food dehydrator

[maciascl]

I scored an older, but never used food dehydrator on craigslist for $10!!! I am so excited! I'd love to know what suggestions or tips you have for using a food dehydrator. What are your favorite things to dry & how do you use them later? We are vegetarian so we won't be doing beef jerky, however I am going to try tofu jerky. I also just bought a 20 lb box of apples. What else should I try?

[Magelet]

tomatos!

[notjustmamie]

Veggies work well for soups. We have done apples and really like them. Also pineapple and mango are yummy. I would recommend a good dehydrating book. We recently bought The Dehydrator Bible and they have a ton of recipes and techniques for everything from fruit leather to fresh herbs to pasta to bbq sauce.

[ALittleBitCrunchy]

We do fruit leathers for the most part. I found a granola bar recipe to try next The Dehydrator Bible has excellent ideas!

[Aeress]

Can anyone recommend a good brand of dehydrator? Something on the smaller side?

I am going to sub to this thread cause with our CSA, I have so much extra stuff I can store for winter.

[mamadelbosque]

We *love* dried peaches. I did several quarts worth last summer and my DS eats them like there candy!! If he sees them he will seriously whine and cry till you let him eat them... I didn't do any apples last year, but I remember them being quite good too (mom used to dehydrate all sorts of stuff). Cherry tomatoes also turned out very yummy... and I dehydrated zucchini's (grated up and spread on the sheets, then broke up and stuffed into jars) and rehydrated them to make zucchini bread throughout the year.

[KingstonMama]

I think my very favorite thing we dehydrated last year were the cherries! Oh, they were so very good, though they didn't last very long!

[Proudmom]

Originally Posted by KingstonMama

I think my very favorite thing we dehydrated last year were the cherries! Oh, they were so very good, though they didn't last very long!

I did cherries as well. YUM! I sliced them in half. Did you do the same of pit and leave whole. I would love to try to leave them whole after pitting, but I don't want a flop

[CrunchyChristianMama]

Has anyone tried apricots? Are they any good and how did you do them?

[A&A]

Originally Posted by Evie's Mama

Has anyone tried apricots? Are they any good and how did you do them?

Apricots are delicious dried...they taste like candy. We cut them in half, took out the pit, and put them skin side down (so the juices don't drip).

If you blanche them first it helps (plunge them into boiling water for a minute and then plunge them into cold water.)

[mistymama]

Peaches, apples and banana are our favorites. I actually need to do some peaches this week - they make the sweetest treats, almost like candy. Mmmmm...