In essence, a food dehydrator is a small home appliance that means you can dry your own fresh food in the comfort of your own home. A food dehydrator can dry everything from meat to fruit and work by blowing warm air through the drying space where the food is placed. They come in all shapes and sizes to suit your needs and are very efficient, although very juicy items can take several hours to fully dry out.
Who needs a food dehydrator?
These appliances are not widely used, but if you are a good gardener who produces fruits or vegetables then it can be a great way to make the most of your crop. If you are producing more food than you can consume you may find a food dehydrator very appealing, as it will preserve your harvest for a long time and produce tasty snacks or even ingredients which will be perfect for a warming wintr soup. Be aware though that if you are planning on buying fresh food from a shop and then drying it yourself, by the time you take into account the running costs of the appliance it would probably have been cheaper to buy a bag of ready dried fruit in the first place.
How do they work?
Most appliances work by blowing warm air into the drying chamber, either from the bottom in a vertical direction or horizontally, depending on where the heating element is. If you are looking to buy a food dehydrator then it can be wise to choose a horizontal drying appliance. This will enable you to mix the foods you ae putting in to be dried without any of the flavours mixing as they would with a vertical dryer. You need to slice the food you want to dry to help it dr quicker and then put it in single layers onto the provided stacking trays. How long food takes to dry really depends on the type of food and how much juice content it has. If you are mixing foods try to put similar foods together to avoid overdrying the less juicy food and making it hard and brittle.
Lookingfor aFood Dehydrator? wholisticresearch.com is a leading UK Supplier of food preparation equipment and other appliances; Visit us today for amazing prices and products!