Dehydrator recommendation.

[Jamesey1981]

Replacing a knackered part in it will be easy enough if you can find the replacement, it'll only get more complicated if you want to add the temperature control, which is beyond my skill to be honest, but I would still say to give it a clean out and see if that works, it will suck in a lot of dust as it runs and that will build up over time.

[shocker]

I second Jamesy on that

[ForgeCorvus]

My Dad was Fleet Air Arm, his first rule with 'lectrics was
"Bright, Tight and Clean"

[jaffab]

Bang! Birthday yesterday, and wifey got me a dehydrator that I had been dropping hints at. Straight off to Sainsburys and a pound of silverside was soon sliced, marinated and drying overnight. First nibbles this morning tasted pretty good.

Did a Cajun version and a Teriyaki version from a 'dehydrating bible' book that she bought to go with it - tried both - they looked different but tasted pretty much the same. Still good, but not as different as I would have imagined.

Its a 4 shelf round thing - the 1 pound of meat made about 60 bits of jerky, and took up just over 2 trays, so I can get 2 pounds of meat done at a time.

Wifey is also keen to do dried fruit twist things (berry and apple combined chewy twist things).

yum

[pseudonym]

Bang! Birthday yesterday, and wifey got me a dehydrator that I had been dropping hints at. Straight off to Sainsburys and a pound of silverside was soon sliced, marinated and drying overnight. First nibbles this morning tasted pretty good.

Did a Cajun version and a Teriyaki version from a 'dehydrating bible' book that she bought to go with it - tried both - they looked different but tasted pretty much the same. Still good, but not as different as I would have imagined.

Its a 4 shelf round thing - the 1 pound of meat made about 60 bits of jerky, and took up just over 2 trays, so I can get 2 pounds of meat done at a time.

Wifey is also keen to do dried fruit twist things (berry and apple combined chewy twist things).

yum

It gets addictive.

[Brambles]

My new Excalibur got a workout at the weekend. It's amazing!

[jaffab]

So after a successful trial of Jerky creation, I decided to try my hand at making fruit 'leathers' - TOTAL FAIL!
I was not sure what to use to hold the mixture - the books talk about parchment - so I went with grease proof paper with the mixture poured onto it directly - and after 8 hours, I just ended up with concrete with a paper backing - the leather would not peel away from the paper.

Any advice on making fruit leathers - what paper of separator do you use. The wife has suggested trying again with a silicone mat on top of the plastic dehydrator shelf mesh - any other (simpler) thoughts?

[Jamesey1981]

I use parchment paper, it will also get crunchy if you dry it too much, if that happens then leave it for a few hours in the dehydrator with it switched off and the moisture from the air will wet it a little and then it will bend, and as long as it'll bend then the paper comes off.
Getting it as even as possible is important too.

Make sure you use silicon paper, quite often it's labelled as baking parchment or paper, it's usually whitish, brown greaseproof will stick, it needs to be greased to be non stick and it won't work for this kind of stuff.

This is what I use:

[Plymtom]

The Excalibur has optional extra sheets for doing fruit leathers I only did it once and it worked OK, you can also dehydrate eggs then powder them in a processor but with the excalibur sheets you have to make a shallow bowl by folding up the edges and putting small bulldog clips on, it's a bit dodgy but it works, they then store for 2-3 years, I bought some mason jars to vac seal them in.... not got around to it yet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdmNAksFexI There's loads on there, DIY powdered eggs who'd have thunk it?

[Brambles]

I have always used baking parchment, NOT greaseproof paper. You still have to be a bit careful pulling off the leather and it's also useful when drying small stuff to prevent it falling through the trays.

Some people also use oven liner like this and cut it to fit.
http://www.appliancespareswarehouse.co. ... 0wodqnIIrg