Quote:
Originally Posted by joseph
I turn the dehydrator on and forget about it, for however many days... (yes I wrote days)... that it takes to finish. Things are crisp when finished dehydrating. That's just what a dehydrator does. They don't get any crisper if I leave them in for an extra day after they are already crisp.
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Same here. For me, small cherry tomatoes sliced in half took at least a day and a half. If I just cut the tiny ones, without slicing them all the way through, some of them were still soggy after 2.5 days so I composted them.
I tried some sliced tomatoes last year that got moldy, but it looked like someone turned off the dehydrator, so that could be why. I also sliced them too thickly and wasn't around to check the dehydrator more than twice a day. If I do sliced tomatoes again, I'll (a) use parchment -- it gets messy to dry juicy tomatoes, and (b) make sure I'm around to check on them a little more, to make sure it doesn't get turned off, and to rotate trays, and (c) even though my dehydrator has 7 layers, I'll use only the 3 bottom layers for tomatoes, to make sure they have a chance of dehydrating before mold sets in.
I have had pineapple guavas turn darker colors and taste a little overdone, but generally I check only once in 24 hours. If you're checking every 8 hours or so, it should be fine.
I like to dry my food so it's crisp, so that there's no chance of mold forming. If they're even a little bit pliable, that means they still have some water content and are susceptible to mold.