r/dehydrating 1d ago

Bought a 5lb bag of coarse salt two years ago

62 Upvotes

yes i did ! Panic bought a five pound bag of celtic sea salt in a moment of enthusiasm and still have about half . Turns out there are a few things that genuinely need salt in that kind of volume

1.Salt crust fish or chicken . Takes about two pounds in one go. mix with egg white , pack it round the whole fish , bake it , crack it open at the table . looks ridiculous and the fish comes out perfectly seasoned and steamed in its own thing .

2/ Salt-baked potatoes . its the same as above

3/ Curing egg yolks . Bury them in salt for a week , they go firm and you can grate them over pasta . Genuinely one of the best things I've ever made and it's costs nothing .

4/ preserved lemons. Quarter them , pack them in salt , leave them for a month . Uses a decent amount and you get something you can't really buy .

5/ Finishing !! I'm using it over everything.

But honestly the fish thing is the one . do the fish thing

Still go half bag . What else is worth doing at this volume?


r/dehydrating 17h ago

Looking for a dehydrator to use for tempeh incubation as a second use

2 Upvotes

I'm considering buying a used Tribest Sedona Express SDE-S6780-B:

https://tribest.com/collections/dehydrator/products/sedona-express-sde-s6780-b?utm_

Has anyone actually used this model for incubating tempeh?

It can be set as low as 25°C/77°F, so temperature-wise it seems ideal. My main concern is the continuous airflow from the central fan drying out the tempeh during a 36-48 hour incubation.

The European version is also advertised as having a quieter "night mode", which the seller says reduces the fan speed.

I would ferment the tempeh in perforated plastic bags. Has anyone tried this machine, or a similar dehydrator, for tempeh? Does the fan cause problems with drying, or does it work well with bagged tempeh?


r/dehydrating 1d ago

dehydrating plums in the oven

5 Upvotes

I was just gifted like 40 lbs of italian plums, and decided to dehydrate some of them. I don't have a dehydrator though, so I'm doing it in the oven at 170F (my oven's lowest temp). I have them cut in half, cut side down, on baking sheets.

they're swimming in juice now (which makes sense), and there's lots of condensation in the oven. I'm seeing other recipes for this suggesting to put them on cooling racks on baking sheets.did I mess this up? they've been in for six hours..I cracked the oven door with a wooden spoon. Should I pour off the juice/syrup, or just let it keep going?

sorry and thank you in advance, this is my first attempt at dehydrating.

(eta: clarification that i'm only dehydrating some, not all 40lbs 😂)


r/dehydrating 10h ago

bought a 5lb bag of coarse salt two years ago

0 Upvotes

Yes i did! Panic bought a five pound bag of celtic sea salt in a moment of enthusiasm and still have about half. Turns out there are a few things that genuinely need salt in that kind of volume.

1/ Salt crust fish or chicken. Takes about two pounds in one go. Mix with egg white, pack it round the whole fish, bake it, crack it open at the table. Looks ridiculous and the fish comes out perfectly seasoned and steamed in its own thing.

2/ Salt-baked potatoes. Its the same as above

3/ Curing egg yolks. Bury them in salt for a week, they go firm and you can grate them over pasta. Genuinely one of the best things I've ever made and it costs nothing.

4/ Preserved lemons. Quarter them, pack them in salt, leave them for a month. Uses a decent amount and you get something you can't really buy.

5/ Finishing!! I’m using it over everything

But honestly the fish thing is the one. do the fish thing 😂

Still got half a bag. What else is worth doing at this volume?


r/dehydrating 1d ago

New to dehydrating - cherry tomato question

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4 Upvotes

r/dehydrating 1d ago

My first time making my own paprika.

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76 Upvotes

Gonna be hard to go back to store bought, the smell and taste is so much better. Made with my own home grown paprika peppers


r/dehydrating 1d ago

if I dry mushrooms will i get spore contamination on everything else?

5 Upvotes

I grow oyster mushrooms and they have a heavy spore load. I dried a bunch. Now it's dry rocket time and I am worried about oyster spores on my rocket (arugula) and anything else I do.
I'm bleaching the trays and wondering if it's enough or if I am overthinking it?
Did anyone have a problem with home spores or is it enough just to dry stuff?
Ta!


r/dehydrating 1d ago

Looking for a dehydrator to use for tempeh incubation as a second use

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3 Upvotes

r/dehydrating 2d ago

First use of my new dehydrator!

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89 Upvotes

Only about 5lbs of meat making some pepper jerky next I will be trying some fruit and such!


r/dehydrating 2d ago

The ghost peppers are banished to the outdoors

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2 Upvotes

I was afraid about our extremely aggressive squirrels and raccoons coming and messing with the dehydrator, but the fumes are so eye-watering that it keeps the wildlife away.

My ghost pepper plant has been going ham this year. I have about 20 more peppers that I’m waiting on to get ripe. This is the same amount that I dehydrated last year and I still have two of the old ones left.

I guess I’ll have to get into making hot sauce with any additional ones, because this is definitely a year’s supply for me!


r/dehydrating 2d ago

I managed dehydrate cream cheese and apple cider vinegar!!!

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35 Upvotes

I've been wanting to dehydrate cream cheese for a baking recipe for a long time now, and I've finally done it!

Shout out to the reddit user who advised that a blend the cream cheese with water!

I think next time, I'll just reduce the apple cider vinegar to a syrup because now it's going to be a pain to take off.

For what I did:

I blended 200 grams of cream cheese with 200 millilitres of water and spread it on baking sheets. With one tray, the amount of cream cheese liquid I spread was very thin, so now it's harder to take off.

I greatly reduced the apple cider vinegar in a pot and then spread onto a baking sheet.

I put the trays into my oven on the dehydrator setting at 65 degrees Celsius for 8 hours (I went a bit above that due to me sleeping, but yeah.


r/dehydrating 5d ago

Bartlett pears and Cosmic crisp apples

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43 Upvotes

Sliced with a 4mm blade. 8 hrs and 5 hours at 135°


r/dehydrating 5d ago

Trip

0 Upvotes

Hi everyone!!

I have celiac disease and I have a trip coming up in a few weeks. Since I won’t be able to eat anything at the airport or on the plane, I need to bring all of my meals with me.
I just bought the Weston 6-tray dehydrator from Costco, and I’ve never used it before. 😅
Do you have any ideas for simple, complete vegetarian meals that I can prepare and dehydrate ahead of time, pack in my carry-on, and then rehydrate later?
I’d especially love ideas for meals that are easy to make, filling, and travel well.

Thank you so much for your suggestions! ❤️


r/dehydrating 6d ago

13 bananas into 6 bags of 60 pieces

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52 Upvotes

Trying to pace myself and not eat them all in 3 days😂


r/dehydrating 6d ago

I Built a Solar Dehydrator From a Filing Cabinet

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9 Upvotes

r/dehydrating 6d ago

Should I get a Excalibur or a Cosori?

2 Upvotes

The Excalibur 4 trays costs 293$ and the cosori 5 trays costs 250$ after it gets shipped, it is priced at 107$ on amazon but due to shipping it will.be 250$

Buying from China in my country is much cheaper but I couldn't find a way to buy the cosori from there even though it's a Chinese product.


r/dehydrating 7d ago

Watermelon (mini)

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44 Upvotes

First time trying watermelon. It was lucky a small/mini one with no seeds. I also got a mandolin so all the pieces would be the same, 2 mm (maybe a little too thin) https://a.co/d/00MM27fQ. 8hrs later and it is like fruit roll up. I ended up running out of trays so half of the melon got cut up.


r/dehydrating 7d ago

How can I safely dehydrate cream cheese?

5 Upvotes

I have a red velvet chocolate chip cookie recipe that I'm really proud of, but my main issue with it is that due to the abundance of liquid compared to my other chocolate chip cookie recipes, the dough is always wetter and the red velvet cookies spread more than the other cookies.

I've come to conclusions on how to reduce liquid within other ingredients, but cream cheese in particular has me stumped. I've recently learned that, generally, dehydrating dairy products via appliances like an oven isn’t safe or efficient because of risks of it turning rancid as well as fat in cream cheese trapping moisture.

I've considered straining the cream cheese using a really fine cheese cloth or even buying a yoghurt strainer, possibly, but I've even heard that those methods wouldn't work because cream cheese doesn't have the right texture for it. What do you think I can do?


r/dehydrating 8d ago

how to dry and toast chiles de arbol

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5 Upvotes

r/dehydrating 8d ago

Was dehydrating butter chickpea a bad idea?

4 Upvotes

I travel a lot for work and want to bring meals I already know & love on the road with me. I planned to eat all of this food within the coming week.
I made a butter chickpea curry (like butter chicken) and set it to dehydrate for 18hrs at 140°. However, today as I gave the mix a stir to evenly dry, I thought I caught wisps of a sour smell.
I thought if I planned on eating it quickly, the oil/fat situation wouldn’t have affected my meals much. Was this naïve? Did my meals spoil during the dehydration process?


r/dehydrating 8d ago

County Fair Dried Goods

8 Upvotes

How many of y'all are finalizing submissions for your local fairs? What size jar are you presenting your entries in? My fair doesn't specify a size for dried foods. I think I'll display something like a soup mix in a quart jar, but dried onions or corn in a pint jar.

"Canned products must be shown in either standard (made for homing canning) pint or quart jars with new two-piece lids. (Exceptions: honey, jellies, jams, preserves, and sweet spreads maybe exhibited in 1/2 pint standard jars. Herbs in 1/4 pint jars).


r/dehydrating 9d ago

Apples & plums, sun-dried ☀️

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37 Upvotes

r/dehydrating 10d ago

Advice on preserving my dried orange holiday decor?

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117 Upvotes

Hi! I'm new to dehydrating but having so much fun! I just made these little mandarin orange dried pumpkins (first picture) to prepare for the fall! I was so excited about how they turned out and excited to give them as gifts.

My problem is, I gave 2 to my mom and within a few hours of having them out at her house, one of them developed a "sweaty" section on the underside. I was so sad because I dehydrated them for what I thought was a long time and thought they were completely dried through! Now I'm scared to give them away because I dont want to give people something that will go bad in a day. I thought people could dry oranges and have them last for a holiday season or more!

A few things to note -

  1. My mom's house was humid that day! But still, what if I want to gift to someone who lives in a humid area?

  2. I did not condition. I only learned that that was even a thing when I started looking up why this happened. Not even sure the best way to do that for these?

  3. I packaged them up pretty quick because I was excited, heading to my mom's place in a few minutes, and wanted them to be cute (second picture). They were about 15-20 minutes out of the dehydrator. They were cool to the touch but maybe not completely cooled?

Any advice on how to make something like these last would be so appreciated! I'm obsessed and want to make a little army of these guys for fall decor haha

They were inspired by the oranges in the 3rd picture! I know people make those to sell, how do they know they are doing everything right to give a good product?

Also- My dehydrator was set to 135 degrees fahrenheit and they were in there for over 48 hours.

Thanks and sorry for the long post!!


r/dehydrating 10d ago

Do electric mason jar vacuums create the same anaerobic environment that oil would?

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7 Upvotes

r/dehydrating 11d ago

Another week in which I failed to avoid dehydrating

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41 Upvotes