DIY food dehydrator

[robgunby]

With a glut of poblano peppers about to be harvested, I wanted a dehydrator to dry them into ancho chiles. Prices range from £30 for a flimsy piece of junk to hundreds of pounds for ones with stainless steel racks. Then I had a thought: I have a cold smoker cabinet with steel racks, all I needed to add was a clip fan and a heat source (empty slow cooker) that I had lying around. Ten minutes of work and I have it running at a perfect 100F with two racks of banana chips on the go as a test run. If all goes well I'll have a jar of anchos within a week!

Diy food dehydrator by Rob, on Flickr

[Kiska95]

Just stick them in a fan oven on the lowest setting with the door held open with a piece of foil saves all of the palava

[robgunby]

Sadly we don't have a fan oven, and our gas oven runs too hot. Upgrading to a fan oven later this year, but this rig has more capacity, uses less juice, runs cool and won't make the kitchen sweltering hot!

[slemps]

A lightbulb works well too.

What kind of temperature are you getting in there?

One tip for chillies, thick flesh ones such as jalapenos etc are best when cut in half lengthways. I found that they can end up rotting if you don't dehydrate them fast enough.

Either way, check them each day to make sure they are ok.

S.