Dehydrating is a good idea to preserve food as it inhibits the growth of microorganisms and decay, and increase the storage life of the food as well. The process may cause very minimal loss of nutrients if done properly, you can still retain about 90% of the vitamins and minerals of the foods with the right amount of heat. As to perform proper dehydrating you can use Nesco/American Harvest FD-80 Square-Shaped Dehydrator, which brand is claimed to be the best food dehydrator in the world.
This great dehydrator works brilliantly for making jerky, drying fruits like kiwi, strawberries, grapes, limes, oranges, banana, and even watermelon. The unit comes with 4 trays, which can be added by purchasing the separated Add-a-tray consists of two trays per-package. If you wish to use the first 4 trays together with the additional trays, the dehydrating process will still work fine without needing to rotate the trays.
If you wish to clean the unit, the trays are top shelf dishwasher safe; but this actually depends on the size of your dishwasher. Some dishwashers can only hold two trays per load but if you take the top rack out of the dishwasher and stand the trays vertically in the lower rack, you can put up to eight trays including the base into the dishwasher at once. Make sure you turn off any internal water heating and the heated drying of the dishwasher when washing your dehydrator. Simply run your dishwasher, let it wash and wait until it stops, then take out the trays and shake them off. Stack them all and put on the power head and run it at 125 degree Fahrenheit for 30 minutes. You will have your unit all nice, clean and dry.
Several things you need to know for Nesco Nesco American Harvest FD-80
There are things you must note when preparing fruits with Nesco American Harvest FD-80. You will need to use Clean Screens which is $8.00/pair, as for 8 trays you will need four pairs of them. However, rather than spending $32, as an alternative you can buy 16 sheets of plastic embroidery mesh in local craft store. Each sheet is 14-inch x 10-inch and has 7 square-meshes, and for those 16 sheets you only need to spend $5.28, plus making extra efforts to cut them out. Take two sheets for each tray and cut them out according to the size of the tray, put them together butted up on the long side then cut the perimeter to fit the tray and cut out the whole for the center and lay the two pieces into the tray. This will make the trays easier to clean if you prepare fruits like kiwi and bananas with the dehydrator, because the plastic will catch the drips from the fruits. You dont need making this paper/plastic layer for cantaloupe though.
Nesco/American Harvest FD-80 is better than other round dehydrators which have drying unit on the bottom. This model has the drying unit on the top that no more liquid shall drip down onto the operational part of the unit. The square design of the tray even allows you to get more food on each tray compared with the round one. Another advantage of this dehydrator is that it works quieter than other similar units. You can dry tomatoes, carrots and herbs with no problem at all.
For a lot of dehydrating, I actually have another product to recommend that is, the Excalibur 3900. I find this one works more efficiently compared to the Nesco Square-Shaped Dehydrator. It has fan that blows the air across the trays instead of vertically through all the trays and the wet food, different with the fan of Nesco which is on the top and free from any drips. However, the Excalibur is noisier than Nesco so if you dont like the noise issue perhaps Nesco is the right unit for you. But if you think efficiency is more important that you can dehydrate a lot of food, then go for Excalibur which is available for over $200.00 via Amazon. Click here for more reviews of Excalibur 3900.
As a matter of price, Nesco/American Harvest FD-80 is much more affordable than Excalibur. You can get this square shape unit for $60.54 on Amazon, including a one-year limited warranty. The unique air-circulation system with a top-mounted fan and the patented Converga-Flow Action allows speedy results as well as uniformity on your food so they will dry evenly without needing to rotate the trays around during operation. You can adjust the heat of this 700 watt powered motor system from 95 degrees to 155 degrees Fahrenheit to accommodate appropriate drying temperatures. It has a bale handle for removing the power head, dishwasher-safe parts, and an easy to understand instruction manual to get started with.
Those who have experienced drying slices of fruit, vegetables, herbs, flowers, granola, or strips of jerky with Nesco Square-Shaped Dehydrator will simply recommend the item for you. Read what other users said about the unit here.
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