Dehydrator

[mtgrl788]

Which dehydrator is best? I'm very new at this raw living and very excited. I do not want to kill anything in my food, and a dehydrator uses heat. So i'm now confused. I was reading on a raw website how one lady has her dehydrator at 140 for a few hours and then turns it down. Some sites say light will kill the enzymes while it's dehydrating so the excalibur is the best option. However, its not cheap. I would like other peoples ideas on what is the best dehydrator and do i even really need one? Thank you.

[Traceyraw]

I have the excalibur. You don't really need one. There is so much you can eat without it. Sometimes I just buy dehydrated stuff because I run out of time.

[k8sl8]

The 'general consensus' is 105 degreees for dehydrating. Because food is wet/damp when put in it can handle more heat because evaporation cools the product... That's where the higher heat to start with and then turn down people get that from. Of course then there are the 118 degree people, lol. Everyone's opinion is a bit different and I would guess each machine varies a bit. I do have a laser thermometer and have done some pretty extensive tests on my own and I tend to set my excalibur at 110-115.

Bottom line, do it in moderation and you'll be fine. If you worry about every little thing, you're going to drive yourself nuts. Excalibur is nice, but not the only one out there with a thermostat. I would recommend NOT getting a dehydrator without though.

My first D was a square Nesco brand and while not in the ballpark with the 'big boys', it did a fine job on 95% of what I did. For the price, it's tough to beat.

[DebB]

We've got the 9 tray Excalibur and I feel that's a great way to go. The 9 tray is great because you can remove trays to make room for larger/bulkier items like kale chips. Personally, It's just the 2 of us now and I wouldn't want a smaller one.

You might also like to look at the Sedona by Tri-Best. If my Exc. conked out - I would give that dehydrater a lot of consideration and would probably go that route. It's got things on it that I like better than on the Excalibur.

http://www.excaliburdehydrator.com/enzymes_and_thermostat_control.htm

That's the URL to an article about starting certain foods off at up to 140°.

Welcome and happy dehydrating!!

[Davylp25]

The science behind the logic of keeping the dehydrator at 145 in the beginning is the fact that if an item is soaked with water, *wet*, it will never reach the ambient temperature until the water is all evaporated out. This is due to evaporative cooling effect. SO even if you put, for instance, a chicken in an oven. This chicken is not done until the inside reaches about 160 degrees. This takes so long because all that water is still keeping it from getting warm. same thing occurs in a dehydrator. the surface of your food can never get too warm until that surface starts to *dry out*. so even if you have your dehydrator at 145 for a couple hours, this is ok as long as the food is not drying out on the surface. Once the surface starts to dry, you will find that the surface is also starting to equal out with the ambient temp, this is when you should be cautious and turn down to 115 or lower.
So for say Tomatoes (thanks Deb) simply slice the tomatoes, lay em on the dehydrator, rock it at like 145 for about 2 hours, then turn down to 115 !!! once they are dry enough to take off the teflex sheet, do so, this will speed up the drying even more.

[DebB]

The science behind the logic of keeping the dehydrator at 145 in the beginning is the fact that if an item is soaked with water, *wet*, it will never reach the ambient temperature until the water is all evaporated out. This is due to evaporative cooling effect. SO even if you put, for instance, a chicken in an oven. This chicken is not done until the inside reaches about 160 degrees. This takes so long because all that water is still keeping it from getting warm. same thing occurs in a dehydrator. the surface of your food can never get too warm until that surface starts to *dry out*. so even if you have your dehydrator at 145 for a couple hours, this is ok as long as the food is not drying out on the surface. Once the surface starts to dry, you will find that the surface is also starting to equal out with the ambient temp, this is when you should be cautious and turn down to 115 or lower.
So for say Tomatoes (thanks Deb) simply slice the tomatoes, lay em on the dehydrator, rock it at like 145 for about 2 hours, then turn down to 115 !!! once they are dry enough to take off the teflex sheet, do so, this will speed up the drying even more.

Oooh - you get an "A" Davy!