I love my Excalibur too, but I hear you about the price.
For most things (dried veggies and fruit, fruit leather) you should be fine storing in glass jars, good airtight tupperware, even ziplocs, for a few months. If you are doing meats and whole meals, then without a vacuum packer I would go with the freezer option.
Chef Glenn's site is a great resource, especially for ideas about dehydrating whole meals: www.backpackingchef.com.
I love my excaliber. But eitherway look for deals giving extra fruit rings. Your gonna want more than one of those.
I'm getting ready to pull the order button on this 700 watt unit http://www.amazon.com/Nesco-FD-75PR-...6321932&sr=8-1 I've heard a lot of good things about it, and the one I currently have will only do fruit since it doesn't get hot enough. I was going to order the Nesco 700 watt square unit as it was a little less expensive, but it seems supplies for it are more difficult to find.
Nesco is great (Period)
There was an Old Man with a owl,
Who continued to bother and howl;
He sat on a rail, And imbibed bitter ale,
Which refreshed that Old Man and his owl.WOO
I bought a Nesco "American Harvest" model from Walmart a couple of years ago for less than $50. I added a couple of fruit trays and mesh tray liners and I can dehydrate anything in that. I've totally stopped buying pre-packaged dehydrated food thats always loaded with salt!
Mike
"Life is a Project!"
Had a nesco for at least ten years until it died a couple of months ago. It had pretty heavy use drying veggies from my garden over the years. We did a lot of dried peppers, tomatoes, mint, parsley, apples, and so on. I figure at $50.00, even if I have to get one every ten years, that that means I would need the $300.00 dehydrator to last 60 years. At 58 I just don't have the time...
Originally Posted by tropicalpine
[/QUOTE]I picked a 9-tray Excalibur Dehydrator based on reading about a bazillion reviews on various units. The Excalibur consistently did well and I haven't had problem one with it, other than finding counter space without making the GF get angry.
What I gleaned from my reading was that the most important thing is that the unit have a fan and heat source. It helps aid in even dehydrating of the food and speeds things up a little bit too. Sorry I'm not more help, but I got lucky and found what I wanted on my first try.
We've had an Excaliber for 12 yrs and it is wonderful. Ziplocks in the freezer work fine. +1 on Chef Glen's site. His info helped us move beyond fruit leather and jerky.
I pulled the trigger on the square one on Tuesday and it gets here today
I picked it over the round one because of all the reviews that say the square trays waste less room.
Yea...that's the other reason why I really wanted the square one, but where are you getting your additional fruit liners and trays...especially the fruit liners?I pulled the trigger on the square one on Tuesday and it gets here today
I picked it over the round one because of all the reviews that say the square trays waste less room.
Does anyone know if there is a way of making fruit liners? Would those flexible, thin cutting boards work, or wax paper?
i don't think you would want to use wax paper, parchment paper is pry what you would want to use
The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us. ~Bill Watterson
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