Ideas for dehydrating food

[Nessmuk]

How does the weight of commercially available freeze dried compare with home dehydrated? What weight of fresh or canned vegetables would I need to start with prior to dehydrating to end up with an equivalent weight to 2 oz Freeze dried?

It's difficult to generalize, though I've kept records of some of the items I have dried. For the casserole type combinations of food, I get approximately one-half the volume and one-quarter to one-fifth the weight after home dehydrator drying. Fresh vegetables with lots of moisture content when dried to a powder will do better. I don't know about the values for commercial freeze-drying.

 

[flypn]

not to hijack the thread, but heres another question. what kinds of dehydrators are folks using, why do they like them, how much$$$? etc. thanks in advance.

 

[Rick]

I have 2 Garden Harvest Snackmasters - The first one I got around 1990. I updated trays around 1996 - They seem to wear out from the heat and oils of teh food over time.
Around 4 years ago I found Snackmasters with the fan unit on the top (rather than the original design with the fan unit on the bottom) for ~$25.00 at Sam's Club. I picked one up, as it was almost as cheap as buying another set of trays. Both Dehydrators work well and the older one is still working fine, despite haveing gone through several sets of trays.

Also, Here is some stuff I wrote a while ago (but have since updated) for the GVC-ADK. There are also some other bits of info on dry weight vs. wet weight and such.
Dehydrating and such

 

[Nessmuk]

not to hijack the thread, but heres another question. what kinds of dehydrators are folks using, why do they like them, how much$$$? etc. thanks in advance.

I would recommend the Nesco American Harvester FD-50 to start.
http://www.nesco.com/products/product.phtml?category=300
Amazon.com has them for about $50, as do many other sources online. If you think you need to deyhdrate frequently for more that a couple of people, go for the larger size FD-1010. Make sure you get a couple (or more) fruit roll sheets for drying liquid things. Watch the prices and see if more than one sheet is included. I've purchased a couple of them through http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com, which looks more expensive until you realize how many trays and sheets are included.

The other type of pro-model dehydrator is the Excalibur. http://www.excaliburdehydrator.com. I've not used that make, but understand is is very good.

Whatever model you get, do not ever get an ultra cheap one that does not have a fan, and almost as important is having a thermostat, but certainly a fan is mandatory for good results.