The Nesco/American Harvest Food Dehydrator & Jerky Maker: a lil contraption purchased last summer, waiting for winter experimenting (thinking about the extra garlic). There’s of course some research to do, like the difference between drying and freeze-drying, what gets lost on the way, and how to test if it’s dry enough to store safely for a while (fruit should bend, but a dried pea when hit with a rolling pin should…shatter!?), the usual…stuff. Then, lots of garlic slicing!
I mainly use our dehydrator for fruit, it’s such a nice contraption for preserving food in so many ways! What are you going to do with the garlic? I was looking at our garlic powder today and wondering how it’s made. I’m getting sick of paying a ton of money for spices and herbs when it seems I can just make most of these myself!
Seems like garlic should work fine in the dehydrator, thin slices/small pieces, dried, then run through a coffee grinder for smaller amounts. About all I have at the moment for drying experiments is near a bushel of mainly damaged garlic, some starting to dry out. Probably best to start with fresh garlic, but these could do for a start.
I’m so glad you are posting again!
Last year, I dehydrated some onions to turn them into onion powder. 6 onions turned into one jar of powder, which you can pick up at Wal Mart for 50 cents. *grumble*
It was good, but not noticeably better. Just a head’s up – don’t bother drying any onions.
I tried to dehydrate garlic several years ago, and I wasn’t very happy with the results. If you don’t slice it very thin, it takes ages to fully dry out. Then the dehydrated garlic didn’t keep that nice flavor homegrown garlic has, but rather turned pungent and harsh, and without any added value over commercial garlic powder.
I’ll be interested to see if you get different results!
That sounds quite dismal. I’ll give it a try with what I have on hand, and maybe again with fresh garlic in a few months, and see if my mileage varies. Thanks for the heads up! :)