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Newbie on Food Dehydration

11 years ago

I was given a food dehydrator and keep forgetting to try it. There is a farm here locally and right now they are offering u-pick green beans. Can anyone give me some tips on doing this, also how do you use them in cooking, and what method do you use for storage and for how long?? Also what are the most successful foods for dehydration?

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Comments (4)

agmss15
11 years ago
I have a lebanese cookbook that mentions dried green bean. Last year I dried some of my mom's bumper crop of pears. They were delicious and disappeared really fast. I dried zucchini and kohlrabi this year - eh. I am hoping they will be good in soup though. My mom dries oyster mushrooms and grinds them up to add to soups and such.
grainlady_ks
11 years ago
Welcome to the club! You will find great information and tips located at the National Center for Home Food Preservation.

A trip to your local public library will probably have some book/videos on the subject. I'll suggest these three books.

Making & Using Dried Foods - Phyllis Hobson

How to Dry Foods - Deanna DeLong

Mary Bell's Complete Dehydrator Cookbook - Mary Bell

I will add one point about these books, and many others. They are not as up-to-date as they should be, but the information is still great. None of these books use the "New Home Drying Recommendations" to increase the food safety. That information is found at this link: http://www.ext.colostate.edu/safefood/newsltr/v8n4s01.html

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: National Center for Home Food Preservation - How do I Dry...
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I use a lot of dehydrated produce in a lot of recipes. Like last night there was dehydrated corn, kale, and wild chives in the potato and ham chowder. A few nights ago I made stuffed shells, and the tomato sauce had a heap of dehydrated quartered tomatoes and dehydrated sliced mushrooms in it. I always have dehydrated celery and carrots in the house so I have the stuff on hand for mire poix for whenever I need it without having to use up my fresh produce. When onions go on sale for super cheap, I run a few days worth or minced onions and usually have a few quarts in the pantry- right now I've run myself down to the last couple handfuls in the pantry to prep up for restocking onions soon. Herbs of course too, we use heaps of fresh and dried herbs around here. I do up tomatoes sliced, quartered, or halved depending on the kind and size. They get powdered up for instant tomato sauces and pastes, and left in bigger pieces to stew up in soups, stews, and sauces. Summer squashes get grated and dried up- used in all sorts of stuff like soups, casseroles, stews, or even rehydrated for zucchini breads. Winter squashes get cooked, pureed, and dehydrated on jelly sheets till crispy dry- then made into squash flour for baking- it is wonderful in quick breads and hearty breads- you simply replace some of the flour with squash flour. Actually you can make flour out of pretty much any pleasing combination of produce- add veggie kick to any breads, or make tasty veggie crackers. Sometimes I'll grate winter squash raw and it can get added into soups, stews, or sprinkled on pizza like cheese. I do this with sweet potatoes too- we love garlic, spinach, sweet potato, and mushroom pizzas with either white or tomato sauce. Dried and minced/powdered, you can make your own seasoning mixes, dip and dressing mixes, dry vegetable broth mix, and more. For recipes that use the green beans, try looking for it under "leather britches" recipes. Leather britches is what the old timers called the green beans they would hang on strings to dry out and eat up during the winter. I use them mostly in soups and stews, and a couple casseroles. Peppers can be dried up- I tend to do them either in rings, halved, or quartered depending on the size, but I never leave them whole. They are great for additions to all sorts of foods, or ground up into spice powders. If you have a smoker, you can smoke them before drying them too :)
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annie1992
11 years ago
It's really easy. Elery's mother used to string beans on thread and dry them, they called them "leather britches". I don't know why, maybe the hanging green beans looked like the legs of pants?

Anyway, it's easy. I clean mine and snap them into approximately equal sized pieces so they dry evenly. I blanch them for 4 minutes, then plunge into cold water, put them on the trays. I have a big Excaliber dehydrator with temperature settings, so I use 125F. Depending on how big the beans are it takes from 6-10 hours, they should be crisp.

I seldom rehydrate foods on their own, other than mushrooms, instead I'll throw a handful into a pot of simmering soup. However, you can take a cup of dried green beans, cover them with about 2 or 2 1/2 cups of water and rehydrate for whatever you need them for.

I like dried zucchini in soups but I've sprinkled with salt, with garlic salt, with chili powder, etc. So far they're just best in soup although I have a tomato/zucchini gratin recipe I've used them for. The kids mostly like them for zucchini candy, also made in the dehydrator.

I've never dried kohlrabi but I have very little luck with tomatoes, they never seem to actually get crisp, they just get leather-y. I wasn't overwhelmed with strawberries either, but apples and pears dry wonderfully and make great snacks.

I just store the dried items in quart canning jars since I have a plethora of those, but large amounts have been known to go into Lock N Lock containers or even Ziplock freezer bags.

Have fun!

Annie
dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m
11 years ago
Dehydrating food is easy. You can dry fruit, veggies and meat.

It would be helpful to be able to come up with a way or a tool to easily slice food to equal thinkness, and is adjustable from thin to thick.

dcarch

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