Question on Food Dehydrators

[Monel]

My Wife said that when she came home the whole house felt as humid as a sauna! LOL, This dehydrator really does a good job driving off the moisture. I think the next batch will be done in the garage! :)

[Klayton]

Perhaps the fruit just needs a longer dehydration time?
I am guessing here, as again, never have I dried anything. (sorry poor attempt of yoda speak)

[ComputerGuy]

We have a dehydrator and someone said they dehydrate eggs. Since we have chickens, I thought this would be a great experiment. So how do you do it?

[RyanMac]

Dehydrated Eggs. I have NEVER thought of that. I will have to bing it tonight... (I too have chickens and sometimes too many eggs... although some day I am sure it will be a major blessing).

[Monel]

I don't think I will be doing frozen fruit like that again! It made a big mess and did not do well. Instead I will / can puree it and spread it on water proof sheet to make a fruit leather.
I remember reading that someone was scrambling eggs then drying them. That might work but I think I can just buy (now) powdered eggs that will have a known shelf life. It would be a ***** to go to all the trouble trying to make it yourself and ending up with an unusable and / or a product that gave you food poisoning! There may be no medical care available!

[monkeybird]

Fruit takes much longer. I always use canned or fresh fruit. Pineapple is excellent to dehydrate, but takes a while. Be very careful with eggs. I don't think they work in the dehydrator. I've seen videos of others trying it and they are using the oven. Eggs will spoil easily out of the shell. So be very, very careful and research this carefully before trying it. Monel is right about the medical care you might require.

(I starting to sound like a mother!)

[ComputerGuy]

(I starting to sound like a mother!)

LOL. Thanks Ma!!

[Bearman202]

Monel, you gave me a laugh this morning. Thanks. One more reason why you actually DO the stuff you're thinking about doing. Imagine finding out that it doesn't work well with the last batch of whatever that's available! Better to find out now, eh? Keep them comments coming!

[arcangel911]

Monel, before you go outside....

Lol, do not make the mistake I did, which is I used to live in a very humid climate and it would take anywhere from 3-4 times as long to dry out the fruits (there was some spoilage too due to the extended time and me not knowing what I was doing properly at the time)... And I ended up having to get (build) a screen enclosure as well do to the bugs that were attracted to the sweet aroma of drying fruit.... It became more trouble then what it was worth... So I moved it into the house and just dealt with it.

[Benn Gleck]

My daughter just put 18 bags of frozen vegtables in our dehydrator, got them on sale for .90 a bag.

The extra moisture in the air is ok for us when the temperature is low like it is now, it's 12 degrees right now!
We have forced air natural gas heat and it gets dry in the winter.

Oh and we had dehydrated vegtable soup at out BOL this weekend.

[Bearman202]

Has anybody tried dehydrating ground beef or sausage? I'm wondering if you could brown them, then toss them in the dehydrator.

[Klayton]

Ground Beef has A LOT of filler called FAT added to it. Not sure how good that would dehydrate?

[Monel]

Has anybody tried dehydrating ground beef or sausage? I'm wondering if you could brown them, then toss them in the dehydrator.

I'm sure you could, isn't that what hard Salami is? The higher the fat content the shorter the shelf life.

[arcangel911]

Supposedly, ground beef can be made into tasty jerky. It was in a book by Mary Bell, however I forget which book it was out of.

[Klayton]

From WIKI!! :) :)
Salami is cured sausage, fermented and air-dried meat, originating from one of a variety of animals. Historically, salami has been popular among Southern European peasants because it can be stored at room temperature for periods of up to 10 years, supplementing a possibly meager or inconsistent supply of fresh meat.

Ingredients of salami: A traditional salame, with its typical marbled appearance, is made from one or more of the following meats:

pork, chopped beef (particularly veal),[3] venison,[4] poultry (especially turkey),[5] and horse.[6]
Additional ingredients may include:

salt
spices, usually white pepper
garlic
minced fat
wine
various herbs
vinegar
The raw meat mixture is usually allowed to ferment for a day, then the mixture is either stuffed into an edible natural or inedible cellulose casing and hung to cure. Heat treatment to about 40