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When I first bought my Excalibur dehydrator, I used the booklet that came with it (The Excalibur Dehydration Guide) to learn about how to dry foods. This was very helpful, but I was looking for more information.
I then discovered a book that was more comprehensive: Making & Using Dried Foods by Phyllis Hobson. I've found this book to be wonderfully useful and refer to it constantly!
There are several introductory chapters. The first describes the different methods of drying food: using an electric dehydrator, using the sun, using a conventional oven or homemade dryer, and using a microwave oven. The next short chapter tells about the features to look for when buying a dehydrator.
The following chapter, although brief, is extremely helpful in that it explains the pros and cons of pretreating fruits and vegetables. And then it continues on to spell out how to use the various pretreatment methods: steam blanching, water blanching, salt water dip, ascorbic acid dip, pectin dip, fruit juice dip, honey dip, commercial dip, and sulphuring.
Then we have a chapter that describes how to tell when the food is sufficiently dry and explains how to store dried food.
The next two sections of the book consist of detailed instructions on how to dehydrate over 50 different fruits and vegetables, as well as baby food. For each fruit or vegetable, the following topics are covered:
1. General information on how to select and prepare the food for dehydrating, including any pretreatment needed.
2. Detailed instructions on how to prepare and dry that food using each of the following methods: dehydrator, sun, and oven (or homemade dryer). It includes the approximate time the food takes to dry and how to test it for "doneness."
3. How to use the food once dried. For example: eat as snacks, rehydrate and eat, or use in cooking/baking.
4. Recipes using this particular food (anywhere from one to four recipes per food).
The next section is on drying herbs and includes detailed instructions on drying more than 30 herbs. Then come sections on drying meats (beef, venison, ham, poultry, lamb, and fish), dairy products (cheese, milk, and eggs), and grains.
The remainder of the book consists of information on making leathers, making dried soup mixes, drying foods for hiking and camping, drying flower blossoms, and instructions for building your own electric food dehydrator.
Here's the abbreviated table of contents (for those who just want the bottom line):
| Introduction | Drying Dairy Products |
| Drying Foods Can Save You Money | Drying Grains |
| How to Dry Foods | Leathers |
| Buying a Dehydrator | Dried Soup Mixes |
| To Pretreat or Not To Pretreat | Drying Foods for Hiking and Camping |
| Testing and Storing Dried Foods | Drying Flower Blossoms |
| Drying Fruits | Other Uses For Drying Equipment |
| Drying Vegetables | Appendix: Building an Electric Food Dehydrator |
| Drying Herbs | Index |
| Drying Meats |
See also:
Dehydrating Vegetables - part 1
Dehydrating Vegetables - part 2
Dehydrating Fruit
Excalibur Food Dehydrator
Posted by Beth on Monday, September 17, 2007