Excalibur Food Dehydrator
I've been using this 9-tray dehydrator once or twice a week for the last three years to make dried fruit, veggies and yogurt, jerky, dog treats, and dried bread (for bread crumbs). Other uses include re-crisping crackers, cookies, chips, etc., and drying photographs and flowers. Since the thermostat is adjustable (85F - 145F), you can customize your dehydrating efforts. The removable trays allow you to experiment with sizes and quantities, but also let you combine varieties of foods by temperature range. For shorter-termed dehydrated items, you just take out those specific trays and let the other longer-term items remain. This is truly the most flexible unit I've found. Other dehydrators heat from the bottom and much less evenly, requiring you to manually rotate trays, whereas the Excalibur has a fan to help distribute heat more evenly. The Excalibur also has a timer, so it will turn off at the desired time whether you're there or not; and none of the cheaper dehydrators have temp controls. The Home Essentials and Ronco models I own have now been relegated to making dog treats exclusively; I decided to keep the Excalibur for people food. Although it is somewhat noisy (all the dehydrators I've used generate some amount of noise), I keep it in the craft room, where noise isn't much of an issue. It's very easy to clean. I enjoy not throwing out food that spoiled and we always have healthy snack alternatives for us and the grandkids -- and they enjoy contributing to the process as much as they eating the rewards. Since we moved to a property that has a variety of grapevines, we now harvest copious amounts of grapes and make our own raisins.
Bonus tips:
1) You need ParaFlexx non-stick drying sheets for fruit yogurt leathers or items particularly high in moisture content. Excalibur provides a pretty good guide on how to work with different foods.
2) If you buy direct from the manufacturer, it may be slightly more than you can get at other suppliers, but I understand they guarantee the unit for 10 years (or you can purchase a 10-year extended warranty)
-- Chris Lewis
Excalibur Food Dehydrator
$210
(9-tray model)
Available from Amazon
ParaFlexx Sheets
(14"x14")
$16
Available from Amazon
Manufactured by Excalibur
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Favorite (15)
Rob
I bought two of these in February in preparation for my new large garden this year (2009) on the recommendation of a friend. This is one of the most impressive units I have ever purchased and at $250 per unit it has been WELL worth it.
I have saved more food with these babies that would have otherwise gone into the trash or the compost bin. For example, we have all used only half an onion in cooking, only to let the other half rot in the zip-lock back in the fridge. With the dehydrator you are able to save an use just about anything that did not get used the night you cooked with half. In addition, it is MUCH more energy efficient than plain canning, and less than a quarter of the trouble. No dangerous pressure cookers to watch, no jars to keep around or lids to buy.
We have made LOADS of jerky and other healthy snacks. Take some kale, spritz it with baslamic vinegar and some cajun seasoning for a kind of chip. The kids LOVE them!