Dehydrators - anyone got one?

I like the sound of dried crispy bacon. What does the streaky bacon come out like @leeski ? Do you cook it first or eat it raw dried like jerky?

 

We're just talking about kids snacks and pondering a dehydrator...

 

I used mine yesterday, but have lost the handle/guard thing so had to stop short so I didn't take chunks out of myself.

 

Thanks, had a look and those are steep prices! Am sure they're good kit but not looking to spend that much. More in the range of £40ish

 

I used lemon juice diluted in some water to bathe them in before patting them dry and popping them in the dehydrator, and it worked really well. The cinnamon trick would have worked too if I had put some more cinnamon in the mix - the tiny bit of sugar in the mix combined with the fruit and seemed to drag more flavour out (more of a tartness, which is odd given that it was sugar), with the other benefit of making them even crisper. I have them in a cling film covered bowl for now, and confess that every time I go into the kitchen, I nick a couple...

 

Well, I took a couple of boxes to work today and they proved quite popular (even in the face of cakes and biscuits!) The pineapple was the star turn, so I will definitely be doing more of those, and I need to re-visit the banana as they aren't great. I think they need the lemon juice treatment for quite a while before they go in the dehydrator

 

@JWK , I have exactly the same dehydrator, mine is great, I also dehydrate tomatoes, but also courgettes before freezing, and also plenty of chillis, before grinding down to a powder/flakes.

Also, Andrew James customer service are really on the ball, the heating element in mine broke, and as I'd bought through Ebay, they just looked the purchase up and I had a new base the following day.

 

The last lot of Parsnips I dried took 28 hrs.

 

Oh, and if you dehydrate Chilli's, it may be advisable to leave it in a garage or a shed

 

@Webmaster - is that because they smell whilst drying?

@JWK - how do you use the dehydrated parsnips? Do you add them to stews etc to rehydrate? And to both of you, what is your method for drying tomatoes?

 

I haven't used them yet, dried my first batch a fortnight ago. I reckon I will add them to the slow cooker or to casseroles (which is what I do with the dried pumpkin).

With smaller cherry toms I slice in half. A grew a lot of Italian Plum 'San Marzano' last year specifically for drying, they needed slicing into eighths. Mrs JWK loves to eat them dried, but they are too intense for me, so I have to have them rehydrated in oil/balsamic. We also cook them, throw in a handful of them in a lot of our dishes.

 

Yes, they fill the room with the aromatic aroma of chillies .... That's my thought on it, the other halfs version is more like 'What is that horrible pungent stink?' :D