Dos and Don’ts of Using a Food Dehydrator: Part One

If you are concerned about eating healthy foods, you should get yourself a food dehydrator because of the benefits they offer. Not only can you make healthy and tasty food with it, but this food will also be from all the chemicals you find in foods that you buy in stores or supermarkets.

Because you are going to be preparing these foods in the natural way possible, those extra sugar and salt will also not be added.

One of the biggest advantages of best food dehydrators is that the food you make with them can last for a very long period of time. Even perishable food items like vegetables, tomatoes, can be dried and preserved for a long period of time, and you don’t have to add preservatives.

One way of preventing this is to ensure there is enough space between the drying plates in the dehydrator. With this, you will be able to put in a good ventilation that will promote even distribution of air to all part of the unit.

1. Separate Your Herbs from Fruits

When you intend to dry both herbs and fruits, don’t converge them in the device at the same time. Instead, dehydrate them at different times. This is because fruits and herbs have different smell and when mixed together, can intersperse.

The fruit will absorb the smell from the herbs and this will destroy their flavor and make them unsafe for cooking. Moreover, herbs dry faster than fruits, especially if you are drying fruits with more water content. In this case, you can dry your herbs first and dry the fruits after that in different batches.

2. Ensure Your Fruits and Veggies Are of Uniform Sizes

This is a very important step in the dehydration process. When you cut your fruits and veggies in the same proportion, they dry together at the same time. And if they are cut into tiny parts, they dry faster. Having different sizes of items in the dehydrator means you have to check on them more and they may not dry the same.

Because of this, you may be wasting more time checking the progress of the dehydrating food instead of concentrating on something else. In addition, if you are drying different foods at the same time — say banana and apples — you need to pay more attention to ensure you bring out the one that dries first because they don’t dry the same.

3. Dry Foods of the Same Family

When you are preparing your fruits and vegetables for the dehydrator, make sure you group or arrange them according to similarity. Some veggies/fruits can be combined while others are best dried individually.

This is because of the difference in taste and smell that can be transferred from one food to another. If you have ingredients with strong aroma like garlic, onions, you may have to dry them separately because if you combine them with others, they may affect the smell of the other ingredients.

If you have hot pepper and tomato, it is better to dry them separately because putting them together will make the tomato to taste spicy and that may ruin the use. If you want to retain those excellent tastes and keep each item smelling the way it is, you should implement this when using your device.

4. Blanche Your Food Before Putting in the Dehydrator

Blanching is the process of boiling a food item for some time before cooling in a cold water. This will kill the enzyme in the food and thus prolong the shelf life of the food. Although this is not a mandatory step in the dehydration process, it can enhance the shelf life of your fruits and veggies.

If you are going to be busy at some periods and you know you may not have much time for cooking, you can do this and then dehydrate the food. When you prepare your fruits and veggies in abundant, they can cover you during those periods. Moreover, the food you dry this way will taste fresher when you decide to rehydrate them later on.

5. Don’t Let Your Food Overlap

If you are using a food dehydrator with vertical drying trays, it is easy for the food to overlap. When this happen, the heat will not be distributed evenly and that may result in unevenly dried foods. This is a critical step that you must pay attention to because it not only will produce half dried foods, it will also cause your electricity bill to go up since you will have to use more power to dry the food.

If you are using a food dehydrator with vertical drying trays, it is easy for the food to overlap. When this happen, the heat will not be distributed evenly and that may result in unevenly dried foods. This is a critical step that you must pay attention to because it not only will produce half dried foods, it will also cause your electricity bill to go up since you will have to use more power to dry the food.

First published on http://mymidicontrollerhub.blogspot.com