@yuki.garrett Apart from dehydrating mango wedges which are delicious, if you get the Excalibur consider buying some silicon sheets too. You could then pulp the mangoes into a paste and spread it onto the silicon sheets. Once dehydrated, you have fruit rolls or cut it into strips to make fruit straps. Both are easier to store than the whole mangoes.
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I have used food dehydrators for many years. They helped me reduce my load when long distance bushwalking. One member of our group used hers extensively for her childrens school food preparation. She dehydrated fresh fruit and spiced beef strips for the childrens lunches.
The product was from EziDry.
It is circular and additional levels can be added along with a variety of filters for the food placement,
I purchased three levels with the dryer enabling me to create dishes to be placed in zip lock bags for up to ten days.
It took 12 hours to do a full load which including most food types with the exception of fish which I had no success with.
One heat setting meant removing some foods earlier. With a little practice stone fruits, strawberries, apples, vegies were an absolute luxury in the bush. Beef jerky was great on walks for energy and most of my meals were mince based so there was a lot of food preparation during the week before a journey.
Downside was the gorgeous smells drove the dogs mad.
Iāve had five to date, gave two of them to friends to start them off in dehydrating, one ended up being used for spares for another, and the other two I still have and use regularly.
They were stuff like Eurolab, Sunbeam (or something like that) and various no name brands, none cost me over seventy dollars. Two were actually opp shop buys but one was a brand new no name that was still sealed in its packaging, and was selling at that time for around $39 on Dealsdirect.
Iāve had no problems with any of them. You have to aim to not scorch the foods you dehydrate so most of the preset temperature ones stay below 50C, and any adjustable ones Iāve always found it better to keep below 50C too, Just slice food to the proper thinness so that it will dry properly, and let it go for three days if it needs it. If something doesnāt dehydrate properly Iāve found that itās always the preparation I did wrong. Also, dehydrators arenāt some magic āinstant productā generators, dehydrating takes timeā¦
Herbs and leafy things may dry in as little as six hours, whereas sliced banana chips can take two or three days. Both are wayyy more tasty than the shop bought versions, and generally much cheaper when you make them yourself. The electricity the units use can vary, but weāve found that we generally absorb the rather trivial cost in our general energy bill.
One last warning I have to give, with meats for jerky etc itās important to get ALL through the meat heated up to at least 165C for a few minutes so you should always start these things off in the oven to get the temperature over that for five minutes, then put them in the dehydrator for the slow drying out process.
There are dehydrating groups on Facebook and blogs on the Internet that give you tips, and some even review different dehydrators. But the upshot is that a small dehydrator doesnāt need to be expensive, is simple to use, and you can make delicious and nutritious foods with them.
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