Dehydrator - what do you use yours for?

[BedHead]

Finally bought one and am looking for tried and true uses for them. Not only food either, but anything

It came with a flavour pkg to make jerky but I would rather make my own - anyone got a good mix for that?

[JessicaS]

I just received a dehydrator as well.

I am really chomping at the bit to play around with it.

[Chamomile Girl]

Oooh! I'm using mine (well, actually my mom's) right now. I froze a bunch of apricot puree in July which I am making fruit leather out of now. I also did a bunch of dried tomatoes (which I should have cut thicker...man they really reduce). Both turned out great.

My mom apparently likes to dry herbs with it (although I think she more likes the idea because in the 20 years she has had the thing I think she has used it like twice). I'm planning on drying out the sunflower seeds I harvested yesterday as my next project.

[mamadelbosque]

We dehydrate deer meat into deer jerky - slice it thin and then soak in salt water (lately we've also been adding chili pepper flakes, but didn't used to) for like a day in the fridge, then dehydrate.

I also do peaches - slice them thin (should get ~8-10 slices per peach), don't bother to peel. I think my mom used to do apples, and though I keep meaning to, I haven't gotten around to it yet. Tomatoes are also good - especially cherry/grape tomatoes. Just cut'm in half and place'm cut-side down. I've also done green beans in the past and grated zucchini - both rehydrate wonderfully for soups, stews, zucchini bread, etc.

[germin8]

I dehydrate raw foods with mine. Lemon-cashew cookies, kale chips, banana-flax crepes, fruit leather, apple 'chips', onion bread, hot dogs... yes, all raw. Sometimes I use it for food preservation or for dehydrating germinated nuts/seeds.

[cristeen]

I just dehydrate the year-round fruit bounty. We get way too much fruit in our CSA during the summer, and during the winter we only get apples/pears/citrus, which gets boring fast. So I dehydrate year-round and then put a bit of this and a bit of that into DH's lunch all winter. Last year I was only able to stay about a week ahead of him, and I was hoping to do better this year, and then my dehydrator died.

[koru]

Oooh, fun! I just bought myself a deH2Oer for my birthday!! My plan is to preserve summer fruits & veggies for winter but so far all I've done is experiment with pineapple (yum) and the kids wanted to make raisins. I also make yogurt (I have an Excalibur & the trays come out so I can pop the mason jars in there to warm it up) and dry sprouted grains.

I can't wait to make jerky & fruit leather!

[katmann]

We use ours for cherry tomatoes (sliced in half) and hot peppers. DH makes his own hot pepper shake mix from mixing crushed dried hot peppers (habaneros, mostly).