How to choose the best home dehydrator

Dehydration is the oldest food preservation technique and one of the healthiest. It consists of extracting the water through gentle heat, which maintains almost all the nutrients and properties, in some cases even enhancing the flavor.

Although the most common thing is to dehydrate all kinds of food (fruits, vegetables, mushrooms, seeds, herbs…) to take advantage of the surpluses from the garden or dispose of them out of season, dehydrators also allow you to make raw vegan recipes such as crackers, cookies, crepes, bars, chips, hamburgers, granolas, or fruit “candies.”

Also have other apps, even outside the kitchen:

Melt chocolate. Ferment empanada or pizza doughs. Return the crunchy texture to the bread. Dried flowers to use as potpourris in decorations or soaps. Dry purees or certain foods and then grind them and use them as a powder.

At the culinary level, surprising textures and flavors are achieved and it is the star technique of live feeding.

The sun, the best dehydrator

The biggest dehydrator we have It is offered by the sun and the air working together. With them we have enjoyed for centuries products such as tomatoes and dried figs, or dried apricots dried by hand in summer to enjoy them in winter.

The simplest thing to dry in the sun is use metallic framed fabrics and supported on two bases protecting them from the humidity of the night and insects.

And if we want to dehydrate wholesale and more efficiently, there are solar ovens that you can build yourself following instructions from the internet.

electric dehydrators

In the absence of sun, weather or the desire to wait 10 days to obtain results, the electric dehydrated they are the solution.

They offer us freedom, temperature precision, dehydration at night or in the rain, choosing the type of texture, safety and many other comforts.

In addition, they are very quiet and the electricity consumption is low, although some preparations last several days. To choose one, we can be guided by 8 criteria:

1. Temperature

It is the most important thing if you practice raw cooking or want to keep the nutrients to the maximum, because you need an appliance that allows low temperatures.

Although there are different theories, 42 to 45°C It is the agreed range in this type of feeding to conserve the enzymes and the vital energy of the food. Some appliances allow from 30 to 70°C.

2. Timer

Although we can always use an external one, the most comfortable thing is that the device includes it so we don’t have to worry about it and not be aware of turning it off, because the drying times are usually very long. There are timers that only cover 12 hours and others several days.

3. Size and half load

All It depends on the use that we are going to give it. Something occasional is not the same as taking advantage of the surplus of a fertile garden or following a raw vegan diet enjoying all the dehydration options.

There are small appliances and others as large as a conventional oven equipped with up to 10 trays to fill them to the maximum. In these cases, it is necessary to look at the half load option, which allows energy savings.

4. Shape and fan

Whether they are square, rectangular or circular is not only an aesthetic issue, but also influences drying due to the placement of the fan.

The circular dehydrators they have the fan in the lower or upper part and some foods may be drier than others, or dehydrated on the outside and not on the inside.

You also have to watch and put the most humid products near the fan. They are usually the cheapest devices and they have other benefits such as the timer.

On the other hand, in square or rectangular ones, the fan is usually located at the back and achieves a uniform dehydration by the constant flow of hot air. The security in the result and its conservation and quality is greater.

5. Safe materials

There are dehydrators with stainless steel, tritan or bisphenol A free plastic (BPA) for greater food safety.

6. Accessories

Some brands include trays with molds for energy bars or other preparations, rigid sheets for dehydrating very moist foods, crackers or fruit puree, and allow for alternating trays of different materials.

These extras can also be purchase independently. On the other hand, in the high range, we find dehydration programs with various temperatures for a better result.

Dehydrate with the oven

Before choosing a dehydrator, it is necessary to assess that the oven at home and, especially, the new models, they can also be dehydrating.

High-end modern ovens allow precise control at low temperatures. some even incorporate the dehydration function, along with others such as steaming or fermentation. They are more expensive, but much more versatile and effective.

Conventional ovens, on the other hand, do not allow stable temperatures close to 40°C to be achieved and, in addition, their energy consumption is high considering that we will need several hours of use, but with a few tricks we can use the oven for some specific drying:

put the thermostat to minimum and put a kitchen thermometer in the oven (it has to be suitable for ovens). When it reaches 45ºC, insert the trays with the food and leave the door ajar so that the steam can escape. You can prevent it from closing with a wooden spoon. Keep an eye on the thermometer. When it goes over 48ºC, turn off the oven until it gets close to 40ºC again. If the oven has a fan, drying will be faster. Thanks to the constant air current, small fruits or thinly sliced ​​vegetables will be ready in a few hours.

On the other hand, you have to prepare the food well:

always use food in optimal state and remember that everyone has their rhythm. Dehydrate them separately or one on each tray. Cut the similar sliced ​​fruits and vegetables, 0.5-1 cm thick. dried berries and whole aromatic herbs. don’t pile up the pieces and place them apart. In moist recipes such as crackers, fruit paste or purees, use silicone non-stick sheets so they don’t drip down the grate. Save your products in glass jars, mesh bags or in oil, and note the dehydration date.