Salmon with Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce

The sun-dried tomato sauce is easy to make especially with the help of a food processor and the salmon cooks in minutes! You will have leftover sauce to rese…

Question by Ariel: Anyone have any recommendations about buying a food dehydrator?
I want to dry excess food from the garden, make my own sun-dried tomatoes (is that possible?).

Best answer:

Answer by Mooli
When looking to select a food dehydrator don’t over spend and never buy a enormous food dehydrator unit if you are not going to use it. Buy the size you need most of the time people buy a food dehydrator that is either too cheap or too expensive and both can be equally as bad. If you buy a really expensive food dehydrator thinking its going to be the best it may not suit your needs. Or if you buy one too cheap thinking its more economical it may not have enough power to do what you want or even dry the food all the way.

A food dehydrators power is measured in wattage and you can think of this much like a light bulb. If you have a 100 watt light bulb that is bright right? However how bright would a 100 watt bulb be in a 2000 sq foot area? It’d still be bright but wouldn’t fill the whole area. So if you buy a food dehydrator with a 20 tray capacity and you use all 20 trays and fill them up and you have 500 watts of power it may not dry it all the way through. Rather you should focus on smaller batches of maybe 8-10 trays total dehydrating at the same time. My favorite type of food dehydrator is probably a 1000 watt dehydrator that can be expanded up to 20 trays. Again I’d never use all 20 trays at once for the fact it doesn’t dehydrate as well. On the opposite end of the spectrum if you buy a 1000 watt food dehydrator and you only use 2 trays in it it might over dehydrate and that you do not want either. If ever in doubt shoot for 1000 watts and 10 trays to keep it at a happy medium.

Avoid mixing too many different kinds of items in the same batch of a food dehydrator. If you have to many different things that dehydrate at different levels you can end up with some items over dehydrated and some under and having under dehydrated food leaves the chance the food could develop bacteria which could give you on afternoon in the bathroom. So owning a food dehydrator and having the right one is as important as using the food dehydrator correctly.

If you are questioning why you should even own a food dehydrator here are a few reasons to ponder. If you like to buy dried fruits or meats you know they can be expensive. However drying them and dehydrating them yourself can save quite a bit of money and that alone will quickly pay for the $ 60-$ 100 you could spend on one. Another great thing with a food dehydrator is drying and curing meats. If you like dried and dehydrated meat this is great. Again money comes into play here as a 1lb bag of store bought jerky goes for about 5 dollars or more. You could easily make 2 lbs or more for the same price yourself. Another great thing about a food dehydrator is that you can make your own snacks with as little or as much salt and sugar as you’d like and you know exactly what is in your food. These tips may just help you the next time you decide to buy a food dehydrator or when you are doing your next batch of dehydrated food.

Hope this helped, good luck!

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

Find More Dried Tomato Articles