I have had the 5 shelf Excalibur for over 20 years. I tried one of those round types when I picked up a brand new one, still in box at the SalVal for 5.00. To compare the 2 is like comparing apples to oranges. It depends on what you will be using the dehydrator for. I use the Excalibur for drying crafts as well as foods, so I need one that has the features the Excalibur offers. Such as yesterday, I made soap and dried the bars in the dehydrator. With the Excalibur you can use all the trays , some trays or remove them all for taller applications like raising bread or making yogurt and you cannot do that in round models, or at least the one I picked up cheap. If a part gets broken I can order replacements and the cheaper ones don't have a 10 year warranty. I saw on the Excalibur site the Economy 4 tray is one sale and lower priced than the Nesco Pro right now. I found that in the round types ones the food trays lower dried faster and you were constantly moving tray for even drying, you don't need to do that in the Excalibur. Dehydrated green beans with ham and potatoes is awesome. Dried strawberries are intense, and I always make a big batch of dried soup veggies , as those mixes are so pricy to buy. Both manufacturers have recipes/ideas on their websites, maybe those can help you decide.

I also made a lot of jams/jellies with my fresh fruit when I first became so "inspired" - thanks to so many helpful folks here. As time wore on, we found we ate fewer of them than anticipated. So what to do with frozen berries, fruits? Make juice. I use a stainless steel pot (for acids), bringing fruit to boil, using half fruit pulp to half water. When fruit has released juices, line a collendar with cheese cloth and strain juice into a new stainless steel, plastic or ceramic vessel. Cool. Wrap the cheese cloth around the pulp tying into a bag and allow pulp to drain, until the juices are extracted - save the pulp for later. You can hang the bag and catch drips - avoid contact with metal though, use non-reactive containers to hold dripping juices. I bottle the juice into plastic individual water bottle containers (after thorough washing and disinfecting with bleach water - (my GD uses a lot of these small water bottles in her "exercise" routines - and she will drink most of the juice as well). Taste the juices (GD drinks em, she usually tests em for flavor, sweet, etc.) I like added lemon or lime juice here to our liking with less on the sugar. I fill the bottles about 2/3rds full - mainly because they will expand when frozen, and sometimes like to add soda water to the juice after thawing or sometimes add it to teas (I know that sounds funny, but it tastes good on hot summer's day). These fresh-tasting fruit drinks are well-received and I can add more sugar or not - as preferred, rather than accepting the bottled commercial drink status quo. (Ack). I reserve the pulp - either freeze or use immediately for an addition to a sweet bread recipe. I use my zucchini bread recipe - here it is - so versatile: Zucchini Bread: (or Pumpkin, Hubbard Squash, Banana, Apple etc.) 3 C zucchini (or whatever pureed pulp you have) 1-2/3 C sugar (usually less). 2/3 C oil (soybean) 2 tsp vanilla (might try almond?) 4 eggs (beat slightly) 3 C flour (sometimes use a little whole wheat - sub about 1/3 C +- for white flour - other idea - brans,? etc.) 1 tsp salt 2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 C nuts (toasted and ground) I used macadamias, almonds, walnuts - depending on whatever is available). 1/2 C raisins (sometimes use my own dried fruit - cut to size - fruit that I pureed and dried - fruit leathers, dried apple, pineapple - whatever I have lots of - and doesn't detract from recipe). Mix first 5 ingredients, then add flours, etc. Don't overbeat (it's not bread you know). Bake 350 degrees, 2 large buttered loaf pans. 50 to 60 minutes or when finger poke springs back when pressed to top of loaf. Cool on rack, run knife around edges before removal. Not too bad! My last effort involved cranberries with toasted - I think either almonds or macadamias - because that was what was in the freezer - and needed "using" at the...

Yes, you can dry them, assuming they are still fresh tasting and don't have freezer burn or "freezer taste". They might not come out as brightly colored as from fresh, but should be an acceptable product for cooking purposes. Let them completely thaw, and then pat or squeeze as much additional liquid out of them as possible. Personally, what I would do is put them between a couple of clean kitchen towels and press them down hard with something like the bottom of a skillet until no more liquid comes out. There is actually an advantage to this -- the freezing ruptured the cells, and most of the liquid will come out before they ever hit the dryer. So, they'll dry fast.

AM, I have an Excalibur, it's a great machine. I use mine for jerky, for dehydrating garlic, chopped onions and herbs, for apple slices, for making "gummy worms" out of zucchini. I dehydrate zucchini for soup too, and Elery dries a lot of hot peppers. We used a mix of dried peppers and herbs and made our own chili powder this year and if I get a bunch of morel mushrooms or even find mushrooms on sale, I'll stick them into the dehydrator to keep on hand. I threw some morels into the food processor after they were dried, ground them to powder and added salt for a "morel salt". It added a nice flavor when I didn't really have enough mushrooms to make anything else. I've not been happy with a couple of items. Like you, I've found that bananas just stay chewy and sticky and no one in my family will eat them, the consistency is just bad. I've dried tomatoes for tomato powder but they never seem to get crisp enough to powder. If I put them in the food processor and "powder" them, they just solidify into one giant brick. Ugh. A waste of time and product for me. Dried watermelon wasn't exactly my best idea either, LOL. The kids love this "zucchini candy", though, and no one ever knows that it's zucchini. I got the recipe from Linda Lou at Harvest and it's not exactly healthy with sugar and koolaid, but it's probably better than gummy worms. BASIC ZUCCHINI CANDY FRUIT 10 cups peeled diced zucchini 1/2 inch cubes or "worms" 3 cups water 2 pkgs. unsweetened Koolaid 2 1/2 cups sugar Peel zucchini,cut in half, removing seeds. Dice in cubes. Mix the liquid syrup together. Add zucchini. Bring to a boil and them simmer for 25 min. Drain. Put on dehydrator trays. Dry 14 hours at 125 degrees. Turn pieces over and dry another 4 hours. This will feel dry and not sticky when done. Store in jars or other tightly sealed containers.If you dip in sugar when you turn them, they will be more like "gum drops" on the outside. PINEAPPLE CANDY FRUIT You can do the same thing with the zucchini but use : 48 oz. pineapple juice 2 T. pineapple extract 2 1/2 cups sugar 1/4 cup lemon juice BLUEBERRY CANDY FRUIT 10 cups peeled, cut zucchini, about 1/2 inch cubes 1 -16 oz. can wild blueberries ( mashed and strained through cheese cloth) 1 qt. fresh blueberries ( mashed and strained through cheese cloth) 1 cup water 2 cups sugar 1/2 cup lemon juice ( optional) Follow the directions for basic recipe. HINTS: When turning your zucchini, dip in sugar to coat them, making them more like "gumdrops". Or you could make fruit leather, kids always seem to like those. Annie This post was edited by annie1992 on Sun, Jan 26, 14 at 19:23