Dehydrated food

I have an Excalibur. I haven't used it much, but I've been making and effort to do so lately. I had some number 10 cans of corn, green beans, and peas that I dehydrated to put into soup. I sliced a bunch of apples, sprinkled cinnamon and cardamom, and had a bunch of apple snacks that were a huge hit when we had people over. I dehydrated peppers, but aside from soup, I'm really not sure what to do with them.

I bought five dozen eggs, and plan on dehydrating those, too.

I'm a little out of my depth with this. Can any of you dehydrating pros give me more ideas how to best utilize this? How to use the food I've dehydrated? How to rehydrate so it's not like chewing sticks?

I puree some fruits, put down wax paper or saran wrap and pour it on for fruit leather. It takes a little longer to dehydrate, but the kids love it. Make sure not to block all the air flow with the paper.
We do a lot of mushrooms in August during bolete season. I put a handful in a cup of water and set aside while I am cooking. After about 10 minutes, they are well on their way to rehydration.
For my "bag of soup" in my travel and hunting packs, I put in a couple small pieces of jerky, some dried vegetables and beef bullion. It takes up very little space and well under and ounce. Boil water and let set for a couple minutes, the jerky is normally what is still tough.
On the eggs, I have never tried dehydrating them. My brother has a freeze drier, and he does them.

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Originally Posted by encorehunter

I puree some fruits, put down wax paper or saran wrap and pour it on for fruit leather. It takes a little longer to dehydrate, but the kids love it. Make sure not to block all the air flow with the paper.
We do a lot of mushrooms in August during bolete season. I put a handful in a cup of water and set aside while I am cooking. After about 10 minutes, they are well on their way to rehydration.
For my "bag of soup" in my travel and hunting packs, I put in a couple small pieces of jerky, some dried vegetables and beef bullion. It takes up very little space and well under and ounce. Boil water and let set for a couple minutes, the jerky is normally what is still tough.
On the eggs, I have never tried dehydrating them. My brother has a freeze drier, and he does them.

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All good information, thank you!

I'll let you know how the eggs turn out.

You can toss the peppers in with meat juices for things like fajitas.

Batches of onions are not much fun but we did a case a year of walla walla sweets since they rot fast. Slice the top and bottom. Then halve or quarter them then peel then seperate the layers under water for tear free prep. You can mince them after dehydration. Or shove them in the back of the freezer and find them minced in 6 months...

Crinkle cutting helps air flow.

An apple corer speeds up the prep work

https://www.amazon.com/Apple-Peeler-.../dp/B087WTVW18

Fruit leather is great. You can freeze the odd fruit that's gonna go bad and then do a batch later. Like you would bananas for bread.

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Originally Posted by Wulf202

You can toss the peppers in with meat juices for things like fajitas.

Batches of onions are not much fun but we did a case a year of walla walla sweets since they rot fast. Slice the top and bottom. Then halve or quarter them then peel then seperate the layers under water for tear free prep. You can mince them after dehydration. Or shove them in the back of the freezer and find them minced in 6 months...

Crinkle cutting helps air flow.

An apple corer speeds up the prep work

https://www.amazon.com/Apple-Peeler-.../dp/B087WTVW18

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Okay, peppers are what gave me issues. I've got them sliced as thin as I dare- I think it's between 1/8" and 1/16th" on my man-eating mandolin slicer- but they were still tough and chewy and not pepper-like when I soaked them in super hot water for 15 minutes. Should it be boiling liquid? Do I soak for longer than 15 minutes?

And I'm going to try that fruit leather. I've got peaches I threw in the freezer and have taken them out to thaw. Thanks!

I'll do that with sweet onions- I have a single plug-in outside on the deck, and I'll put my dehydrator out there.

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Originally Posted by TheGrey

Okay, peppers are what gave me issues. I've got them sliced as thin as I dare- I think it's between 1/8" and 1/16th" on my man-eating mandolin slicer- but they were still tough and chewy and not pepper-like when I soaked them in super hot water for 15 minutes. Should it be boiling liquid? Do I soak for longer than 15 minutes?

And I'm going to try that fruit leather. I've got peaches I threw in the freezer and have taken them out to thaw. Thanks!

I'll do that with sweet onions- I have a single plug-in outside on the deck, and I'll put my dehydrator out there.

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I thin slice peppers, and or small cubes, for dehydrating, then rehydrate with boiling water.


I'm also doing dehydrating (for some items) in 2 steps. 2-3 hrs on the smoker, @ 225 / high smoke, then finish in dehydrator. Works great for garlic, peppers (incl chili peppers) & onions. The garlic is used in a bottle of olive oil, with the rest, likes some of the onions. I'll grind them in a coffee grinder for garlic / onion powder, much cheaper than buying at a store. .

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Originally Posted by Great-Kazoo

I thin slice peppers, and or small cubes, for dehydrating, then rehydrate with boiling water.


I'm also doing dehydrating (for some items) in 2 steps. 2-3 hrs on the smoker, @ 225 / high smoke, then finish in dehydrator. Works great for garlic, peppers (incl chili peppers) & onions. The garlic is used in a bottle of olive oil, with the rest, likes some of the onions. I'll grind them in a coffee grinder for garlic / onion powder, much cheaper than buying at a store. .

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A smoker? What a great idea.
Thinking back, I did not use boiling water, just very, very hot water. Maybe that was the issue.

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Originally Posted by TheGrey

A smoker? What a great idea.
Thinking back, I did not use boiling water, just very, very hot water. Maybe that was the issue.

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The other question is. How long do you allow them to rehydrate? I do the recommended 10-12 min.

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Originally Posted by Great-Kazoo

The other question is. How long do you allow them to rehydrate? I do the recommended 10-12 min.

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It was longer than that, but I'm thinking the water simply wasn't hot enough.

We haven't used the dehydrator for some time but ran it a lot when we had large gardens and backpack camped. We've done countless bushels of apples, peaches and apricots from the orchard. Also, bananas, onions and zucchinis. A favorite were sweet-100 tomatoes. Smaller and much sweeter than cherry tomatoes, they dry and reconstitute well and add to stir fry or soups. Sliced in half and dried inside up. We would vacuum pack, double bag in freezer ziplocs and store in a deep freezer. I still keep some dehydrated foods in the vehicles for use in emergency.

I usually buy a bushel of peaches and roasted chilis every year but now freeze them instead of drying. We run three deep freezers and three or four refrigerators, and regularly get admonishing e-mails from Xcel Energy. :p

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Originally Posted by TheGrey

It was longer than that, but I'm thinking the water simply wasn't hot enough.

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I've only had success with simmering them in fajitas. Cant help much otherwise.