Will I Ever Be Good At Dehydrating?

[Shan]

I've tried 'potato' chips twice: failed
I've tried corn chips twice: failed
I've tried cookies twice: failed

The only things I've done ok are fruit leather and yam patties. Will I EVER get good at dehydrating things???? It's just SUCH a waste of money when things don't turn out.

[rawpriestess]

Oh Shan, I am so sorry, it is tough to master a new skill


okay, here are the MOST common challenges with dehydratoin

bad recipes LOL--but true
too low a drying temp so stuff molds or ferments
not fresh produce or grains to begin with
not soaking long enough to soften the grain or seeds or nuts
don't like it raw, so try to make it dehydrated, still don't like it

so what are your challenges with the dehydrator?

things don't get crispy? that's easy to fix, dry it for longer
things don't taste good? that's easy to fix, either change the recipe or turn up the dehydrator to make sure it isn't fermenting at first
things don't what?

what is the challenges? are you trying different recipes? are they good befor you dehydrate them? are you trying to make it on your own with no recipes?

give me something to work on here, and I'll do my best to help you.

I always have 3 excaliburs going 24/7, so I do know a bit about dehydrating, give me the challenge, I LOVE CHALLENGES!!

[Shan]

Ok, so I suppose I'm sort of doing a mish-mash of my own recipes combined with tips I've read on the board.

First I tried potato chips with white potatoes. I cut them about 1/8 of an inch. I soaked them in ACV and salt for two hours to drain out the startch like I read on the board. Then I rinsed them really well. I tossed them in olive oil and sea salt. I just kept deydrating them because obviously I wanted them crispy. They just turned purple the texture was like hard leather. They also tasted vinegary, but not good like SAD salt and vinegar. They still tasted startchy.

Then I tried to make them with yellow squash. They totally LOOKED like yummy regular 'Lays' chips because of the colour. I didn't soak them. I just cut them super-thin and tossed them in sea salt and olive oil. Even with them thin, they STILL didn't get crispy, just sort of hard and and bendy. They were so salty too. Plus because squash has more moisture and has the seeds, they really disappeared in the centres. Both chips I dehydrated them for like 24 hours on 115 F.

The corn chips had the perfect texture, but they were so sweet. I added sea salt, pepper and olive oil, but the sweetness of the corn really comes through.

The first time was my fault... I added way too much hot spices to the corn chip mixture. Ay carumba! :P

[rawpriestess]

Ok, so I suppose I'm sort of doing a mish-mash of my own recipes combined with tips I've read on the board.

First I tried potato chips with white potatoes. I cut them about 1/8 of an inch. I soaked them in ACV and salt for two hours to drain out the startch like I read on the board. Then I rinsed them really well. I tossed them in olive oil and sea salt. I just kept deydrating them because obviously I wanted them crispy. They just turned purple the texture was like hard leather. They also tasted vinegary, but not good like SAD salt and vinegar. They still tasted startchy.

Then I tried to make them with yellow squash. They totally LOOKED like yummy regular 'Lays' chips because of the colour. I didn't soak them. I just cut them super-thin and tossed them in sea salt and olive oil. Even with them thin, they STILL didn't get crispy, just sort of hard and and bendy. They were so salty too. Plus because squash has more moisture and has the seeds, they really disappeared in the centres. Both chips I dehydrated them for like 24 hours on 115 F.

The corn chips had the perfect texture, but they were so sweet. I added sea salt, pepper and olive oil, but the sweetness of the corn really comes through.

The first time was my fault... I added way too much hot spices to the corn chip mixture. Ay carumba! :P
thanks Shan, let's see if I can help you out here.

1. potato chips are not the easiest thing to do, when you cut them, to make them crispy and delicious use either a saladaco or good mandoline to cut them paper thin, you should be able to read through them, honest, to make them thin enough to NOT be leathery, you first soak them in water to remove the starch, overnight, then marinate in a little bit of vinegar not too much, then dehydrate at 145 for an hour or two, check on these guys, then after they are done dehydrating, toss them with a touch of olive oil and some celtic sea salt, voila' great potato chips.

2. Okay, the squash if you can see the seeds is too mature or has grown too long, the centers will dissapear in the dehydrator, try getting smaller squash that you can't see the seeds in , these will dry better, and do not add the oil or salt until after they are crispy, this is what is making them "bendy" and rubbery, the oil keeps the moisture inside the foods, (dehydrator's secret) LOL

3. YEP, corn is sweet, try buying NOT sweet white corn, try a more yellowish corn, freeze it first, this bursts the cell walls, and cuts down on the sweetness (chef's secret) LOL, then add some flax meal, and a bit of oil to the mix, oil cuts spices, and the flax will also add a bit of difference to the flavor and it is a good binder, add your spices AFTER you dehydrate if you are having challenges with too much spice, this way you can just taste a chip, add spice, too much, toss the one chip, not the whole bunch, and also you can add some soaked almonds to the corn chips, it cuts the sweetness, or any nut you like or even seed, like sunflower, it can be kind of bitter, sesame is good too.

there are a lot of tricks to making good crackers, the number one thing, is to find a cracker you like, then tweek it a little at a time, until you have one you love. Texture is as important as the taste.

being a chef, let alone a raw chef isn't easy it is an ART!!!

let me know how some of this works for you.

[Shan]

Thanks RP, I'll give this a shot. I really appreciate your help :)

[RawFoodieMom]

Wow, great tips RP, you're awesome to take all that time to explain it. I've been too anxious up until now to try making chips but I think I will attempt it. ;)

[Apasaraw]

WOW RP!

You aren't just the rawpriestess. You're the HIGH Raw Priestess!

Apasaraw

[Tom]

Hi all

I have been on raw food for 44 days and have seen health benefits but I am getting tired of salads. I really want something similar to crackers or bread. I am considering a dehydrator but I was under the impression that raw food is never heated pass 105 degrees. I saw a post today that recommended 145 degrees. Doesn't that kill the enzymes? I have only read one book by Victoria Boutenko so far and I am going to a lecture by Paul Nison in a week. My reason for starting the diet was because I was diagnosed with lung cancer and a raw food diet was the first thing I thought of. I have also started six other natural therapies. I know I can stay on the diet because I have the incentive. I definitely won't consider chemo. Please correct my thinking about the temperature of raw food and I am in the dark about frozen foods also.

Thanks
Tom

[RawFoodieMom]

Hi Tom, there are a lot of different opinions of what temperature is the cut-off point for the killing of enzymes when dehydrating. Some "experts" say 105 degrees, some say 112 degrees, some say 118 degrees. The reasoning for the 140 or 145 degrees is that some of the well-known experts state that you can dehydrate at approx. 140 degrees for the first couple of hours and then turn it down to 110 degrees or whatever temperature you decide to go with. The reasoning is that the food takes a long time to heat up and it will not reach an internal temperature high enough to kill enzymes during the first couple of hours, and it really speeds up the drying time, without causing any damage. It's been said that this also lessens the chance of food spoilage. You just have to remember to turn it down after a couple of hours. I personally haven't tried this but a lot of people do it this way. It does make sense.

Debra

[m_pizzano]

Hi! I can relate to you Shan. My mom and I have a dehydrator and have made some really great things and some really horrible things that were not edible. I haven't really tried chips but we make this awesone flax cracker that we got the recipe from the Hippocrates Institute. You put celery, red pepper, onion, garlic,and lemon juice into a food processor and blend. Then you take it out and mix it in another bowl with flax seeds that have been soaked for 3 hours. Spread onto dehydrator trays and dehydrate overnight. Then in the morning flip them over and dehydrate for another few hours. They are really good!!! If you are interested and want the exact amount of ingredients let me know and I will post the exact recipe. But you can pretty much add whatever you like. Good luck!!
Marisa

[RawFoodieMom]

Hi Marisa! I would love to have the recipe for the crackers if you have a chance to post it. Crackers and chips are the 2 things I've been afraid to try because so many people seem to have trouble with them. :o And I'm not very good at eyeballing things yet. One day I hope to be able to just throw things together. But I was never much of a cook on SAD either, but I'm hoping raw will be different! I do enjoy trying new things on raw, so I hope to be a better creator on raw then I was with cooked! :)

[RawFoodieMom]

Shan, I can totally relate. Believe me you are not alone. I totally botched Alissa's enchilada recipe, it was a total disaster! :( Anyway, I just thought you should know that, LOL!

I hereby vow to keep trying though, we could become raw dehydrating queens together! ;)

[Sharon in Colorado]

Shan you make me LOL because you bring memories back from when I tried my first few dehydrated recipes. They took so long, I had to soak and sprout for days and it tasted like crap when I was done.

I remember it taking me an entire week to make a pizza! I think I forced myself to eat it too, LOL!

You WILL get better. These are a couple of terrific recipe books I would highly recommend:

Living Cuisine
Raw Food Real World

Those have some great, almost fool-proof recipes, and I believe it is because they are based on raw restaurant menus.

I still have the occassional blooper, but I've fooled around with recipes and tweaked things just from past failures.

I think the most important thing too is not to rely on the dehydrator for a real meal. The real stuff is the fresh food you get right off a plant or in the produce section, not the dried out stuff coming out of the dehydrator.

Here's some tips though:

1) Try to play with recipes that you would eat for an occassional treat, and halve the recipes as much as possible to save money and headache.

2) Feed the bloopers to your/friends' dog, keep around as doggie treats (unless your doggie doesn't like it either, which has happened to me before!)

3) Make sure all of your ingredients are fresh and mild. I've used nuts that were probably rancid and strong smelling olive oil which totally ruined my carrot-pecan burgers. Olive oil is a huge problem with me, so I will use either macadamia oil or grapeseed oil and in very minute amounts.

4) Taste along the way. Make sure everything tastes satisfactory before getting them in the dehydrator. If it tastes bad before dehydrating chances are it won't get much better after it's done, and it probably will only get worse as the flavors get concentrated with the absense of water.

Good luck!

[blacktulip]

what's up with things fermenting in the dehydrator? it's never mentioned in any book with raw recipes. . .and i have almost all of them!
how low is generally too low and causes things to mold? anyone's experience would be great to hear about. . .

[Shan]

Hi! I can relate to you Shan. My mom and I have a dehydrator and have made some really great things and some really horrible things that were not edible. I haven't really tried chips but we make this awesone flax cracker that we got the recipe from the Hippocrates Institute. You put celery, red pepper, onion, garlic,and lemon juice into a food processor and blend. Then you take it out and mix it in another bowl with flax seeds that have been soaked for 3 hours. Spread onto dehydrator trays and dehydrate overnight. Then in the morning flip them over and dehydrate for another few hours. They are really good!!! If you are interested and want the exact amount of ingredients let me know and I will post the exact recipe. But you can pretty much add whatever you like. Good luck!!
Marisa

I would LOVE that recipe- thanks!

[Shan]

Shan, I can totally relate. Believe me you are not alone. I totally botched Alissa's enchilada recipe, it was a total disaster! :( Anyway, I just thought you should know that, LOL!

I hereby vow to keep trying though, we could become raw dehydrating queens together! ;)


Thanks for sharing RawFoodieMom! I will take that pledge to keep trying, so we can become 'dehydrating queens' together! :D

[rawpriestess]

when you dehydrate you are warming the food up, for several hours, but the dehydrator may be at 115 degrees, but your food inside is about 95 degrees, which is perfect for mold and spoilage to occur.

if you dehydrate food especially grains at 145 degrees in your dehydrator for a couple of hours, it heats up the inside of the food to about 100 degrees, this was suggested by Gabriel Cousins, so I am completely satisfied with his research and expertise in this matter.

[m_pizzano]

Here is the recipe for the Flax Crackers. You have to try them. They are sooooooo yummy and easy to make!

Soak 2 1/2 cups of flaxseed in 5 1/2 cups of water for at least 3 hours. Set aside.

Blend the following ingredients and add to the soaked flax seeds.

5 red peppers
1/2 red onion
3 cloves of garlic
3 Tbsp. chili powder
1 pinch cayenne powder
3oz lemon juice
3 stalks celery
1 tsp. garlic powder

Mix in one cup of ground flax seed. (I don't do this part and find out they still come out tasty)

Spreed out on a teflex sheet. Score to desired size of cracker. Dehydrate overnight then peel off the teflex sheet. Dehydrate agan until crackers are crispy.

I usually don't have that many red peppers on hand so I've made it many times with just 2 or 3 red peppers. Also, I don't put in the cayenne, garlic, or chili powder and it still comes out really good but I'm sure they would be even tastier adding them if you like spicy foods. Once you have the main recipe then you can experiment with the amounts. I hope you like them!!!

oh... and I totally agree with everything Sharon said :-) Especially the part about if it doens't taste good before you put it in the dehydrator, it won't taste good after!
Marisa