Top Tips For Successful Food Dehydration For Beginners

 

 

Personally, I am a fan of dehydrating food, whether using a dehydrator or even using the sun and air.

However,  let me tell you that in my journey in dehydrated food I made many mistakes, but the good part about these mistakes is that I learned a lot from them.

That is why in this post, I will share with you the most important tips that you can take as a beginner in dehydrated food

Now let’s get started

 

What is food dehydrating?

 

As a general rule, food dehydration is the removal of liquids present within the tissues of food using heat, and thus harmful bacteria are eliminated, and food can be preserved for long periods.

 

What are the benefits of dehydrating?

 

1. Preserve food for a long period  

The first benefit of food dehydration is, of course, to preserve food for a long time, because, as we mentioned earlier, during dehydration, harmful bacteria are eliminated.

 

2. healthy Snacks.

When you dehydrate food, you will get light and healthy snacks all the time because among the advantages is that you can dehydrate almost all fruits and vegetables

On the other hand, dehydrated food helps me to give my family healthy meals and at the same time be loved by them, such as mango or beef jerky.

 

3. Suitable food for camping & backpacking.

 

One of the advantages of dehydrated food is that it reduces the weight of the food very much because it dries the liquids from inside and this makes it suitable for camping or if you are a fan of hunting in the woods.

 

4. Suitable for Small houses.

 

Another advantage of dehydrated is that it is very suitable for you if you want to preserve food for a long time and do not have space inside the house, as dehydrated reduces your size and weight.

Personally, I highly recommend dehydrating to people who live in small homes.

 

5. Almost works with all food kinds.

One of the great advantages of dehydrating food is that you can use this technique in almost all types of food. I have seen people dehydrated yogurt! & They give it to their children as healthy snacks.

 

What are the Methods of Food dehydration?

 

Methods of dehydrated food are very diverse because the goal of dehydrated food is to remove liquids within food tissues and kill harmful bacteria.

 

But as a general rule, there are three ways to hydrate food: using an electric dehydrator, dehydrating in the sun and in the air, or using an oven.

 

1. Electric Dehydrator

The electric dehydrator is the most commonly used in dehydrated food, and here I must point out that when you choose an electric dehydrator, you should make sure of two important things, first that it has a thermostat to adjust the temperature as you want, and also that it has a fan in order to flip the temperature evenly inside the shelves of the dehydrator.

 

2. Sun & Air

If you live in a dehydrated and sunny place, you are one of the lucky ones in the world of food dehydrated because there are many, many foods that can be

dried, ranging from herbs such as dill to fruits and meat.

 

3. Oven

The oven can be used to dehydrate food by placing the food inside the oven and then using the oven light or any additional light source you can try

Also, there are many ovens that have a dehydrator these days.

 

Top Tips For Successful Food Dehydration For Beginners.

In this part of the post, I will share with you some basic tips that you should know when dehydrating food.

 

1. Choose your food carefully.

When you start dehydrating food, you should know that the more you choose the right food before dehydrating, the better the dehydrated result.

That is why you must choose food without any mold, and if you are going to dehydrate meat, it must be completely without fat.

 

2. Food Dehydration methods are not one size fits all!

 

Before you start dehydrating any type of food, you must know a little information about the type of food that will be dried, because each type of food may lead to a different dehydrated method.

There are a lot of free online resources that provide great information on ways to dehydrate food. Also, you can see our website, there is a lot of proven information that we tried ourselves.

 

3. ALways try to slice the food before hydration.

One of the important pieces of information that many beginners neglect in dehydrated food is the method of cutting food. Food must be cut into equal slices for two reasons.

First, ease of storage: After dehydrated, the more the food is equal in size, the easier it is to put it in one place! You don’t want to store 3 pounds of jerky in five bags

Secondly, ensuring that the food is dried evenly: The more the food is equal in size, the same amount of time, heat, and dehydration is needed.

You also do not want the food to have a difference in taste or shape all the dehydrated food should be on the same level of dehydration.

 

4. Choose the recommended temperature.

 

If you use an electric dehydrator, you must make sure that you look at its manual, because it says the recommended temperature for each type of food.

Also, I strongly recommend that you look for the recommended temperature for the type of fruit or vegetable you intend to dehydrate because there can be some differences between the manual and what people do based on their personal experience.

I would like to point out here that the temperature is not only related to the taste and shape, but also the nutritional benefits that you should get, and here are some general temperatures that you can rely on as a preliminary guide.

Vegetables: 125 F
Fruits: 135 F
Herbs: 115 F
Meat: 165 F

 

5.ALways rotate your dehydrator trays

 

Rotating the trays of the dehydrator is very important. To get a successful result after dehydration, rotate the trays every two or three hours at least. even your dehydrator has a fan.

 

6. Know what you should expect after dehydrating your food.

 

Before you start dehydrating any type of food, you should know what the expected end product will look like. My advice here is to find out what final look and texture you should expect for the food after dehydrating.

For example, should it be crispy or leathery, and also should the color be light or dark?

 

7. Keep it in an airtight container.

 

After you have finished dehydrating the food, you should put the food in a place away from the air because moisture may lead to spoilage of some types of dried food. If this is not available, you can use a moisture absorber

 

8. don’t use the dehydrated food immediately.

Dried food is eaten after it cools completely, because the heat affects the shape and texture of the food, so you should wait until the food cools completely before judging it or using it.

 

9. Basic tools are enough for Food dehydration.

One of the things that I hear a lot from my friends and also our followers is that they really like dehydrated food for themselves and their families, but they always associate themselves with what they see from the tools that others use on YouTube or the Internet.

In fact, all you need is an electric dehydrator and ordinary kitchen utensils, so do not make what you see on The Internet stop you because all these fancy tools will not affect the appearance of your final product.

 

10. There will be differences between home dehydrated food and markets dehydrated food.

Always remember that when you dehydrate food, you use completely healthy ingredients without any additives that affect the taste or texture, unlike dried food in the markets, which often adds some ingredients to improve the taste, which often affects the original taste of it.

 

11. Mistakes are not bad!

 

We all make mistakes while dehydrated  and in my opinion, the mistake you make and know how to fix is really great because it will not only help you avoid it next time, but it will also increase your confidence during dehydrated and enhance your creativity

So, in my opinion, mistakes are not bad at all.

 

Conclusion.

To summarize what we talked about in this post very quickly:

 

dehydrated food is healthy for you and your family, so you should choose good food and remember that dehydrated food will not make spoiled food healthy. What you put in the dehydrator is what will come out for you. There is no magic here!

The function of the dehydrator is to absorb fluids from food and kill harmful bacteria

You should read about the types of food you intend to dehydrate to know the appropriate temperature and the expected shape and texture.

Food should be cut in an even shape and size to maintain an even degree of dehydration, shape, and texture.

Keep dried food away from air and moisture.

You can start dehydrated food with basic tools only fancy tools are not required!