Dehydrator – Any Advice?

/ hsoi

Finally got ourselves a dehydrator!

It’s an Excalibur 9-tray with timer. Enough people recommended this brand as tops, so it’s what we went with. Also figured we might as well get all the trays… what would it hurt?

When we started getting our weekly CSA veggie boxes, we’d get things we just could not use in time. One of the biggest culprits was herbs, basil especially. Of course, the fresh herbs were awesome, but we just couldn’t use them in time and they wouldn’t keep well enough so we’d be throwing them out. Of course, they are prime for drying and keeping. In fact, there’s a lot about the weekly boxes that make sense to get now and somehow preserve for later. Doesn’t have to be 5 years of storage, but perhaps just the ability to have some summer vegetables in the winter and vice versa. Between the vacuum sealer and the big chest freezer, now the dehydrator, we can keep things pretty well.

But where to start?

And what advice can you — oh experience dehydrator user — bestow upon us n00bz?

As of this writing, we have tried two things: drying basil, and beef jerky. 🙂

We got our CSA box and it had a HUGE bunch of basil in it. Wife washed it, snipped off the leaves, and into the dehydrator it went. Alas, it also happened to be a very wet and humid day, so it took quite a while. The timer already paid for itself, because we just cranked things up and let it run overnight. Woke up to… basil chips. 🙂  It’s possible we over-dried them because they didn’t have a very strong basil smell (even after crushing a leaf and comparing to some store-bought basil). Of course, it could just be that particular basil, but… it was what it was. We’ll see how it pans out after Wife uses this dried basil the first time.

Of course, I couldn’t resist trying out some jerky. When we ordered the dehydrator, we got a special deal from the company and it included a bag of their jerky seasoning. So I figured to try it their way. Took a sirloin out of the freezer, mostly defrosted it (easier to slice when slightly frozen), sliced it somewhat thin, then sprinkled their powder on it. I was skeptical, and rightly so. It tasted like dried beef with some seasoning on it. I used to make jerky long ago when we had a gas oven and I could get the temperature low enough. I liked wet marinades, and no question that’s the way to go. But it wasn’t a total loss. I did slice some against the grain and some with, and with slices that thin I think with the grain is more to my preference. Also had some variations in the thickness of the slices and thinner is going to work better; not “wafer-thin” but thin. It’ll be fun to experiment with jerky making. Especially nice that it only takes a few hours to dry.

Open to hearing anything you’re willing to share!

18 thoughts on “Dehydrator – Any Advice?”

  1. Only thing I have a lot of experience dehydrating is jerky. Mostly venison and beef. To make it truly ‘jerky’ and also to make it actually preserved, you are going to have to cure it.

    Here is one of the biggest tips- DO NOT USE HI-MOUNTAIN CURES!!! (what you will find down at Cabelas) They will make an almost inedible, mouth burning-ly salty end product.

    You can mix your own cures using pink salt. I would suggest getting a few batches under your belt using LEM seasonings: http://www.lemproducts.com/product/4633/jerkyseasonings
    They have a much better product and reputation.

    To make it REALLY good, after doing the cure give the meat an hour or two of smoke in a smoker if you have access to one. Then transfer to the dehydrator and finish it off.

    Of course, My dehydrator recently went to be with Elvis, and my smoker went Tango Uniform last weekend while at a BBQ Contest. If I was not in the middle of culinary entropy, I would offer to show you what I do.

    • Jerky is of course what I want to primarily do. 🙂 So this is all good to hear.

      I’ll give some pre-mixes a try… good way to get off the ground. I do know from past experience that I miss the smoke flavor. I tried Liquid Smoke in the past and well… it’s something, but it’s not the same. I’ll have to find a way to make it efficient tho… I just hate burning tons of fuel for a little smoke, y’know?

      Thanx for the tips!

  3. Herbs need low temp and careful watching near the end. I have done hundreds of pounds of jerky. Used my own marinade for the flavor. I usually added meat tenderizer for tougher cuts like brisket. Dry the meat with paper towels before putting it into the dehydrator. For longer storage, I froze the jerky in snack packs. Cutting with the grain gives a stringy product. Cutting cross grain gives a chewy product if using lesser cuts than sirloin.when we butchered, we ate the sirloins and jerkied other cuts. Drying watermelon, cut the melon about 0.5 in. thick and about 2 in. square, dry medium heat. Takes a long time, but seriously tasty results. Have fun, do not be afraid to experiment.

    • Why dry first? Just to help with the process? What happens if you don’t? just takes longer?

      Drying watermelon is something I do want to try. They mentioned it in the book that came with the dehydrator and I started to wonder what that would be like, but probably would be kinda cool. Now I’m going to have to try it. 🙂

  4. We do mostly fruits and meat for the dogs, though I’m hoping to use the dehydrator to dry popcorn this fall (cross fingers). No real advice except don’t be afraid to experiment!

    • OK… stupid question but, popcorn… the kernels? or popped?

      We thought about making some dog treats too. She’d love it.

      • We’re trying growing popcorn (Instead of the usual sweet corn) this year in the garden. The dehydrator will be handy for getting it dry enough as we’re fairly wet here, and I”m not sure it’d dry enough on its own.

        I mostly don’t to anything fancy for the dogs, but cheap cuts of meat sliced up into jerky sizes or bite sizes and dried past the point where you’d normally stop for regular jerky makes for awesome dog treats.

  5. You chose well. That’s an excellent unit. There are a number of excellent how-to video links and articles on my site (scroll down)…

    You’ll be a pro in no time at all.

Comments are closed.