Suggest that you do a search for the key words 'excalibur' and/or 'dehydrator'. It should bring up many threads about the subject already posted here. Here is a link that might be useful: Dehydrator threads search

plllog- It sounds like you are describing freeze-dried food, which unfortunately, CAN'T be duplicated in a dehydrator. Freeze-drying is a commercial technique that forms a vacuum while the food is freezing. Stored properly, freeze-dried food has a much longer shelf-life than home-dehydrated, and freeze-dried foods are much higher in nutrients than those made at home, and freeze-dried foods rehydrate in a fraction of the time as home-dried foods. I store and use both home-dehydrated and freeze-dried. jennieboyer, Home\-dehydrated foods need to be used fairly quickly because they don't have any preservatives, and the nutrients degrade quickly \- even if they still "look" fine, and may even taste fine, after years on your shelves. Recommended storage times for home\-dried foods range from 4\-months to one year because the quality is affected by oxygen, temperature, and light. Most dried fruits can be stored for one year at 60\-degrees F, or six months at 80\-degrees F. (room temperature is considered 70\-degrees F.). The cooler the storage temperature, the longer the shelf\-life, and this is true for all stored foods. For each 10\-degrees above room temperature (70\-degrees F) the faster food degrades (nutrients are lost, color and texture may change). Because home\-dehydrated vegetables don't have as much natural (or added) sugar as fruit does, vegetables have about half the shelf\-life of fruits. I consider home\-dehydrated foods pantry foods which need to be rotated and used quickly. Unless you are 100% sure a home\-dehydrated food has 10% moisture or less, don't vacuum\-seal it because if any bacteria is present, it could potentially grow into a toxin \- even in the oxygen\-free container. In order to know the amount of moisture, you have to weigh the food before and after dehydrating. For more specific information on the subject, I suggest getting the book "How To Dry Foods" by Deanna DeLong. You can often find this book at the library and used book stores. As a general rule fruits dried at home normally have about 80% of their moisture removed and vegetables \- 90%. Only a small percentage of foods dehydrated are done until they are crispy dry. I do crispy apples for snacks (which store longer), and leathery apples for cooking/baking, which get used quickly. In my case, unless the dehydrated food is being used, they are stored in a dark, cool, food storage room in the basement. I always try to store enough apple slices for a year, but that's the only item I plan on doing that. Even foods that seem bone dry can still have some moisture in it. Each time you open a container of dehydrated foods, it will reabsorb moisture from the air, so make sure you don't leave the lid off a container any longer than needed, and use more small containers (pint and quart jars). The same problem of reabsorption occurs after the dehydrated food is done drying. Once the food is dry, allow it to come to room temperature, then place it in a container/s and be sure to condition it (an important step many people skip and find they have moldy food) before placing it in storage. If you pack warm food into a jar, moisture will continue to be expelled from the warm food and can be trapped in the jar, causing the food to mold. I would avoid using a timed dehydrator because it is possible for the food to sit for a long period of time after the timer has gone off, and it will most certainly have reabsorbed a lot of moisture, especially in a place where there is high humidity. I typically don't store home\-dried foods in large batches \- especially potatoes which are notorious for molding. Crispy apples destined for snacking I place in a snack\-size zip\-lock bag, then place the bags of apple slices in a quart jar. This way each time the jar is opened there is less chance any of the apple slices will reabsorb moisture from the air. There is an alternative method called dehydrofreezing where only about 70% of the moisture is removed, however, these foods MUST be stored in the freezer to prevent microbial growth. There are some advantages to dehydrofreezing \- the food has better flavor and color than traditional drying, and they reconstitute in about half the time it takes for traditionally dried foods. They also take up less space in the freezer than fresh\-frozen food. If you don't have plastic fruit leather sheets you can use plastic wrap to cover the trays, or you could try a produce bag with some cutting required to make it cover the round trays (both will require some over\-lapping). Caution \-\-\- do NOT place the food on the printed side of the bags because the ink is NOT food\-grade. I will also bet once you use a plastic bag or plastic wrap for this process, you will find the stiff plastic fruit leather sheets much easier to use and well worth the money. \-Grainlady

1. Storage is best in a vacuum-sealed jar (using the jar sealer on a FoodSaver). Air, light and heat are things that degrade dehydrated foods - so avoid those damaging elements when possible. - Jars are best because the food remains free-flowing. If you vacuum-seal in bags it will crush "crispy" dried foods, and those that still have a fair amount of moisture remaining will stick together in a bag. - The colder you store dehydrated foods, 0F or colder, the longer the food will keep. You can use a method called DEHYDROFREEZING for this purpose. Fruits dried at home normally have about 80% of the moisture removed; vegetables, 90%. When dehydrofreezing, you remove only 70% of the moisture and you MUST store these foods in the freezer to inhibit microbial growth in foods with that much moisture remaining. Benefits: - These foods take up less space in the freezer then if they were left whole. - They have better flavor and color than completely dehydrated. - They reconstitute in about 1/2 the time it takes for traditionally dried foods. 2. Storage time. Depending on the "expert" you read... Recommended storage times for dried foods range from 4 months to one year. The quality is affected by heat, the higher the temperature the shorter the storage time. Most dried fruits can be stored for one year at 60°F, six months at 80°F. Vegetables have about half the shelf-life of fruits. 3. Hints for storage. - I keep my dehydrated apple slices, which we use for snacking as well as cooking, stored in small "snack" size zip-lock bags, and store the bags of apples in a 1/2-gallon jar, vacuum-sealed shut. When we're ready to use from this jar, I exchange the canning lid for a Universal Lid that vacuums shut and can easily be opened and re-sealed, unlike the canning lid. This lid works with the FoodSaver and is one of the best things I've used with the FoodSaver. It comes in two sizes - 4-inch and 5-inch. You can use it on jars, cans, etc. Anything with a smooth rim. (Just Google - FoodSaver Universal Lids for more information.) When you open dehydrated foods, the food reabsorbs moisture from the air. This way we can take a snack-size amount out without the rest of the apples being exposed to moisture. - Some foods are nortorious for mold - like potatoes - when they aren't prepared properly. Slicing foods, like potatoes, with a cutting mandoline will assure the same thickness, unlike cutting with a paring knife. The same thickness will help it dry evenly. Place like-sized pieces on a tray. So those smaller end pieces of the potato, place all on one tray, and larger pieces on other trays - this will help assure they dry in approximately the same amount of time. When you load a tray with a variety of sizes, you risk over-dehydrating the smaller pieces, and under-dehydrating the larger ones - which will lead to mold. NEVER consume dehydrated foods with mold on it. DON'T pick out the few pieces that contain mold and eat the rest - the entire container of food has mold spores on it whether it shows mold or not. - Store foods that tend to mold in smaller amounts. This way if one small bag develops some mold, you won't have to toss a large quantity. - I dehydrate cooked, mashed, sweet potatoes (NO butter or milk added - just plain mashed sweet potatoes) on fruit roll-up sheets in a very thin layer until it is crispy dry. When completely dry and it has cooled to room temperature, I stick it in the blender to make a powdered form of it. I stick the powder in small jars or zip-lock bags and stick a "pillow pak" (moisture absorbing packet that you find in pills/supplements) in the jar/bag to absorb moisture that will cause the powder to clump. Store the sweet potato powder in the freezer or refrigerator (which is a dry environment) to prevent the powder from getting hard. I've also stored it in "snack" bags (which are stored in a jar with a pillow pak) in amounts that equal 1/2 c. sweet potatoes when reconstituted for easy serving sizes. Once again, this prevents the powder from rehydrating each time it's open. -Grainlady

I'll add in too about time and temp. It can depend on what kind of unit you use, and also what the humidity is. Not a huge amount of difference, but enough sometimes. My units run 95-160. 160 is for meats. Jerky of course. But I also do some lean lunchmeat- can make good crumbles like bacon bits in soups and such. I do smoked fish too- smoked sturgeon dehydrates super crisp to honey salmon is fridge store only. Great for soups, and the sturgeon is killer with onions in a cream cheese and egg smear. Chicken or turkey breast as fat free as possible is good- I make a killer enchilada pulled chicken that dries up and is a "secret ingredient" in layered dips, cheesy soups, baked potato topper.. The majority of the rest of what I do is at 145. Citrus I do more around 135 because it can really discolor- still great to use, just not pretty. I do use the 95 temp too- this is nice for if stuff isn't quite done, or needs a flip and slower dry to finish overnight. The lower degree range there is good :) I don't just dehydrate my harvests, I also do it with sales. When citrus is on sale, I dry it. Frozen corn and peas, ditto. This morning I pulled off a batch each of sale white corn and sale peas from the dehydrators- 72 oz frozen dries down into less than a quart jar dried. And cooking with it. Wow, I do a lot of cooking with the stuff. Probably better for another thread since this one is for dehydrators themselves. But it is a learning curve to an extent.