Please help me, how do you dehydrate sauce? I have a food dehydrator circa 1984 and an oven. What's the best way to do it? I've never done this before.

Do you have non-stick sheets that go on you dryer trays?
If so, spread the sauce to an even thickness and dry it.
If not spread it on parchment paper on the tray. (Test a single tray first to be sure your sauce and your parchment paper release when done.)

When it is dry (brittle when cool) put it in the blender and wizz it once or twice to pulverize the big chuncks. If it truly just sauce, versus a stew or thick soup, wizz it into near-power form. It will re-hydrate almost immediately.

Edited by greg23 on 03/19/2010 16:22:10 MDT.

If your sauce has much oil in it, you'll end up with more of a leather than something dry or crumbly. Those leathers are hard to break up with a blender. But if you freeze the leather then put it in the blender, you'll have better luck. And you don't have to grind the leather into powder--just small pieces.

And if your sauce has chunks of vegetables or meat or whatever, puree it in a blender before you dehydrate. You'll get much more even and rapid drying that way.

Thanks. How would you dry it?

Just leave it out or put in the oven with a low heat on?

We have dryer that has a fan in it. Hot air (140°F) moving across the trays takes about 8 hours.

I don't have any idea how long it would take in an oven, or how to set the temperature low enough to keep if from baking.

I think letting it "air dry" would lead to spoilage.

Edited by greg23 on 03/22/2010 14:42:42 MDT.

With ovens you should prop the door open a bit with a wooden spoon. If you have a gas oven then you can use the pilot light for heat apparently - if like most of us you have an electric use the lowest setting and the above info.

Elena - you've already got some great advice from the other members here but I'll add my 2 cents. If your dryer has a fan on it then it will be a better choice than an oven. I like to flip my sauce once it is leathery and that helps it dry perfectly.

Here's a little primer on food dehydration that I wrote for Washington Trails. Maybe that will be of help too.

Dehydrating Food

Edited by Laurie_Ann on 03/22/2010 14:37:26 MDT.

I LOVE the non-stick sheets that came with my dehydrator. I suspect that they will work in moderate over temps too. Here's some mashed yams that we dried this weekend:

Edited by tradja on 03/25/2010 11:25:31 MDT.

thanks for all the good advice. can't wait to try this out.

Also try cutting it into little strips, if it's too flexible to blend into powder.

and frankly, you probably don't need to blend or cut it at all. just keep it as sheets of "sauce leather". It's easy to store, and easy to portion.

All great advice and info from the users. Here is my favorite site for trail foods and a link to their dehydrating info...

http://www.trailcooking.com/dehydrating101