Not getting on too well with my dehydrator :(

[shooting star]

I bought a dehydrator last week but am not very happy with what the food tastes like! I'd never tried dehydrated food before and I was really optimistic that having foods like pizzas and burgers would help me stick to raw. I was also hoping my SAD eating H would have something he would like to eat aswell.

I have problems with the following recipes:

Flax crackers - I thought there were ok, H hated them! I liked the texture and would make them again but with a lot less garlic.

Pizza with the easy crust - Really didn't like this, it had a nasty aftertaste to it. I think it was the cheese sauce!

Carrot pecan burgers - The raw mix tasted delicious, but once dehydrated tasted like burnt vegy burgers.

HELP! What am I doing wrong? I am following the recipes to the letter yet they just don't seem to be working for me! I certainly wouldn't think that SAD eating people would gobble this up at a party and I really want to be able to cook food that is delicious for others as well as myself. I really want this to work.

H is getting frustrated with the dehydrator being on for hours and then producing food he doesn't like.

Is it me or is it the dehydrator (9 tray excalibur)? HELP!

[Revvell]

Well, it's ummm, not you. Flax crackers may take a bit of playing with to make them palatable. I've found some I actually like.

I agree about the pizza w/ easy crust (she's going to kill me). :rolleyes: Made it this week, had one slice, tossed the rest.

Now, the burgers!!! If you like them before dehydration, just wrap them with collard or lettuce leaf. SO delicious.

Two recipes I can think of off-hand which are REALLY good (to me, anyway) is the lasagne and strawberry crepes. Any of the fruit pies.

There's an onion bread recipe floating around here somewhere and also, I think, a couple of threads where people ask "What are your favorite recipes?" Might hit the "search" key and put "favorite recipes" in the field and see what comes up.

Revvell

[Rawkinlocs]

Hey Star!

Quick question and it's rhetorical so you don't really have to answer but just ponder it. Did you (and H) like everything cooked that you've ever tried or were there some things you did not? There are a TON of raw recipes that I either flat out don't like, or they're "so-so" and I could tolerate them, but don't necessarily LOVE them.

Then, there are some raw recipes that I absolutely LOVE! When I ate cooked, there were many foods I did not like and I had my favorites that I rotated. Same with raw. Also, there are a lot of things that I tried when I first went raw (and still had taste buds that were very used to cooked foods) that I detested and then later on, tried again and found that I either like love them now.

Here are a few things to remember:

1. Whenever you are making a raw recipe for the first time, no matter how good it looks like it "might" be, make only half (or in some cases, even quarter) of the recipe so that in the event that you don't like it, there's not as much waste.

2. When looking at the amounts of ingredients, check for things you may not care too much for or that you know you don't like in large quantities...garlic for instance...if a recipe such as the flax crackers or the marinara sauce, etc. looks like it might be too much garlic for your tastes, lower the amount and then taste and if need be, gradually add more.

3. Don't be afraid to tweak recipes. Try it to the letter first and then make little notes in your book or some place of what you think it could use more or less of and then the next time you make it, make adjustments where needed.

4. Again, realize that you won't like/love everything you try but don't get discouraged and give up as you will find things that you DO like/love.

5. Remember that your tastebuds "may" need adjusting before you can better appreciate the flavors of raw dishes. But try not to feel that because you don't like it, others won't either. There have been times that I've had SAD-eaters taste things in classes that I, as a raw fooder, may not particularly care for but they actually LOVE and say tastes great!

NOTE: I'm not big on dehydrated nut burgers either! Since you have discovered that you like it best undehydrated, then that's the way to go for you...just make it as a pate' and eat it either alone, on green leaves, or on those crackers!

[shooting star]

Thank you for your fantastic replies - they are really helpful!
Here is my update:


It is lunchtime and I have eaten a slice of my pizza and nibbled half a burger (ok not great food combining I know!).


You know what, it's not as bad as i thought! Maybe it didn't taste so good first thing in the morning and tasted better once I was hungry. Still don't think H will like it, but then no-one is going to force him to eat it. :p


And in answer to your question H is fairly fussy and doesn't like anything bitter or smelly (e.g. olives, celery, onions, garlic, greens, smelly fish etc) or anything with a funny name (e.g. quinoa) and is literally nauseated by even the thought of beetroot.
I on the other hand like everything! I honestly can't think of a single food that I wouldn't like the taste of). I've always eaten tones of raw fruit and veg too so it's not like I'm not used to the taste of those and I love all the bitter things my H detests.

I think it just didn't taste like I expected and it was too strong first thing in the morning. I still think I might experiment with the buckwheat pizza crust instead (that looks like it will be more doughy to me) and try a different cheese receipe and less garlic!

(Maybe English garlic is stronger than US garlic or maybe you need to scare off the vampires more than us over there!)

anyway thanks for your very useful suggestions and tips - I'll keep on playing with my new toy.

[Veganforlife]

What Revvell and Rawkinlocs said I concur with.
Try making Maraw's pancakes - they are very good!!! I'll check for the recipe and come back in a minute. Your taste buds will change and you will learn to love these foods. In the beginning I too didn't care for a lot, but then learned to make less of a recipe until I saw if I liked it. You'll get there...OH forgot my famous last (two) words: Green Smoothies.
These are great for helping fill you up, stop cravings, increase energy, lose weight, transition into raw...miracle drinks!

[tisha]

I made some Lime Pepper Flax Crackers from Alissa's book. They are not bad. The texture is different than the crackers I am used to, but still, not bad.

One thing I do with my flax crackers is to crumble them up in my salads like croutons. I do this on my husband's salads's too. He's fine with it. They add a little crunch and texture and flavor.

I tweaked Alissa's recipe. I added some sun-dried tomatoes, some cilantro, a couple of seeded jalapeno peppers and some mexican spices. I thought the jalapeno peppers would make it spicey, but with the seeds removed, you can't even tell that they are there. My 7yo daughter saw me mixing this "goop" the other night and :eek: wondered what I was up to.

Right now I am dehyrating the eggplant "bacon".

Try fixing some granola in the dehydrator. Maybe your husband would like something a little sweet. Granola is more of a regular kind of food. That might help.

[**jessireebob**]

I tried and disliked teh pizza too, but used the Rich Cheddar Sauce (on this board somewhere) and the Buckwheat crust, and used Pomodoro sauce (just fresh tomatoes, onion, basil, garlic, etc) rather than the sundried toms. It's an entirely different recipe really, but the end result is totally yum!

Good luck!

[queenfluff]

I think the Buckwheat crust is definately the best. I actually use a Pizza cracker recipe (not Alissa's) sometimes to make a raw pizza crust and they have so much of a pizza taste that it helps out the rest of the ingredients.

I would play around with the Cheese sauce. It isn't going to taste just like dairy cheese. But put in some spices to make it more pizza like if that helps you out.

I only use that Cheese sauce for Mexican stuff honestly. I put jalapeno juice in it and it is like a nacho cheese.

I found that for my raw pizzas I prefer a nut cheese. My favorite is a Brazil Nut Cheese Spread I make (my recipe). It almost has a meaty texture to it.

[Green Life]

Maybe they are spoiling?

I think it says to turn up the dehydrator setting to 400 for two hours.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong?

[Rawkinlocs]

Maybe they are spoiling?

I think it says to turn up the dehydrator setting to 400 for two hours.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong?

LOL! FOUR-hundred? I don't think there's a dehydrator out there that goes up to 400 is there?

I think it was more like 140 or something like that was recommended for the first couple of hours when making things that are thicker (like breads).

Shootingstar, that's one other thing I forgot to mention...sometimes things taste better the next day!

I, too, prefer the buckwheat-based pizza crust to the flax one...either that or Alissa's calzone/burger bun dough used for pizza crust. I'm also gonna try her mozzarella cheese that is used in the calzone for the pizza and see how that tastes as I really like the flavor of it when used in the calzone.

[styersky]

Just received my first dehydrator. Assumed teflex sheet or sheets would come with it, and that was not the case. Can anyone tell me where I might order or purchase teflex sheets.

[Green Life]

LOL! FOUR-hundred? I don't think there's a dehydrator out there that goes up to 400 is there?




I mean 140. I was thinking and typing too fast, LOL:p

[GHOST27M]

LOL! FOUR-hundred? I don't think there's a dehydrator out there that goes up to 400 is there?

UMMM YA... it called an oven !

[CaliRaw]

Just received my first dehydrator. Assumed teflex sheet or sheets would come with it, and that was not the case. Can anyone tell me where I might order or purchase teflex sheets.

http://www.excaliburdehydrator.com/Dehydration-Accessories-42-cat.htm

[Rawkinlocs]

Alissa also sells teflex sheets on her site.

[Rawkinlocs]

I mean 140. I was thinking and typing too fast, LOL:p

Ohhhh...okay! LOL!


UMMM YA... it called an oven !
Exactly!

[MintLia]

I agree with Rawkinlocs. The food that I threw away when trying new recipes - dehydrated or not! It breaks my heart. And to this day (I've been doing this (on and of - now ON :) ) for 10 years now) I still end up tossing some food. And in general, whatever I like, my family seems to dislike and whatever I love, my family seems to hate. The only thing we agree on is - if I hate the stuff, they do to. So, don't fret about what H likes or doesn't like, just make your recipes and if he will like the food, he'll eat, if not, then next time.

[EZ rider]

So, don't fret about what H likes or doesn't like, just make your recipes and if he will like the food, he'll eat
Maybe H is like me and finds raw foods that are right out of the garden the most delicious ? Try giving H a couple of apples with the only preparation to them is that they are sliced or slice up some bright colored bell peppers and see if H will munch those.

[Sophia]

So I got my Excalibur dehydrator today. it is BIG! I ordered the 9 trays one, because it says that the temperatures are more likely to be what they are supposed to be, compared to the smaller ones.
Please , tell me, what are the teflex sheets? It has those polycarbonate trays, the white mesh things for the trays and two plastic-like sheets .
I hope I will get along well with my dehydrator, because it costs a lot of money.
Any suggestions with what I should start? I was thinking of some potatoes chips...

[CaliRaw]

I don't know if you ordered your excalibur from them or not, but I did. The sheets are brown with writing on them. Mine came rolled up together.
http://www.excaliburdehydrator.com/Dehydration-Accessories-42-cat.htm

[Sophia]

Yes, from excalibur, and they are rolled. i found out those are the teflex sheets from Alissa;s book :). I made some potato chips ( they are yucky ) and some bananas, but I still have to dry them, even if it was on for 10 hours.

[Revvell]

Please , tell me, what are the teflex sheets? It has those polycarbonate trays, the white mesh things for the trays and two plastic-like sheets .


It's those two plastic-like sheets. You may wish to purchase more.

Revvell

[Stina]

Concerning the flax crackers..... I use lots and lots of pulp from juicing carrots with the flax seed. And a very generous amount of taco seasoning. After lots of experimenting with the flax crackers, that's my rule of thumb. Then I might or might not add in extra stuff like strips of nori seaweed or chopped up tomatoes, etc. But I think the flax is important in my diet, so I kept experimenting.
Yeah the dehydrator recipes sure are different than what we're accustomed to but my appetite has shifted so much eating raw, everything (almost) is tasting really good!

[kristi7mark]

I can relate in that I , too have had a hard time adjusting to my dehydrator. I have learned to make recipe in small amounts to try them out and that many things taste better the next day. Just today, I made Kale chips which taste very yummy but didn't realize I should have cut the stems out so I have nice crunchy kale chips with a chewy stem in between. :) Good thing is my doggy loves the stems. I just chalk it up to live and learn! Happy dehydrating.....

[CaliRaw]

Yes, from excalibur, and they are rolled. i found out those are the teflex sheets from Alissa;s book :). I made some potato chips ( they are yucky ) and some bananas, but I still have to dry them, even if it was on for 10 hours.


I made potato chips last week and some were Ok and others weren't. The chips weren't the same thickness because I used the mandoline intially, then switched to the saladacco. The very thin ones were pretty decent. I am going to try starting the dehydrator at a higher temperature in the beginning of the process, then lowering it. I am making plain chips, not the vinegar.