Doc Holliday Posted April 30, 2010 Report Share Posted April 30, 2010 Just been looking at some on fleabay. Not cheap, espeially the excalibur ones. Would be better off putting a couple of 100 watt light bulbs and a fan on low speed rather than use these. 600 odd watts and being on for upto 26 hours... it really would be cheaper to go out and buy the stuff. Anyway, just wanted to ask if anyone has a food dehydrator, what they make of it and if it was worth the money. Would like to know recommendations on makes, models, etc. looking to dry my tomatoes this year and possibly make some jerky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beardo Posted April 30, 2010 Report Share Posted April 30, 2010 Westfalia are doing an offer on one at the mo... http://www2.westfalia.net/shops/household/..._dehydrator.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Holliday Posted May 1, 2010 Author Report Share Posted May 1, 2010 Thanks for that Nick. Have you got one of those? If so, how do you find it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beardo Posted May 1, 2010 Report Share Posted May 1, 2010 i don't i'm afraid - it just caught my eye the other day as being massively cheaper than most on the market. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holly Posted May 1, 2010 Report Share Posted May 1, 2010 (edited) i have the one in the link i make mostly jerky using beef or pigeon you can fit a lot in them and buy extra trays if needed i would recomend it havent tried tomatos but seeing as you mentioned it and i grow lots i will be giving them a go Edited May 1, 2010 by holly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buntinbee Posted May 6, 2010 Report Share Posted May 6, 2010 I was interested in exactly the same thing for making beef jerky and did a fair bit of research through google - sorry I didn't keep a note of all the sites I trawled through though. I ended up making a wooden box around a 18" cubed with a 150 watt bulb in one bottom corner and an old computer fan in a top corner. I bored a series of holes 1 1/2" apart in the sides towards the top, through which I threaded para cord to use as lines to hang the jerky from. I sliced my beef and marinated it in a mixture of soy, bbq and worcster sauce diluted by about a quarter for 24 hours. The beef was then hung on 'S' shaped pieces of stainless wire fashioned from welding rods and left for around 5-6 hours. You will know when the jerky is ready as it will be dry and bendy, not quite brittle. To say that I was pleasantly surprised with the results was a bit of an understatement. During my research I found that the meat had to be heated to a certain temperature to kill any bugs, I can't remember what the temperature was, but by experimenting with different sizes of bulbs I found that 150 watt was the one I needed. Another useful addition was a tray in the bottom for catching the marinade drips. One other thing, either fashion a shield of light aluminium (coke can) or avoid hanging dripping beef directly above the hot bulb. If you google "making beef jerky" you will find loads of tips and marinades to use etc, but the box that I made was the simplest of the home made dehydrators. Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henry d Posted May 7, 2010 Report Share Posted May 7, 2010 If you have a fan oven you can do it just by having it set on "Fan" with no tempurature. Basically the fan turning provides just enough heat to de-hydrate your food. I used mine to dry my chillies last year but I used some heat, 50"C and it must have been too hot as the seeds haven`t sprouted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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