Dehydrator

I am considering purchasing a dehydrator, mainly out of the motivation from paging through recipes in the _Alinea_ cookbook... seems like almost every other recipe involves a dehydrating step. I know that some dehydrating can be completed in a microwave or low oven, but, especially for the low oven, I'm unwilling to use that much energy for a process that is less efficient there. The microwave doesn't work in all applications either.

I'm currently looking at the Excalibur brand, and saw the 5 vs. 9 row units. WOW THESE UNITS ARE HUGE, they have a big footprint when it comes to square footage.

I have to be careful with kitchen space, so I'm curious about the various applications and other uses where people have used dehydrators? Is a 9-row unit overkill compared to a 5-row one? I have seen ideas where the units are used for varying purposes like proofing bread dough and for making yogurt, any other ideas here? I have my wife and a two young sons, so I'm curious what else I might get out of this unit to justify the cost and square footage.

Cheers!

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Comments

medejesus

Amazon has a 4 tray excalibur for I think $60 I haven't played with it much (I'm moving) but it's a good size comparatively

benawilson

I have a 5 row Excalibur dehydrator and it works OK. I have mostly used it for drying chili peppers that I've smoked for a few hours. I now keep and use it in the basement for a few reasons:

1. limited counter space

2. noise - it's not super loud, but you can hear the fan, like an old PC with a maybe-dying fan.

3. Drying hot peppers in it essentially pepper sprays your whole house.

for my purposes, where I'm powdering the peppers after I dry them, I'm always surprised at how little powder results from a full 5 tray load. Were I to do it again, I'd probably get a bigger one.

reck.harm

I have the 4 row excalibur, though i paid about twice, what it costs in the states. That's what you get for living in europe i guess. Anyways, the unit fits nicely on my sideboard, the trays are about 12"x12" pretty much the same size as a vinyl LP. For most modernist applications that should be fine, but for things like beef jerky or for traditional preservation uses i wouldn't mind a bigger one. Ideally it would have the same footprint, but 6 or even 8 rows. As for noise it isn't much louder than the fan on my oven, when i close the kitchen door i can easily dry stuff over night without it bothering me.

tshewman

I have the l'quip and am pleased with it and have used it for a number of Alinea dishes. FWIW. It was much less expensive than the Excalibur and had good reviews. Don't think you could go wrong with either.

lfmichaud

I have an Excalibur and I've also used it to make black garlic and shallots. But it need to be in a place where the noise won't disturb you!