My son-in-law-to-be asked me to dry him some watermelon after my successful foray into the world of beef jerky. So I bought a small seedless watermelon, sliced it and stuck it in the Excalibur along with two lone strawberries (just a test). We’ll see what happens in 6-9 hours! Has anyone here dried watermelon before?
What temp setting is it on? In 6-9 hours, you’ll have watermelon goo, is my guess. Watermelon’s a tricky beast. I prefer a puree, thickened with applesauce and made into fruit leather. To dehydrate chunks, they need to be at least 1/2 an inch, up to an inch, cubes, and they take a long time - 3 days or more sometimes. They’ll get wonderfully sticky and they shrink down to almost nothing, but they don’t get as firm as other fruits.
Excalibur makes some great dehydrators, by the way. I miss mine.
I’m using the directions in their book…1/4" slices, dried at 135’ for 6-9 hours. He told me he’s had it before, and it becomes sticky and candy-like. I cut the slices into pie-shaped wedges, and some are thicker, some thinner…I found the book after I sliced.
Sweet, let me know how it turns out. When I sliced them that thin, I got dust. Might have been too high a heat setting, though.
Am I the only one who automatically added “like a motherfu**” to the title?
I wouldn’t think there’d be much left of a watermelon after dehydrating. Aren’t they something like 90% water? I juiced one once to make watermelon ice cream (it was yummy) and there was virtually no pulpy bits.
So far, at three hours in, the slices are getting denser and sticky. This is sort of like watching paint dry. But the basement (where the dehydrator lives) smells lovely!
My daughter tried dehydrating watermelon a few years back, but it came out bland and tasteless. I hope you have better luck with your experiment!
At six hours, the thinnest slices (I was not consistent) were thin and rubbery, like fruit leather, so I took them out. The strawberries were also done, and they were awesome. The watermelon was tasty, and chewy…but watermelon actually has very little flavor to begin with, unlike watermelon candies, which are overpowering.
Now, at 8 hours, a bunch more were done, but the rest still have a few hours to go. I think I’ll set the alarm! I really should have started this first thing in the morning, but I’m a bit of a nightowl anyways. Next time I’ll know better! Thin slices (under 1/4")
But when you’re done, won’t it just be . . . melon?
I took the last slices out at about 2:30 am…I thought sure I posted something then! Guess I dreamt it. There were two slices that were going to need more time…I was going to eat them, but the texture was…icky, so I tossed them. But I successfully reduced a volleyball size melon into a Tupperware container that is maybe 3x6x 1/2" deep! The resulting slices are thin and pliable and the consistency of fruit leather, and they taste just fine. I’ll drop them off to the s-i-l-t-b on my way to work and see how he likes them. And maybe tomorrow, if the WestSide Market has a good price on strawberries, I will dry a bunch of those! And then there is that extra bag of carrots, and oooh, bananas! But I really want to make some more jerky.
I really like dehydrated blue berries but the price is sky-high, so I am thinking about getting a dehydrator this summer and dehydrating my own. I’ll wait and see how much regular blue berries cost to see if the price is viable.
Can you dehydrate citrus fruit? I’ve never seen dehydrated oranges or grapefruit. Is it possible?
Sure. They’re only moderately edible afterwards, though. They’re most often dehydrated for potpourri or sachet making.
Glad the watermelon turned out. I’ll have to try slices next time and keep it at that temp.
Citrus fruits are listed under the “Poor” heading for which fruits dry the best…but then so was watermelon. And Khadaji? If you’d like to drive over some time and pick blueberries in my yard I’d be more than happy. Those darn bushes are champion producers, and I can’t keep up.