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Dehydrated Cherries – and an important step the manual never told you

Is there anything so lovely as a beautiful, juicy flavor-packing cherry?  I didn’t think so.  That’s why I thought it would be far more fun to dry them and get rid of all of that juicy goodness.

Before we talk about drying them, let me assure you there’s a method to my madness.  Dehydration is the absolute best way I know to save the essence of the pure flavor of the fruit.  By removing the water over a prolonged period of time, one is left with only the essence of taste; you don’t need to add sugar, heat, vinegar or anything else (all things I love – we’ve preserved almost 2 cases of preserved cherries this year and have almost a dozen different types of preserved cherries in our pantry).  I just have a special place for drying them because they dry so well and their taste is preserved almost in tact.  They also shrivel up and take a tiny amount of space to store compared to preserving them whole in simple syrup.

Drying them is easy – especially if you have a dehydrator (we can do up to 20 pounds at a time – though the final yield is about 10% of what went in to the dryer).  The writing on the subject is all over the Internet and cookbooks – prick or pit them, place in a dehydrator around 135 degrees and wait until they are leathery (12-24 hours).  That’s it.  You’re done.

HOLD THE PHONE. 

Remember nose to tail fruit?  Yeaahhh Booyyyeeez – it’s time to lower the boom on cherries and talk about how to get something else from drying them and it’s a great way to steal from other techniques and help diversify your dried fruit.

Joel’s ‘Secret’ Dried Cherries
Day 1
Pit your cherries.  Weigh them (after pitting).  Toss in 5-10% sugar.  Cover and place in fridge overnight in a big non-reactive bowl.

Day 2. 
Strain liquid into a bowl.  A pound of pitted cherries will make at least a half cup of cherry simple syrup.  We did 20 pounds and ended up with 3-4 liters.  You can dry the cherries as-is or rinse them to remove residual sugar (I don’t mind the small amount of extra sweetness).

That’s it!

That extra liquid is instant cocktail, spritzer, addition to salad dressing or sweetener for iced teas.  It can easily be added to a lemonade or even water (add as much as 3,4 or even 10 times the amount of water for just a taste). 

Dehydrating removes the liquid from the fruit and evaporates it into the air – so why not use maceration to coax some of the liquid out.  In the end you’ll save time and energy in your dryer – and you’ll be able to drink away the ‘angels share’ (this is a term from Scotch which describes the amount lost to evaporation each year as it ages in barrels).  We’ll Share our adaptation of Julia’s cherry pit liquor soon as well…

Dehydrating Green Onions – Nose to Tail

When I wrote about nose-to-tail vegetables the other day, I was most excited to share this article with you (the photos were taken over a week ago).  Green onions are the epitome of this concept – although they are a singe vegetable, there are up to four unique parts which each can be used very differently in cooking and preserving.  From the bottom up:

  • The roots
  • The bulb
  • The ‘hip’ between the bulb and the greens
  • The greens

Each piece has unique texture, unique visual  appeal and even subtle flavor differences.  On a green salad I would add dried slices of the white bulbs while the greens would be used for a fish or something lighter in appearance.  The dried hips (which are stripes of white and green) are ideal toppings to pasta or a fresh sauce.

When we dehydrate green onions, we keep each part separate and store them in different jars so that we can use them for different purposes.  These onions  didn’t have roots but you can see how we’ve separated the parts below.

We dehydrate them between 135-140 degrees until dried throughout (it takes 6-10 hours).

2001 – A Dehydration Odyssey… Redehydration (re-de-hydration)

For those who follow along with our preserving adventures, you’ll know I take great joys in the liberties of dehydration.  There is so much room to play and experiment and have fun, and some of my other cherished methods aren’t so liberating.

Of course it doesn’t always work out so great.  I recently tried to dehydrate a bottle of red wine.  The results were interesting but not quite the powder that I was after (though I made the most amazing reduction I have ever tried and have some new theories on how to get my powder that I’ll try again soon).

I’ve been dreaming for a while about redehydrating (a made-up word pronounced re-de-hydrating).

The original inspiration has been brewing since we posted our entire series on different hot peppers and I learned that many South American dishes require you to rehydrate hot peppers before adding them to your dish (something that was new to me at the time).

That discovery evolved and I learned the obvious fact that adding an entire dried pepper to a pot of pasta sauce infuses the heat into the sauce and makes the pepper mailable so that you can easily chop it into the dish without spewing seeds across your kitchen.

The evolution continued with my secret gravy weapon.  Mushroom powder (along with many others including beets and celery root, onion, carrot, garlic, parsnip and more) has become a staple in my kitchen that I can’t figure out how I cooked without.  Powder adds flavor – and absorbs flavors and liquids to meld perfectly into a dish.

We also made applestuff which took applesauce and included dried apples as an ingredient to make instant pie-stuffing for no-work apple turnovers on pizza night.

The next idea is to take the concept of dehydration and rehydration one cycle further.

The concept is simple:

  • Dehydration removes the water from food.  This leaves you with its pure essence of taste.
  • Rehydration adds liquid back into food – sometimes this is for texture and others it is for flavor.

Removing water = increasing flavor.

Rehydrating in a different liquid = adding flavor (and ‘tasteless’ water).

Our Tomato Bomb was the first experiments I had to truly play with this concept.  By rehydrating dried tomatoes in a very reduced tomato sauce, we essentially infused tomato with reduced tomato.  The results were a stunning EXPLOSION of tomato flavor that had some of the 700+ people at the Brickworks event pulling friends by the arm (literally to try).

Of course I realized we’d been doing this for years – dehydrate mushrooms and mushroom powder in gravy are a great example of them giving – and receiving – flavor to a foreign liquid.

So what if you dehydrated something (concentrating its flavor and essence), rehydrated it in a different liquid (infusing other flavors and water within) and then dehydrated the ingredient again?  Re-de-hydration.  And the essence of two flavors at the same time.

But WHY?  Mostly…because.

Here’s a few samples I’m going to try this weekend:

  • Dehydrate strawberry chunks.  Rehydrate in mint.  Dehydrate again.  Mint infused strawberries (it may become more of a fruit leather).
  • Dehydrate rhubarb.  Rehydrate in maple syrup.  Dehydrate into sweet-tart natural candies.
  • I’d love to do a beat-infused onion.

Has anyone tried anything like this before?  What would you try?  What do you think will happen?  There’s lots of room in the box – so lots of room for suggestions!

We’ll share the results – pass or fail!

How to Dehydrate Wild Leeks (Ramps)

I love wild leeks – so much that I`m going to risk repeating myself by pleading with you to only harvest or purchase them sustainably (I`ve promised myself that I`ll put this disclaimer out there each time we post about them).  Once they are harvested they do not grow back.  Picking less than 5% of remote patches  is the general barometer of sustainability.

Ramps are almost a combination of onions and garlic.  The bulbs are generally preserved via pickling (and I adore them – especially with old cheddar).  I adore me pickles but I wanted to try a different take – and something that will leave the flavors closer to the original so that I can use them through the year.

We washed them, sliced them super thin (when the ends got too close to my fingers to cut comfortably, we tossed those in sherry vinegar to infuse flavor) and placed them in the dehydrator at a super-low 95 degrees (standard would be about 130).  I am very curious as to the shelf-life of these as the temperature seems awfully low but the end product seems perfectly dry and I`m glad we didn`t go any hotter.  I will report back on this post in several months to see how things progress but I am very happy with the results.  An absolute key was slicing them thin and drying for a long time (about 18 hours in total).  The lower temperature came because we were drying herbs at the same time.

The end result are wonderfully crispy, pure white rings of rampy-goodness.  I could eat them just like that but am looking forward to cooking with them and eating them with old cheese and on top of sashimi.

If there`s a downside to this technique it`s that a lot of ramps make a very little amount of dried slices (the flip side is that a very little go a long way).  We`ll share what to do with the greens tomorrow.

How to Dehydrate Chives

Drying herbs are a pretty easy thing.  We place them in our dehydrator at 95 degrees for 6-8 hours or until they are fragile (it’s the best way to describe it).

There are two considerations:

  1. Heat.  if it gets too warm you’ll end up with brown herbs that don’t have a lot of flavor.  Low and slow is what you’re looking for here (many dry in open air).
  2. Chopping before or after.  Cutting them beforehand is easier but smaller pieces have more exposure to air and will lose their flavor quicker.  I’ll use these well before the flavor runs low so I chopped them.  I wasn’t too worried about making them ‘perfect’ – that’s half the fun of doing them by hand.

With herbs that may fly away (like small pieces of chives), I lay a second dehydrating mat directly on top of the herbs to stop them from possibly blowing around.  I also don’t chop the final bits of fresh chives that would take some fussing – I keep those fresh for cooking.

The smell and flavor are so superior to what you can buy at the store…

Dehydrating Homemade Sesame Snaps Snacks

One of the great things about dehydrating is that one can experiment without worrying about the safety of the results (quite the opposite of a lot of waterbath caning).

Not all experiments are successful – and this one has had it`s hits and misses.  I wanted to simulate those sesame snacks you get at the store.  My flavor isn`t what I want and the end results are very sticky – but they hold together and have the desired crunch.  If I were to do it again (and I`ll share if and when I do), I would use molasses (as the store-bought does) and toast the seeds.

There`s not a lot to this – I mixed honey and maple syrup with sesame seeds.  I used as little as necessary to ensure every seed had a little on it.  I then squeezed and then rolled out the paste between two rolls of parchment paper and stuck in the dehydrator as hot as I could (I ended up finishing these off in the oven).  The idea is, essentially, to dehydrate the liquids and make everything firm up.

We dried it at about 155 degrees for 8 or 9 hours and then finished in our oven around 200 for an hour or two.

This may even work better in the oven.  I believe drying this around 175 (our oven goes to 200 so we`d just open the door from time to time) would work the best.

These are edible and darn close to what I want – but I know we can do even better…

You can pick up the sheet of seeds in the last shot by a corner of it – it`s as dry as the commercial product.

* Although this worked, ambient humidity crept into the final product and made it less than the crunchy product I was aiming for.  In other words, the product became softer as days wore on – nothing that couldn’t be fixed by drying again.  Storing it in an airtight environment would have slowed such process..

Banana Chips – How to Dehydrate Bananas

There`s not a lot of mystery to making banana chips – although the homemade version just taste so much better than what one buys commercially.

There is one essential decision when it comes to drying bananas: to use lemon juice (or ascorbic acid) or not.  Adding an acid stop the fruit from browning.  This argument applies to most fruit and it`s purely about appearance.  I don`t mind the darker color (in fact I actually find it appeals to me – pun intended in the case of bananas).

Dry them at 130 degrees – the actual time will vary depending on the thickness (I tend to cut them around a fifth-of-an-inch in thickness).  Many dry them until slightly pliable but I like to take them a step further and make them crispy (which is why I also cut them slightly thinner than others).

I love them as a simple snack.

The step by step directions are probably just as easy in photos – so here you go!

Dehydrating Limes

Dana jokes that I will preserve just about anything I can lift.  And since limes are so light, the qualify:

There`s not a lot to drying limes.  Cut them as evenly as possible and place them in the dehydrator at 135 degrees and dry until they are crispy – I like to describe them as `breakable.`  There`s a lot of water in these little dudes and dudettes so ensure they are dried throughout by pinching the flesh of your thickest piece between your finger and your thumb.

We mentioned making these on our Facebook Group (If you`re not a member you may want to check it out – there`s more than 900 members of the community there who are engaging in conversations, sharing ideas, techniques, recipes, links and more) and several people wanted to know what to do with them (thanks Rachel, Lisa and Bashar! :) ).  I admitted at the time that I had no idea and we asked the group and our Twitter friends for recommendations.  Here`s a list of ideas:

  • Our friends at The Avro suggested muddling it into cocktails (appropriate suggestion from a bar after all!)
  • Rachel mentioned using lemon and lime powder for baking (but wasn`t keen on the color – our dried lemons also turn out very dark).
  • We heard from the awesome team at Earth to Table Bread Bar (ooooh their cookbook…) that we could make Thai soup with them.
  • Food hero Arlene Stein and Chef Friend Shayma (Spice Spoon) recommended a Persian stew named Khoresht.  Febi clarified that this would use whole dried lemons (an interesting concept that may take some exploration – I would think you have to pierce them multiple times before drying).
  • Chef Scott Vivian (from the awesome Beast Restaurant) recommended an Indian Lime Pickle .
  • I definitely want to experiment with turning them to powder and using them to rim a glass or within a cocktail.

I dried limes because I was curious – and I found 8 on sale for $1 (they were a few hours from being thrown out – so they were cheap and felt good to save).  Looking forward to experimenting – any other ideas out there for them?

Dehydrating Mushrooms – Easier than Pie

Mushrooms are so rewarding when it comes to dehydrating.  Clean them, slice them (optional) and throw them in the warm box for 4-8 hours (around 135 degrees).

If I`m going to turn them into powder, I don`t mind keeping them whole.

If I`m going to use them for something different (the texture of rehydrated mushrooms is almost meaty and awesome in burgers, added to mushroom soup, stuffing or sauces), I like to slice them in the size or shape I intend to use them in.  The flavor is concentrated so these taste like uber-mushrooms and I find myself snacking on them too often.

I also find the final result to be so darn pretty that I could stare at gnarly dried mushrooms for hours.

If you look carefully below you`ll find Shaeffer helping out by inspecting the proceedings:

I can`t wait to rehydrate the portabelo slices and have them atop a sandwich or mushroom soup!

How to Make Raisins (Dehydrate Grapes)

It`s an odd time of year to make raisins for us – grapes are hardly in season and won`t be for some time.  But there`s a few reasons that motivated this effort:

  1. I am doing a bunch of other dehydrating.  Our dehydrator raises the temperature of our kitchen by several degrees.  Since we`ve planted seeds for the gardening season I`m using the opportunity to dehydrate and to add warmth to the room they`re in (I keep them on top of the highest furniture where they get the most warmth).
  2. I`ve tried raisins a few times and not been happy with the results.  Doing small batch off-season experiments are a great way to learn and allow you to develop skills and determine if you want to make larger batches mid-season.

The difficulty in drying grapes is two-fold: there`s a lot of moisture and a tough membrane (the skin) which makes the evaporation of it`s water content difficult.  There are two ways to over come this:

  1. `Check`the skin by breaking it.  This typically means piercing it with a skewer, toothpick or needle or freezing it to burst the skins.  I believe you could also drop individual grapes in boiling water for moments to do so (this works great for cranberries which suffer a similar fate).
  2. Cut them.

Piercing can actually take more work than slicing – and the drying times can be considerably longer.  A sliced grape will dry in 12-20 hours while a pierced whole grape will become a raisin in 24-36 hours (we dry all of our fruit at 135 F or 57 C).  Sliced grapes have a slightly odd shape when dried as a raisin but I love them:

Home dried grapes, like much dehydrated food, are simply superior to commercially bought product.  The texture is closer to a date – almost crispy on the outside with a chewy inside.  These were super sweet and I`d use a fraction of the amount of these compared to commercial raisins.

Any thoughts we`ve missed on raisins?  They`re well worth making and we`ll be ready for when the season hits this year.