food dehydration - Phish.net Forum

Bozo3 12/08/12 5:18 pm

anybody have any recommendations for a good food dehydrating system? im looking to get it for a christmas present and need to do my research, figured i would start here and see if anybody has used one.

im looking for an electric one, something that can fit on the counter

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roybelly 12/08/12 8:14 pm

bump

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joonze 12/08/12 8:18 pm

Ronco is the only one ive ever seen

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DirtyAl1173 12/08/12 8:32 pm

I've got one that's like the Ronco. Works pretty good. I've done meats, fruits, and even a few 'shrooms.

Just make sure to cut the meat really thin. Fruits too. If you cut everything too thick, they may not dehydrate properly and it'll taste nasty.

I suspect that a new one will come with instructions and recipes. So start there and then change it up to suit your tastes. We make our jerky with cayenne peppers.

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herbpowell 12/08/12 8:56 pm

Excalibur dehydrators are the industry standard

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Stelbotsfest 12/09/12 1:07 pm

skin your fruits as well, don't leave the skin on an apple...learned that one from experience its not ideal.
So dehydrators can either come with or without a fan in the bottom. The ones without a fan dehydrate much slower, so I'm not sure how the prices vary but I think I would look at one with a fan. The one's without simply act as an oven and dry out your food, but wwaaay slower. Like an entire day slower. Also if you have one without a fan in the bottom it requires more attention to rotating the shelves to varying levels so that your food all dehydrates evenly

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Bozo3 12/10/12 1:58 pm

thanks everyone, i continued to do some research and settled on Nesco - FD1010. has fan and heating unit on top so juices do not drain into and damage them. 4 treys but has room to expand up to 21 treys. good for fruits, meats, and veggies, herbs.

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DirtyAl1173 12/10/12 2:01 pm

Nice! Have fun! BTW strawberries are great dehydrated. Crunchy sweet goodness.

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Bozo3 12/10/12 2:18 pm

thanks, cannot wait to make venison jerky and every fruit i can get my hands on. the kids are going to school with homemade snacks f the super markets and there bullshit. example -> beautiful green wrapper saying how organic these pineapple chunks are and how the company is all about bettering the environment.....read where the pineapples are coming from and its vietnam, im sure they organically transported the pineapples too! god damn marketing trap we live in

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Vicculus 12/10/12 2:30 pm

Get the Excalibur. Its the volcano of dehydrators...

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_1_4_acs_trend_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=food+dehydrator+excalibur&ie=UTF8&qid=1355167746&sr=8-4-acs

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Bozo3 12/10/12 2:40 pm

@Vicculus i was dead set on getting that dehydrator but i dont like how you cannot add shelves like you can with Nesco's and as far as reviews they both were about the same. and Nesco was like 100 cheaper.

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