Dehydration times ?!

[luna99]

I'm new to the raw food movement and just received my alissa cohen book and dvd yesterday! I'm so excited about all of this and have tried making two recipes already that I loved.. but today as I was browsing the book and looking at all the recipes, I couldn't help but notice the dehyrdrator times...

it looked like all the more "compliated" receipes said you had to dehydrate stuff anywhere from 6 to 8 hours or maybe even longer.

1. I don't own a dehydrator. I've heard you can use the oven set on the lowest temperature.. so would I do that for the same amount of time? 6 or 8 hours or more?

2. How does this way of "uncooking" work for normal people? I mean, do you just make tons of "burgers" and freeze some? make lots of "crackers" and keep them in the fridge? I can't imagine saying "i'm hungry for a "burger" then starting to make it and having to wait 8 hours before I could eat!

I really want this to work and am so jazzed up about it.. I guess I just need some suggestions on how to make the preparations fit into a regular 9 to 5 life!

thanks!

[Revvell]

1) Your oven is not a dehydrator. Here are some responses to that question:
http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23053&highlight=oven+dehydrator

2) The best thing to do is eat all the food as fresh as you can so, plan ahead. When I was eating burgers (refrigeration is good) and crackers (which keep forever and don't need to be refrigerated imo), I would plan my recipes for making twice a week. Do all the soaking during the day; make the burgers, lasagne, etc. before going to bed; dehydrate overnight. Find two days out of your schedule for any dehydrated stuff and make it for at least 3 days or a week for somethings. Make up desserts ~ pies, brownies, cookies for 3-4 days. Gives flavors time to meld so each day they still taste wonderful.

I just spent a weekend with a cooked food eater and he did that. Made up quiche, had it for 3-4 days. Made up other food for 3-4 days. Raw can work this way as well. Just need to plan ahead.



Revvell

[tvillemom]

I also make up say, burgers, and wrap them up VERY WELL and freeze them. If I decide I want burgers for dinner, just pop a couple into your dehydrator for a couple of hours before dinner. You could thaw the burger during the day in the fridge...and then pop into the dehydrator when you get home.
As for a dehydrator....I would buy a small one at a store like Walmart for about $40. I started out with one like this and it worked great. Just make sure you get one with a temperature control!
Until then, keep it simple. I would never try to use my oven, because the temp at the lowest is just too high!! Good luck.
Wendi

[Vegan Princess]

Hi there. I am also very new. I had a couple other raw foods books before Alissa's and I was always very put off by the thought of dehydrating and thought that eating raw was too complicated for me. I finally got sick of spending $5.99 for a package of flax crackers I could eat in one sitting, so I ordered a dehydrator. I say definately get one with a timer! The 5 tray from excalibur has one - that is what I have. Most recipes take very little time to mix up. The burgers, for example, have very few ingredients and you just throw it in the food processor. Do that one night before bed then put it in the dehydrator and it will be ready for you to take to work the next day. Not much work involved at all really. I try and fill up my dehydrator when I use it so I have enough stuff made to last a few days. Good luck!

Cindy

[StarThistle]

Hi everyone. I am new. Made my first cracker/cookies the other day. pureed flax, fruit, pine nuts, walnuts, agave. In the dehydrator for 72 hours! And still not crisp--kinda chewy which was not intended. I made the mistake of starting at 105 rather than at a higher temp, and then moved it up to 115 later. Did I do something wrong? I am thinking I laid it on to the teflex too thick....I want to make onion bread next and some pizza crust, how long do cracker normally take? Thanks for help! I have read some other threads but nothing specifically answered the time question, esp after the 72 hour thing. Other quandries on this subject were after people dried for 10 hrs.

[CaliRaw]

Hi everyone. I am new. Made my first cracker/cookies the other day. pureed flax, fruit, pine nuts, walnuts, agave. In the dehydrator for 72 hours! And still not crisp--kinda chewy which was not intended. I made the mistake of starting at 105 rather than at a higher temp, and then moved it up to 115 later. Did I do something wrong? I am thinking I laid it on to the teflex too thick....I want to make onion bread next and some pizza crust, how long do cracker normally take? Thanks for help! I have read some other threads but nothing specifically answered the time question, esp after the 72 hour thing. Other quandries on this subject were after people dried for 10 hrs.

Which recipe are you following? The longest time I've ever dehydrated anything was the rawvolution onion bread and that's about 36 hours. It's pretty thin. If yours are taking twice that, I'd say it's probably too thick. Plus, if you have a lot of fruit in it, it will take longer. Plus, you're putting agave in it too.

Luna, #1 - I don't know. Never used an oven to uncook. #2 - That's been something that is taking some getting used to for me. I've been doing more dehydrating on the weekends. The sprouting is more of an issue than the dehydrating though. I'm finding that I don't like a lot of the recipes that require sprouting. I will probably be using the rawvolution onion bread for pizza crust instead of the pizza recipes I've tried so far. Although, I did like alissa's calzone crust, even though the calzone itself was a failure. I will try again. :)

[Rubyred]

Dehydrating times can really depend on your dehydrator and the particular climate you live in. I have an Excalibur and the book it came with gives different lengths of time depending where you live. So dehydrating in a wet humid climate will take longer than a hot dry climate. Maybe that's why a lot of books don't give exact dehydrate times.

I also use a candy thermometer to make sure the temperature on the dehydrator is correct. My dehydrate times are still pretty long. I have a few books that suggest to dehydrate for 8 hours. If I followed that I would have nothing but goo.

[CaliRaw]

Dehydrating times can really depend on your dehydrator and the particular climate you live in. I have an Excalibur and the book it came with gives different lengths of time depending where you live. So dehydrating in a wet humid climate will take longer than a hot dry climate. Maybe that's why a lot of books don't give exact dehydrate times.

I also use a candy thermometer to make sure the temperature on the dehydrator is correct. My dehydrate times are still pretty long. I have a few books that suggest to dehydrate for 8 hours. If I followed that I would have nothing but goo.


Yeah, that's true! Sometimes the 'goo' is pretty good though. I find myself eating some recipes waaay before they're 'done'. It's that good. I can't imagine doing that with many SAD recipes. :)

[StarThistle]

[QUOTE=CaliRaw;328259]Which recipe are you following? The longest time I've ever dehydrated anything was the rawvolution onion bread and that's about 36 hours. It's pretty thin. If yours are taking twice that, I'd say it's probably too thick. Plus, if you have a lot of fruit in it, it will take longer. Plus, you're putting agave in it too.

It's actually a recipe from a friend--the most amazing cookies! Had them over a year ago, but unfotunately she used maply syrup as a sweetener, everything else raw. So Good. So I tried agave--next time dates soaked an blended to make a maple syrup substitute.

I must have made it too thick. They turned out ok, chewy now. Not crisp. It was hard to get any thinner b/c the flax was so so gooey!

I am thinking dehydrate at higher temp for 2-3 hours, and then down to 115. How high do you think I can put the excalibur for those first 2-3 hours.

Gotta get a candy thermometer.....

thanks everyone!!! I am having so much fun!