Small Dehydrator

Check out this link for a 4 tray dehydrator:

http://www.ultimate-weight-products.com/page/UN/PROD/excalibur/Q-ED-2400&QTS=froogle

$110.00

This link is to the official Excalibur Site:

http://www.excaliburdehydrator.com/Dehydrators-37-cat.htm

Note: It looks like the 4 tray model might be discontinued, but are still for sale.

I have the 5 tray one with a built in timer.

The 4 tray one does not have a timer, but you should be able to use it with one of those plug in light timers for the same effect.

I use it to make all of my dinners for backpacking.

I got tired of thinking up special meals for the trail and simply decided that I wanted to eat the same stuff as I do at home.

I've even used it to dehydrate Indian food from a restuarant and took it out on the trail.

The great thing about this one is that the heating element is vertically mounted on the inside back panel, which creates a more even air flow and drippings will not foul the unit.

Should come with 4 trays and 4 mesh screens to keep things from falling through the tray to the bottom.

Highly recommend that you get the Teflex sheets, which are reusable non-stick sheets for drying wet/liquidy foods.

I did a fair amount of research on these and bought a few books on dehydrating food and the Excalibur brand was mentioned favorably a number of times.

I've had mine for 2 years now and no problems.

Hope that this helps.

-Tony

P.S. I read your post a little more carefully, I think that the Excaliber might be bigger than you wanted.

The Nesco's are all pretty big overall. I use a LEQUIP now – it is rectangle. While not smaller it fits better on my counter and in storage due to its shape.

The situation in Israel may be different, but in the US dehydrators are commonly found in the free to very cheap (under $5 US) range at secondhand stores, garage and rummage sales, or online classifieds like craigslist.com.

Lol…it is only hikers who pay full price ;-)

Thanks for the suggestions,

Unfortunately for me the situation the dehydrator in Israel is crystal clear – There is no dehydrators in Israel. I think the main reason that the trekking is not popular enough.

Could I use regular oven for dehydration?

A dehydrator is essentially similar to an oven set on "low" with a fan to circulate the air. We used to dehydrate bannana slices into "chips", make beef jerky, and make fruit "leather" out of mashed strawberries (ie: same as making jelly, just don't add the pectin) using a standard oven (ie: no fan). Leaving the door open about 2-3 inches seems to provide enough air flow. For beef jerky, it's critical to slice the meat about as thin as bacon, otherwise it appears dried, but spoils anyway (slowly) because the outside gets so hard it prevents the inside from truly drying.

ps: The advantage of a dehydrator, is it doesn't tye up your oven for 2-3 days, you can put it in the garage where it doesn't make your house hot and it probably uses a lot less electricity than running the oven. A toaster oven would probably be more energy efficient and work OK "IF" you can find one that truly has a "low" heat setting.

How much time it takes to dehydrate beef jerky in the oven?

On not being available….some of the biggest users of dehydrators are those who believe in being self sufficient. Have you poked around at high end cooking stores? Stores aimed at farming?

Doing a quick google I found this store in Tel Aviv selling the excalibur. Not sure it’s the one you want or what the price is (can’t read Hebrew) but at least there are dehydrators in Israel. Maybe this can help lead to others.

Edit: Here’s another store in english.

How much time it takes to dehydrate beef jerky in the oven?

It's been many, many years since I've used the oven for dehydrating – but probably sometime between 8 and 24 hours depending on the thickness, moisture, fat content (fat drys slower & spoils faster even when dried) – and the accuracy of my memory…

Thanks for the links,

I missed them because I was looking for Nesco Dehydrator and not Excalibur. My bad,

Now about not so good: the price for the cheapest Excalibur is ~990 nis which is roughly 300$. Miles away from real price. Just too expensive.

So If I could find one that is small enough to fit my bag I will bring it from my US business trip.