dehydrating Newbie

I just bought a dehydrator and I was wondering. Can you over dry your food i have read many post on here but I didn't see this answer. I have never used a dehydrator we always used freeze dried or dehydrated food for are tips (that where bought online)

oh by the way I did buy a book Backpack Gourmet but I didn't see it in there either.



thanks for the help

Try Sarbar's website for lots of ideas on dehydrating your food.

Overdrying is mainly a problem with a few things like dried fruit which you want to eat in its dried state. You therefore want them dried to chewy consistency, not hard. For most items you want all the moisture out. Of course significantly overdrying your food will destroy some of the nutrients.

Experiment by drying just a small amount of each dish at first and rehydrate it for taste testing at home. The one time I didn't do that, I ended up cooking a chicken casserole with peas until the rest of the casserole was mush, but the peas were still the consistency of buckshot. Corn may have the same problem. Most other veggies, if cut in very small pieces, will dehyrdate OK, but I generally buy the freeze-dried "Just Tomatoes" dried veggies and add them after the rest of the meal has been dehydrated.

thsnk you, we just bought that book she has, off of amazon it comes in tommarrow. right know were trying and i mean trying to make fruit rolls.

thanks again for the help.