What are you dehydrating?

[GillyBee]

I havent dehydrated much this year - I just wasnt really getting surplus of the right sort of things at the right price. But having said that I put some saffron and thyme in to dry the other day and realised I am almost ready to run the dehydrator for free thanks to the solar panels that have finally been installed. Just need one more cable installed to take the invertor to the correct shed and I will be up and running.
That will help the cost benefit calculations add up again.

[Omega]

I now dehydrate mainly bread - will soon start making non-alcoholic kvas, great after sauna

[jennyjj01]

I now dehydrate mainly bread - will soon start making non-alcoholic kvas, great after sauna

Please tell me more?
I've dehydrated bread to make great breadcrumbs, but the KVass idea intrigues me. Mind you, can it be alcoholic?
I can get almost unlimited bread for dehydrating, if there is a route to alcohol

This I've got to try !
https://brewqueen.com/how-to-make-non-alcoholic-kvass/

[Omega]

Please tell me more?
I've dehydrated bread to make great breadcrumbs, but the KVass idea intrigues me. Mind you, can it be alcoholic?
I can get almost unlimited bread for dehydrating, if there is a route to alcohol

This I've got to try !
https://brewqueen.com/how-to-make-non-alcoholic-kvass/

I follow similar recipe, except I do not use raisins or lemon, so my main ingredients are dried rye bread (you can use any other bread, but rye bread makes it notably tastier), sugar, water and normal bread yeast. I usually buy rye bread in Polish shops, now they even sell frozen bread, which allows me to buy a lot in one go and store in my freezer

You can make it alcoholic if you ferment it for longer and add more sugar . However, then it is just an exceptionally cheap beer . I make my own IPA and wine, so I don't make alcoholic kvass

[jennyjj01]

A question on dehydrating bell peppers....

My jar of dehydrated peppers had gone black. Not exactly spoiled, but certainly sub-par, so I slung them. I'd never been satisfied that they were dry enough.

This week Lidl had them at £1.90 per kilo. so I bought, chopped and dehydrated. after 12 hours at 55C they were not brittle so I left them in, as it happens for another 12 hours. But they still are not brittle. I rather expect them to go black over the next year or two.

So. Should I have blanched them? Would they ever go bone dry brittle? What could I have done better?

[grenfell]

Talking to a lady the other week she was talking about dehydrating herbs and so on and that she does it in an air fryer . I’m thinking of giving it a go to dehydrate other things . Having a load of tomatoes and apples I’ll probably try those.

[GillyBee]

I dont think dried chillies go to brittle very easily. Mine seem to keep fine anyway but you could try putting them in for a bit longer or storing in a container with a cotton bag of rice or similar for a few weeks to finish them off.

[jennyjj01]

Has anyone here Dehydrated chicken?

I'm a convert from using chicken breast to chicken thigh, and now, even cheaper, I find chicken drumstick fillets at only £4.65 a kilo. It's lean, but mostly darker meat and does tend to have more than it's share of sinew.
I can't help thinking that this would dehydrate well to make an almost granulated chicken. Has anyone tried this, or do I need to take one for the team?
Best way of doing it?
I imagine that about 5kg worth of dehydrated chicken could fit in a mason jar and last a year?

Meanwhile, I can hardly contain myself waiting for the 19p Christmas veg offers

[GillyBee]

I have not yet been brave enough to try any meat products yet. I gather they all need heat treatment either before or after dehydration to be safe as well as drying at a higher than usual temperature. This blogger suggests that chicken may be a bit tricky to keep pleasant to eat but has some (American) tips that might help with your experiments.
https://www.backpackingchef.com/dehydra ... icken.html

[PPrep]

This has reminded me that I need to finish up some vegetables I dehydrated a couple of years ago. I use a 6 shelf cuboid - shaped dehydrator that cost me about £80. It does a good job, but takes several hours; I only dehydrate basic vegetables. I need very good ventilation in the kitchen for this, or use a dehumidifier to clear the water vapour.