connie wrote:
>
> I received a Nesco American Harvest dehydrator for Christmas, and have
> been using it for the first time. Has anyone else been disappointed in
> the amount of time foods take to dry? For example, parsley and basil:
> book says 1-3 hours; experience is 24+ hours. Onions: more like 36
> hours. It has been extremely humid here, but still!
>
> Do I have a dud?

The fan should be running vigorously.
Is it? Mine whooshes & one can smell whatever
I am drying all over the house.

It sounds like you have a dud from your description.

Minteeleaf

On 18 Sep 2003 15:33:29 -0700, (john) wrote:

>Hi,I just bought a food dehydrator (excalibur)and have used it twice
>for beef jerky which i was very happy with the outcome.The problem is
>my wife thinks it is just another gadget for the kitchen.I have 2
>children 4 and 7 yrs old ,is there anything good that i can use it for
>that they may like i tried dried apples and pinapple but they never
>even touched it.

Bananas come to mind. Mushrooms are fun and handy to have in pieces or
powder. If you're at all into making pasta, lots of things (tomatoes,
basil, pepper, whatever) can be dried, pulverized and added to the
dough. Look at all the stuff that's sold in 'dehydrated' form -- veg
mix for soups, stews, and dips. I gasped at the price of dried
cherries 'til I discovered the price of *fresh* cherries, but if
they're available in your area, the dried are awfully nice to have
around for both raisin applications and snacks.

I grew up with "you can't say you don't like it when you haven't even
tried it." Since some people are making big bucks with snack mixes of
dried fruit, you may just tease your kids that they have such
unsophisticated tastes.

In article >, zxcvbob > wrote:
>Rick & Cyndi wrote:
>> "john" > wrote in message
>> om...
>> : Hi,I just bought a food dehydrator (excalibur)and have used it
>> twice
>> : for beef jerky which i was very happy with the outcome.The
>> problem is
>> : my wife thinks it is just another gadget for the kitchen.I have
>> 2
>> : children 4 and 7 yrs old ,is there anything good that i can use
>> it for
>> : that they may like i tried dried apples and pinapple but they
>> never
>> : even touched it.
>> ======
>>
>> Pears, banana slices, strawberries, grapes (they'll be able to
>> see them turn into raisins!), etc.. Oh, and if you have one of
>> those solid sheets of plastic for yours - you can make those
>> fruit leathers (fruit Rollup things).
>>
>> Cyndi
>>
>>
>
>I think the excalibur is also good for rising yeasted bread dough. And
>drying wet sneakers! (not necessarily at the same time)
>
>Bob
>

Again, if you get the Teflon sheets, you can dry flavored yogurt into
leather. Take plain yogurt and mix jam into it yourself. (The Teflon is
worth it -- I put them under my beef jerky until it dries a bit, then peel
the jerky off and put it on the screen. Saves *hours* of cleanup!)

Mix corn chips with salsa, mound on a tray, and make your own Doritos. The
Excalibur is also good for recrisping stale corn chips, saltines,
pistachios and chow mein noodles.

Dry miscellaneous veggies, turn them to powder in the food processor or
blender, mix them into soup, gravy or spaghetti sauce. Sneak some veggies
into those kidlets -- they'll never notice! I've done this with cabbage,
celery (especially leaves), carrots (although the prep -- cutting into thin
slices -- was a hassle), baked squash, spinach, mustard greens. I may try
leaf lettuce next week. I've got a huge bed still producing various
lettuces, and we can only eat so many big bowls of wilted lettuce before
the freeze. If V8 can include lettuce juice, it may be worth *something* as
a dehydrated powder!


--
Marie Martinek
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. USA
unge