STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

jah · Dooney & Bourke

Food Dehydrator?

cahabo · Kate Spade

I have one but I haven't used it for a very long time. Not sure what brand it is. I loved to dehydrate apples. I sliced them thin and dipped them into lemon juice before drying them. The lemon juice prevented them from browning and gave them an awesome flavor! I really should get it out again. Anyhow, it is definitely worth the time as they tasted so much better than the dried apples you can buy at stores.

Jamsicle · BCBG

This is a GREAT question; I am very interested in this topic. You can dehydrate sheets of tomato sauce for hiking meals and the packing weight of the meal stays low. I also love things like dehydrated strawberries that are generally very expensive otherwise, although I don't know if you can do these at home. Anyway, I'd love to hear more about this.

-- Edited by Jamsicle at 00:24, 2008-01-14

greendiamond · Marc Jacobs

I have (had?) one. I may have thrown it out since I haven't hardly used it. I liked making dried strawberries with it. Apples were yummy. Mango and Papaya were weird. I don't recall what other fruits we tried. I'm not particularly fond of dried fruit though, so I'm not the best source.

Suasoria · Chanel

I'm thinking about getting something "gently used" on ebay for a few dollars just to see if we like using it, then if we do, getting something nicer.

Raw vegans use dehydrators frequently. The brand Excalibur is the biggie. Raw foodists use dehydrators not just for fruit/veggie chips or leathers, but for crackers, sweets, pie and pizza crusts, and so on.

Here's a healthy and easy caramel recipe adapted from goneraw.com - just one of many using a dehydrator:

"OMG" raw caramels

Ingredients
½ cup coarse-chopped brazil nuts (or walnuts, or pecans)
1 cup coconut flakes
½ cup coarse-chopped cashews
¼ cup sesame seeds
1¼ cups raw honey
1 tablespoon sesame tahini
½ teaspoon finely ground pink salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon vanilla

Preparation
Mix honey in a bowl with the tahini, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla. Then add nuts, seeds, and coconut.

Spread onto dehydrator trays lined with teflex sheets (or plain old cellophane or waxed paper), and dehydrate at 105 degrees for about 24 hours. It will melt down at first, so dont get it too close to the edges of the tray or you might have a hell of a sticky mess on your hands.

Serve warm over fruit or ice cream, or scrape it into balls and refrigerate. Then, eat the holy living daylights out of it!

Metric · Gucci

Suasoria wrote:

I'm thinking about getting something "gently used" on ebay for a few dollars just to see if we like using it, then if we do, getting something nicer.

Raw vegans use dehydrators frequently. The brand Excalibur is the biggie. Raw foodists use dehydrators not just for fruit/veggie chips or leathers, but for crackers, sweets, pie and pizza crusts, and so on.

Here's a healthy and easy caramel recipe adapted from goneraw.com - just one of many using a dehydrator:

"OMG" raw caramels

Ingredients
½ cup coarse-chopped brazil nuts (or walnuts, or pecans)
1 cup coconut flakes
½ cup coarse-chopped cashews
¼ cup sesame seeds
1¼ cups raw honey
1 tablespoon sesame tahini
½ teaspoon finely ground pink salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon vanilla

Preparation
Mix honey in a bowl with the tahini, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla. Then add nuts, seeds, and coconut.

Spread onto dehydrator trays lined with teflex sheets (or plain old cellophane or waxed paper), and dehydrate at 105 degrees for about 24 hours. It will melt down at first, so dont get it too close to the edges of the tray or you might have a hell of a sticky mess on your hands.

Serve warm over fruit or ice cream, or scrape it into balls and refrigerate. Then, eat the holy living daylights out of it!

Sorry to be OT...but I thought vegans won't eat honey? I have a vegan friend who told me honey is a no-no because it is made my bees. (Also she won't wear silk but that is a completely different topic all together).
I'm just curious, I don't know much about veganism.

Suasoria · Chanel

Most vegans don't eat honey. We don't.

A lot of raw foodists (whether they call themselves "raw vegans" or something else) believe in the health properties of bee products - honey, bee propolis, beeswax.

The recipe above is from a raw recipe site, and isn't going to appeal to strict vegans. Still, it sounded good and was a creative thing to do in a dehydrator. It could probably be attempted with thick maple syrup or molasses. I think agave syrup would be too runny.

Suasoria · Chanel

I am giving this a courtesy bump because I finally pulled the trigger and ordered a dehydrator on eBay (a year later). I will let you know how we like it, but in the meantime, if anyone else wants to chime in, please do.

This is the seller - it is the manufacturer and their items are blemished, factory refurbished, etc., but hugely discounted from their main website.
http://myworld.ebay.com/excaliburdehydrator/

Hopefully in a few days I'll be snacking on homemade kale chips!

fairywings · Dooney & Bourke

Not for vegans, but making homemade beef jerkey is amazing.

ILoveChoo · Hermes

for doing fruits, I just use the oven set to the lowest temp.

Sibeski · Dooney & Bourke

You can also dehydrate foods if you have a convection oven.

Elle · Hermes

fairywings wrote:

Not for vegans, but making homemade beef jerkey is amazing.

We had a meat-drying incident that made our entire apartment smell disgusting in a way that was just sick and wrong - I would advise doing meats outside/in the garage/very near an open window just in case you happened to have the same experience.