dehydrator DISASTER

[yoru]

so i finally got a dehydrator a couple weeks ago and i've only been drying fruits. last night i finally got around to trying a recipe and.... it was horrible.

i made that onion bread, it's been in there almost 13 hours, it still is mushy, although i did leave it at 85 degrees by mistake for a few hours.. it smelled so delicious last night, i thought it was gonna come out just fine. i tried taking a piece and it tasted no good. maybe it's because i processed the onions too much into mush? it was my first time using a food processor as well and i wasn't really sure how to work it.

and then i tried to make those carrot pecan burgers from alissa's book.... i guess i made them not large enough because some of them got crumbly, and they don't taste that great.... although i did use too much salt and the underside isn't completely dry yet. it's been in the dehydrator almost 12 hours.

now my stuffed mushrooms came out okay.... except the last time i made them they were juice and some of it was actually leaking out the mushroom. and it lots of other recipes that's what i see happening. although i did stuff some of the mushrooms with the carrot pecan burgers and i LOVE IT.

help? i'm going to be at work the next 12 hours so i don't know if i wanna leave it on at 85 all day or not.

[Revvell]

I don't know who told you 85 is the right temp but my stuff would get moldy at that temp. I put mine in for the first couple of hours at 145 and then drop it down to 118.

For the onion bread, I use the the shredded so it's not mush. I've done mush. Not good.

[GoodCat]

Agreeing with Revvell.. If you dehydrate too low of a temp. , your stuff will get bad/moldy. For my onion bread, I just slice my onions and then I still need to dehydrate over night if I want them more crispy. Also, if you use a sheet to put your food on, you need to take it off the sheet after the tops get dried some and put it right on the screen so the bottoms will dry too.

Keep trying, it will get better :)

Cathy

[ReneeH]

I agree with the ladies... I leave mine on 115 all the time, so I don't have to preheat mine. 85 is waaaay too low.

Don't give up! There's a learning curve with new things. :-)

[yoru]

thanks so much everyone! i'm glad i returned to this site after beginning being raw again, and this is the FINAL time beginning and staying raw!

i turned it to 85 by mistake, i had it at 140 for 2 hours then i woke up in the middle of the night to lower it and i just lowered it all the way, then i woke up in themorning and was like what? what happened?

so goodcat, when you make the onion bread, you dont process it in the food processor? and revvell do you use a slicing disk in the food processor?

and renee, do you get the same results when you keep it at 115 instead of doing 140 then down to 105?

thanks!

[GoodCat]

I just slice my onions, and I grind the sunflower seeds and flax seeds in my seed grinder and then mix it all together in a bowl.

I usually start mine out at 115 and then lower it to 105 and I've never had any problems.

Cathy

[Revvell]

and revvell do you use a slicing disk in the food processor?



Yep! And I see no point in bringing it down all the way to 105. Just takes longer and gives food more chance of spoiling.

[ReneeH]

I agree with Rev. If I put my Calzone at 105 it would take FOREVER to be solid.

When I was using the Nesco Dehydrator, I think I did turn it up then back down because it was circular with a whole in the middle and took a while to heat at 105 or 115. But, the Excalibur doesn't do that, so I just keep it at 115.

[yoru]

thanks everyone

and you were right, i left that onion bread at 115 over night and so much better!

[ReneeH]

Yea!!!! When do we eat? :dance:

[yoru]

lol, last night! it was really simple, i just ate it with avocado slices and tomatoes, i don't think i ever would make something too complicated

[Aleesha Sattva]

ah good you got your temps settled out. it's so important to make sure you dehydrate in a timely manner or the foods begin to ferment.

[Ravenna]

I also received my dehydrator recently and my first attempt was to make onion bread. That was also the first time I ever tried flax seed recipe. We did not like it at all. I mean it tastes OK just I feel like it sticks to teeth so much that becomes difficult to chew them ( I made it as crackers). I reduced oil in recipe to half as somebody suggested to make them crispier. But they are still a bit chewy. Any suggestion? what did I do wrong? Maybe we are just not the type of people who like flax?

[walnutty]

I have had much better luck dehydrating at 115 degrees also! I figure that it gets 120 degrees in Phoenix in the summer and I still eat the oranges that grow in that kind of weather, so there can't be any harm at all dehydrating at a higher temp then a lot of raw foodists claim it must be at (the 105)!

[gal_amy]

so i finally got a dehydrator a couple weeks ago and i've only been drying fruits. last night i finally got around to trying a recipe and.... it was horrible.

i made that onion bread,
although i did stuff some of the mushrooms with the carrot pecan burgers and i LOVE IT.help? i'm going to be at work the next 12 hours so i don't know if i wanna leave it on at 85 all day or not.

I would love your recipe, but I didn't buy the book, so maybe you can't quote the recipe. Let me know the rules. Thanks

[Aleesha Sattva]

we don't quote any of Alissa's recipes on the forum. Sorry...

[levamssg]

I dehydrate at 105-115 all the time with no problems. Sometimes the dehydrator runs for days at a time when I doing several batches of things.