55 replies to this topic

[Canned Nerd]

Cooked bacon is risky because of the oil. It will go rancid. Cook and freeze it (fast freeze individually first) which is what I do.

[Violet]

The bacon is not safe to dry. Only jerky is safe to dry as far as meats.

[PoGo]

If you want dried bacon, maybe purchase Baco's or a similar commercial product.

[Kevin B 123]

doing some Broccoli tonight, I cut the very top "bud" and am trying that: I have heard that often Brocoli dont turn out so well..... But I watched a Utube viedo, where someone cut the last 1/8 of an inch below the "Buds".. and claimed they had really good success!

I see on-line stores selling dehydrated Broccoli, and it looks GOOD. But I suppose they have industrial dehydrators with huracane fans..........

[mimi]

I have been reading this about how long it takes to dehydrate orange slices and really think that personally I would just drink the juice and dehydrate the rest of the orange for use dried. It just takes too long and too much electricity to dry the slices for it to be cost effective. There are alot of nutrients in the white part of the peel and that should be saved instead of just grating off the rind but trying to dehydrate the juice sounds like it just takes too long. Even when I am dehydrating tomatoes I usually cook them down and make leather instead of trying to dry slices unless I have Roma or that type of meaty tomato.

[vigilant20]

Phew I just read through the whole thread.

For bananas, I've tried a couple things already but spraying with lemon juice has helped them keep the color best. A spray bottle top screws right on the lemon juice bottle and I can just go to town when they are sitting on the trays (remembering to pick the tray up and spray from below).

I haven't had good luck with potatoes either. Mine went brown and I've only been using them in blended soups because they'd ugly up any other dish. I'm told if you cook them all the way through instead of just blanching they should turn out fine. I'm going to try later this week.

Right now I have spaghetti sauce going in mine. I just poured the bottles onto oiled fruit leather sheets. They are sure going to take up a lot less cabinet space this way. I'm not sure yet if I'm going to leave them as leathers or dehydrate until hard so I can turn it into a powder. I'd think powder would keep longer?

[cheles2kids]

I don't know if anyone else has seen these videos but they have taught me alot when it comes to dehydrating:


She has a series of about 14 or so videos.
Enjoy.



Michelle in middle Tennessee

[gramma lois]

I don't know if anyone else has seen these videos but they have taught me alot when it comes to dehydrating:


She has a series of about 14 or so videos.
Enjoy.



Michelle in middle Tennessee

Thank you Michelle for this link - the videos are so well done and the videographer does such a great step by step job of instructing. Very well done

[Stephanie]

Wow!!! That is such a great youtube series, Thanks!!!

[cheles2kids]

Gramma lois & Stephanie you're very welcome.
I'm so glad to know that they will help someone else.
When I came across her videos a few months back, I had to sit down and watch all of them.

Since then, I've rewatched them all about 3 times each.
It seems each time that I watch them I find something that I missed before.

As for deyhydrating, I think that I might try some lemons.
Kroger has them on sale for .39 cents each right now and I think they would be great to have to use in iced tea or like she shows, to use the slices to bake with fish.

Another easy way to get into dehydrating is to find your favorite frozen veggies on sale and then just dump the whole bag onto your trays.
I've done peas, carrots, green beans (as already mentioned), pea & carrot mix, etc., this way and they've always turned out really good.
I'm watching for another sale so that I can get some frozen broccoli to dehydrate.
These are excellent to use in veggie soups!

Oh! Someon above mentioned onions. Everything that I've read says to do them outside because of the smell. The same with hot peppers.
I think for the trouble, I'll continue to just buy them in bulk from Sam's Club.



Great to see you here, Lynn!!


Michelle in middle Tennessee

Edited by cheles2kids, 15 April 2009 - 08:14 AM.

[vigilant20]

Great to see you here, Lynn!!

Oh yay! I didn't realize you were here too. Now I have two FV friends identified

That youtube link is dangerous, I tell ya! That's how I got hooked too. I'm trying to get my mum interested now. My parents spend their weekends at their cottage and I'm convinced dehydrated foods is the best option for them there...lol.

[Jori]

Cooked bacon is risky because of the oil. It will go rancid. Cook and freeze it (fast freeze individually first) which is what I do.

Explain how to fast freeze, please.

Thanks

[Lele]

Lay them out on a large flat cookie type sheet do not let them touch each other and place in the freezer. After they are frozen you can wrap in wax paper 1 bacon strip role wax paper over then place next bacon strip, then role paper again until all are wrapped. Place them in a zip lock or vacuum bag. By having them not touching each other on the cookie sheet they freeze faster. Or at least that is how I do it. By wrapping them it is easy to pull out 1 or 2 at a time as needed, like when you want just 1 to add to a dish for flavoring.

[cheles2kids]

Explain how to fast freeze, please.

Thanks

I've always called it 'flash' freezing. I do this alot with berries, just throw them out onto a cookie sheet and leave until they just begin to freeze, then take them out and Foodsaver them.
This keeps my vacuum sealer from crushing them.


Michelle in middle Tennessee

[dogmom4]

Bumping up because I'm dehydrating carrots and cauliflower today.

[Mt_Rider]

Good thread! I SHOULD be dehydrating the 25# bag of carrots [so cheap that way - ask for the 'juicing' carrots and wait til they have a shipment that is not all forked and difficult!]. But the past two and a half weeks have been NON-STOP.

HEY! How did I get allll of that in my schedule????

MtRider [...gonna have hairy carrots at this rate... ]