Our 3 year old loves “that’s it.” Bars we have yet to create anything similar. Any suggestions or recipes?

Still somewhat gummy? Dried to a crisp? Somewhere in between?

Bonus thank you's for dehydrating times/temps as I am new to this game.

I plan to make the pesto within a day or two of dehydrating, and either use it immediately or freeze it, so I'm not worried about long-term storage of the tomatoes in dehydrated-whole form.

Thank you very much.

I would like to dehydrate ground beef to make it shelf stable for months not days. I have been doing a lot of reading for the past month. My dehydrator delivered late yesterday evening (Cosori Mini 5-tray) and I have a book (The Beginner's Guide to Dehydrating Food by Teresa Marrone) that delivers tomorrow. I know the ground beef needs to start out lean and to mix the bread crumbs/oat flour into the mixture. I know everyone calls for it to be cooked in a skillet and then the fat drained off. I want to know if I can pressure cook the meat in my Instant Pot on a high trivet so the fat drains off while it cooks? I often cook meats on mesh pizza pans that fit inside my Instant Pot. And it comes out far less fatty than when cooked any other way. Has anyone used an Instant Pot to cook their ground beef like this? Did it cook out most of the fats?

Were you able to make simple chicken (or turkey, I’ve used lean breast) to a texture like “cracker crunchy”?

When I tried sometimes I got it more like “glass crunchy” (like really hard and almost breaking in shards) and other times more like “very hard spongy”.

Got my dehydrator about 1,5 months ago and fill all 6 trays up once or twice a week. I try to aim for crispy snacks mostly, but haven't got the desired results for all vegetables and fruits yet..

Recipe I use for most foods: Peel, wash and cut thinly using a mandolin, dip in vinegar and salt bath and put in the dehydrator at 40C (104F) for around 14 hrs.

Results:

• Cucumber - Pretty crispy, but very hard to remove from the tray..
• zucchini - Pretty crispy, but very hard to remove from the tray..
• Strawberry - Relatively crispy, and so so good, but has long prep time due to cutting them up.
• Sweet potatoe - Chewy, tastes very good, but i would like it more crispy
• Kiwi - Chewy, tastes very good, but i would like it more crispy
• Bell pepper - Chewy, tastes very good, but i would like it more crispy, ideally for grinding up and using as spices.
• Banana - Very chewy and sticky, tastes very good. Probably can't get cripsier because of the fat contents?

Any more vegetable or fruit ideas for crispy snacks, or tips on how to make tjem more crispy, are more than welcome!

https://preview.redd.it/sgbzp2aczrzc1.jpg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2ec5d696483810f68a6965babb50d0d9fc55b4cf

What do you think? Is the machine you are using metal or plastic? Good to know more! TYI.

Best one and most affordable 😅 ☺️ Thanks

I have way too many zucchinis and figured they might make a nice snack.

Will be purchasing a dehydrator soon & was curious if you can add Greek yogurt to the mix?

Is there any taste difference between the two? I know it definitely affects shelf life but e.g. I love tru fruit - would a dehydrator give me a similar taste experience or should I save up for a freeze dryer?

I’ve had a Nesco with 8 shelves for awhile now and like making my own jerky. I find that the normal 5lbs of ground meat that the premade seasoning packets are made for fits on the trays about perfectly. But the Nesco seems to dry jerky unevenly, even when I rotate the trays (top to bottom) and of course they aren’t as easy to fit in the dishwasher. For those who have tried both kinds, would you say getting an oven style machine (Corsi, Excalibur etc.) will be an improvement in time it takes, not having to rearrange shelves every few hours, and easier to clean?

Hi, I recently bought a Ninja Foodi MAX 14-in-1 SmartLid Multi Cooker. It has a dehydration setting. I'm a vegetarian that doesn't go backpacking but I'm interested in turning vegetable scraps into soup stock.

So good people of this sub. Does anyone have any experience with this machine and do you think it would be fit for my purposes?

I’m trying to decide on a dehydrator. I’ve heard great things about the Excalibur dehydrators but I’m not sure which model to get. They have the new 10 tray ones that are stainless steel with glass door and are 800 watts for similar prices as the older model 9 tray ones. Seems odd. The older 9 tray models seem to be tried and true though. I was leaning toward the 3926TB model but would love to hear from anyone who has any of these model to see what you would recommend. I’ve also looked at samsons stainless steel 1000 watt “silent” dehydrator. Looks great and similar price range as well but I’m not sure of the quality. Anyone have experience with it?

Has anyone tried this before? I know tofu jerky is popular, I've had it and liked it. But tofu is somewhat expensive where I live so I often make chickpea tofu, which turns out sort of like a silken tofu. Has anyone tried dehydrating it before? I'm not sure if it would work since the texture is different than the firm soy tofu I usually see used.