Dehydrator ideas??

Ordered an Excalibur dehydrator which should be showing up Tuesday. Been wanting to get a decent one for a while now, my old one is cheap junk which has done a less than bad job for years.

Anyone have some unique / special ideas for dehydrator recipes?

IDK but I once saw a documentary about an old time moon shiner and he had a dehydrated raccoon penis as a hat clip and I thought that was highly amusing when he told the journalist "Its a dehydrated coon dick"

Otherwise my roomate got a killer recipe for jerky Ill get from her later on

Start making your own spices so much better than what you can buy

And ofcourse beef jerky I dont really have a recpie just salt acid spice and shugar

If your old one works, find a model building group and give it to them. They work fantastic for drying the paint and they won't hurt the models if you keep them on the top level tray. I have one from the early 90s that has seven trays. I cut out the center of the top tray and most car and truck bodies fit under the lid nicely.

a reply to: markovian

Jerky is always a must! No shortage of recipes there!!

I usually add a little cure to my jerky. Way better texture, color and shelf life.

I'm looking for other stuff (veggies, fruits, etc.)

I've heard fish skins might be good. Kinda' like chips with a kick.

a reply to: HalWesten

That's a good idea. I'll look mine over, but it's pretty used and abused. It's one of those old plastic ones, and the trays are all warped and worn out. I think it was only $20 bucks new, and it's definitely paid for itself a million times over, but now it only partially works.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: markovian

Jerky is always a must! No shortage of recipes there!!

I usually add a little cure to my jerky. Way better texture, color and shelf life.

I'm looking for other stuff (veggies, fruits, etc.)

I've heard fish skins might be good. Kinda' like chips with a kick.

Iv done it with and without cure i normaly skip the cure since it never last long but it definitaly adds better texture

Iv never put any fish in my dehydrator I use my smoker for that

Closest thing iv done to fruit is peppers red bells turn out like candy hot pepper get alot hotter

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Cheese! Make little cheese poppers by cutting up cheese into 1cm chunks, leaving on paper towel for a couple days, then dehydrate on the lowest setting for 12+ hours until they're crunchy when cooled.

It's a process, but these little crunchy cheeses are addictive.

sliced lemons until very dry, then process to a fine powder, add to coarse pepper and bam , kick ass lemon pepper, also dry mushrooms to add extra boom to soups and sauces and of course tomatoes. Recommend a magic bullet with a short blade to make the powder, works well. Also I dry sweet potatoes for my dog he loves them. Local butcher sells me ground chicken and turkey that is due to expire which I also turn into jerky treats for the dog

Great ideas so far, all!!

Much appreciated!!

Keep 'em comin'!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I’ve dried mushrooms before with limited results sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t and I don’t know why but be careful if you choose to dehydrate mushrooms ones that work are super awesome in soup and in my case rice but when it don’t work they are goopy messes you scrape off.

a reply to: Brotherman
Buy whole mushrooms that are dry seperate cap and stem dry with high temp

I make them alot for natral msg powder

Isnt freeze-drying the new norm?
It may be possible to do in a common freezer. Just drill a hole for a vacuum pump hose and make sure the door is sealed. It may take a week but the quality should be on a next level