dehydrating question

[birdygal]

I just started doing some dehydrating. what do you use to prevent the food from falling through the trays. I have tried freezer paper but it kind of hinders the drying process

[Rocket Jones]

parchment paper

[WingedMonkey]

If it's not liquid you are dehydrating, try some fiberglass window screen. East to cut to fit and easy to wash.

[birdygal]

Thanks Winged Monkey perfect

[WingedMonkey]

Thanks Winged Monkey perfect

For liquid items like chili or spaghetti sauce I use a heavy mil Visqueen. Same deal, easy to cut to fit and easy to wash. Stains after some use, so what? Also I have never had to spray with oil to prevent sticking. Fruit leathers and sauces peel right off.

[PaperCrane]

For liquid items like chili or spaghetti sauce I use a heavy mil Visqueen. Same deal, easy to cut to fit and easy to wash. Stains after some use, so what? Also I have never had to spray with oil to prevent sticking. Fruit leathers and sauces peel right off.

What's considered heavy mil?

[atraildreamer]

Most dehydator manufacturers have fruit roll insert sheets that can be purchased for your model dehydrator. They can be used for any liquid food that you want to dehydrate, or for stuff that will fall thru the mesh of the regular trays.

[The Old Boot]

Most dehydator manufacturers have fruit roll insert sheets that can be purchased for your model dehydrator. They can be used for any liquid food that you want to dehydrate, or for stuff that will fall thru the mesh of the regular trays.

I found the fruit roll sheets that came with my dehydrator prevented the jerky I was drying on them from drying evenly top and bottom. The parchment paper didn't do that.

It's easy enough to make a template of the dehydrator trays from lightweight cardboard like bristol board and use it to cut parchment sheets to fit (especially useful if you've got a round dehydrator).

The instructions for my dehydrator also said to stagger the fruit roll up trays so that half the tray was empty....a waste of good drying space IMO. By using the parchment paper I was able to avoid that problem and utilize the whole of each tray.

I get my parchment paper in the dollar store so it's quite reasonable cost wise to be using it! And hey, I don't have to wash it..

[Rain Man]

Birdy Gal,

I'm in the same boat with you. Got a dehydrator this month and found that NESCO calls what they sell Clean-A-Screens. Here's a link -- NESCO Clean-A-Screens.

I just found that my local Bass Pro Shop carries them and bought a pair. Designed to keep tiny pieces (and some do become tiny once they are dry) from falling through the trays.

My beef jerky does fine on the trays themselves.

Be careful using stuff designed for other purposes and not made from food-grade plastic.

RainMan

.

[Glogg]

It's easy enough to make a template of the dehydrator trays from lightweight cardboard like bristol board and use it to cut parchment sheets to fit (especially useful if you've got a round dehydrator).

To cut a nearly-round piece of parchment really quickly you can do the following (this is a pastry kitchen trick that works beautifully for lining round cake pans):

Lay the parchment sheet down flat, short side facing you. Fold in half bottom to top, and crease. We're going to make the center of the paper the point of a triangle. Now fold in half right to left, and crease. It's squarish. That center is now on the bottom right side (the closed corner). Now fold again, this time right side meeting bottom edge. Crease. That crease ends on the center point, like the others. We have a sort of triangle. Fold in half, again with the crease ending at that same corner. We have a skinnier triangle. Repeat until reasonably skinny (don't go nuts trying to fold it if it's getting thick and hard to handle).

Now lay your triangle down on the tray or pan you want to line. (If it's a deep baking pan, flip it over and work on the back.) The point of the triangle is placed on the center. The outer end of the triangle will stick over the edge, so cut it off so it will just fit in the pan. If your dehydrator has a central hole, cut it at the narrow end too, to clear the hole. Now unfold and you should have a roundish piece of paper that fits the tray. It won't be quite round, it will be a many-sided polygon, but it will be close enough and it will fit, and you only made two short scissor cuts.

[sarbar]

PS: If you go to Costco, buy your parchment paper there. Massive rolls for the same cost as a small box at the store.

[atraildreamer]

I found the fruit roll sheets that came with my dehydrator prevented the jerky I was drying on them from drying evenly top and bottom. The parchment paper didn't do that.

Put a single fruit roll sheet on the bottom of your dehydrator to catch the small bits of jerky that fall through the mesh trays. The larger pieces will dry on the mesh and the pieces that fall through will dry OK on the fruit sheet due to their smaller size.

[Dicentra]

I've found parchment at Daiso too. $1.50/box

[birdygal]

Thanks everyone I bought some parchment paper,

[birdygal]

Parchement paper didn't work on my dehydrator, the only thing I have dehydrated that did not need to be thrown a way after 2 wks was items I put on the trays by themselves and they were done over a month ago so they probably will not spoil

[JAK]

On the subject of dehydrating, how would you dehydrate cranberries without them staying round and puffy? When I dehydrate blueberries I just put them on a cookiesheet, with edges, and pop them in a convection oven at 170F. A real dehydrator would be better because it would probably retain more vitamins and stuff. Anyhow, the blueberries came out awesome, like small currants, very dry but still chewy. When I did the same with cranberries they tended to stay a little moist, but not too bad, but they wouldn't shrivel up, they stayed puffy. Should I have gone longer in time or poked holes or what? Would like to avoid poking holes. Should I squish them with another pan?

[The Old Boot]

On the subject of dehydrating, how would you dehydrate cranberries without them staying round and puffy? When I dehydrate blueberries I just put them on a cookiesheet, with edges, and pop them in a convection oven at 170F. A real dehydrator would be better because it would probably retain more vitamins and stuff. Anyhow, the blueberries came out awesome, like small currants, very dry but still chewy. When I did the same with cranberries they tended to stay a little moist, but not too bad, but they wouldn't shrivel up, they stayed puffy. Should I have gone longer in time or poked holes or what? Would like to avoid poking holes. Should I squish them with another pan?

The instructions I saw online for dehydrating fruit like cranberries and blueberries called for poking them to break the skin before dehydrating. I kinda figured it was wayyyy too much work to sit and poke each one with a sharp object.

My L'Equip owner's manual says to 'wash, remove stems. Place in boiling water for 1 to 2 min. Blot dry'. Sounds a whole lot easier IMO...drying time is noted as 14 - 22 hrs at 125 F.

[The Old Boot]

Parchement paper didn't work on my dehydrator, the only thing I have dehydrated that did not need to be thrown a way after 2 wks was items I put on the trays by themselves and they were done over a month ago so they probably will not spoil

If things needed to be thrown away after two weeks it most likely means that it wasn't gotten dry enough..I had the same experience with my first batch of green peppers.

If your dehydrator didn't come with an owners manual, try finding one on the net that you can download.

There's definitely a learning curve to using a dehydrator effectively!!

[dshideler]

http://www.backpackingchef.com/index.html

This is an excellent site on dehydrating and recipes using dehydrated food. Now I just need a dehydrator.

[sarbar]

Your food was not dry enough. The parchment paper should not affect the drying.