Dehydrater

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Moorland Prepper
Posts: 102
Joined: Fri Nov 06, 2020 8:43 am
Location: On the edge of the Pennines

Dehydrater

Post by Moorland Prepper »

I keep wondering about buying a food dehydrater but can't see the point! We have tinned food and space is not a problem.

By using on we would cut down on rotating stock, but there would be more work dehydrating food.

Just wondered if you good people here could tell me if I'm missing something rather obvious.

Heavy snow here in the moorlands. I'd put the snow shovel away on Monday and had to get it out this morning :)
jennyjj01
Posts: 3429
Joined: Sun Jun 04, 2017 11:09 pm

Re: Dehydrater

Post by jennyjj01 »

Moorland Prepper wrote: Thu Jan 21, 2021 9:56 am I keep wondering about buying a food dehydrater but can't see the point! We have tinned food and space is not a problem.

By using one we would cut down on rotating stock, but there would be more work dehydrating food.

Just wondered if you good people here could tell me if I'm missing something rather obvious.

Heavy snow here in the moorlands. I'd put the snow shovel away on Monday and had to get it out this morning :)
Hi MP,
I'm a bit of an obsessive dehydrating advocate. I have one of these https://www.sousvidetools.com/sousvidet ... dehydrator
Does it absolutely cost in? Not really.
Will you save money? Probably not.
Does it save space? Absolutely.
Does it help with stock rotation? Probably, if you adapt to using dehydrated scoff.
Will you slash waste? Absolutely.
Does it replace tinned rations? No. But it's a cost effective augmentation. Better textures.
Is it extra work: Not really. chop and maybe blanche alongside regular cooking, load it up and forget it for a day.

For me, the number one benefit is that none of my fresh food goes to waste. Previously I'd buy a bunch of bananas a few bags of fruit and maybe a bag of peppers and maybe a kilo or so of tomatoes and some mushrooms and half would be on the turn before getting used. Apart from root veg, which lasts ok, my fresh food reserves would maybe only be good for two weeks, then I'd need to fall back to tinned fruit, if shops were not accessible. Reasonable, but not ideal.

Now the extra that I buy all gets dried and stored while at it's prime. I still buy fresh, but about half the time I'm using from my dried stores. I allow my dried reserves to increase naturally such that I soon end up with a several months worth of reserves. I'm as likely to reach for a handful of dried peppers as I am to chop up a fresh one.

Alongside adding to my long term reserves like that, I get seasonal stuff and yellow label veg super cheap and dry it down into jars. A sack of carrots for £2 will fit in a jar and last for years. I like the reassurance of having a years worth of carrots, onions, swedes, mushrooms quietly set aside.

If you have ample cool space, you might reasonably hold and rotate a few sacks of carrots, spuds, onions etc and if SHTF, you'd probably have a good reserve for the first few months. Then what? I don't have such storage space. I don't want to waste freezer space on fruit and veg and dried stuff fills that gap, stored at ambient temp for years if need be.

Comparing with tinned rations for a while, we need to recognise that it's not quite like for like. Tinned tomatoes and tubes of puree, tins of carrots and mushrooms have a big place in my stash, but having a tub of dried ingredients gives back texture and another level of flexibility. A handful of dehydrated carrots or onions etc is a handy substitute to chopping up fresh ones.

Of course, many items can already be bought dehydrated and flaked or shrunk down. Cost effectiveness varies compared to drying your own. An example I'm currently experimenting on is dried spuds. I have many sachets purchased for long term storage. But I'm hoping home made will be better value.

One side benefit is that I have tubs and tubs of dried apples oranges and pineapple chunks which I eat instead of unhealthy sweets. Delish and moreish.

Ultimately, it's about what kind of reserves we aspire to. We can stash cases of pot noodles, cases of tinned ready meals, cases of pasta and sacks of rice and there's nothing wrong with that. Home dried stores are just an adjunct to that.
Graceful Degradation! Prepping's objective summed up in two words. Turning Disaster into Mild Inconvenience by the power of fore-thought

Not Feeling Optimistic. Let me be wrong
pseudonym
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Joined: Wed Jul 27, 2011 10:11 am
Location: East Midlands

Re: Dehydrater

Post by pseudonym »

I also like the fact that if I pass the reduced aisle in the supermarket and there's a massive pile of veg reduced to pennies, I'll buy the lot and by the morning it's all dehydrated and stored away.
Two is one and one is none, but three is even better.
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rik_uk3
Posts: 707
Joined: Sat Jul 21, 2012 1:49 pm
Location: South Wales UK

Re: Dehydrater

Post by rik_uk3 »

I bought a cheap one about 20 years ago and its still working, I got another off ebay for £30 a few months ago. I won't bang on about what to dry etc plenty of info online/Youtube et al but will say a drier pays for itself soon enough even if you only use it to make Jerky for you and your mates; to me a dehydrator is a basic prepper/survival tool.
Richard
South Wales UK
Retired, spending the children's inheritance.
jansman
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Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:16 pm

Re: Dehydrater

Post by jansman »

Moorland Prepper wrote: Thu Jan 21, 2021 9:56 am I keep wondering about buying a food dehydrater but can't see the point! We have tinned food and space is not a problem.

By using on we would cut down on rotating stock, but there would be more work dehydrating food.

Just wondered if you good people here could tell me if I'm missing something rather obvious.

Heavy snow here in the moorlands. I'd put the snow shovel away on Monday and had to get it out this morning :)
I bought one to dry the tomatoes I grow,and I grow many! I also dry foraged mushrooms.As mentioned above, it can also help to reduce waste. They have their uses, but if you feel *you* don’t need one, then fair enough. A lot of preppers have camping equipment, so they can run to the woods when the power goes off :lol: :lol: - I don’t.

Don’t feel you are missing something. It’s what suits you.
In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: It goes on.

Robert Frost.

Covid 19: After that level of weirdness ,any situation is certainly possible.

Me.
Moorland Prepper
Posts: 102
Joined: Fri Nov 06, 2020 8:43 am
Location: On the edge of the Pennines

Re: Dehydrater

Post by Moorland Prepper »

Thank you for the replies, I've taken it all onboard and will have a discussion with Mrs Moorland about this.

I put off getting a vacuum sealer for so long as I didn't think that it was for me and now wouldn't be without one.

I was looking for a fairy basic one like this to start with, but if anyone has any recommendations please feel free to post them:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07 ... c79d9c8b60

Thank you all again for the helpful comments
jennyjj01
Posts: 3429
Joined: Sun Jun 04, 2017 11:09 pm

Re: Dehydrater

Post by jennyjj01 »

Moorland Prepper wrote: Thu Jan 21, 2021 8:24 pm I was looking for a fairy basic one like this to start with, but if anyone has any recommendations please feel free to post them:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07 ... c79d9c8b60

Thank you all again for the helpful comments
Hmmm. that looks like it should be extendable.

Small ones are fine for the left-over fruit&veg at the end of the week. Or a bigger one if you plan on processing a sack of produce.
The big difference as price goes up seems to be steel trays.

Go on. Treat yourself. What else can we spend money on at the moment :)

I'd recommend you buy a few mesh sheets like these...https://www.amazon.co.uk/cookamesh-blac ... 0085E8ZDM/ you can get similar at pound shops. or you could use silicon ones. https://www.amazon.co.uk/GUGUJI-Premium ... 07FP3NXMZ/

It is addictive, especially if you have a vac sealer too. I just spent an arm and a leg on importing a vac sealer jar adapter :)
Graceful Degradation! Prepping's objective summed up in two words. Turning Disaster into Mild Inconvenience by the power of fore-thought

Not Feeling Optimistic. Let me be wrong
pseudonym
Posts: 4548
Joined: Wed Jul 27, 2011 10:11 am
Location: East Midlands

Re: Dehydrater

Post by pseudonym »

jennyjj01 wrote: Thu Jan 21, 2021 9:38 pm It is addictive, especially if you have a vac sealer too. I just spent an arm and a leg on importing a vac sealer jar adapter :)
Been there done that.

Got a brake bleeder kit also so I can still vac seal if the power goes out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sceVvxxluw
Two is one and one is none, but three is even better.
jennyjj01
Posts: 3429
Joined: Sun Jun 04, 2017 11:09 pm

Re: Dehydrater

Post by jennyjj01 »

pseudonym wrote: Thu Jan 21, 2021 11:04 pm
jennyjj01 wrote: Thu Jan 21, 2021 9:38 pm It is addictive, especially if you have a vac sealer too. I just spent an arm and a leg on importing a vac sealer jar adapter :)
Been there done that.

Got a brake bleeder kit also so I can still vac seal if the power goes out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sceVvxxluw
Yes. I'm very tempted by one of those. At 15 - 20 quid (price and quality vary), they seem great value. Also, I'm not yet sure the foodsaver hose that I've ordered will be compatible with my Lidl unbranded vac sealer. It does have a port, but might not fit.
I did pick up a battery hand pump from poundstretcher for a fiver, but it's useless.
Graceful Degradation! Prepping's objective summed up in two words. Turning Disaster into Mild Inconvenience by the power of fore-thought

Not Feeling Optimistic. Let me be wrong
jennyjj01
Posts: 3429
Joined: Sun Jun 04, 2017 11:09 pm

Re: Dehydrater

Post by jennyjj01 »

jennyjj01 wrote: Thu Jan 21, 2021 11:45 pm
pseudonym wrote: Thu Jan 21, 2021 11:04 pm Got a brake bleeder kit also so I can still vac seal if the power goes out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sceVvxxluw
Yes. I'm very tempted by one of those. At 15 - 20 quid (price and quality vary), they seem great value.
Crikey! At £3.99 including postage from China, I got my break bleeder pump ordered.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07W6M9XVG/
[Edit: OMG. This is insane. It arrived 36 hours later by Hermes]
Last edited by jennyjj01 on Sat Jan 23, 2021 10:12 am, edited 2 times in total.
Graceful Degradation! Prepping's objective summed up in two words. Turning Disaster into Mild Inconvenience by the power of fore-thought

Not Feeling Optimistic. Let me be wrong