New to Dehydrating

[zeeraw]

I just wanted to know if you can add something new to dehydrate while you are in the middle of dehydrating something else. Say for example that I;m dehydrating Alissa's burger buns which take approx. 24hours. Can I like after 12 hours put something else in like the Carrot Pecan Burgers or is it best to put them both in at the same time and take them out when finished?
Thank you
Z

PS I know Raw Priestess that you freeze alot of stuff. Do you freeze the mixture before you dehydrate it or after?

[city]

I'm no expert because I just started myself. However, I've been adding things whenever and it's been working for me. I just takes things out when they're done.

[Revvell]

As far as dehydrating, do anything you want. One does not affect the other.

:cool:

[tracyinfo]

Ditto to the two other remarks.

[rawpriestess]

Hi,

when I am making Alissa's burgers, I dehydrate until they are really dry and place into a zip lock baggie, then I freeze them.

Then when I want one, I pull out one, place it in a baggie with a mist of water, and dehydrate to warm, this adds a little water back in, as I tend to dehydrate enough to make pretty dry, this way they don't stick together in the freezer in the baggie.

Then I can use the baggies over and over again, and not waste them.

I never freeze anything with a lot of water in it, as that is what causes freezer burn, the water in the cell membranes exploding the cell membranes, and that is not so good.

Now, you can freeze things completely surrounded by water, (that is how I used to do fish) but I don't do this anymore, and that would keep it from getting freezer burn also.

As far as dehydrating things together, odors and scents are from very tiny air borne particles that are actually part of the food you are "smelling" so, I will not dehydrate something super sweet with say, something with onion in it, UNTIL there is not much water left in the food, because then the air borne particles are not moving around as much.

I don't truly understand this principle, but I know it works, as in Ancient tombs in Egypt the explorers could add a drop of water to something, and they could then smell it, so they had the perfumes of the Ancient Egyptians.

I also know this from my personal experience, if you add moisture to something it will bring back it's original smell.

hense, don't wash a carpet and then have guests over, if you understand the wet icky carpet smell.

So. I see no reason why you couldn't dehydrate two types of burgers, or burgers and lasagna, or pesto stuffed mushrooms pizza wraps and burgers, that would be fine.

I wouldn't dehydrate a tray of fresh cut garlic, with say banana fruit leather, but that's about it on the "NOT" dehydrating together stuff.

Hope this clears this up for you.

Also, I know alot of people do NOT freeze anything, and that is their choice, I personall like alot of choices and if freezing something makes it accessable to me late at night, when I'm tired and I don't want to mix up a bunch of stuff, then I go for it.

[zeeraw]

Thanks everyone for your answers. The reason I asked was that when I purchased my dehydrator, I rang and asked the company and they told me not to add anything new if I'm part way through my dehydrating time of something else.
Thanks also RP for your freezing help. Personnally I think having 'options' is useful and also if you're doing up something already in the dehydrator you may as well do up a big bunch and it saves you time in the long run. Hey, it's gotta be better then fried chips or some other alternative.
Z

[rawpriestess]

If you have an excalibur dehydrator, you can just slide the trays in and out, some other dehydrators, you have to load and unload from bottom to top.

I can see if you have something like chips in there, that are almost dry, then you put in something really wet and gushy, that there is a possibility of the super wet being absorbed by the super dry stuff.

I took some zucchini chips to a friends house for Thanksgiving, I brought a bunch of raw stuff, and he loved them, but they left them out in the house, and they got soggy.

So, he emailed me the next day asking how he could dry them out, I (of course) said pop them back in a dehydrator, he didn't have one, I keep forgetting about these cooked folk, so I told him about the oven on low etc.

Anyway. He loves my raw food, now everytime I go over there, I have to take a ton of stuff, so he can get his raw-fix.

Gotta' love your cooked friends.