Desiccant for food preservation

Supercell

Wondering if there is a desiccant available in Ireland for preserving food. Oven drying is partially cooking and not really what i want.
Anyone seen a food desiccant for sale here ?

CJhaughey

I can honestly say I have never heard of what you are trying to do.
What is the Product that cannot take any sort of heat?
You could build a dehydrator, but it will still involve heat albeit limited.

Supercell

Sorry, didnt know what to call it, a dehydrator is another word what i'm looking for.
I want to preserve fruit, herbs and some veg for usage in winter in cereals and general cooking as i'm currently only eating natural foods..ie those with no ingrediants bar the ones i'm using to create the food (helps a lot with controlling allergies).
Right now with so many fresh ingrediants, drying out seems like a good idea to preserve for use in the winter.

judesherry

im sorry i can help you in finding the product but i was just wondering how you are finding dieting of natuarl foods. this is something im interested in doing but am finiding it very hard since im just cooking for one.veg and fruit go off too qucikly.just wondering do you have any websites that would be of use to me please. ill keep an eye out for what your looking for,

CJhaughey

There is quite a bit of info on the net, mother earth news etc about building your own dehydrator, Basically a decent sized cardboard box with holes for airflow top and bottom lined with foil and racks inside with a low wattage lightbulb in the bottom to provide a small amount of heat.
The principle of convection applies heat rises creates a current of air which rises over the food drying it.
here is a link

Supercell

judesherry wrote:

im sorry i can help you in finding the product but i was just wondering how you are finding dieting of natuarl foods. this is something im interested in doing but am finiding it very hard since im just cooking for one.veg and fruit go off too qucikly.just wondering do you have any websites that would be of use to me please. ill keep an eye out for what your looking for,

Yep, http://allrecipes.com/ is a goldmine, has countless recipies and most of them have comments from people that have tried them and in many cases substituted something instead of what was originally in there as a processed additive.
There are loads of other sites but this one has everything for most people..and certainly enough to help you discover what you like or dont like and how to do it with all natural ingrediants.

judesherry

here i just found this when i was looking for a juicer, I assume its what you were looking for www.lequipeurope.com/dehydrator/index.htm
they seem to be good quailty products but expensive. thanks for the link

rubadub

You can buy dessicant in woodies, and a box to house it in with a tray to put your items on. You can always get a cheaper tupperware container in tescos, they have "value" ones dirt cheap now. Then you can just buy a refill of dessicant.
I bought a large pyrex dish and put the dessicant in it, this means I can stick it in the oven or microwave to drive off the water it has collected and it can be reused over and over. Hot dessicant gets extremely hot and a microwavable container will not hold it