Posted: 9/15/2007 5:12:37 AM EDT
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I'm looking at a purchase but know next to nothing about differences between and among them. Is it better to start with a smaller unit or go "whole hog" and have lots of dehydrated items on hand for later? What's the shelf life of a dehydrated item if its stored correctly? |
Dehydrators basically come in two types. The first is the less expensive, cylindrical, "stackable tray" unit. This is the kind that your likely to see in Wally World. Basically you load your food into the bottom tray, put it on the unit then put your next loaded tray onto the last tray......repeat until you've run out of trays (or food), add the lid and start drying. These units can be pretty cheap but also get relatively expensive. Check here to see a selection of them. When I started out with a dehydrator I used one of these. The big weakness was that it required that the trays be frequently rotated so that food on the bottom trays dried at the same rate as the food on the top. The more expensive versions of the stackable-tray dehydrators claim that tray rotation is no longer necessary. (I can't say if that's truly the case as I haven't had a stackable-tray dehydrator for probably ten years.) When you look at the better quality stackable-tray units, they're about as expensive as the front-loaders..... Which brings us to the front-loading dehydrators. These are machines that have removable trays that slide into an enclosure. I'm a BIG fan of the Excalibur dehydrators but there are other types as well. These machines typically have larger capacity than the stackable-tray variety although the smaller front loaders are not much more expensive than the better quality stackable units. The front loaders require no tray rotation and typically have larger capacity than the stackable units. But that comes at a cost..... If you've never used a dehydrator before, it makes sense, I think, to buy a cheap stackable unit and try it out before you commit a lot of $$$ to the endeavor. Make sure that drying food is something you plan to continue before sinking much money into it. In terms of storage life, I doubt I get more than six months from most of the things I dry when stored loose in ziplock bags and at room temperature. Most of the time our dried foods get used up long before six months. The things I vac seal last longer, but we use our dried stuff in regular rotation.....Other people can probably comment on long term storage better than I can. |
| I have one of the Nesco stacking types, works well, I usually mix some ground sirloin with Nesco's jalapeño spices and add some more hotness of my own. I use the Jerky Cannon (think big caulk gun) make about 4" long strips. I also make jerky in the oven using cut flank steak (marinated) and Mothers jerky maker where the meat hangs from skewer. Both are very good, just depends what kind I'm in the mood for. |
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just my $.02 -- I have one of the el cheapo stacking tray units. They dry very slowly, so slow that veggies can get moldy. They don't like being over loaded. I've improved it a bit with a small computer fan inside to move the air around. But they still only have a 100 watt element. They heat unevenly, and they're not thermostatically controlled 1 BTU is about 1055 watts-seconds -- so the little heating element delivers about 1 BTU every ten seconds, or about 360 BTU per hour a pound of water takes about 1075 BTU's to vaporize, so it takes close to 3 hours to evaporate just one pound of water. Throw on 10 pounds of beef to make jerky and you are looking at a 30 hour drying time. Experience matches the numbers quoted. The fancier ones have big heating elements -- up to a 1000 watts or more and fans and thermostats to hold them at the majic 140 degrees F. That's the key -- hotter than that and you are just cooking the food, colder than that and mold gets a chance to catch hold. ETA:a variable T-stat would be very nice....recommendations from the Excalibur site Termostat Setting Herbs......................95º F Cake Decorations.....100º - 110ºF Yogurt.....................115º F Vegetables...............125º F Fruit.........................135º F Jerky.......................145º F Just food for thought. Can't hurt to try out a cheap one to see if you like the finished product, but they won't be an assembly-line dried food factory. |