New gadget - the dehydrator!

I guess I will be proving someones idea of men in the kitchen when I say that I do like new kitchen gadgets. I have already received harsh remarks for having a sous vide machine when the same effect can be achieved with the oven set to a low temperature, which by the way is NOT true. Note to self: document that in a future post.

Anyway, It turned out that I had birthday this year as well, and my wife, knowing me quite well by now, got me a dehydrator. A dehydrator is a box with a number of trays in it, a controllable heat source and a fan to move the air around. Again, like an oven, then. So, could I just use an oven? Well, first of all it may not be possible to set the oven to a low enough temperature, especially for fruit and vegetables that require rather low temps in order to not be cooked in stead of dried. Also, you will need an oven with good ventilation and a fan. The oven will also be less effective in terms of cost since it uses much more power than the dehydrator, and the process will take many hours. But for some items I guess you could use it, though.

My first dehydration project was bananas. I just chopped up a banana and placed the slices on the trays, set the temperature to 57 degrees Celsius. After about 8 hours I had a nice bunch of banana chips. They were not as crunchy as the ones you can buy, though. I will have to experiment more with that!

My next project will be tomatoes. I love dried tomatoes. How good can I make them at home?