Your dehydrator can be a versatile assistance in the kitchen and can be used for many additional tasks besides drying and “cooking” food. With a little creativity, you can find many other uses for these handy machines.
Making Pet Treats
Sticking with food for the moment, one other path you can take with a dehydrator is to make healthy (and inexpensive) treats for your pets. The simplest pet treats are just regular dried meat, usually the cuts that do not work as well for human consumption when dried. Liver, gizzards, or heart make excellent treats. But any dehydrated meat will work as a pet treat.
Unlike meat dried for your own use, you do not have to cook meat before drying if it is being used for animal treats. Slice raw meat thinly, and let dry at around 140 F for ten to 12 hours.
If you want to try your hand at something a little more sophisticated, you can try some of these recipes for more gourmet treats for your dogs or cats.
Chicken and Liver Treats for Cats
This is one recipe specifically for cats, though dogs usually like them, too.
• 1 lb. ground chicken meat
• ¼ cup liver, minced or ground up
• ½ cup powdered milk
• ¼ cup chicken broth
Combine everything, and mix until smooth. Use nonstick leather sheets, and spread out the mixture evenly. Dry at 150 F for eight to ten hours until they are hard.
Meat and Rice Treats for Dogs
The kale in this is not necessary, but it does add a hefty nutrition boost for your dog.
• ½ cup cooked rice
• ½ cup chicken broth
• 2 Tbsp. dried kale, crumbled
• 1 lb. ground beef
• ½ cup dried Parmesan cheese
Mix all ingredients together, and let sit for about an hour before you start drying. Use wax paper or a nonstick sheet for drying. Spread it out about ¼ inch thick, and dry for eight hours at 150 F.
Vegetarian Dog Treats
Not all pet treats have to have meat in them. If you prefer not handling meat in your dehydrator, this is a good recipe to try. Even though they are meatless, these are perfectly healthy for dogs, and they love them.
• 2 ½ cups flour
• ¾ cup dried milk powder
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• ½ cup shredded carrot and/or apples
• 1 egg
• 2 bouillon cubes (vegetable or beef)
• ¾ cup hot water
In a small bowl, dissolve the bouillon in water, and then mix that together with all the other ingredients. Mix until you have stiff dough, and roll out to about ¼ inch in thickness. Use a cookie cutter (or even just the edge of a drinking glass) to cut out treat shapes, and place them in your dehydrator. A finer mesh screen or even a nonstick sheet may work better than your regular trays for this.
Dry at a high temperature (about 150 F) for about eight hours. When done, the treats should be hard and crisp.
Another popular vegetarian option is dehydrated sweet potato. See Chapter 6 for more on how to prepare this. Slices of dried sweet potato are rich, sweet, and great for dogs.
Drying Flowers
Using dried flowers for flower arranging, potpourri, or other crafts can be a challenge if you do not have a good source for dried flowers. If you have access to fresh flowers (either purchased or right from your garden), you can produce excellent quality dried material for any use. Once dried, flowers will last years without any problems with insects or mold.
Any kind of flower or plant can be dried in a dehydrator. Whole blossoms can be dried as is, or you can pluck petals off first if you want them for potpourri. Leaves also can be dried if you wish. Remember they will shrink and shrivel once they dry, so do not expect your flowers to look like they did going into the dehydrator.
As they dry, some types of flowers and plant material might release their seeds or pollen, which can make a bit of a mess. There is not much you can do about it, but cover the table that your dehydrator is on with a cloth, just in case.
Not all flowers will dry the same. Set your dehydrator to about 100 F, and check your flowers after about four hours. Most individual petals would be done by this point, but larger or fleshier flowers will not be. They might take as long as 12 hours. Unlike food, you do not have to be quite as precise with flowers. Once they are papery or crisp to the touch, they are dry enough.
You do not necessarily have to have a separate unit or trays for flowers, but you should always wash the trays off well before using your dehydrator again with food.
Once dried, most flowers will lose a lot of their aroma. If you are drying to make potpourri, you usually have to add some scented oils to the mix of plant material to create an aromatic mixture. Flowers do not come out of the dehydrator smelling like a bouquet of fresh blooms.
Helping with Crafts
Drying flowers is not the only area where a little extra drying power can help in the craft department.
Anything made out of clay or craft dough can be put in a dehydrator to speed up the drying. Flat items can be dried in a stacking-type unit, but otherwise this would only work with a cabinet machine with the trays removed. Painted items can have their drying sped up this way. If you are building small items, a dehydrator can help glue dry more quickly as well.
Papermaking is another unique way you can put your dehydrator to use. Making your own paper involves using a blender to puree a mix of shredded paper and water. This is then spread out on mesh sheets to drain and finally dry into new sheets of paper. Laying out the pulp on dehydrator trays and letting it dry this way will speed things up dramatically. You probably should use paper towels while you do this, as the paper pulp can be drippy at the beginning.
Humidifying
Last, you can use your dehydrator to add a little moisture to the air. Just put some shallow dishes of water on your trays, and let it run for a few hours. It actually can do a good job at this if you do not want to have a separate machine for humidifying.
To take this one step further, add a little cinnamon or vanilla extract to the water, and you can add some pleasant smells while you moisten the air. It is a nice touch in the house during the winter.