From: cmblake6
Been going through your articles, loving them, and just had to comment finally. Excellent one, this. I’ve got to get off my backside, and soon!
**cmblake, how are you? Thanks for commenting…finally! LOL!
No, seriously, we’re glad you’ve been enjoying the reads, and we really appreciate you taking time to express this! If you liked this one, you ought to really like the next two.
One is how to can sweetbreads and cakes, with some pics, and the next will be on canning soups, etc. This article will be by one of our readers, and truly a friend, by the name of Miss Bonnie! Excellent info, and she’s “the Master!” We hope you enjoy them both!
Listen, if you have any recipes, or would even like to share a story or two, shoot, just “step up to the plate,” and let `er rip! We’d all enjoy hearing back from you!
Thanks again for your time, and drop back in soon!
Dub and Deb
From: Connie
Hi Deb and Dub,
This is Connie —- your Nebraska Husker Fan. I wrote to you about your gardening article.
Saw your message about dehydrators. My son used to work for Cabela’s – The World’s Foremost Outfitters in their camping and fishing departments. He has a commercial grade Cabela’s brand dehydrator. It is the 80L size – the smaller one of two that they sell. This unit sells for about $300. They dehydrate various vegetables, fruits and seasonings, but use it mainly for doing deer and beef jerky. They love it.
He said for their use the larger one would only be a waste of electricity for most normal size batches. He would be happy to visit with you if you wanted to call him.
Hope you are warm there to balance out the cold here.
Connie
**Thanks for the help Connie, and it’s good hearing back from you again, too! We were wondering where you’d been hiding? LOL!
We really had great response in regards to our dehydrator dilemma, but thanks to everyone’s help we’ve made our choice…the Excalibur. Too many saying that’s the way to go, plus Deb and I knew nothing at all about them. Now, if I can get Deb to give me the money to get one, that’s the big “hump in the road,” at the moment!
Tell your son, we appreciate very much the offer of him talking with us in this regard, but he sure could send us a couple of jerky recipes!
Connie thanks for your help, and please come back and visit any time you’d like…we love having you!
Dub and Deb
From: lanahi
When using your dehydrated foods, you should reconstitute them first in hot water. Just pour boiling water over the dehydrated eggs and let it soak up the water for 15 minutes or more before cooking or until it appears the right texture. Fruits and other foods will not discolor so much if dipped first in lemon juice or ascorbic acid powder mixed with water. There is nothing wrong with dark fruit, it just looks better if they don’t darken! And, of course, vitamin C doesn’t hurt the end product at all. Excalibur is the Cadillac of dehydrators…also most expensive.
Other dehydrators will do the same job. The main thing is to have good air circulation through the trays with a fan so that there is uniform drying to all levels. There are some units without fans or incomplete circulation…you would not be happy with them. Some dehydrators can be added to with more trays. If you’ve never done dehydrating before and haven’t tasted many dried foods, it might be better to start small on a unit where you can add more trays. I think dehydrated eggs are safe because bacteria doesn’t grow when it is as dry as it should be. You must get the food dry enough, no matter what it is. That’s why you should store them in jars too when dehydrated well, so it doesn’t suck up moisture from the air.
Have fun with the dehydrator! BTW, if you make jelly, use the leftover pulp to make fruit rolls with! By dehydrating it, it will concentrate the sweetness and is quite a good trail food. Let the pulp dry in a sheet and peel it off. Use plastic wrap or parchment paper to roll them up with so it doesn’t stick to itself, and you can tear off strips for a quick snack.
I should mention too that sometimes when you add spices before dehydrating a food, the spices will get stronger. I prefer to add them later after the food has been reconstituted. This gives you the option of using that food for more than one type of meal, too, like one meal is sweet with the addition of cinnamon and sugar, another food is “hot” with peppers and hot sauce, etc.
**Hello lanahi, so nice to hear from you. We appreciate you taking the time to comment, and what great advice it was.
Please feel free to come back anytime and we look forward to hearing from you again! Thanks!
Dub and Deb