Tired of coming up with ways to use your fruit before it spoils?

[Inchworm]

I used to make bread with it. Then I realized, I was not only throwing away the fruit, but I was also throwing away flour and the stuff it took to make the bread.

My solution was shoving a lamp under my smoker and creating a dehydrator.

That's all I did, really! (well, I put flashing under the lamp for reflection. Tin foil would have done same thing)

Two 100 watt light bulbs maintained an internal heat of 115 degrees F.

It took 10 hours to turn 6 granny smiths into yummy, easy snack food.

Now alls I gotta do is do a little math to figure cost and come up with a life expectancy of dried fruit :D

:hi:

[crispini]

1. I don't have a smoker. Do you think I could use the oven?

I've always got a few leftover fruits that I need to do something with.

[MajorChode]

3. You can use a box fan and some AC filters

Put the fruit between the AC filters, bungee cord it to the box fan, turn the fan on medium, and in 8-12 hours you'll have dehydrated fruit.

It works much better than using heat.

[aikoaiko]

11. This is the best post in this thread.

[SacredCow]

12. Alton Brown did this on Good Eats, IIRC.....

I'm going to have to try this someday....

[MajorChode]

14. I saw it on his show too

It's an old trick though.

My dad used to do this when I was a kid. He probably read about it in Mother Earth News I would guess as many of Alton's tricks seem to originate from that source.

[SacredCow]

16. Yeah- he does a lot of "tried and true" stuff....

His frequent use of bricks wrapped in foil to apply heat and weight to various things, for example...

Of course, as a chemist, I dig his scientific explanations of the physical/chemical changes as something is cooked. I'm a nerd that way....

[Inchworm]

13. Guessing that doesn't work with meat?

:dunce:

[MajorChode]

17. It works great with meat

Alton Brown's "Blow-hard 3000" is exactly what I described. The trick is you must do some sort of marinade or brine first.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/jerky-recipe/index.html

[Inchworm]

4. You could I guess

It would have to stay on a while set very low I guess. You don't want to cook em :)

LoL.. you have a 2 drawered nightstand? Remove drawers use racks where drawers were and cover holes with foil? That was my next attempt if the smoker failed. At first I was going to use the frame of a loveseat that needs tossed :rofl:

:silly:

[jobycom]

2. I usually just eat it. Or juice it. The lamp idea is cool, though.

:thumbsup:

[Inchworm]

5. Yea, but this is a multi-tasker now

And snack-sized brittle sweet goodness goes better with a movie.

Need to try meat soon. I really need to read up on the "rules" first. I don't want to poison myself.

:D

[MajorChode]

15. You don't really want to try this with meat unless you properly marinate first

You'll want to use a marinade that has a high acidity or some other anti-bacterial properties.

40-140 degrees F is the "danger zone" for meat.

[Forkboy]

6. What is this "fruit" stuff?

It's not on pizza so I'm not familiar with it. :)

[blogslut]

7. tomatoes are fruit

tomatoes = pizza sauce

You been punked by pizza!

[Forkboy]

9. LMAO

Punked by my own food. Oy vey.

:rofl:

[Inchworm]

8. The stuff you feed bunnies!

:rofl:

[Forkboy]

10. Hey, I had a bunny. It ran away.

:cry: :cry: :cry:

Probably would have helped if we hadn't left the cage door open...

We fed him veggies though...I recall no fruit entering the bunny equation. :D

[applegrove]

18. Zucchini is good in chocolate cake. Try it.

[Deja Q]

19. I stopped using my banana a long time ago.

:shrug: