# Another dehydration question.....



## bourbonred (Feb 27, 2008)

How does your dehydrated food look and taste? I'm a newbie dehydrator, and my onions were okay, mushrooms were great, apples were okay, but not like store-bought dried fruit. Bananas and strawberries were nothing like what I've eaten dried. Is this "home-cooking", you know like the difference between canned biscuits and home-made biscuits, or is it my technique? My experience with storebought strawberries and bananas were crunchy and sweet. Help me out here please. Pamela


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## Lucy (May 15, 2006)

They are not like store stuff. The bananas in the store are not always bananas, but plantain. They are deep fried in coconut oil and coated with lots of sugar.
The apples in the store are often sulfured.


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## Karen (Apr 17, 2002)

Some are also freeze dried, not dehydrated.

Yep, store bananas are almost always deep fried and sweetened. Nothing at all like 'real' dehydrated.

I dehydrate a lot (due to a lack of storage space and I'm a prepper), and you have to get use to how to use your dehydrated foods. Personally, I think there are few dehydrated foods that taste like 'fresh', but then again, few canned foods taste like fresh either. It's just getting use to the different textures with dehydrating more than anything.

Plus some foods you dehydrate just for the preserving value, not necessarily because they taste the best that way. 

One thing that I will tell you that tastes just like fresh when reconstituted and cooked is pumpkin, cranberries, and sweet potatoes. Close is hash browns, scalloped potatoes using dehydrated potato slices, squash, onions, green peppers, scallions, garlic, shallots. Dehydrated veggies like corn, peas, and beans are great in soups and stews.

One thing your home dehydrated bananas are excellent in is cooked into hot cereal or banana bread, etc.


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

Has anyone ever tried sprinkling some splenda (or rolling the pieces in raw honey) "before" dehydrating?


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## oregon woodsmok (Dec 19, 2010)

I only dry fruit and meat. The meat looks like jerky, is tough and chewy and a thousand times better than store bought which appears to be made out of some sort of dried sludge.

We only eat the jerky as jerky. I don't cook with it unless we are going backpacking.

Fruit is a lot drier and chewier than store bought. My family likes it a lot better. I just dry and let the color fall where it may. My family thinks dried fruit is supposed to be golden brown and a good hard chew.

The dried fruit also gets eaten as snacks. There is no reason you can't cook with it; I just don't.

Unfortunately, home dried fruit is a bit too hard to go into granola. It's good for trail mix, though.

The commercial berries and bananas are loaded with added sugar. The other dried fruit has something added, because it is too moist to not spoil. If I took fruit out of the dehydrator with that much moisture, it would be a moldy mess in a couple of days.

Incidentally, 50 years ago, store bought dried fruit was very much like home dried. The processors have changed their techniques.

One nice thing about home dried, is that I can dry varieties that the commercial companies won't. I love dried Gravenstein apples. They are beautifully tangy. And Canadice grapes make superb zesty raisins.

Suggestion: if you are new to drying fruit, the thin slices tend to be easier to eat.


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## MNBobcat (Feb 4, 2011)

Karen said:


> One thing that I will tell you that tastes just like fresh when reconstituted and cooked is pumpkin, cranberries, and sweet potatoes. Close is hash browns, scalloped potatoes using dehydrated potato slices, squash, onions, green peppers, scallions, garlic, shallots. .


How do you typically re-hydrate your green peppers?


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## GrannyG (Mar 26, 2005)

you can see some of the dehydrated food at my blog.....

http://grannyg-itsybitsyfarm.blogspot.com/

We love the tomatoes....todaY I have banana chips sprinkled with cinnamon/sugar drying...keep nibbling on them as they dry, so good.....celery leaves can be dried, crushed and used in dressing. Strawberries are done to put in muffins and crockpot oatmeaL this winter.....


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## PlicketyCat (Jul 14, 2010)

I've noticed that some air/heat dehydrated things do not rehydrate to "normal" texture, even if they're put in stews or the pressure cooker. Sweet corn is like that, it's always a tough little nugget no matter how long I leave it in the pot... but I did find that it works better if I run it through my grain mill with the oat flaking attachment or give it a good whack with a rolling pin or meat mallet to break up the kernels a little before adding to the water.

I use our dried fruit in hot cereal and muffins a lot, definitely stays on the chewy side, but it's still good. You can liven it up a little, so it's closer to the bendable store bought texture for a few days if you put it in a steamer for a few minutes, then you can add it to trail mix or granola without it being sweet little unchewable rock nuggets.

I definitely prefer some things freeze-dried over simple dehydration, the "hard" things like carrots and corn or berries and diced peaches. But onions and garlic or apples and pears are better air dried IMO. You definitely don't get pliable dried fruit when it's freeze-dried, it tends to be puffy crunchy more like popcorn.


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## GrannyG (Mar 26, 2005)

Check out this fantastic site/video on doing potatoes...
http://www.dehydrate2store.com/videos/?id=21


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

I've been drying bannanas for 3 days now. Got bags of them for cheep. I put them in a mix of Honey,water and citric acid. They do still come out alittle brownish, but very good.


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## Tammy1 (Aug 31, 2011)

To re-hydrate peppers it depends on how I'm using them. If they are for eggs I put them in the microwave with a little water for 30 seconds, drain and use like normal.

If I'm adding them to something that will be boiling I just throw them in and cook. Works great if you are cooking pasta. I just boil them with the pasta.


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