Turn your oven into a food dehydrator
In my last article, I mentioned buying a food dehydrator to make my own camping foods. Unfortunately, right now I have neither the money nor the space for a food dehydrator, and when I am totally honest with myself, I have enough kitchen appliances that have long been forgotten.
If you are like me and don’t have a food dehydrator but you still want to make your own camping food, You are in luck! Your oven (yes, an ordinary kitchen oven) can be turned into a makeshift food dehydrator.
I remember my brother making jerky in the oven when I was a kid. For a day (maybe more) we had the oven turned on low and the door propped open. The oven was off limits for cooking, but the deer jerky that came out at the end was worth the wait
Turning your oven into a food dehydrator is really very simple.
- Heat the oven to a temperature between 140-160° F
- place the food you are drying on a cookie sheet or straight on the oven rack, leave room for air circulation
- prop the oven door open with a rolled up magazine or a wooden spoon
- stir food every couple of hours and wait.
- Dehydrated food will end up leathery to touch. Make sure you take a piece out and let it cool before determining doneness because the food will be softer when it is warm.
That’s all there is to turning your oven into a food dehydrator. Next week, I hope to have some oven dehydrating recipes to publish for you. Nothing is quite as fun and preparing for a summer camping trip on a snowy winter day.
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June 20th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
hmm… that’s a cool idea. i’ve been longing to have some beef jerky. but in this place i am in, nobody knows what a beef jerky is. and they don’t even have the stuff to make them. sucks.
but thanks for the post and now you gave me an idea.
July 7th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Yes, you could do it in your oven but all that energy wasted to heat up the big oven might be put to better more efficient use.
July 8th, 2008 at 6:30 am
As I mentioned above, I don’t have room in my house for another appliance to store. I wouldn’t use the oven as a dehydrator in the summertime either. it is pretty much a winter activity. When I do use the oven as a dehydrator, I try to fill it up so that I’m not heating a lot of extra space.