Dehydrator disaster!

[rawviveyourself]

I thought maybe someone out there would have some thoughts on this....

I got some mushrooms from the co-op that were day old, but looked fine, and I used them in one recipe and they were good. BUT! At the same time I made a green bean casserole with mushroom soup and put that in the dehydrator on 100 degrees.

I left it in the dehydrator for the full day (about 8 hours) and when I came home I pulled it out of the dehydrator and the top was all black. I know things with nama shoyu/tamari turn dark in the dehydrator, so no big deal I thought. But then I stirred it and the SMELL was AWFUL.:eek: Literally can't describe it here with sounding offensive! Think rotten durian! So I put a small taste on my tongue and it was BAD. I had to throw it out of the house (way outside!) immediately.

So my question: Has this ever happened to anyone? I'm wondering if there was a maybe a bacterial thing happening in this process? My 9 tray excalibur is very clean, never had any other issues in years, I even made this dish a couple of weeks ago with no problems, and haven't had any problems since. Just thinking food safety...?

[Nayeli_Raw]

I have no idea what to tell you, but I think that your story is hilarious!! My son is watching the Iron Giant as I'm reading your post. Well the Giant throws a car really far right as I am reading, and I have these visions of your opening your front door and hucking your soup as far as you can!! Lol.. hilarious

[rawviveyourself]

beautiful nayeli: you are not far off!!:)

[spicyfull]

Mushrooms are already a WATER filled Fungus so by leaving in the dehy. for so long......they just spoiled. If I were to try to dry them, I would slice them real thin and dry them with no other liquid.

[lsadeseyens]

I would also try to dry them at a bit higher temperature... Maybe about 110 or so. I have read many books that say you can dehydrate a "wet" item at about 140-145 the first 2-3 hours then turn down the temperature, especially if it has bananas in it.

[GlimR]

Yup...it sounds like they fermented because they were at too low atemp for too long. Turn the temp up...the food will not go over the correct temp. You could also put a cover on the dish, it will heat up and soften the veggies but not dry out the top.