Can One Dehydrate Onions Inside The Commonly Used Dehydrator Equipment?

If a person tells ‘you can’t, show him ‘you can’- dehydrated onions can be prepared in common dehydrating equipment used by dried food manufacturers to prepare dry sausages, ginger, capsicum, garlic, and other fruits and vegetables.

Dehydration of foods is not a new invention to discuss. The act is too old and is employed since ancient times for preserving food. Those days, sunlight was used as a food dehydrating technology; however, today we got equipped dehydrators to dry most of the foods like onions, ginger,apple, pineapple, bananas, etc. These dehydrators are capable of drying meat and veggies in a fraction of time.

How These Systems Work?

The dehydrating machine is a kitchen appliance that is being used for drying food. Dehydration process helps preserves food by removing all the moisture content from the food. It also eliminates the chances of bacteria growth and protects the food from spoilage. Dried foods can be consumed as it is or can be rehydrated for future use. However, eliminating all moisture content from the food can take longer time and also change the product color, weight, and shape.

Components That Complete Dehydrator:

There is a heating element, air vents, fan, and food trays with which a design of dehydrating machine gets completed. The heating element, vents, and fan work simultaneously to circulate air and eliminate moisture content present in the food. Heating element released off the moisture from food and the fan pushes the excess moisture to the vents. These vents are used to eliminate moisture content from dehydrator machine . Air may blow horizontally or vertically.

Trays

The design of a tray simply depends on the modal and size of dehydrator. Some dehydrating machines feature stackable and removable trays while others just have rigid box shelves. Trays are often multi-tiered that help user to use different types and sizes of food for dehydration.

Temperature

In general, foods are processed inside dehydrator under 95 and 145 degrees Fahrenheit temperature. But if you want to dry meat, the temperature can be higher than veggies or fruits to discard bacterial growth. In both cases, you need to perform slow dehydration method in order to attain completely dried foods from in and out.

You can use common dehydrating machine to dry onions. Follow these steps to start preparing your dehydrated onions:

1. Peel the skin of onion and cut the onion top and the root
2. Slice the onion or dice it as per your choice.
3. Evenly spread them on drying trays inside the dehydrator.
4. Set the temperature that should range from 135 to 145 degrees Fahrenheit
5. Leave the sliced or diced onion inside for 4-8 hours
6. Take them out when they have a leathery texture.