Seeking Advice/info on Dehydrators

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betterthanabox

Senior Cook
Joined
Sep 28, 2010
Messages
475
Location
Pennsylvania
Do you guys know a good dehydrator? I am looking at the Nesco American Harvest Square Dehydrator. I have seen some pretty good reviews, but was wondering if any of you had experience with them, or had recipes that are no fail.
 
I have the Ex to.. Like GB mentioned it is pricey, but well worth having a top quality product.

Check the sub forum in the canning section here.

Munky.
 
I own a Nesco American Harvest Square Dehydrator but upgraded to the Excalibur which is so much more efficient than the square Nesco dehydrator. I have compared them side by side running and the Excalibur is hands down the better of the two.

I read somewhere that Excalibur now does a layaway type of purchase option. I don't know much about the details just that it is available. I am guessing that it is from the Excalibur website.

I bought mine from Excalibur direct because I wanted the warranty that they stand by.

Botttom line I wish I had known how good the Excalibur is and bought it the first time around. I have owned my Excalibur for 18 months now and am very happy with it.
 
the Excalibur is completely out of the budget right now, and I am really just getting this to preserve food, and make more stuff at home, not to mention this is my first dehydrator, so I don't need the top of the line model yet. I am really just looking for the middle of the road kind of dehydrator, that will do the following: dry fruits, make jerky, fruit leathers, and dry herbs. I have heard amazing things about the Excalibur, but I am getting it as a Christmas present, and don't think that the person is going to drop that kind of cash.
 
I upgraded to the Excalibur from the square Nesco. I love the Excalibur! It now sits on my counter permanently!
 
KathleenA said:
Welcome to DC!

What types of things do you make with it?

Jerky, sweet potato chips, kale chips, apple chips, dried lemon slices...so far.
Thanks for the welcome!
 
What do you use the dried lemon for? I want to get dehydrating things but am unsure where to start. Do you have any recipes you could share?
 
I have not found a limit on how long it will keep. I find that most dehydrated things are decent. Fruits come out great. If you are drying and using things dry then they are awesome. If you are drying and then dehydrating at some point then I find them to be better than nothing, but not as good as fresh. I am very very happy with my dehydrator and love using it. My kids love it too. They go crazy for dried fruit and buying it from the store is so expensive. Now I can buy fruit at the fruit stand that is at the end of its life for dirt cheap and make my own dried fruit. It is healthy, delicious, and fun.
 
I love my dehydrator. It lets me take advantage of specials on fruit (apples during harvest season, etc.) and to dehydrate produce from the garden (peppers, onions, tomatoes, carrots, beans, etc.) as well as mushrooms (love it for dehydrating mushrooms). The advantage of dehydrating food is that the dehydrated food takes less space to store. The disadvantage is that it does use electricity so that cost has to be factored in to dehydrating. The dehydrator is one of the four "appliances" I think is well worth the investment. The other three are a bread machine (I use mine almost daily--I haven't bought bread, bagels, pitas, etc. for ages), freezer (I write on mine with a grease pen to keep track of what is in it), and a juicer (lets me juice veggies and toss the juice in the freezer for the winter, the pulp goes into soups and veggie stock). The other thing I keep in the freezer is lemon and lime zest and juice (I zest the limes and lemons, freeze the zest, juice the lemon and limes and freeze the juice in ice cube trays).

Yes, it takes time to prepare food from scratch, but I processed 100 plum tomatoes in my dehydrator last summer (I'd been away taking care of my mother who suffers from dementia and came home to 100 plum tomatoes). It took my brother and I 20 minutes to get the tomatoes ready and then the dehydrator did the rest of the work. I just had to check it periodically to flip the slices, take out those that were ready, etc. While the dehydrator was doing its job, I was able to sit at my desk and do my job.

Those dehydrated tomatoes come in really handy. And, the dehydrator is easy to use and doesn't take up a lot of space. I use mine about 2-3 times/week during the harvest season; 1-2 a month the rest of the year.

K.
 
Okay, I'm on course to put out the money for a dehydrator. Of course, it will be an Excaliber...Arthur freak that I am.
 
What do you use the dried lemon for? I want to get dehydrating things but am unsure where to start. Do you have any recipes you could share?

I used the sliced lemons in a fresh pitcher of lemon aid.
Around here they go fast in the summer. My kids make fresh fruit juices, they like to add lemon and orange slices to it and have it the next day. It's not so bad re hydrated and grilled with fresh salmon.

If dehydrated and stored properly they last for well over a year. Except my house..

Munky.
 
Okay, I'm on course to put out the money for a dehydrator. Of course, it will be an Excaliber...Arthur freak that I am.

My Ex ( not my husband) seems to always have some kind of project going on inside.

I've prepped bread dough in mine.

Use it often to warm up small containers for candles.
Don't see why canner's couldn't use it to prep jars. They warm up nice and even. No hot spots.

Working on a project now, dehydrating spruce branches for another craft project.

Had a bad batch of soaps come out. MP. Too much humidity in the air that day, so sweating was an issue. I couldn't wrap the finished product.
So I un molded all of them. Loaded up the racks in the dehydrator. What normally would have taken a few days of air drying to correct. Too 15 minutes to fix in the EX dehydrator. That was one of my best batches.

Munky.
 
My Ex ( not my husband) seems to always have some kind of project going on inside.

I've prepped bread dough in mine.

Use it often to warm up small containers for candles.
Don't see why canner's couldn't use it to prep jars. They warm up nice and even. No hot spots.

Working on a project now, dehydrating spruce branches for another craft project.

Had a bad batch of soaps come out. MP. Too much humidity in the air that day, so sweating was an issue. I couldn't wrap the finished product.
So I un molded all of them. Loaded up the racks in the dehydrator. What normally would have taken a few days of air drying to correct. Too 15 minutes to fix in the EX dehydrator. That was one of my best batches.

Munky.

Great thinking out of the box Munky! What model do you have?
 
9 tray Large 3900. Mine doesn't have the fancy timer.
I am that fancy timer.. I can tell by the rattle when it's done.

Just so you know people do complain about that rattle.
I've been using the large felt sticky pads, those that you place under anything that would scratch your glass table tops. Cut the large ones in half and place them in the corners where the lid hinges. It works well and they can hold up to the heat. I buy the dark ones you can barely see them.

Commercial Food Dehydrators for dehydrating beef, fruits & other food from Excalibur

P.S.. I got mine off of Amazon it was cheaper, and you can still register it with the Ex Co..
Munky.
 
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