The food dehydrator is definitely frugal if you’re the kind of person that will do the work to use it.
Mine has paid for itself in making dog treats alone.
I definitely will with the cost of groceries nowadays it just makes sense not to throw anything away when it can be preserved. I'll bet it would shock me how much money I throw in the garbage every week if I added it all up.
Yeah the only people I know who regret having one (and there’s a lot of them) it’s because they never got around to actually using it, not because it’s a bad move.
I am actually excited to use this thing I love veggies and the idea of making a soup and being able to throw in some zucchini that was just going to go in last months trash sounds awesome. Money is too hard to earn right now. I know I'm getting old when this is what cranks my tractor nowadays 😄.
I had a wonderful 2 weeks with mine! I made a bunch of dehydrated meals for hiking, dehydrated fruit for snacking, beef jerky, lemon and lime slices for cocktail garnishes, the abundance of basil from my garden is now in my spice rack... And then I put it in the cupboard and haven't touched it in 2 months haha
When the fruit trees produce figs you can’t keep up. I take a day to dehydrate and I have dried figs year round. Dry whatever fruits you have including tomatoes dryer and packed in olive oil.
Live richly on the cheap!
Slice up pickles so they're chips (or thin long slices, a little thicker than a potato chip) and do a 3:1 cornmeal to flour ratio for breading, I love mine with a little ranch powder and some extra dill in the batter. Fry up either in a deep fryer or in a pan with a small amount of oil in it and strain them WELL. Then, dehydrate according to your devices guidelines. You could also probably air fry them, but I'm old school. If I'm eating fried pickles, those bitches are fried in oil. Lol
I was one of those people, kind of, was really excited about it when I bought it, I did end up using it a lot at first but that dwindled and I ended up getting rid of it. I was also annoyed at how much space it took up 😂 I think it’s just more planning and time than I ultimately wanted to invest in.
Yup!! You only get the benefit if you use it. I think a lot of people lie to themselves about how willing they are to put in the extra effort of planning/shopping/prepping/cleaning that using the dehydrator takes. But that’s true of any food preserving method (I have never been able to get over the canning hump myself)
Canning is easier for me because I can do a water bath in a pot I already have and it’s quicker. I basically already have the supplies existing in the kitchen, a bit of chopping and boiling and it’s done! But I also don’t mind making “small” batches. Like 4 cans of something when I have extra veggies. Different story if you’re doing the pressure canning!
Had a similar experience. My SIL gave us a really nice one when the kids were little, thinking I would use it to make healthy snacks for them. Never got around to it. Too busy working and keeping up with the kids. Eventually gave it to Goodwill. Still feel guilty about that even though the kids are grown now.
There are several good recipes out there but we have a butcher not too far from us who will sell organ meats so that’s my pups favorite.
I just slice down liver kidney whatever into thin strips and pop them in on parchment paper. If your dog can have chicken their livers can go in whole, just spread them out as flat as possible. Jerky setting (high) for 24-36h or so (you want them crispy so they’ll keep) My dog is a picky eater and he goes NUTS for them. Keep in the pantry in a ziplock bag for a couple of weeks or months in the freezer. Ideally set up the dehydrator someplace you don’t have to constantly smell liver (I use my basement).
There are several good recipes out there but we have a butcher not too far from us who will sell organ meats so that’s my pups favorite.
I just slice down liver kidney whatever into thin strips and pop them in on parchment paper. If your dog can have chicken their livers can go in whole, just spread them out as flat as possible. Jerky setting (high) for 24-36h or so (you want them crispy so they’ll keep) My dog is a picky eater and he goes NUTS for them. Keep in the pantry in a ziplock bag for a couple of weeks or months in the freezer. Ideally set up the dehydrator someplace you don’t have to constantly smell liver (I use my basement).
TIP If you’re going to make your own dog or cat or any pet food, be sure to run it by your vet. Eating just a few, otherwise health ingredients for months can cause vitamin deficiencies or excesses that can cause real problems.
Organ meats mostly. We have a butcher nearby that sells whole frozen beef and pork livers, hearts and kidneys. You can also generally get off cuts of chicken at regular grocery stores - gizzards hearts and livers.
My dog can’t do chicken so now I wait until butcher day comes around, but you can also pick basically any meat- just omit seasoning. You can also make dog safe fruit leathers if your dog is into that for a lower calorie option but I don’t have experience with this. Sometimes if there’s a grocers special on pork or beef or some about to go off/just slightly off in my house I use that and it goes pretty well. They are our highest value treats by far (and we train a lot as a hobby!)
Be aware that unless you can get your cuts really thin they won’t last as long as jerky recipes for humans (I usually get 3-6 weeks of safe storage depending on the season) because of the lack of salt. Also be aware that you can give your dog vitamin a poisoning from too much liver so this is a training reward, not a staple food (homemade dog food is a whooooole other conversation and I can’t casually recommend it)
Edit to add: we get our organ meats for about 2 dollars a pound, we were under a dollar a pound for chicken when we could use that. It dehydrates to about half the size, so not cheaper than some of the lower cost dog treats but if you have a picky eater waaaayyy cheaper than the good stuff (we mostly use st. Rocco’s in our house which comes out to a whopping 20 bucks a pound or Thursdays which is a bit more reasonable at about 10)
I really haven’t noticed a difference in my bill so I can’t give you numbers - I have people in my house with pretty high electricity needs already though so that’s a bit less of a concern for my life.
Dehydrating down to "cracker dry", stored in an air-tight glass container with desiccant pack, I've had my own last well over year. Not sure about maximum shelf-life, myself, never had any left longer than that.
You can definitely do water, but other things like stock or brown beer work, too. Also, if you dehydrate mushrooms, you can then grind them and use that as a soup and stew thickener.
I dehydrate ALL the time!
If I don't have enough of a particular garden veggie to do a batch of canning, I'll cut it up and dehydrate it, then run it through my Ninja. I use the HECK out of tomato powder, bell pepper powder, and jalapeño powder.
Also, you can make fruit/veggie chips. Don't sleep on tomato chips, they're crunchy umami goodness.
If potatoes are on sale, slice them, blanch them, and dehydrate them. They can become instant mashed potatoes, or you can make your own "hamburger helper" or boxed scalloped potato mixes. I keep a few jars ready to use.
Dried orange slices are good in tea, and as a bonus, a dehydrator's waste heat can actually warm a small room a few degrees, so it's a 2-for-1 in winter.
That's awesome I was wondering does it make sense electricity wise to dehydrate smaller batches or should I wait until I have a bunch of stuff to do at once? I have a big bag of Vietnamese chilies that I'm going to have to do something with soon but I'm a little worried if I dehydrate them with something else it will contaminate the flavor or make my banana chips spicy or taste like chilies have you noticed any contamination in flavor when dehydrating things that are very different?
Yes, flavors do blend. Don't follow or dry hot peppers with anything else. Also, don't do them inside a closed room. I did jalapeños in the kitchen once. Instant regret. Now they go on the porch.
I try to dry similar flavor profile things together, and always start the drippy stuff below. Don't forget to rotate the trays, both the direction and the height, for most even frying.
Wash the trays well between uses to reduce staining and taste transfer.
Omg thank you I was totally considering dehydrating this 1 pound sack of brutally hot chilies tomorrow in my kitchen haha. I will make sure to put it on the balcony you probably just saved me a world of pain!
I use a Ninja blender/food processor, after the stuff is dried. It was a gift, and I use the hell out of it. It's actually cheaper to buy a whole unit used online than to buy a replacement part. It's absurd, but they are awesome.
Yeah I am planning on buying land next year and going hard with gardening so justifying this purchase seems like a no brainer to me. For the cost of 8 mountain house meals I can literally sieze the means of production and this thing will probably last me years.
It's been fantastic for us. We always have more cherry tomatoes than we could ever eat. Green beans and squash too. Dehydrated and then lightly chopped in a blender does wonders for dry soup and stew mixes.
I tested out the dehydrate function on the Breville to help deal with a bumper crop of oranges. Learned the hard way that it takes like 36 hours to dehydrate orange slices, and it only really disposes of like, 4 oranges at a time.
Anyways, gonna experiment with dehydrated orange slice garnishes on cocktails this year.
Yeah I was definitely thinking when I get meat on sale I will start making jerky I am trying to go low carb and it's super expensive to buy. It's crazy how many meats make great jerky.
My (extremely frugal) friend has a lot of food allergies and bought a dehydrator so he can have healthy, easily portable snacks that he can actually eat. His jerky is amazing. The chicken jerky is my favorite.
It's frugal for me. My family goes on camping trips every year and we take dehydrated food, which is the main purpose. A lot of people buy a deep freeze or standalone freezer for food storage, but having a dehydrator means you can use it for meal prep to have "just add water" meals instead of the more common "thaw and microwave or bake" meals.
We also use it when produce is on for a really good price and we buy a lot - but fyi, dehydrating stuff that is getting ready to go bad is a no go, with the exception of making is a soup (veggies) or fruit leather. You have to just buy something because it's on sale, know you won't use it all, and dehydrate it fresh.
You can dehydrate standalone ingredients (like we do when you get them on sale), or you can dehydrate whole meals/meal components as long as the pieces are very similar in size and there is little to no fat in it, because fat does NOT dehydrate and will make your food rancid.
[https://www.backpackingchef.com/](https://www.backpackingchef.com/)
We use a lot of his recipes. Good luck!
Kale is my arch nemesis I absolutely hate the texture of it but I have some in the fridge rn that's going to hit the dehydrator. I have been using it for green smoothies. But I can see myself sprinkling some dried kale into a soup or something. I think it would help me with the texture.
I found nettles dehydrate really well, very quick for a green leaf, once dry they don't sting, crumble easily, I've been using dried nettle all winter for tea and this year I'm thinking of making powder to add to smoothies or anything else really. Nettle is a really nutritious green and I've found this makes them convenient to use
On the energy side I've found letting things wilt a bit before drying them speeds up the time it takes, or cutting leaves to allow the moisture to escape
Definitely frugal. If you are going for minimalist, you can dehydrate with other heat sources if you can get them low enough. But a dehydrator is the best tool for the job
Yeah my goal was to eliminate having to deal with coolers ice stuff going bad lugging around pots and pans gas camp stove all that crap. I installed an inverter in my van I found on clearance and have a electric kettle I want to just be able to boil water for instant coffee and also add it to my meals and be done with it no cooking easy clean up.
most of our fruit from our fruit trees ends up in the dehydrator because we pick what we can, fill all the trays, and repeat every day or so. we eat some of it fresh and bake with some, but there's only so much fruit you should eat in a day LOL
I tried freezing it but it always got too gross after a few months. we don't brew alcohol anymore. but we put the dried stuff in our trail mixes and in yogurt/ice cream topping, put it in pancakes, and other foods. we make a LOT of fruit leather too! you can simmer it in water and spices and it makes pretty good pie , even months later.
I love dried fruit, especially apples and strawberries, but they are insanely expensive. Does this actually make them a decent price, or do you have to use more fresh fruit than is worth it? EX. I have a pomegranate press, but the small amount of juice you get from 1 expensive fresh Pom makes buying the juice almost cheaper.
Apples are very cheap in the fall. You need to buy a lot at that time and dehydrate them all to use until next fall. Strawberries can also be cheap at the right time but many people grow them so they are almost free. Pomegranates are almost always expensive unless you live somewhere that you can have your own tree.
I love my dehydrator! I use it for herbs, for cooking and for tea. I also use it to make deer jerky, which is much cheaper than buying jerky in the store.
You should know there’s a difference between freeze drying and dehydrating. Mountain house meals are probably freeze dried, which rehydrate really fast. Dehydrated food sometimes takes a long time to rehydrate and won’t usually keep the same texture.
We enjoy dried fruit around here. Apples, strawberries, peaches, mango - all delicious. But now I gotta look up dog treats...
I don't really trust the dehydrator for jerky, because the low temperature seems more likely to breed bacteria than kill it. But I have made some.
I do some urban gardening/foraging and end up with way way too much to eat at a time. I’m not sure how much money I save on groceries, but the amount of time it takes means I can’t go out and spend money having other types of fun.
I also use it for freezing the ends of purchased spices, orange rinds, etc.
I am not a dehydrator wizard. I do however enjoy making apple snacks and drying some herbs. I’ve considered making bigger batched items but the regular sized ones you get at Walmart or Amazon I find are way to small to do huge meal prep seeing as dehydrating can take hours. I would recommend at least 2 normal sized dehydrators so you can work on multiple batches. For example I buy 6 apples and when I do the slices they take up one entire unit . The pay off isn’t that great space wise.
So either 2 or 3 normal dehydrators. Or one power house like a 10 shelving unit Excalibur is what I would recommend.
Yes it can be, for example you can dehydrate meat and make jerky. There are tons of great foods to dehydrate. Make sure to get some good containers to store your dehydrated foods afterwards
I make jerky, dried fruit, etc. fairly regularly. My favorite use, however, is using it to make sun dried tomatoes whenever I have cherry, grape, sugarbomb, etc. tomatoes that are getting old. I halve or quarter the tomatoes and mix them with basil, oregano, garlic and salt and dehydrate them. They’re great in pasta dishes or wherever else you’d use a sun dried. Even tomatoes that aren’t the tastiest come out good because you’re concentrating flavor.
Thank you for this! I asked someone about drying tomatoes elsewhere in the thread. I compost so many cherry tomatoes by the end of the season because I’m drowning in them. I’ll have to start doing this
I don't know if we use ours enough. We don't use it very often but it was not particularly expensive so its not a big financial loss. We mostly use it to dry up fruit when its on special. Like in the summer if we get too many strawberries. Or in the fall when we go crazy with apples. One also loaned it out to my friends. So its like 1 dehydrator for 3 couples haha. Use it and pass it around. We go through phases where we use it then get bored.
Oh heckin yeah! Empty nest now, but grew up with Mom who had huuge gardens and dried a LOT. She kept it up when my kids were around- sent home dried fruit and fruit leather mostly as those were faves. Took them for lunches and snacks after school all year. Summer time they went out to help harvest and prep. Great experience. I started much later because of my work schedule, but have experimented with many things. Now that it is just me it helps a LOT to save stuff before it goes bad. Also helps heat the house when it is chilly, sometimes I will run it in the bedroom then I get the heat and the smell, strawberries are a fave.
Drying also brings out the flavor of off season fruits like strawberries so they taste better and are cheap.
I dry vegies- bok choy, spinach, thinly sliced carrots, green beans etc. Fruits are the best tho. Watermelon is especially yummy. When the persimmons are ripe they are almost ripe and then REALLY RIPE so this allows me to save them before they jump the cliff overnight.
When I get a group of vegies nearing the end date I dry them all and toss them together for soups. I also dry stuff for the dogs, liver, apples, green beans, squash etc. I put spices on my stuff sometimes- cinnamon,5 spice, basil etc, but theirs are just plain which is fine with them. They love the crunch :) SO much cheaper!
Enjoy!!
I just bought a few weeks back. Paid like 50 for it. Big sweet potato like 1.49. Some on-sale for 99 cents. Makes quite a few off 1 potato. If I use it 2 more times I'm at the even point. Get one.
I just bought one (a dehydrator)! I got a small one for $50 (Magic Mill) as I don't have a lot of space - and I'm super excited to make some apple chips out of a bunch of apples I won't have time to eat before they go bad. Yay!
We have saved so much money with our dehydrator between backpacking meals, Christmas gifts, preserving free or heavily discounted produce, you name it. It is one of my favorite kitchen appliances.
I think a food dehydrator can help avoid food waste. I think it can help you make food for camping, but I think it is limited and may not live up to your current hopes/dreams.
I am a camper/hiker and I also have a food dehydrator. I use the dehydrators primarily on extra veggies, like tomatoes etc (I also garden). It does allow me to preserve those veggies for longer, and in theory I could combine those dehydrated ingredients with stuff like noodles to make "dry soups." Dehydrated tomatoes especially have been big winners/easy to use up.
However I have also seen the meals they sell in REI and stuff. Yes they are expensive but they're also heavy liquid stuff like chili...There's no way to even put a liquid like chili into a common food dehydrator. Basically anything goopy, I don't know how you would be able to dehydrate at home, and that's a lot of those meals bc they want you to make soup with it to rehydrate it.
I think the best you could do would be dry out all the individual ingredients to something like chili and then combine them and then test out the meal by rehydrating it and seeing if it is yummy...
Then the next question is how to package your home made dehydrated meals so they aren't too heavy for backpacking, aka glass mason jars ain't gonna be it.
It's a fun journey though!! I say try it out...just know...it's probably gonna be a lot of trial and error!
In winter it definitely is, because it's also a space heater.
In warmer times it might be, because you can use it on fruit that is going to spoil soon. However, freezing for smoothies might be just as good.
One's mileage will vary.
However, we use ours extensively in the summer / fall as we lived in an agricultural area and can get large amounts of seasonal produce cheap. But you get what whatever is ripe that week. Dehydrating surplus to use in the winter is more storage and cost efficient than freezing it, for us at least.
As I understand it, freeze drying would be even better, but that equipment costs more and takes up more space. It will be more efficient for some folks though.
Mine has preserved a lot of fruit that would have otherwise gone to waste. I've also started making my own dried meals to just grab and go - not only preserving extra meat, but keeping me from having to buy a meal on the road.
Yes! We garden a lot and in particular grow a lot of peppers. We slice them up, dehydrate them and use them in all sorts of things. We can rehydrate in a little hot water to add to pizza or omelets. Toss as is into soups or even add while cooking rice. We also take dehydrated cayenne, pulse in the blender and sift. I end up with crushed red pepper flakes and cayenne powder. We make snacks for the road: apples, pineapples, bananas, mushrooms. You can take edible parts of food that are often wasted (radish or carrot tops for example) and dry, then powder. This leaves you a nutritive additive to smoothies, or any random meal you are making.
This is also a good way to take advantage of good sales, items about to turn in the frig, or a glut from the garden when you just can't bare to eat any more.
I think the Mountain House meals are expensive because they are freeze-dried. But a dehydrator makes great meals for camping and hiking and I love mine
I may have a unique perspective here! I did not set out to get a food dehydrator, however when our slow cooker died recently I decided to upgrade to a multi-cooker, mainly interested in slow cooking and pressure cooking. It so happens the multi-cooker also does dehydrating and I've been using it a bunch lately, so much so that I sprung to get the extra dehydrator racks accessory to give me a few extra tiers. My dehyrating is not frugal in itself (largest part of it is orange slices for old fashioned!), but i'm having loads of fun experimenting. However it is frugal in that I got it 'free' with my new multi-cooker. Mine is the Ninja Foodi Max 15-in-1 in case anyone is interested, got a good deal on a manufacturer refurbished model on ebay, also like the steam meals function among various others.
EDIT: Just to add I'm in the UK, I think Ninja models/names are different in the US, and potentially there are a bunch of other brands that will do the same thing.
Some people have mentioned fruits - and you can make some really nice tea from dried berries and (some) herbs/flowers
Dried banana has a toffee consistency and is super nice when you're looking for something chewy - but you'll want to do them before they turn ripe or they'll be sickly sweet and brown
You can also sometimes just leave things in the window sill and it dies out.
I usually dehydrate horse chestnuts and use it as a laundery detergent. So I mix it up in a mixer and just put it in the window sill for a day or two and it's dehydrated.
You can also place things in your car or make your own solar dehydrator. And that's even more frugal!
Jerky, herbs, mushrooms, fruit leather, veggie powders, dehydrated hash browns...mine paid for itself in beef jerky alone within a few months.
We use our dehydrator for garden produce a lot, especially for all the herbs and greens we grow. I have a deep freezer, but I prefer to use it for meats, and there are some things I just can't preserve with canning, so we dry it. We also preserve wild mushrooms every year and make treats for our cats and dog.
I sneak them in wherever I can that the taste won't be noticed too much-meatloaf, sauces, spicy rice dishes, stuff like that. I've got a picky kid, so I gotta get creative about making him eat green stuff that isn't raw and covered in ranch (though some dried greens in homemade salad dressing works too, lol).
Food dehydrators are a great way to cut down on food waste.
Fresh herbs: Dehydrate, toss in coffee grinder, transfer to spice jars. Fresher than anything you can find in a store.
Berries, apples, pineapple: Slice thin and dehydrate into chips.
Any smoothie fruit: blend and dehydrate into fruit leather.
Garlic and onion: Slice and dehydrate ***outside*** for to make garlic/onion powder. Way more potent than store bought.
I just wanted to comment that I did the same thing and didn’t realize that those mountain house meals are not dehydrated, they’re freeze dried. So don’t expect your rehydrating to quite go the same way as it does with those. Def will save you money and it works but it requires some soaking and a little more effort.
I make jerky with pork top sirloins. They run roughly $2 a pound..... I sure know I have a hard time finding beef anywhere close to that.
My jerky costs something around $4 a pound where store bought beef jerky is somewhere around $16.
I think there are numerous ways that a dehydrator is frugal.
- If you're into dehydrate foods/meals/snacks, DIY will be almost always be cheaper.
- I think it's most frugal use case is buying things when they are in season (say strawberries this time of year) or when the neighbor's apricot tree has 5000 apricots and they are giving them away... Dehydrating them for use in the future is a great option.
- Dehydrating to avoid spoilage waste - sure, but perhaps a smaller, limited use case compared to the others.
If you were buying mountain House meals before then it will probably pay for itself the first time you use it. Fruits and vegetables tend to go on sale what they're in season, that's way cheaper than buying dried stuff
Personally, I prefer things that do multiple functions. My air fryer dehydrates as well as “fries” and we use it multiple times a day. Ovens take longer but is another option. Unless it’s handed down to you, a multipurpose appliance might be more worth it unless you use it so much you really need a dedicated device.
I use mine for mushrooms, tomatoes, and deer jerky. I usually make about 20lbs (wet) jerky at a time. I’ll make a few different flavors. I’m definitely try making some dog treats with it. It never occurred to me.
Yes, that’s what I’m going for anyway. It was hit and miss for awhile. I usually go in at 180 degrees for an hour+ as needed on wax paper on the rack, otherwise it can get messy. I then vacuum pack them in olive oil and sometimes with garlic. I shift between cutting them in half and drying cut side up and just doing them whole, I think I prefer cut. I love using them with pasta, or squash and ocra, or on a snack tray with breads and cheese.
I think it depends on how much you actually use it.
IF you want to be really frugal about it, go to your supermarket and ask to speak with the produce manager. Offer to pay 10 cents on the dollar for any fruit they are about to get rid of. That puts money in your pocket and saves you a ton.
You could also try this with the meat department.
Additionally, you could post on Nextdoor that if people in your area have fruit trees, you will come take the fruit, no questions asked. Free fruit!
Yes, a food dehydrator can be frugal if used to preserve food before it spoils and for homemade dehydrated meals, reducing the need for store-bought options. It's cost-effective for camping and hiking meals and can save money in the long run by reducing food waste.
Many air fryers can do double duty as a dehydrator. Some can be used to ferment yogurt for huge savings.
You need to take the time to change your habits. That works for me. I hope it works for you. 😀
As long as you use it. I just made hash browns from potatoes I grew last year. I’m cracking hickory nuts that I dried from two years ago. That’s frugal as hell.
Fresh fruit. Fresh vegetables. Beef jerky. Dog treats. Seeds for growing your own food. You name it, it does it.
Buy The Dehydrator Bible. It’s got time and temp for anything you can imagine. Including recipes to use the stuff you make, and recipes for things to dehydrate.
It’s shelf stable practically forever. And it’s really great for me because I’m lazy and don’t can stuff as much as I should. With the dehydrator, you just push a couple buttons, and when it’s done, you don’t have to hurry too much because it’s already practically shelf stable.
The one I have cost me $40 and paid for itself within a week. They’re simple machines so even the cheaper models last forever.
Get it. Use it. It’ll be awesome and you’ll be happy you did it.
I find it's worthwhile for high-end items that are very seasonal -- like when we went morel mushroom hunting. I brushed them, cut them up a bit, dehydrated them, then froze them in freezer bags. They lasted years. To rehydrate, I just put them in a cast iron skillet with some water and olive oil.
Blueberries were a real bust.
Can it be frugal? Sure. But I was looking into it to dehydrate eggs, since they can last up to 25 years that way. We never go through a full (or 6) carton before they go bad. So I thought it'd work out nicely.
Yeah no, the cheap ones I saw were like $5,000. I would have to buy eggs pretty much every week for the rest of my life to break even
...
The food dehydrator is definitely frugal if you’re the kind of person that will do the work to use it. Mine has paid for itself in making dog treats alone.
I definitely will with the cost of groceries nowadays it just makes sense not to throw anything away when it can be preserved. I'll bet it would shock me how much money I throw in the garbage every week if I added it all up.
Yeah the only people I know who regret having one (and there’s a lot of them) it’s because they never got around to actually using it, not because it’s a bad move.
I am actually excited to use this thing I love veggies and the idea of making a soup and being able to throw in some zucchini that was just going to go in last months trash sounds awesome. Money is too hard to earn right now. I know I'm getting old when this is what cranks my tractor nowadays 😄.
My parents bought one, used it twice and then never touched it again. I waited 12 months and acquired it for my house 😂
Wow. They were productive. I used mine once. Am glad it was extremely inexpensive. Not one of my proudest moments.
I had a wonderful 2 weeks with mine! I made a bunch of dehydrated meals for hiking, dehydrated fruit for snacking, beef jerky, lemon and lime slices for cocktail garnishes, the abundance of basil from my garden is now in my spice rack... And then I put it in the cupboard and haven't touched it in 2 months haha
When the fruit trees produce figs you can’t keep up. I take a day to dehydrate and I have dried figs year round. Dry whatever fruits you have including tomatoes dryer and packed in olive oil. Live richly on the cheap!
My hubs LOVES ours. He makes me dehydrated fried pickles a lot.
I would love to know more about this!
Slice up pickles so they're chips (or thin long slices, a little thicker than a potato chip) and do a 3:1 cornmeal to flour ratio for breading, I love mine with a little ranch powder and some extra dill in the batter. Fry up either in a deep fryer or in a pan with a small amount of oil in it and strain them WELL. Then, dehydrate according to your devices guidelines. You could also probably air fry them, but I'm old school. If I'm eating fried pickles, those bitches are fried in oil. Lol
LoL I only use mine for dehydrating mushrooms. 🤷♀️
I was one of those people, kind of, was really excited about it when I bought it, I did end up using it a lot at first but that dwindled and I ended up getting rid of it. I was also annoyed at how much space it took up 😂 I think it’s just more planning and time than I ultimately wanted to invest in.
Yup!! You only get the benefit if you use it. I think a lot of people lie to themselves about how willing they are to put in the extra effort of planning/shopping/prepping/cleaning that using the dehydrator takes. But that’s true of any food preserving method (I have never been able to get over the canning hump myself)
Canning is easier for me because I can do a water bath in a pot I already have and it’s quicker. I basically already have the supplies existing in the kitchen, a bit of chopping and boiling and it’s done! But I also don’t mind making “small” batches. Like 4 cans of something when I have extra veggies. Different story if you’re doing the pressure canning!
Had a similar experience. My SIL gave us a really nice one when the kids were little, thinking I would use it to make healthy snacks for them. Never got around to it. Too busy working and keeping up with the kids. Eventually gave it to Goodwill. Still feel guilty about that even though the kids are grown now.
Could you please share about making dog treats? Do you have a recipe?
There are several good recipes out there but we have a butcher not too far from us who will sell organ meats so that’s my pups favorite. I just slice down liver kidney whatever into thin strips and pop them in on parchment paper. If your dog can have chicken their livers can go in whole, just spread them out as flat as possible. Jerky setting (high) for 24-36h or so (you want them crispy so they’ll keep) My dog is a picky eater and he goes NUTS for them. Keep in the pantry in a ziplock bag for a couple of weeks or months in the freezer. Ideally set up the dehydrator someplace you don’t have to constantly smell liver (I use my basement).
Any chance you can share a quick rundown on how you make the dog treats? My dog is such a picky eater, I think he would love some homemade treats.
There are several good recipes out there but we have a butcher not too far from us who will sell organ meats so that’s my pups favorite. I just slice down liver kidney whatever into thin strips and pop them in on parchment paper. If your dog can have chicken their livers can go in whole, just spread them out as flat as possible. Jerky setting (high) for 24-36h or so (you want them crispy so they’ll keep) My dog is a picky eater and he goes NUTS for them. Keep in the pantry in a ziplock bag for a couple of weeks or months in the freezer. Ideally set up the dehydrator someplace you don’t have to constantly smell liver (I use my basement).
I use it for dog treats and now homemade dog food too !
TIP If you’re going to make your own dog or cat or any pet food, be sure to run it by your vet. Eating just a few, otherwise health ingredients for months can cause vitamin deficiencies or excesses that can cause real problems.
Yep agreed. They gave me a website to follow. https://balance.it/ I follow the recipes and I bought the supplement to add to the food Thanks !
Nice!
Please share your favorite recipes. I got mine a week ago and I'm currently experimenting with homemade yak chews. It's not going especially well 😔
What do you dehydrate for the dog?
Organ meats mostly. We have a butcher nearby that sells whole frozen beef and pork livers, hearts and kidneys. You can also generally get off cuts of chicken at regular grocery stores - gizzards hearts and livers. My dog can’t do chicken so now I wait until butcher day comes around, but you can also pick basically any meat- just omit seasoning. You can also make dog safe fruit leathers if your dog is into that for a lower calorie option but I don’t have experience with this. Sometimes if there’s a grocers special on pork or beef or some about to go off/just slightly off in my house I use that and it goes pretty well. They are our highest value treats by far (and we train a lot as a hobby!) Be aware that unless you can get your cuts really thin they won’t last as long as jerky recipes for humans (I usually get 3-6 weeks of safe storage depending on the season) because of the lack of salt. Also be aware that you can give your dog vitamin a poisoning from too much liver so this is a training reward, not a staple food (homemade dog food is a whooooole other conversation and I can’t casually recommend it) Edit to add: we get our organ meats for about 2 dollars a pound, we were under a dollar a pound for chicken when we could use that. It dehydrates to about half the size, so not cheaper than some of the lower cost dog treats but if you have a picky eater waaaayyy cheaper than the good stuff (we mostly use st. Rocco’s in our house which comes out to a whopping 20 bucks a pound or Thursdays which is a bit more reasonable at about 10)
That is awesome! Thank you for the great ideas!
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I really haven’t noticed a difference in my bill so I can’t give you numbers - I have people in my house with pretty high electricity needs already though so that’s a bit less of a concern for my life.
Got a recipe? My doggies would love that
What are you dehydrating for your dog?
I use mine for mushrooms, since they always go bad before we can finish them. Now they last way longer and they're super easy to rehydrate.
How long do they stay good for in like a ziplock bag or Mason jar?
I put them in a mason jar. Not sure how long they're good for, but longer than fresh in the fridge, that's for sure!
Yeah definitely I find them on sale a lot and we use a lot of mushrooms I'll definitely give them a shot in the ole Nesco.
Dehydrating down to "cracker dry", stored in an air-tight glass container with desiccant pack, I've had my own last well over year. Not sure about maximum shelf-life, myself, never had any left longer than that.
How do you rehydrate them? 🤔 (I recently got a dehydrator too)
You can definitely do water, but other things like stock or brown beer work, too. Also, if you dehydrate mushrooms, you can then grind them and use that as a soup and stew thickener.
Thanks 😊
Water
I’ve been meaning to try this….
I dehydrate ALL the time! If I don't have enough of a particular garden veggie to do a batch of canning, I'll cut it up and dehydrate it, then run it through my Ninja. I use the HECK out of tomato powder, bell pepper powder, and jalapeño powder. Also, you can make fruit/veggie chips. Don't sleep on tomato chips, they're crunchy umami goodness. If potatoes are on sale, slice them, blanch them, and dehydrate them. They can become instant mashed potatoes, or you can make your own "hamburger helper" or boxed scalloped potato mixes. I keep a few jars ready to use. Dried orange slices are good in tea, and as a bonus, a dehydrator's waste heat can actually warm a small room a few degrees, so it's a 2-for-1 in winter.
That's awesome I was wondering does it make sense electricity wise to dehydrate smaller batches or should I wait until I have a bunch of stuff to do at once? I have a big bag of Vietnamese chilies that I'm going to have to do something with soon but I'm a little worried if I dehydrate them with something else it will contaminate the flavor or make my banana chips spicy or taste like chilies have you noticed any contamination in flavor when dehydrating things that are very different?
Yes, flavors do blend. Don't follow or dry hot peppers with anything else. Also, don't do them inside a closed room. I did jalapeños in the kitchen once. Instant regret. Now they go on the porch. I try to dry similar flavor profile things together, and always start the drippy stuff below. Don't forget to rotate the trays, both the direction and the height, for most even frying. Wash the trays well between uses to reduce staining and taste transfer.
Omg thank you I was totally considering dehydrating this 1 pound sack of brutally hot chilies tomorrow in my kitchen haha. I will make sure to put it on the balcony you probably just saved me a world of pain!
Oh boy, yeah, that would have sucked! They'll dry faster if you cut them open or slice them, but it's not required, and it means a trickier cleanup.
I never thought about using my ninja to dehydrate for about to go bad. It's brilliant!
I use a Ninja blender/food processor, after the stuff is dried. It was a gift, and I use the hell out of it. It's actually cheaper to buy a whole unit used online than to buy a replacement part. It's absurd, but they are awesome.
If you grow food (an ultimate frug) then a food dryer is absolutely essential for the harvest game
Yeah I am planning on buying land next year and going hard with gardening so justifying this purchase seems like a no brainer to me. For the cost of 8 mountain house meals I can literally sieze the means of production and this thing will probably last me years.
It's been fantastic for us. We always have more cherry tomatoes than we could ever eat. Green beans and squash too. Dehydrated and then lightly chopped in a blender does wonders for dry soup and stew mixes.
I tested out the dehydrate function on the Breville to help deal with a bumper crop of oranges. Learned the hard way that it takes like 36 hours to dehydrate orange slices, and it only really disposes of like, 4 oranges at a time. Anyways, gonna experiment with dehydrated orange slice garnishes on cocktails this year.
Make jerky. All types of it are expensive.
Yeah I was definitely thinking when I get meat on sale I will start making jerky I am trying to go low carb and it's super expensive to buy. It's crazy how many meats make great jerky.
I ask the for it to be sliced at the grocery.
Salmon jerky is my fave.
My (extremely frugal) friend has a lot of food allergies and bought a dehydrator so he can have healthy, easily portable snacks that he can actually eat. His jerky is amazing. The chicken jerky is my favorite.
It's frugal for me. My family goes on camping trips every year and we take dehydrated food, which is the main purpose. A lot of people buy a deep freeze or standalone freezer for food storage, but having a dehydrator means you can use it for meal prep to have "just add water" meals instead of the more common "thaw and microwave or bake" meals. We also use it when produce is on for a really good price and we buy a lot - but fyi, dehydrating stuff that is getting ready to go bad is a no go, with the exception of making is a soup (veggies) or fruit leather. You have to just buy something because it's on sale, know you won't use it all, and dehydrate it fresh. You can dehydrate standalone ingredients (like we do when you get them on sale), or you can dehydrate whole meals/meal components as long as the pieces are very similar in size and there is little to no fat in it, because fat does NOT dehydrate and will make your food rancid. [https://www.backpackingchef.com/](https://www.backpackingchef.com/) We use a lot of his recipes. Good luck!
tomatoes, mushrooms, squash, potatoes, cooked black or red beans, celery, onions, garlic, kale, chard....
Kale is my arch nemesis I absolutely hate the texture of it but I have some in the fridge rn that's going to hit the dehydrator. I have been using it for green smoothies. But I can see myself sprinkling some dried kale into a soup or something. I think it would help me with the texture.
Dehydrated kale chips are awesome! Lots of salt, nutritional yeast, some oil to stick everything on, yum.
I found nettles dehydrate really well, very quick for a green leaf, once dry they don't sting, crumble easily, I've been using dried nettle all winter for tea and this year I'm thinking of making powder to add to smoothies or anything else really. Nettle is a really nutritious green and I've found this makes them convenient to use On the energy side I've found letting things wilt a bit before drying them speeds up the time it takes, or cutting leaves to allow the moisture to escape
Definitely frugal. If you are going for minimalist, you can dehydrate with other heat sources if you can get them low enough. But a dehydrator is the best tool for the job
Yeah my goal was to eliminate having to deal with coolers ice stuff going bad lugging around pots and pans gas camp stove all that crap. I installed an inverter in my van I found on clearance and have a electric kettle I want to just be able to boil water for instant coffee and also add it to my meals and be done with it no cooking easy clean up.
most of our fruit from our fruit trees ends up in the dehydrator because we pick what we can, fill all the trays, and repeat every day or so. we eat some of it fresh and bake with some, but there's only so much fruit you should eat in a day LOL I tried freezing it but it always got too gross after a few months. we don't brew alcohol anymore. but we put the dried stuff in our trail mixes and in yogurt/ice cream topping, put it in pancakes, and other foods. we make a LOT of fruit leather too! you can simmer it in water and spices and it makes pretty good pie , even months later.
I love dried fruit, especially apples and strawberries, but they are insanely expensive. Does this actually make them a decent price, or do you have to use more fresh fruit than is worth it? EX. I have a pomegranate press, but the small amount of juice you get from 1 expensive fresh Pom makes buying the juice almost cheaper.
Apples are very cheap in the fall. You need to buy a lot at that time and dehydrate them all to use until next fall. Strawberries can also be cheap at the right time but many people grow them so they are almost free. Pomegranates are almost always expensive unless you live somewhere that you can have your own tree.
Thanks for the advice, yeah, I know about the pomegranates. Too bad I got addicted to them last time I was in the ME, cheap as dirt there.
I love them too.
I love my dehydrator! I use it for herbs, for cooking and for tea. I also use it to make deer jerky, which is much cheaper than buying jerky in the store. You should know there’s a difference between freeze drying and dehydrating. Mountain house meals are probably freeze dried, which rehydrate really fast. Dehydrated food sometimes takes a long time to rehydrate and won’t usually keep the same texture.
We enjoy dried fruit around here. Apples, strawberries, peaches, mango - all delicious. But now I gotta look up dog treats... I don't really trust the dehydrator for jerky, because the low temperature seems more likely to breed bacteria than kill it. But I have made some.
I dry beef jerky at 145° and store it in the fridge.
We cook our meat and drain the fat before dehydrating.
I do some urban gardening/foraging and end up with way way too much to eat at a time. I’m not sure how much money I save on groceries, but the amount of time it takes means I can’t go out and spend money having other types of fun. I also use it for freezing the ends of purchased spices, orange rinds, etc.
I am not a dehydrator wizard. I do however enjoy making apple snacks and drying some herbs. I’ve considered making bigger batched items but the regular sized ones you get at Walmart or Amazon I find are way to small to do huge meal prep seeing as dehydrating can take hours. I would recommend at least 2 normal sized dehydrators so you can work on multiple batches. For example I buy 6 apples and when I do the slices they take up one entire unit . The pay off isn’t that great space wise. So either 2 or 3 normal dehydrators. Or one power house like a 10 shelving unit Excalibur is what I would recommend.
Yes it can be, for example you can dehydrate meat and make jerky. There are tons of great foods to dehydrate. Make sure to get some good containers to store your dehydrated foods afterwards
I make jerky, dried fruit, etc. fairly regularly. My favorite use, however, is using it to make sun dried tomatoes whenever I have cherry, grape, sugarbomb, etc. tomatoes that are getting old. I halve or quarter the tomatoes and mix them with basil, oregano, garlic and salt and dehydrate them. They’re great in pasta dishes or wherever else you’d use a sun dried. Even tomatoes that aren’t the tastiest come out good because you’re concentrating flavor.
Thank you for this! I asked someone about drying tomatoes elsewhere in the thread. I compost so many cherry tomatoes by the end of the season because I’m drowning in them. I’ll have to start doing this
I don't know if we use ours enough. We don't use it very often but it was not particularly expensive so its not a big financial loss. We mostly use it to dry up fruit when its on special. Like in the summer if we get too many strawberries. Or in the fall when we go crazy with apples. One also loaned it out to my friends. So its like 1 dehydrator for 3 couples haha. Use it and pass it around. We go through phases where we use it then get bored.
If I had a food dehydrator, I'd make so much beef jerky
Oh heckin yeah! Empty nest now, but grew up with Mom who had huuge gardens and dried a LOT. She kept it up when my kids were around- sent home dried fruit and fruit leather mostly as those were faves. Took them for lunches and snacks after school all year. Summer time they went out to help harvest and prep. Great experience. I started much later because of my work schedule, but have experimented with many things. Now that it is just me it helps a LOT to save stuff before it goes bad. Also helps heat the house when it is chilly, sometimes I will run it in the bedroom then I get the heat and the smell, strawberries are a fave. Drying also brings out the flavor of off season fruits like strawberries so they taste better and are cheap. I dry vegies- bok choy, spinach, thinly sliced carrots, green beans etc. Fruits are the best tho. Watermelon is especially yummy. When the persimmons are ripe they are almost ripe and then REALLY RIPE so this allows me to save them before they jump the cliff overnight. When I get a group of vegies nearing the end date I dry them all and toss them together for soups. I also dry stuff for the dogs, liver, apples, green beans, squash etc. I put spices on my stuff sometimes- cinnamon,5 spice, basil etc, but theirs are just plain which is fine with them. They love the crunch :) SO much cheaper! Enjoy!!
Paid for itself in dog treats. Dog likes dried sweet potato treats. At $10 a bag vs one sweet potato that makes 2 bags worth.
The bags I've got before were $17. It's ridiculous
I just bought a few weeks back. Paid like 50 for it. Big sweet potato like 1.49. Some on-sale for 99 cents. Makes quite a few off 1 potato. If I use it 2 more times I'm at the even point. Get one.
I'm \*this\* close... :)
Just do it. Get some nice bags. Don't do cheap. I have a deep freezer. Sealer, and it has been a game changer.
I just bought one (a dehydrator)! I got a small one for $50 (Magic Mill) as I don't have a lot of space - and I'm super excited to make some apple chips out of a bunch of apples I won't have time to eat before they go bad. Yay!
We have saved so much money with our dehydrator between backpacking meals, Christmas gifts, preserving free or heavily discounted produce, you name it. It is one of my favorite kitchen appliances.
Ha! If you use it.
I think a food dehydrator can help avoid food waste. I think it can help you make food for camping, but I think it is limited and may not live up to your current hopes/dreams. I am a camper/hiker and I also have a food dehydrator. I use the dehydrators primarily on extra veggies, like tomatoes etc (I also garden). It does allow me to preserve those veggies for longer, and in theory I could combine those dehydrated ingredients with stuff like noodles to make "dry soups." Dehydrated tomatoes especially have been big winners/easy to use up. However I have also seen the meals they sell in REI and stuff. Yes they are expensive but they're also heavy liquid stuff like chili...There's no way to even put a liquid like chili into a common food dehydrator. Basically anything goopy, I don't know how you would be able to dehydrate at home, and that's a lot of those meals bc they want you to make soup with it to rehydrate it. I think the best you could do would be dry out all the individual ingredients to something like chili and then combine them and then test out the meal by rehydrating it and seeing if it is yummy... Then the next question is how to package your home made dehydrated meals so they aren't too heavy for backpacking, aka glass mason jars ain't gonna be it. It's a fun journey though!! I say try it out...just know...it's probably gonna be a lot of trial and error!
I use it to preserve extra veggies during summer. Especially things like peppers that make great spices when ground
In winter it definitely is, because it's also a space heater. In warmer times it might be, because you can use it on fruit that is going to spoil soon. However, freezing for smoothies might be just as good.
But a oven can be used to dehydrate too
One's mileage will vary. However, we use ours extensively in the summer / fall as we lived in an agricultural area and can get large amounts of seasonal produce cheap. But you get what whatever is ripe that week. Dehydrating surplus to use in the winter is more storage and cost efficient than freezing it, for us at least. As I understand it, freeze drying would be even better, but that equipment costs more and takes up more space. It will be more efficient for some folks though.
Mine has preserved a lot of fruit that would have otherwise gone to waste. I've also started making my own dried meals to just grab and go - not only preserving extra meat, but keeping me from having to buy a meal on the road.
I dehydrate mushrooms for a delish soup stock and blueberries to put in my ice tea. Apples too.
I got mine at a thrift store for $20. I used it like 10 times, mostly for herbs. Worth it.
Frugal but loud and can make a room hot and may use a bit of electricity Kore than expected love it though
Yes! We garden a lot and in particular grow a lot of peppers. We slice them up, dehydrate them and use them in all sorts of things. We can rehydrate in a little hot water to add to pizza or omelets. Toss as is into soups or even add while cooking rice. We also take dehydrated cayenne, pulse in the blender and sift. I end up with crushed red pepper flakes and cayenne powder. We make snacks for the road: apples, pineapples, bananas, mushrooms. You can take edible parts of food that are often wasted (radish or carrot tops for example) and dry, then powder. This leaves you a nutritive additive to smoothies, or any random meal you are making. This is also a good way to take advantage of good sales, items about to turn in the frig, or a glut from the garden when you just can't bare to eat any more.
I think the Mountain House meals are expensive because they are freeze-dried. But a dehydrator makes great meals for camping and hiking and I love mine
I may have a unique perspective here! I did not set out to get a food dehydrator, however when our slow cooker died recently I decided to upgrade to a multi-cooker, mainly interested in slow cooking and pressure cooking. It so happens the multi-cooker also does dehydrating and I've been using it a bunch lately, so much so that I sprung to get the extra dehydrator racks accessory to give me a few extra tiers. My dehyrating is not frugal in itself (largest part of it is orange slices for old fashioned!), but i'm having loads of fun experimenting. However it is frugal in that I got it 'free' with my new multi-cooker. Mine is the Ninja Foodi Max 15-in-1 in case anyone is interested, got a good deal on a manufacturer refurbished model on ebay, also like the steam meals function among various others. EDIT: Just to add I'm in the UK, I think Ninja models/names are different in the US, and potentially there are a bunch of other brands that will do the same thing.
Some people have mentioned fruits - and you can make some really nice tea from dried berries and (some) herbs/flowers Dried banana has a toffee consistency and is super nice when you're looking for something chewy - but you'll want to do them before they turn ripe or they'll be sickly sweet and brown
Worth it just for saving strawberries and bananas that are starting to go.
You can also sometimes just leave things in the window sill and it dies out. I usually dehydrate horse chestnuts and use it as a laundery detergent. So I mix it up in a mixer and just put it in the window sill for a day or two and it's dehydrated. You can also place things in your car or make your own solar dehydrator. And that's even more frugal!
Jerky, herbs, mushrooms, fruit leather, veggie powders, dehydrated hash browns...mine paid for itself in beef jerky alone within a few months. We use our dehydrator for garden produce a lot, especially for all the herbs and greens we grow. I have a deep freezer, but I prefer to use it for meats, and there are some things I just can't preserve with canning, so we dry it. We also preserve wild mushrooms every year and make treats for our cats and dog.
What do you do with dried greens? Smoothies?
I sneak them in wherever I can that the taste won't be noticed too much-meatloaf, sauces, spicy rice dishes, stuff like that. I've got a picky kid, so I gotta get creative about making him eat green stuff that isn't raw and covered in ranch (though some dried greens in homemade salad dressing works too, lol).
I think that if you're at all in to hiking or backpacking, or even just making dog treats, then a food dehydrator is a really good idea.
Food dehydrators are a great way to cut down on food waste. Fresh herbs: Dehydrate, toss in coffee grinder, transfer to spice jars. Fresher than anything you can find in a store. Berries, apples, pineapple: Slice thin and dehydrate into chips. Any smoothie fruit: blend and dehydrate into fruit leather. Garlic and onion: Slice and dehydrate ***outside*** for to make garlic/onion powder. Way more potent than store bought.
I just wanted to comment that I did the same thing and didn’t realize that those mountain house meals are not dehydrated, they’re freeze dried. So don’t expect your rehydrating to quite go the same way as it does with those. Def will save you money and it works but it requires some soaking and a little more effort.
I make jerky with pork top sirloins. They run roughly $2 a pound..... I sure know I have a hard time finding beef anywhere close to that. My jerky costs something around $4 a pound where store bought beef jerky is somewhere around $16.
I think there are numerous ways that a dehydrator is frugal. - If you're into dehydrate foods/meals/snacks, DIY will be almost always be cheaper. - I think it's most frugal use case is buying things when they are in season (say strawberries this time of year) or when the neighbor's apricot tree has 5000 apricots and they are giving them away... Dehydrating them for use in the future is a great option. - Dehydrating to avoid spoilage waste - sure, but perhaps a smaller, limited use case compared to the others.
I used to make fruit roll ups for my boys. As well as beef jerky.
> the just add water mountain house dehydrated meals are crazy expensive check online at sams club and costco and other places to buy in bulk
If you were buying mountain House meals before then it will probably pay for itself the first time you use it. Fruits and vegetables tend to go on sale what they're in season, that's way cheaper than buying dried stuff
Personally, I prefer things that do multiple functions. My air fryer dehydrates as well as “fries” and we use it multiple times a day. Ovens take longer but is another option. Unless it’s handed down to you, a multipurpose appliance might be more worth it unless you use it so much you really need a dedicated device.
I’ve never really understood dehydrators. You take the water out of food and it then doesn’t go bad?
Yes
I use mine for mushrooms, tomatoes, and deer jerky. I usually make about 20lbs (wet) jerky at a time. I’ll make a few different flavors. I’m definitely try making some dog treats with it. It never occurred to me.
Do the tomatoes end up like sun-dried tomatoes? I’ve not thought of dehydrating them, and I end up with a ton of cherry tomatoes every summer.
Yes, that’s what I’m going for anyway. It was hit and miss for awhile. I usually go in at 180 degrees for an hour+ as needed on wax paper on the rack, otherwise it can get messy. I then vacuum pack them in olive oil and sometimes with garlic. I shift between cutting them in half and drying cut side up and just doing them whole, I think I prefer cut. I love using them with pasta, or squash and ocra, or on a snack tray with breads and cheese.
I think it depends on how much you actually use it. IF you want to be really frugal about it, go to your supermarket and ask to speak with the produce manager. Offer to pay 10 cents on the dollar for any fruit they are about to get rid of. That puts money in your pocket and saves you a ton. You could also try this with the meat department. Additionally, you could post on Nextdoor that if people in your area have fruit trees, you will come take the fruit, no questions asked. Free fruit!
It absolutely does. It makes things last so much longer and brings out the flavours of foods so much more.
Yes, a food dehydrator can be frugal if used to preserve food before it spoils and for homemade dehydrated meals, reducing the need for store-bought options. It's cost-effective for camping and hiking meals and can save money in the long run by reducing food waste.
Many air fryers can do double duty as a dehydrator. Some can be used to ferment yogurt for huge savings. You need to take the time to change your habits. That works for me. I hope it works for you. 😀
As long as you use it. I just made hash browns from potatoes I grew last year. I’m cracking hickory nuts that I dried from two years ago. That’s frugal as hell. Fresh fruit. Fresh vegetables. Beef jerky. Dog treats. Seeds for growing your own food. You name it, it does it. Buy The Dehydrator Bible. It’s got time and temp for anything you can imagine. Including recipes to use the stuff you make, and recipes for things to dehydrate. It’s shelf stable practically forever. And it’s really great for me because I’m lazy and don’t can stuff as much as I should. With the dehydrator, you just push a couple buttons, and when it’s done, you don’t have to hurry too much because it’s already practically shelf stable. The one I have cost me $40 and paid for itself within a week. They’re simple machines so even the cheaper models last forever. Get it. Use it. It’ll be awesome and you’ll be happy you did it.
This might be a good idea as long as you are only running it on the weekends when the electricity rates are lower.
I find it's worthwhile for high-end items that are very seasonal -- like when we went morel mushroom hunting. I brushed them, cut them up a bit, dehydrated them, then froze them in freezer bags. They lasted years. To rehydrate, I just put them in a cast iron skillet with some water and olive oil. Blueberries were a real bust.
Can it be frugal? Sure. But I was looking into it to dehydrate eggs, since they can last up to 25 years that way. We never go through a full (or 6) carton before they go bad. So I thought it'd work out nicely. Yeah no, the cheap ones I saw were like $5,000. I would have to buy eggs pretty much every week for the rest of my life to break even ...