Picked up a food dehydrator for $5 at a thrift shop. Still drying my first try. It's been on over 24 hours. Some are still not done while some on the bottom tray are toasted. I couldn't slice them a uniform thickness. Don't know if I'll get any more ripe tomatoes for a second try It probably cost me a quarter a batch for the electricity. Can't wait till next year's crop to do more drying.
Some dehydrators dry unevenly. It's not a big deal to remove the tomato slices as they are done.
marcella
My dehydrator does that too. Many options: if the bottom tray dries faster, switch trays in mid-drying. If the slices near the center dry faster, put thicker slices near the center
Hmm... I wasn't impressed with my dehydrator. Used it once and returned it. I did cantaloupe, kiwi, strawberry, lemons, apples, and mango. Didn't like the fact that they all took different amounts of time to dry and it took for-EVER. Plus, the fruit looked so unattractive... well, except maybe the kiwi, those slices looked interesting, kind of artsy. Made me think they would look really cool in a collage or something.
Peri
Rotate the trays every 12 hours...
Move the bottom trays to the top and the top trays to the bottom.
Works well for me with Dill and Jerky.
I find simply putting them on an oiled tray lined with foil and into the oven at a low temperature does the job. Where I am, gas is cheaper than electricity and I don't like the constant noise of my dehydrator motor fan going.
Sherw> Picked up a food dehydrator for $5 at a thrift shop. Still drying my
What, are these two new guys you're dating!?
Seriously, can't you also dehydrate stuff in an oven...???
;-)
Cute.
It'd cost me FAR more in electricity! The dehydrator I have is a convection unit and has no fan, just a hollow center to draw the heat and dry air, and a small heating element in the base.
Simple, easy to use and cheap to run. It's no bid deal to rotate the trays. When I make jerky, I have to turn the meat at 12 hours anyway so I rotate the trays at the same time.
It only takes 24 hours (or so) to make jerky....
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