Food & Drink

Food dehydrator and dehydration discussion

  • Last Updated:
  • Aug 31st, 2019 10:03 pm
Sr. Member
Nov 14, 2012
654 posts
493 upvotes

Food dehydrator and dehydration discussion

I dont have any particular question just want to start food dehydration discussion as I am new to the subject.

We are drowning in tomatoes, every day my wife picks up 2-3kg of fresh ones, even now she is roasting 3 full baking dishes of them. I think this is very energy inefficient, also any kind of processing that burns food and creates ash (grilling, roasting, baking) is carcinogenic. Sun drying would be ideal, but it seems fairly impractical to do at home due to birds, insects, rain, and hassle of taking it back and forth for days, so closest best thing in my opinion is dehydrator with timer - setup and forget.

I never owned a dehydrator and my know how is only theoretical, but concept seems solid - remove most of water from the food without burning it, sterilize with quick high heat to kill surviving bacteria and get perfectly preserved food without any artificial preservatives that will last long time while keeping most of original flavours when rehydrated. Beats freezing, which destroys cellular structure of food and usually alters the flavours.

Just ordered this dehydrator from US Walmart, only $50, so about $66 canadian, has small footprint 1ft2 and with 14" height should fit nicely in countertop cabinet space with all 8 trays while providing 8 ft2 of drying space. I like that is fully transparent, so one can check process from every angle. Only after I bought it I noticed it is not BPA free (perhaps that is why it's on clearance because later models looking the same seem to be), but then FDA claims BPA does not have documented negative health effect plus it can be mitigated with strips of parchment paper liner so food does not come to direct contact with tray, which also seems to be good idea for cleanup reasons.
Last edited by ramon2 on Sep 1st, 2019 12:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
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3 replies
Deal Expert
Feb 7, 2017
27765 posts
27803 upvotes
Eastern Ontario
We grow a garden too.
And for now, our method of preservation has been primarily freezing or Pickling items
Anything we do choose to dry at the end of season
We’ve done either naturally (air dried) such as Herbs
Or low & slow in the oven ... cherry tomatoes & some more herbs

So far have not invested in a Dehydrator
Although got to admit I saw a nice one in the Lee Valley Catalogue
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Aug 16, 2010
7368 posts
4672 upvotes
Between Countries
We have a dehydrator. We don't use it regularly but the price of entry is pretty low so it's nice to have one around. My primary purpose was to do jerky on it and I've done lots with my Jerky Cannon. Though now we've branched out and have been doing fruits. Just did a bunch of blueberries a week ago.
Last edited by DiceMan on Aug 31st, 2019 10:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Deal Expert
Aug 22, 2006
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Costco had an Excalibur for $200 a while back. I think it's gone now.
Do you not have anything else to do rather than argue with strangers on the internet
Nope. That's why I'm on the internet arguing with strangers. If I had anything better to do I'd probably be doing it.

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