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Dehydrated Foods

crimsonfancy

Hello friends. First time with a new topic here and I'd like some input if you'd be compelled.

First some background:
I am chef for a property in South Louisiana that offers guided bird hunting and "Field To Table" style events. We have two farms, and provide product to many restaurant clients in the New Orleans area. One of our farms produces quality duckling and pork, and the other provides specialty produce on 70 acres. We grow what our clients request and require- in great variety. On the same property are chanterelles and any given day after rain, I can avoid the horse flies and mosquitoes to quickly grab up 20#.
I possess a few neat tools including an immersion circulator, Vitamix, pellet smoker, outdoor propane fryer, lots of smallware, but otherwise a small kitchen with older gear and minimum refrigeration/freezer space. Even with very little staff and one skilled full time employee in the kitchen with me, we get to play and learn with something new every day.

I've been challenged by the farm with a few tasks, and in order to fulfill the needs of managing our harvest for additional revenue, I'll need to purchase a quality food dehydrator.
I need to maximize what I can do with this new tool.

Given the information I've provided, would any of you guys be interested in contributing suggestions to get the most of this dehydrator? Your progressive technique and attention to detail is precisely the reason I'm asking here in this forum. I appreciate your help and I hope I'm posting in the right place at the right time.

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Comments

Chris_Young_80640

Hmmm, lot's of possibilities here. Can you provide any specifics on what kinds of foods would be valuable for you to dehydrate?

crimsonfancy

I guess I have a pretty open market. We have a solid brand and folks are pretty open to trying whatever we offer. We can sell it to restaurants or we can sell it retail through a few different outlets.
Anything we grow (mostly heirloom), and especially what we have in excess, would be ideal. We have an abundance of heirloom tomatoes right now (hundreds of pounds) and this is the reason I'll buy the dehydrator to begin with.
If you can imagine our operation, we grow whatever we can beginning with what the restaurants ask of us. These are the top restaurants in New Orleans.
For instance, at least 10 tomato varieties but it doesn't stop there. We have great "assortment" in our fields.

Thank you for responding, Chris!

Chris_Young_80640

Well, I'm a huge fan of the so-called sun dried tomatoes we made at The Fat Duck.

The secret was that we didn't dry them too fast or too far. Slice each tomato in half, remove the jelly, two thin slices of garlic clove, a sprig of thyme, a ribbon of bay leaf on each half, drizzle with olive oil, and dry at 110 °C / 230 °F until they have collapsed, are pliable, but tacky rather than dry to the touch. Yes, it's more labor intensive to place the seasoning on each tomato half individually, but it's far more consistent than scattering the herbs over the tomatoes and letting them land how they may.

crimsonfancy

I planned to purchase an Excalibur and the thermostat will top at 165 º F.
Will the one you use from Cabelas get any higher in temp? I don't see a range in the description on their website.

Simon_Andreas_Petutschnig_34596

We dry our tomatoes in the oven!

Chris_Young_80640

You'll have no problem dehydrating the tomatoes at 165 °F, it will just take a bit longer, but the result actually might be better.

crimsonfancy

I've also dried em in the oven but with what (ovens) I'm working with now, and with my need to produce an absolute consistent product for retail, the dehydrator is my best bet.

So, what else would you guys utilize a dehydrator for? We have two seasons of tomatoes here in South Louisiana and obviously Spring/Summer is the greatest bounty; Fall harvest last year was tough.
We're harvesting several varieties of warm weather squash, okras, blueberries, figs, cucs/ gherkins, corn, eggplant, peppers, a few more weeks of chanterelles (I hope,) etc... Several varieties of each.

I should've mentioned that I also possess a chamber vac machine...compressed and then dried make sense to anyone? Any suggestions?

I don't mean to wear out my welcome (so to speak) and I really appreciate your input. It motivates me to bounce ideas around with you guys. Thanks so much for your help, Chris.

Chris_Young_80640

Compressed and dried often yields a very different texture. For example, you might vacuum infuse cucumbers in a tart pickling brine and then dehydrate them until they're pliable. Very different texture than your traditional pickle.

Sumit__65166

i'm not sure but i don't see why you can't make yoghurt at 35c in dehydrator.
@chris this should work, correct?

if you've 'on food and cooking' by harold mcghee you should read information on yoghurt making.

here's how i make probiotic yoghurt but i use incubator. i use cheese (35c) settings instead of youghurt (45c).

- heat the milk in sous vide at 85c for 40-45min. in the book he recommends 85c for 30mins or 90c for 10mins. i've added 10-15min for extra buffer.
- remove and chilll, and add culture and abc probiotic at 45c or as suggested.
- incubate at 35c for 18-20hrs in dehydrator. you can set the yoghurt much before that, and at higher temperature. depends on how tangy you like your yoghurt to be. however, personally i didn't like the taste or texture of youghurt at higher temperature.

i use commercial cultures and they can stay in freezer for up to an yr. there are few varieties out there for yoghurt cultures.

crimsonfancy

Yogurt absolutely!
Thanks for your input, Sumit.
I can get some raw goat's milk from the farm and I'm already imagining where I can go with this one.

Great community here, guys and I'm so glad to be part of it. Thank you so much.

marcelo_mintz_68159

the tomatoes i done when i worked at hotel Bristol in Paris ,with Chef Eric Frechon where similar,we called ,tomatoes confit,and they where skinless and divided in 4 and without jelly/seeds,a litlle salt,touch of sugar,sliced garlic and leaves of thyme and dehydrated at 80 celsius

marcelo_mintz_68159

pictures of the tomatoes

Sumit__65166

i make chevre cheese with goats milk. never made it with raw milk but i'm going try it this weekend.

KitchenNinja_68341

Marc, I make onion glass recipe Is from "ideas in food" website aki and Alex. Basics onions, glucose, salt cooked puréed dehydrated for 3 hrs stored and I use it as in book with espresso'd watermelon

crimsonfancy

I'll look it up right now. Thanks for your input!