Dehydrating Foods
Y’all, I love to dehydrate and freeze dry foods! First question most people ask is what is the difference between the two? If you don’t already know, I don’t like to reinvent the wheel, and I couldn’t explain it better than this so please Click HERE to get the best understanding of the differences. Then come on back!
healthy snacks
An easy way to prepare meals or to just enjoy as a snack, dehydrating foods is so easy!
I have put off doing a post on this for a while mostly because Darcy at The Purposeful Pantry is truly the mecca of this process! She has so much FREE useful information on YouTube and her website for different kinds of food preservation. I encourage you to learn from the best.
So what can I offer you? Well, I will share my personal preferences, what I like to use for equipment, what my family has enjoyed, and any lessons I have learned from my experience - there have been a few. This will be a post I plan on updating so check back anytime!
Let’s start with the dehydrator itself. When I first began dehydrating years ago, I had this Nesco machine and it did the job for sure. However, at that time I wasn’t dehydrating a ton of food, it was more of a fun hobby for me to do with the kids. Definitely a great beginner machine for someone that doesn’t plan on dehydrating a large amount of food.
Now that I’m on a pro level of this endeavor - wink wink- I can’t do without the machine we have now. The Cosori. It fits our family’s needs perfectly right now. Super easy to set, has excellent even drying, and is easy to clean. I did also get extra mesh screens. I have dehydrated fruits, vegetables, greens, herbs, meat treats for the dogs (though now I only freeze-dry those), and even fruit leather. If there is one particular number one thing I feel everyone needs to know about and practice when it comes to dehydrating it is the importance of conditioning. Learn all about it from Darcy right here.
Here is a list of some of the additional equipment not mentioned above, that I personally like and use for dehydrating:
Ball mason jars
Vacuum sealer - though not necessary, I may use it for long-term storage. I mostly use this for Freeze Dried items.
Funnels - again, not necessary but these made things easier for me.
That is all I can think of for now but I’m sure I will come back and add more thoughts and some of our favorites later. Speaking of which…pineapple is THE BEST! Some other staples that we always have going in are ginger root, turmeric root, lemons, limes, kale, and peppers. Have fun dehydrating!