Thread: Drying herbs and vegetables in a dehydrator

On 7/13/2012 12:51 PM, Danny wrote:
> I recently bought a warring dehydrator and want to dry some herbs and vegetables. I need some instructions and none came with the machine. Does anyone know of a good book for a beginner.
> thanks
> Danny
>


https://www.google.com/search?source...ac.3Mxf2iDO-Es

On 7/13/2012 1:51 PM, Danny wrote:
> I recently bought a warring dehydrator and want to dry some herbs and vegetables. I need some instructions and none came with the machine. Does anyone know of a good book for a beginner.
> thanks
> Danny
>
Try this site Danny - http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/dry.html

U of Georgia has a marvelous food safety and preserving site, that's it
above. Should cover everything you need, if not come back with some
specific questions and the folks on here that dehydrate food will try to
help.

Danny wrote:
> I recently bought a warring dehydrator and want to dry some herbs and vegetables. I need some instructions and none came with the machine. Does anyone know of a good book for a beginner.
> thanks
> Danny
>

I have a dehydrator, but for herbs it usually works better to to pick
whole stems and hang them upside-down in a dry place for a day or two,
then strip off the dry leaves.

Frozen mixed vegetables are good to practice with. And they look pretty
in a jar in your kitchen, and are useful for making soups.

Blanching before you dry them makes all the difference with some
vegetables, like diced bell peppers.

--
Best regards,
Bob

Danny wrote:
>
> I recently bought a warring dehydrator and want to dry some herbs and
> vegetables. I need some instructions and none came with the machine.
> Does anyone know of a good book for a beginner.

We recently cut up the basil plant and put it in the dehydrator.
Nothing happened. Turns out you need to cut the leave off the stems.
Too much moisute in the stems I guess. Now the leaves are dried to near
crispy. Perfect.

We have an Amercian Harvester and it has a few suggested temps on the
dial. Good enough for the uses we've put it to without refering to a
book.

On Fri, 13 Jul 2012 11:51:29 -0700 (PDT), Danny <[email protected]> wrote:

>I recently bought a warring dehydrator and want to dry some herbs and vegetables.
> I need some instructions and none came with the machine.
> Does anyone know of a good book for a beginner.

I don't think you need to buy a book. I think you will do just fine doing a
web search for the specific item you want to dry. But if books are your
thing, this is the classic book:

Mary Bell's Complete Dehydrator Cookbook
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0688130240/

Don. http://paleofood.com/kitchen-equipment.htm (e-mail at page bottom).

On Fri, 13 Jul 2012 11:51:29 -0700 (PDT), Danny <[email protected]>
wrote:

>I recently bought a warring dehydrator and want to dry some herbs and vegetables. I need some instructions and none came with the machine. Does anyone know of a good book for a beginner.
>thanks
>Danny

Well, with herbs, it is wise to use the lowest temp that will do the
job. The essential oils in things like rosemary, basil and thyme cook
off easily, leaving you with herbs dead in flavor.

Alex