In addition to pickling and canning food, drying food is also increasingly being discovered as part of a healthy and environmentally conscious lifestyle. This article will focus on food dehydrators and inform you about everything there is to know about them.
What exactly is a food dehydrator, and why should you buy it? Which food is suitable for drying? How much does a food dehydrator cost, and what do I pay attention to when buying? What types of food dehydrators are there? And finally, what are the best brands and where can they be bought? When you’ve taken all this in, you can make an informed choice that you won’t regret later.
Why dry food?
Drying food has been done for centuries to make food last longer. The advantage of drying food is that no unhealthy chemicals, salt, or sugars have to be added.
Drying food also prevents unnecessary food throwing. Wasting food is a major annoyance for more and more people. For these reasons, food dehydrators are also becoming more and more popular. It fits into a conscious lifestyle.
How does a food dehydrator work?
A food dehydrator removes moisture from food. It’s that simple. All kinds of micro-organisms, such as bacteria and fungi, live in our food. These cause our food to go bad in the long run. These organisms need water. By removing moisture from the food, you make these micro-organisms harmless. However, the drying process does not kill them; the food thus does not become sterile. This keeps your food tasty, and healthy and does not spoil.
The drying process
There are several ways to extract moisture from food, such as drying in the air, in the wind, or in the sun. In Norway, for example, stockfish is dried in this way. In the past, this ensured that people also had enough to eat in the hard wintertime.
This natural way of drying naturally has the disadvantage that you are dependent on the weather. This is not very practical in the Dutch climate. A dehydrator is then much more convenient and faster.
What should I imagine with a food dehydrator?
A food dehydrator is no more than a kind of cupboard with some drawers or racks in which you put the food to be dried. Then set the time and temperature. The dehydrator contains a heating element that provides heat. A fan ensures that the heat is blown through the cabinet. It is important that the correct temperature and time are set. This way you retain taste, you don’t lose nutritional value unnecessarily and you stop the spoilage.
So carefully follow the directions that are included in the manual.
Can I also dry food without a food dehydrator, for example in the oven?
Drying food requires quite a bit of precision in terms of temperature and moisture extraction. Too hot will not benefit the taste and you will lose important nutrients unnecessarily. Too low a temperature or too short a drying time does not sufficiently prevent the spoilage of the food. A dehydrator is then a good solution to achieve exactly the right temperature and moisture extraction for a good and quick result.
What types of food dehydrators can we distinguish?
There are roughly two types of dehydrators: the vertical dehydrator (the warm air is blown from top to bottom or from the bottom up) and the horizontal dehydrator (the warm air is blown back and forth).
They are also available in different sizes and price ranges. There are food dehydrator for household use and for professionals. The main brands are Espressions, Excalibur, Stöckli, Dejeling, Wartmann and Sedona.
What do I pay attention to when buying a food dehydrator?
Food dehydrators come in different price ranges, ranging from thirty euros to more than a thousand euros. There are a number of points to consider when purchasing a food dehydrator. Of course, this will be your budget, but there are also other differences that you may find important. Below you will find the most important points to pay attention to when purchasing:
Heat distribution
There are two ways to distribute the heat: horizontally or vertically. A horizontal dehydrator is more stable than a vertical food dehydrator, because the drying method is more even. The disadvantage is that it takes a little longer to dry. Horizontal food dehydrators are generally a bit more expensive to purchase than a vertical dehydrator. To achieve a good result with vertical dehydrators, it is necessary that you change the racks or drawers during the drying process.
Capacity
A higher capacity is not necessarily better. It depends on what you want to dry. If you’re buying a dehydrator to dry some fruits and vegetables for your family or some food for your dog every now and then, a lower capacity may also suffice. You can expand some food dehydrators by buying additional drawers so that you can increase the total drying surface.
Temperature
At a lower temperature, more vitamins are retained. If that’s important to you, buy a dehydrator that also gives good results at lower temperatures (40 degrees Celsius / 104 degrees Fahrenheit).
Shape and dimensions
Food dehydrators come in round or square shapes. It depends a bit on the available space and your taste where you prefer. A round shape takes up a little more space. If you opt for a vertical dehydrator, a round is more efficient than a square for the drying process.
Energy consumption
Energy is needed to produce dry and warm air. An oven can also produce warm and dry air, but it is not nearly as efficient and will therefore require more energy and is, therefore, more expensive to use. The energy consumption of a dehydrator is also lower than a freezer, especially if it is an old one. Some dehydrators can also be used halfway (a kind of energy-saving mode, so to speak).
Power
The power indicated on a dehydrator is always the maximum power. If you dry in a warm, dry room at lower temperatures, you need less power. In particular, the fans that ensure the air movement in the dehydrators consume the most energy. So it depends on what you are going to use the dehydrators for and what you need in terms of power.
BPA-free
BPA stands for Bisphenol A and is a chemical that is commonly found in plastic products. Too much BPA is unhealthy and that is why there are strict European rules for the use of this substance. Still, there are people who would rather not buy something that contains BPA. Before purchasing a food dehydrator, you can check whether the plastic used is BPA-free. You can of course also opt for stainless steel instead of plastic. This is often a bit more expensive to purchase.
Usability
How easily do I operate the device and is it easy to maintain? Is the dehydrator easy to clean and can it be put in the dishwasher? What is the warranty on the dehydrator?
Sound
Finally, let’s mention the sound of the dehydrator. One makes more noise than the other and there are people who are very sensitive to this. Then ask about this and check it first if necessary. You may want to run the dehydrator overnight. Then of course you don’t want to wake up to a disturbing noise.
Which food is suitable for drying?
You can dry all kinds of vegetables, fruit, mushrooms, and herbs. You can even dry tofu. In addition, you can also dry vegan cheese, bread (to make croutons or breadcrumbs), nuts, pasta and also some flowers. Dried food has the advantage that the taste is often more intense. Food dehydrators are also used to make your own stock powders.
As vegans, we don’t do that ourselves, but some people dry meat or fish for their dog (beef jerky) or cat (dried fish nibbles made from cod, tuna, salmon, or anchovy).
Nice to make yourself in a food dehydrator is sweet potato or banana chips. You can even make vegan yogurt in a food dehydrator!
In short, the variations and possibilities are endless. Due to its increasing popularity, you will also find more and more great recipes on the internet or on Facebook. You can eat dried food as is, but you can also soak it in water. If you are going to experiment yourself, write down all settings, quantities, and temperatures that you have used. Measuring is knowing.
Some recipes, tips, and applications
To inspire and warm you up, below are a number of applications for using a food dehydrator. Once you get the hang of it, you won’t want anything else, is the general tendency.
Dry your own food for your dog or cat
Not all snacks that you buy in the pet store are really healthy for your dog. Often there are many added substances that are not so good, such as odors and flavors, preservatives, and salt. If you want to know what your dog or cat is eating, if you care about their health or if your pet is sensitive to certain foods, self-drying food is a good option.
Making beef jerky, but vegan
This dried and cured meat is especially popular in the United States. As with almost all foods, you can also make a vegan version of this using a drying oven. For example, you can dry shiitake, eggplant, jackfruit, cauliflower, watermelon, pumpkin, tempeh, and tofu and make vegan beef jerky.
Drying your own vegetables, fruit, and herbs
Different herbs are excellent for drying, so that you can keep them longer. Delicious are dried chili peppers, homemade vegetable stock, and dried mushrooms (delicious in a homemade risotto).
Do you like fruit tea? Then you can now make it all yourself. Do you want a nice dry bouquet in your room? This happens very quickly in a food dehydrator. Or make your own potpourri from rose petals and how about the wonderful scent of lavender?
Making fruit leather
Fruit leather is a very old way of cooking that dates back to the Persian Empire (what is now Iran) before our era. This was called lavashak. You sometimes hear the name Persian fruit roll.
Especially for ripe fruit that you can no longer keep for long, this is a good solution to prevent spoilage and waste. It works like this: first boil and puree the fruit and then spread it out in layers (sugar is not necessary) on a special drying mat (this is grease-free and removable paper and can be reused).
Set the dehydrator to 57 degrees Celcius or 135 degrees Fahrenheit for an eight-hour period. Then let it cool and cut it into pieces. It is best to store this airtight. It’s a delicious healthy snack that kids love too.
Make your own chips
Chips from the supermarket are fried and very salty and therefore not good for your health. An alternative is to make it yourself in your own food dehydrator. Then you know exactly what’s in it.
You can make these chips from sweet potato and parsnip, for example. First wash the potato and parsnip. Peeling is not necessary. Then you cut it into thin slices of about a millimeter thick. Dry it with paper towels or a towel and add some salt (or other spices) to taste. Set the food dehydrator to 55 degrees C or 131 degrees F and dry it in 8 hours. Kale chips are also very tasty.
Dehydrators in the price range above four hundred euros
Excalibur food dehydrators
In this price range, we end up with the experts. Excalibur is such a specialist because they only make food dehydrators. They can therefore rightly call themselves world leaders in this field. Excalibur food dehydrators are of high quality and last a long time. So it is always a good investment. Professionals in the hospitality industry also like to use Excalibur.
The Excalibur 4926T220FB is a horizontal food dehydrator with nine drying drawers. You can remove one or more drawers if you want to dry something large. This dehydrator is easy to clean, partly due to the seamless drawer bottom.
Particularities:
- Horizontal food dehydrator with 9 drawers
- Square shape
- Dimensions: 48.3 cm by 43.2 cm by 31.2 cm
- Power of 600 Watt
- Adjustable thermostat
- Two year warranty
- Removable drawers that can go in the dishwasher
The latest stainless steel Excalibur
There are also Excalibur dehydrators with even more capacity, but they are of course more expensive in price. For example, there is the Excalibur EXC10ELF version commercial that costs more than 1400 dollars. This is the newest food dehydrator from this manufacturer. Stainless steel (stainless steel) has been chosen instead of plastic. This dehydrator is equipped with all kinds of modern gadgets. You do get a five-year warranty on this robust dehydrator.
You can remove drawers when you want to dry larger products. Thanks to the horizontal airflow, the food is always dried evenly. Because the drying oven has a square tray, the drying space is automatically enlarged. The drying drawers are all dishwasher safe. You can easily set the tide and temperature via the digital control panel. The timer goes up to 99 hours.
You can even program two drying temperatures. This allows you to dry at a high temperature in the beginning and automatically lower the temperature afterwards so that all nutrients are preserved in the later stage of the drying process.
Tribest dehydrators
Another brand in this price range is Tribest. Tribest is a Los Angeles based company that focuses on a healthy lifestyle. They manufacture high-quality small kitchen appliances that support this. Think of juicers, blenders and therefore also dehydrators.
A number of types of dehydrators from the Tribest brand are (these dryers are all for sale between 400-700 euros):
- Sedona SD-P9150
- Tribest dehydrator Sedona Combo Plastic Sheets
- Sedona Combo Dehydrator
- Dehydrator Sedona express with 11 drawers
- Sedona Drying oven with 9 drawers and Timer (Classic, sd-p9000)
A collapsible dehydrator
The only food dehydrator that is foldable is the Brod & Taylor Sahara Food Dehydrator. This future-proof, revolutionary and very handy device can be folded to only a third of its size. This square dryer has seven stainless steel racks and two digitally adjustable heating elements of up to 750 Watts. This gives a very efficient airflow.
An extra filter is included and the design is very nice. This is therefore an excellent choice for people who want to take a food dehydrator with them. A small drawback that people mention is that this food dehydrator is not very quiet. The price is around four hundred dollars.
Handy accessories for dehydrators
A useful aid when drying food are sheets on which you place the food. This is especially practical with the somewhat wetter products, such as fruit spreads. Baking paper is also an option, but experience has shown that these are less pleasant to use than the sheets.
There are different types of dehydrator sheets on the market that you can also reuse. They are made of different materials, such as plastic or silicone, and there are even folding mats for sale. You can often also wash them in the dishwasher.
All the benefits of dried food at a glance
A dehydrator is a healthy and cost-effective alternative for preserving food and also prevents waste. Below are some more benefits of drying food:
- By drying food you can enjoy all the food that the four seasons have to offer all year round.
- You can easily take dried food with you on a trip or to work or school.
- Dried food can be a tasty and healthy snack as an alternative to sweets and cookies and children often love them.
- Properly dried food can be kept for up to thirty years!
- It fits into any diet.
- So buy nice, large and affordable food and dry what you can’t eat.
Are there any drawbacks to drying food?
Yes, there are a few disadvantages, but we do not think they outweigh the advantages. For example, drying food can take quite some time and a dehydrator also takes up extra space in your kitchen. Drying also means that good nutrients are lost, such as vitamins C, E and certain B vitamins and antioxidants. Dried snacks are sometimes very salty and this is not so good for your blood pressure.
Fresh is always the best and tastiest, of course, but you can’t keep fresh for long.
We hope you enjoy using your food dehydrator.
