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Types of Food Dehydrators

There are two main categories of food dehydrators designed for home use. First are those dehydrators that contain stackable trays for placing the food to be dried. Second, are those dehydrators designed as a box containing removable shelves for placing the food to be dried. If you need more information on the two different types go see del.icio.us who have broken it down further.

Additionally, there are three different drying methods common with these home-use dehydrators. First, some dehydrators have base-mounted fans that expel the hot air vertically through the unit. Second, other dehydrators have a rear-mounted fan that will expel the air horizontally out of the unit. Finally, a few models have no fan whatsoever and rely on convection drying to remove the moist air.

How to Select the Perfect Food Dehydrator

Before you select a food dehydrator for your home, you first must consider what your primary use will be for the machine. If you intend to dry specialty items, or use the food dehydrator mostly for one particular use, research which models are most appropriate for your intended use.

For example, some food dehydrators come with jerky kits and are built ideally for creating jerky from meat. Other units come with stick-proof sheets for creating fruit leathers. Size will be a consideration in determining the perfect food dehydrator.

These dehydrators differ dramatically in size, however most current food dehydrators are less than 12 inches in diameter and easily store away unobtrusively on a kitchen countertop. Finally, price is really not much of a concern for food dehydrators, as most commercial models can be purchased for between $30 and $500.

Recommended Drying Temperatures

• Fruits, Fruit Rolls 130º to 140º F
• Vegetables 130º to 140º F
• Meats & Fish 145º to 155º F (Set at Max. Temp.)
• Nuts & Seeds 90º to 100º F
• Herbs & Spices 90º to 100º F
• Dried Flowers/Potpourri 90º to 100º F

Common Uses for a Food Dehydrator

The many uses for a food dehydrator are only limited to your imagination and access to food. The following are just a few of the most popular uses for a home-use food dehydrator, and this certainly is nowhere near an exhaustive list:

• Making beef, deer, turkey jerky
• Homemade air fresheners or potpourri
• Creating fruit leathers (Remember…”fruit roll-ups”)
• Drying herbs to make your own tea
• Soup mixes
• Backpacking meals
• Granola
• Dried pepper flakes
• Seasoning powders
• Banana chips
• Trail mix
• Making raisins
• Drying nuts

This past Christmas, my parents asked us if there was anything we needed for the house. We didn’t give them a long list but one of the things we mentioned we were interested in was a new toaster oven. And, we were thrilled when, on Christmas morning, we received a Black & Decker Classic Toaster Oven as a present.

As I have mentioned in numerous reviews, we use our toaster oven for just about everything. It’s a little more convenient than our regular oven and I use it to make everything from toast to French fries. But, while the toaster oven we had still worked, it was also kind of small and we were limited on what we could use it for.

The major difference between the Black & Decker Toaster Oven and the best toaster oven 2019 is definitely the size. It’s not as big as some of the others that are available. But, it is large enough to hold a regular-sized frozen pizza (we actually used it to make one last night) without taking up an unacceptable amount of space on our counter.

There are a couple other things I liked about this product. For example, our older toaster oven had a limited amount of settings on it and would only heat up to 400 degrees. I managed to cook a few things in it that called for higher baking temperatures but it did limit me. This toaster oven offers more temperature options and, because of that (and the size of the oven), I can now cook some things I couldn’t cook before (like frozen pizza).

The toaster oven does cook very well too. The pizza we made in it yesterday came out perfectly cooked and was as good as it would have been if we would have baked it in our conventional oven or would have dug out our pizza oven.

Another feature I liked about this toaster oven is the pull out drawer at the bottom. This allows me to clean out the crumbs a lot easier than with our previous toaster oven (that one had a removable bottom too, but we had to turn the toaster oven upside down to detach it, which, of course, sent the crumbs back to the top).

If you are looking for a kitchen appliance that will get a lot of use and won’t take up too much space, I would definitely recommend this toaster oven. I am positive it will get daily use in our house.

The Kitchenaid K4SSWH is a lift stand mixer. You can find this model for an average price of $250. Keep reading to learn about some of the features that this mixer offers.

The Kitchenaid K4SSWH is equipped with a 300-watt motor. This coupled with the direct-drive transmission means that this mixer should provide all the power that you need. It is powerful enough to mix up to eight cups of flour.

The Kitchenaid K4SSWH lift stand mixer offers various speeds. With ten different options, you should be able to find the ideal speed for the job. You can mix ingredients on the super fast setting or use the very slow stir setting.

The Kitchenaid K4SSWH is equipped with a 5.5 quart mixing bowl. This stainless steel bowl also has a handle. This makes it much easier for you to pick the bowl up and handle.

The Kitchenaid K4SSWH lift stand mixer offers a unique mixing action. It is designed to spin the shaft counter-clockwise while the beater itself spins clockwise in the other direction. With this mixing action, the beater can hit 67 different areas in the stainless steel bowl. This means that you won’t have to rotate the bowl in order to ensure all of the ingredients are mixed effectively.

The Kitchenaid K4SSWH is packaged with a burnished flat beater. If you want to buy optional attachments for the mixer, you may have a difficult time finding them. Ironically, attachments designed to fit K4 series mixers won’t fit on this model. You will need to get ones that are designed to fit the K5 series models.

If you’re looking for a new lift stand mixer for your kitchen, then you should consider buying the Kitchenaid K4SSWH. Thanks to the fact that it has a 300-watt motor coupled with a direct-drive transmission, this mixer is powerful enough to mix up to eight cups of flour. Its unique mixing action also means that you don’t need to rotate the stainless steel mixing bowl. This mixer also gives you the option of choosing from ten different mixing speeds.