Have you been thinking about buying a food dehydrator but aren’t sure if it will be beneficial? Here are some benefits of dehydrating food as well as some ideas for what you can put in a dehydrator.
What is a Food Dehydrator?
First of all, let’s go over what exactly a food dehydrator is. This is a type of appliance you can keep in your kitchen that dehydrates food.
What does that mean? It is going to dry your foods over a long period of time at a very low temperature, which helps to boost the flavor and nutrients of those foods.
They will then store for much longer than if they were in their natural form with all that moisture. From dried fruits to jerky or banana chips, dehydrating food turns it into a handy snack that is perfect for food preservation.
What are the Benefits of Dehydrating Food?
Why get a food dehydrator? There are actually many benefits of a food dehydrator that you might not have considered yet. The first and most obvious benefit is that you get the foods you really enjoy eating. Maybe you aren’t a big steak eater, but you love beef jerky.
The food dehydrator allows you to make your own dehydrated beef jerky right at home. You save money and get to experiment with different flavor combinations. So there’s no doubt that it’s really a useful equipment and it doesn’t just dry out your food.
Food preservation is one of the big benefits of dehydrating food. You might not always use your fruit before it goes bad and has to be thrown away, giving you 3 options: can the fruit, freeze it, or dehydrate it to be used as snacks.
Dehydrating food is also going to intensify the flavors, since the moisture is removed all that is left is the natural flavors of the foods.
What Types of Foods Can Be Dehydrated?
There is a wide range of them but here are the perfect choice of foods to dehydrate:
- Fruits like mango, dates, apples, bananas, and berries are the best fruits to dehydrate. You can turn them into small pieces of fruits, fruit leather, or make chips from them.
- Meats for jerky snacks, such as beef jerky or turkey jerky.
- Herbs if you want to have dried herbs from your own fresh herbs, in order to help them last longer and not go to waste.
How Does a Dehydrator Work?
The good news is that food dehydrators come with simple instructions, so it is easy to get started and dehydrate your food. However, to give you an idea about how it works, here’s a quick overview:
With its heat source and airflow, a food dehydrator decreases the water content of foods. Reducing moisture in food can extend its shelf life without compromising its quality or taste. Once you get the hang of using it, you can experiment with different varieties to see what handy snacks you can come up with!