Food Dehydrator

[chiwolvesfan]

Does anyone here use one of these to make chicken, beef or salmon jerky for their Newf? With all scare re: products coming out of China, and most of the chicken jerky seeming to come from there, I have considered starting to make some of my own.

If you have a dehydrator, do you like it? What brand do you have? Would you recommend it? Any good recipes?

Thanks for your help!
Cathy

 

[eckybay]

I have a cheap one, forget what brand it is...and things take a *long* time to dry. I'm mainly done fruits and veggies. I know people with the more high powered commercial type of dehydrators and they work a lot better.

 

[Lisa@Caeles Hills]

I have the old Ronco type, and it takes days with uneven drying. I was just looking up Convection Ovens for my mom though, because her microwave died, and they claim to do dehydrating very fast so I thought I might try one myself. They are around $70.00. Apparently they work like an oven except the hot air gets blown around the food with fans.

 

[MMtnmom]

hmmm. my wall oven is a convection oven as well...if I put it on low heat...would that jerkify stuff. I want to make chicken jerky and dried sweet potato slabs like Sams Yams.

 

[sokkia]

hmmm. my wall oven is a convection oven as well...if I put it on low heat...would that jerkify stuff. I want to make chicken jerky and dried sweet potato slabs like Sams Yams.

Thanks for the giggle "jerkify stuff"

 

[Lisa@Caeles Hills]

Hey! If you try it let us know how it works!

 

[Garden_girl]

We always have fresh salmon. I make treats with it and I dry it in my regular oven, as well. Takes a very long time in a low temp. oven, though.

 

[missmadel]

Hey I have a convection oven too! I didn't know you could do that with it. There's a fridge full of peaches just waiting to be experimented on! I'm off to do some research.

 

[TerriW]

Hey I have a convection oven too! I didn't know you could do that with it. There's a fridge full of peaches just waiting to be experimented on! I'm off to do some research.

If jerkifying the peaches doesn't work, try schnappsing them! :alc:

 

[Bluedog]

You can do jerky in a regular oven. I used to make homemade beef jerky from flank steak years ago. You just lay the slices on a rack over in a single layer over a baking sheet. Bake in a 150 degree oven overnight (about 10-12 hours). You want it to turn out chewy, not crispy, so be sure not to slice your meat, etc. too thin...about 1/8" is about right. that's of course for meat jerky...not sure if veggies, etc. would take as long to dry.

 

[SheilaT]

I dry out beef liver for training treats for my newfs in a dehydrator I got from walmart..$30. Slice fairly thin and evenly, add some garlic powder, dry for 5-6 hours, et voila!!