were looking for them to turn out more crisp like chips, but so far, nothing. They've been in the dehydrator now for almost 24 hours solid at 135 degrees. We soaked the bananas in a 1/2 cup honey and 1/4 cup water mixture for about 5 minutes before going in.

Does anyone have any idea on how to get at least the bananas to more of a chip/crunchy consistency?

Thanks

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Why are yoou soaking everything in sugar? Sugar attracts and holds in moisture.

 

[UndeadCircus]

The only thing we soaked in sugar was the strawberries. Strawberries have a tart taste, and we figured if we soaked them in sugar first it would have brought some of the sweetness in when they dried out. We were thinking the honey could possibly have caused part of the problem with the bananas, but it just seemed weird that everything we're dehydrating turned into this tough, gummy, fruit roll-up type of texture.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

"We soaked the bananas in a 1/2 cup honey and 1/4 cup water mixture for about 5 minutes before going in." Honey is sugar and the canned pineapple was bathed in sugars.

The sugar, honey ans pineapple juice is holding in the extra water. Google the word: hygroscopic and you will see that sugar and honey absorb water.

 

[Andy M.]

No soaking. When you remove the water from the fruit, you concentrate the sugars. Sweetness shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Josie1945]

Welcome to DC.

Josie

 

[UndeadCircus]

Thanks a bunch for your answers everyone! We let the banana chips sit out awhile after dehydrating them and boy did they taste HORRIBLE! The honey taste seems to have been multiplied 10-fold, and although the bananas themselves were crisp, the honey gave a MASSIVE chewy texture that we just couldn't bring ourselves to eat haha. The strawberries were probably impacted by the sugar soak as well as dehydrating them with the bananas because they tasted just as awful as the bananas did.

But oh well.. We spent about $5 for the strawberries and bananas at Walmart. A small price to pay for learning a valuable lesson. The next time we dehydrate bananas (which will hopefully be this weekend), we'll dehydrate without the extra sugars and see where we end up.

Thanks again guys!

 

[Andy M.]

Did the Dehydrator come with an instruction manual?

 

[GB]

We dehydrate fruit all the time. Just slice and put on the tray as is. No need to make it any more complicated.

 

[CWS4322]

Papaya is wonderful dehydrated, as are apricots. I dehydrate mushrooms all the time.

 

[UndeadCircus]

Did the Dehydrator come with an instruction manual?

It did. One of the banana recipes actually said to mix the 1/2 cup honey with 1/4 cup water mixture, which is why we were surprised when it turned out horrible, thus me posting on the forum here haha.

I guess from now on, I'll ditch the in-book recipes and just do things simple from now on. :P

 

[UndeadCircus]

Well, me and the fiance actually took another crack last night at dehydrating the bananas. Didn't turn out well at all this time either and I think the taste was even worse.

The bananas turned out to be very chip-like, which is perfect. The texture is the exact way we wanted it. But the taste... Uggghhhhh.. It was so putrid that it was horrible. Do you think the bananas should have any sort of pre-treatment done to them to keep the banana taste? These didn't taste anything at ALL like bananas.

 

[GB]

The only treatment I have ever heard of is dipping them in lemon water, but that is just for the color (so they do not turn brown) not for the taste.

 

[susan497]

The banana chips you buy at the store have been fried which makes them chrispy and have also been sugar coated. I would also love to be able to get the same taste and texture with just dehydrateing.

 

[White Nectrine]

Well, its great to be here, here's my problem. I did a whole bunch if white nectarines this summer, like 5 batches, always keeping notes of what temp I used, # of hours, etc, trying diff things.

I tested all the pieces for doneness, made sure I couldn't squeeze any moisture out of them. The booklet that came with the dehydrator didn't mention letting the fruit cool before putting away, and didn't mention "conditioning," which I just found out about recently.

I have some cute little jars and this was gonna be my Christmas gift to all my coworkers, T, I decided to check them out last week, and *screams* they are FERMENTED!! Can they be "fixed?" Do I just dry the more? They are out of season now, so I can't make new ones til next summer. Any ideas???

 

[sparrowgrass]

Oh, poor thing--I think you are out of luck. Sorry--a painful lesson.

 

[Dawgluver]

I have to agree with Sparrowgrass, they're not safe to eat. So sorry!

I wonder if you could hot glue them to a wreath or string them on a garland, then it wouldn't be a total waste.

 

[White Nectrine]

Thanks for the tips

Ok, if I can't use the nectarines *sniff sniff* I am gonna have to figure out what went wrong, before next summer, b/c I plan to dry more. I read somewhere recently about "conditioning," to even out the moisture between all the pieces, so I will try that, of course. But, will that prevent them from going bad? Maybe they need to be dryer? I stored them in airtight containers for the last couple months.