Dehydrator uses/ideas thread

So I just finally got around to spending my christmas gift cards and ended up with a new dehydrator. What are the favorite uses for this gadget and what kind of cool modern things can I do with it?

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Brandon_Byrd_40557

Curious about this myself. Apart from jerky, herbs, and fruit leather I don't know of too many things to do with a dehydrator. One thing that I would be interested in using one for is for dehydrating methylcellulose foams. I've eaten these out at restaurants a couple times and it's always been interesting. I enjoyed an edible apple mojito cocktail that was served on a methocel foam "bread" with a boozy-mint gel filling (agar? I'm not sure how they pulled off that trick). Here's an example of a beetroot foam from Jose Andres.

Brendan_Lee_56950

I was thinking about trying to make some flavored salts for finishing dishes. Lemon salt, orange salt, lime salt, dill pickle salt, sriracha salt, and maybe some different wine salts.

jason.r.whitworth

Saison in San fran does a dish called brassicas where they dehydrate greens...

Brendan_Lee_56950

That's really cool, I bet it is a very cool texture for a salad experience.

Nicky_J_17040

Chicharones.

We used to dry the skin of trout, and then fry it, It would puff up into little chicharones.

I don't know if the same technique could be applied to rice, or other grains. This way you can make crispy rice puffs. Obviously the rice would have to be cooked first.

Brendan_Lee_56950

Yeah I think there is some of this in the MC books, overcook the shit out of some rice, hit it with the stick blender and then onto parchment and dehydrate and fry.

tshewman

Is on my "list" of things to get. List is numerous. Recently did steel oats crisps in open oven (to get temp close to correct) and had to get up at 2am to finish them. Quinoa crackers/crisps. So many things I think I could do with it. Just need to prioritize. If you get a decent one, I suspect you won't run out of ideas (kinda like the chamber vac and immersion circulator).JMHO

com-chefsteps

Aren't some of the "food glass" techniques dehydrated? I can't remember.

FrankM_3301

@Ted Ideas in Food onion glass is dehydrated.

Brian_Consumer_36431

@Ted Alinea 'glass' is pectin set and then dehydrated as well. Dehydrated meringues made with Egg White Powder are also pretty cool, texture is so light they basically disappear in your mouth sort of like Cotton Candy.