Food Dehydrater!

Mrs Seabiscuit · 25 Dec 2012 at 10:42

Well I bought Seabiscuit one for Christmas much to his sheer delight!

So do you guys have any hints tips recipes etc? we will post pictures when we do something in it!

Raymond Lin · 25 Dec 2012 at 13:09

Jerky?

pepsilol · 25 Dec 2012 at 14:08

Mango?

Glaucus · 25 Dec 2012 at 14:09

I got one as well \o/
Jerky and drying my home growen chillies out are its main uses. If you grow your own herbs you can restock dried herbs or drie fruit if that's your thing.

arknor · 25 Dec 2012 at 14:31

banana slices , applies slices

DB_SamX · 26 Dec 2012 at 01:11

Vegetable crisps and onion flatbread are the only things I've had from a dehydrator - wasn't so keen on the latter.

Sherbs · 26 Dec 2012 at 01:15

I guess as you guys hate veg, its just going to be used for Jerky? :/

Mrs Seabiscuit · 26 Dec 2012 at 07:40

BEEF JERKY

mmmmm

seabiscuit · 26 Dec 2012 at 08:58

Sherbs said:
I guess as you guys hate veg, its just going to be used for Jerky? :/

Well, that has been exagerated to an extent. There are some that each of us like, but perhaps the others not so keen. MrsSeaiscuit doesn't like the texture of banana for example, but likes the taste. So banana chips might be a good thing to try. I'm the same with tomato - puree or juice fine, but the slimey seedy bit in the middle is horrible.

Mrs Seabiscuit · 26 Dec 2012 at 09:20

seabiscuit said:
Well, that has been exagerated to an extent. There are some that each of us like, but perhaps the others not so keen. MrsSeaiscuit doesn't like the texture of banana for example, but likes the taste. So banana chips might be a good thing to try. I'm the same with tomato - puree or juice fine, but the slimey seedy bit in the middle is horrible.

Thank you Seabiscuit

Kol · 26 Dec 2012 at 22:11

I might as well hijack this... I'd be interested in one for jerky. What would people recommend at the budget end? I say budget because I know I'll se it a handful of times then bung it to the charity shop.

TheSgtDK · 27 Dec 2012 at 05:08

I'm not sure how cheap it is, or how it compares to others but i have seen this one mentioned before somewhere, been looking at one myself.

PapaLazaru · 28 Dec 2012 at 14:37

Sprouts?

seabiscuit · 29 Dec 2012 at 07:35

PapaLazaru said:
Sprouts?

You're a bad, bad man.

Well we've got some beef strips marinading following TheBlue's beef jerky recipe. Will put in the dehydrator tomorrow. Looking forward to trying it, it smells great already. About 1.5kg of beef went into the marinade after removing the fat. Once it's dried to jerky, we'll split it and vacuum pack 2/3ish.

Mrs Seabiscuit · 29 Dec 2012 at 09:18

seabiscuit said:
You're a bad, bad man.

Well we've got some beef strips marinading following TheBlue's beef jerky recipe. Will put in the dehydrator tomorrow. Looking forward to trying it, it smells great already. About 1.5kg of beef went into the marinade after removing the fat. Once it's dried to jerky, we'll split it and vacuum pack 2/3ish.

you ain`t splittin my jerky! Im all sad now

Glaucus · 29 Dec 2012 at 13:17

Good work, got to wait till pay day (4th) before I can afford to make jerky.

Surly you want to split it more than that.
It'll make about 50% so 750ish grams and 75grams is plenty for a snack.

ganesh · 29 Dec 2012 at 13:51

I have one also and have only made beef jerky with it thus far, why dry fruit when it could be meat instead? I did try the_blue's recipe but I much prefer a soy sauce based marinade rather than a Worcester.

seabiscuit · 30 Dec 2012 at 19:56

Well, we've made a load of jerky. Very tasty, but used cheap beef and there's a lot of connective tissue, so kind of tough/chewy.
It turns out our vacuum sealer doesn't suck. Or it does. Whichever way you look a it it is pretty poor.
Oh well, I've put some in tubs, and some in sealed bags. We'll just have to eat it quicker.
Will post a picture when I can find the cable to connect my phone to get the photo.

ganesh · 31 Dec 2012 at 01:59

seabiscuit said:
Well, we've made a load of jerky. Very tasty, but used cheap beef and there's a lot of connective tissue, so kind of tough/chewy.
It turns out our vacuum sealer doesn't suck. Or it does. Whichever way you look a it it is pretty poor.
Oh well, I've put some in tubs, and some in sealed bags. We'll just have to eat it quicker.
Will post a picture when I can find the cable to connect my phone to get the photo.

Which cut of beef did you use? I find topside/silverside the best, and you have to cut away as much fat as possible. I used brisket for one batch and it ended up far too chewy, I usually just wait until the good beef is on offer in Tescos.

seabiscuit · 31 Dec 2012 at 08:49

Brisket. And by the time it was "snapping" like in TheBlue's pictures, it was very dry and chewy.
But tastes good for our first attempt. More annoyed by the vacuum sealer not vacuuming, only sealing.