Posted: 10/21/2009 6:58:33 AM EDT
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I've been tempted to buy one of these ever since I found out that my kids LOVE jerky. Are they worth the price and what are some good brands? I have a gas oven so I don't want to fire it up over long periods of time due to cost.
Thanks. |
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Quoted:
I've been tempted to buy one of these ever since I found out that my kids LOVE jerky. Are they worth the price and what are some good brands? I have a gas oven so I don't want to fire it up over long periods of time due to cost. Thanks. True dehydrating doesn't use much, if any heat, just moving air. You don't normally want to cook the food, you just want to dry it. There are several options. I have the big Cabelas dehydrator that is forced air, and heated. I love it, and wouldn't trade it for anything. A much cheaper option that is only forced air comes from "Good Eats" on the Food Network by Alton Brown (the guy is a genious when it comes to laying all the basics/framework of cooking out). Anyways, take a box fan and make sure it isn't extremely dirty. Now, go buy several furnace air filters that are approximately the same size as the fan. Lay the fan down, but put something under the edge to allow air circulation. Now, take whatever you want to dry and lay it out on top of the air filters, then stack the filters on the fan. This will not only allow the air to pass across the food, but the filters will also filter the air as well so no large impurities get involved. |
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Quoted: Quoted: I've been tempted to buy one of these ever since I found out that my kids LOVE jerky. Are they worth the price and what are some good brands? I have a gas oven so I don't want to fire it up over long periods of time due to cost. Thanks. True dehydrating doesn't use much, if any heat, just moving air. You don't normally want to cook the food, you just want to dry it. There are several options. I have the big Cabelas dehydrator that is forced air, and heated. I love it, and wouldn't trade it for anything. A much cheaper option that is only forced air comes from "Good Eats" on the Food Network by Alton Brown (the guy is a genious when it comes to laying all the basics/framework of cooking out). Anyways, take a box fan and make sure it isn't extremely dirty. Now, go buy several furnace air filters that are approximately the same size as the fan. Lay the fan down, but put something under the edge to allow air circulation. Now, take whatever you want to dry and lay it out on top of the air filters, then stack the filters on the fan. This will not only allow the air to pass across the food, but the filters will also filter the air as well so no large impurities get involved. I disagree with Alton on this one. And the furnace filters work out to be more expensive in the long run. I have an excalibur dehydrator that I bought 10 years ago. It works great for jerkey. |
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I've been tempted to buy one of these ever since I found out that my kids LOVE jerky. Are they worth the price and what are some good brands? I have a gas oven so I don't want to fire it up over long periods of time due to cost. Thanks. True dehydrating doesn't use much, if any heat, just moving air. You don't normally want to cook the food, you just want to dry it. There are several options. I have the big Cabelas dehydrator that is forced air, and heated. I love it, and wouldn't trade it for anything. A much cheaper option that is only forced air comes from "Good Eats" on the Food Network by Alton Brown (the guy is a genious when it comes to laying all the basics/framework of cooking out). Anyways, take a box fan and make sure it isn't extremely dirty. Now, go buy several furnace air filters that are approximately the same size as the fan. Lay the fan down, but put something under the edge to allow air circulation. Now, take whatever you want to dry and lay it out on top of the air filters, then stack the filters on the fan. This will not only allow the air to pass across the food, but the filters will also filter the air as well so no large impurities get involved. I disagree with Alton on this one. And the furnace filters work out to be more expensive in the long run. I have an excalibur dehydrator that I bought 10 years ago. It works great for jerkey. What part do you disagree with? That it is cheaper? That it works? Or that you only want air (not cooking the meat)? I can tell you that it is MUCH cheaper than any reliable forced air dehydrator on the market (unless you're paying $50 each for your furnace filters). I can also tell you that it works well, maybe not perfect, but there aren't many dehydrators out there that don't have some sort of flaw. I can also tell you that you don't want to cook the meat. Anybody thats been making jerky for any amount of time can and will tell you this. I've been making jerky using my own develped marinade for at least a decade. Come deer season I have a lot of friends that drop off their deer meat for me to make jerky with. |
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This outfit makes some high quality dehydrators. They aren't cheap, but they are made to last.
http://www.sausagemaker.com/fooddehydrators.aspx |
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I dehydrated back in the 90's with a cheap walmart special and got out of it for a while. A couple years ago one of my co-workers traded me a semi cheap round one for a knife and I got back into. It died a couple months ago, just got used a little more than it could take but less than it should have. My girlfriend and I started looking on line for a better quality tabletop sized unit. We wound up driving into Springs to Chefs (I was not looking forward to dropping 150-200$ at the time but we needed it and I bit the bullet).
We bought this one : http://www.chefscatalog.com/product/24726-LEquip-FilterPro-Food-Dehydrator.aspx At the Chef's outlet in Springs. They had one on the close outshelf for $100. Evidently, God approved of me listening to the girlfriend or we got lucky. We used some of the savings to buy some of there large airtight canisters. This dehydrator is awesome. The digital controls and timer are features I used to scoff at and now find to be a great aid. The six racks supplied offer enough room for my needs (though if the garden goes real well in the next year or three that may change.). All in all even at the $170 price I think it is a good deal. |