[snow white]

Can any one recommend a good book.  Have bananas in at the moment - cant' wait.  Courgettes next.   

[maxibo]

Can I be really nosey and ask what model you've bought?  I see people saying they are going to dehydrate stuff like courgettes - do you just throw them into soups etc to rehydrate them?  I'm fascinated and a complete sucker for kitchen gadgets.  Thanks! 

[Trillium]

The 2 most popular ones are The Dehydrator Bible, and, Mary Bell's Complete Dehydrator Cookbook. I have the latter and it's quite complete.

On youtube, there's an excellent gal who's very knowledgeable called:   dehydrate2store
What she doesn't know isn't worth knowing. I believe she might even have a book out.

[Annen]

I've got the Mary Bell on and Trillium is right, it is pretty comprehensive, so far.  I got mine from Amazon and it was quite expensive (£12.99) and came from Canada, so took a couple of weeks to come. Might be cheaper on Kindle or Nook. You probably don't really need a book, Youtube has some good thing on, there was this woman with a most amazing apple corer/peeler/slicer thing, which I immeediately wanted, but luckily my kitchen isn't big enough

[snow white]

I bought a Callow digital dehydrator from Amazon 49.95.  Apples were great but bananas are taking ages.  Tried 8 hours and stillsoft so on for another three.  Will look out for the books and website - thanks 

[New shoot]

Bananas do take a long time. The more water and less sugar the fruit or vegetable has, the quicker they dry. A lot of shop bought dried nanas are actually deep fried before drying.  They will still be chewy and a bit sticky done at home, but much better for you

Next time you do apples, try soaking them first for a few minutes in orange juice, then sprinkling with a bit of cinnamon before drying.  Supermarket cheapo bags of pears make fantastic dried pears as well.  I usually dip them in fruit juice first to prevent discolouration.  Pineapple is good. Experiment with flavours and see what you like 

I've got the Mary Bell book and use it all the time 

[Ema]

I've been looking at buying a dehydrator for ages but always get baffled by them, is the 1 youve brought big enough to get a whole sliced banana in? 

[Annen]

Mine's an Andrew James one and has 5 trays, and its plenty big enough for one banana.  I did half a bucket full of runner beans yesterday and it only covered 3 of the trays.

[Ema]

thank you that really helps, will have to treat myself to one 

[snow white]

i dehydrated about 10 bananas in it.  they are scrummy - very strong tasting but a great snack.

[Madame Cholet]

Try slicing things as thin as possible they dry faster. I had a lot of success last year with grated carrots.
I'll try bananas they often have bags on the market 10 for 1.00.

I find all the info I need on the web. Going to try cues next.

[maxibo]

I've got the Mary Bell on and Trillium is right, it is pretty comprehensive, so far.  I got mine from Amazon and it was quite expensive (£12.99) and came from Canada, so took a couple of weeks to come. Might be cheaper on Kindle or Nook. You probably don't really need a book, Youtube has some good thing on, there was this woman with a most amazing apple corer/peeler/slicer thing, which I immeediately wanted, but luckily my kitchen isn't big enough

I found the 'dehydrator' lady on youtube.  WOW!!! She has kitchen gadgets that make me green with envy.  The chopper thingummy on her worktop is amazing!  Gadgets aside, she has made the whole dehydrating thing much clearer to me! When she showed the dried foods next to the dehydrated foods I could see the difference and the penny dropped for me! A dehydrator is now on my wish list! 

[Trillium]

I'm in love with mine. I have the 9 tray Excalibur that she has, and that poor thing is in very frequent use all year round. I never dreamed you could dehydrate lemon slices, which I now do whenever I find a great deal on reduced lemons. Mostly we use them for hot tea now and don't have to worry about the fresh lemons going bad or costing a lot.

Today I'm putting in another 9 trays of chopped celery to dehydrate to use for soups and stews. I use THIS to chop them up with and I'm done in under 10 minutes. Got the unit at a thrift store for $1 and LOVE it; it comes with 2 different screen sizes.

[Annen]

Ooh, Trillium....I want one (where is that green smiley when you need it?)

[Sparkyrog]

Has too many kitchen toy's as it is AND I am not building an extension