Presto06301 Dehydro Digital Electric Food Dehydrator

First, I dried a bunch of hot Habanero peppers. This machine is fantastic. Buy one. You will be impressed! I do have one problem with the directions for using too much cure with ground beef Jerky. I am experienced making Jerky with sliced meat, but ground beef was new to me.I made some ground beef Jerky last night. I see a problem with directions for the 2 sample packs of Jerky cure that come with the machine. In the directions for the Presto Dehydrators 2 sample Jerky cure packs, It is suggested to mix one pack with one pound of ground beef. (One pack includes Cure & Spices, separated until using). Most cures are like that. I don't know why. Maybe they react if pre-mixed.I had a little over two pounds of real nice freshly ground beef, so I put in both packs as directed. It turned out way too salty, but edible. Note: I mixed the packets very well, sprinkled it evenly on the meat, then I hand mixed the meat for a long time. Then I laid down strips with a "Jerky Gun". Using that is an art in itself! I suggest holding the Jerky gun at about 45 degrees and keep the nozzle touching the shelf while pulling the gun along as you go. You will learn very fast. Note: Jerky Gun is not included. They are sold separately.I bought the Open Country Jumbo Jerky Gun w/3 Tips: Open Country Jumbo Jerky Gun w/3 TipsI started with the 2-slot tip, but the home ground beef had some stringy stuff in it that collected between the slots and clogged it up. I ended up using the wide slot tip. It worked perfectly. There's also a round tip. Slim Jim's maybe?The drying process was perfect after 5 hours @160 degrees. The finished product came out semi-rigid but bendable, very much like regular Jerky. I was expecting "crumbly".I really like that dehydrator, and the cure is good but I don't think they did enough research using the cure with ground beef. I would like to suggest using one pack per TWO pounds of ground beef instead. I think that would work out just about right but I haven't tried it yet. The packs should work fine for sliced beef because it's just a soak and most of it goes down the drain.Lastly, the cure has good flavor. Photo attached.Update: I bought 4 lbs. of 80% ground beef. As I was prepping 2 lbs. with one set of cure (see above) I decided to go ahead and do the entire 4 pounds all at once. Well, everything worked out well until the end, when I noticed the "drip pan" was full of grease, and most importantly, some of the grease had run down the side vents and got all over the inside of the machine. Now I've got to clean it......Note, I'm an electrician, so I'm comfortable doing this. If you are mechanical at all, you should also be able to clean it, but MAKE SURE IT'S UNPLUGGED!First, I removed all the obvious screws, EXCEPT the ones that are on the fan under the tin part. I studied it for a while and decided that if I cut slots in the white plastic where the red fan wires go through the main piece, I could stuff the 2 circuit boards backwards through the hole to get them out of the way so I can wash the parts in the left sink without getting the circuit boards in the dry right sink wet.The 2 cuts worked out well and will not affect the strength or design of the machine. The heater coil part was also afflicted with grease. You can totally immerse that part in the dishwater to clean it, but it must be dried very well. Mix the dishwater about double what you use for dishes. Yes, I know I killed the warranty.The photo below shows the cuts when I had the parts on the floor with a fan on them.What I have learned:1). Don't do more than 2 pounds of ground beef at a time.2). Keep the meat well away from the tray edges.3). Don't trust your Butcher when he quotes ground beef percentages. (See Graph).Any questions? Just comment. I like to help.That's about it. I'm back in business again with a clean machine. I have another big batch of Habanero's to dry.

The media could not be loaded. Although I have a huge dehydrator that I bought from Cabella's, I haven't used it much because I never had enough to dehydrate to justify the cost of the electricity to run it. I recently got into growing my own herbs, and they became so prolific, I couldn't use them fast enough. I found this dehydrator, and decided, judging on the reviews, that it would be perfect for smaller jobs.My first project was to dehydrate basil leaves since my basil, which I grow indoors under lights, was exceeding its bounds. Since there has been some concern about the running noise of this dehydrator, I am initially including a video that you can hear the noise level. Personally, I don't think it is more than a hair dryer, but you don't have to listen to a hair dryer for 12 hours or more. Since I have a number of macaws, I am not sensitive to noise, but I have to admit that the constant noise did get to me after a while. It isn't unbearable and is much less than the larger dehydrator we have, but I may find a place for it that I don't have to hear it for so many hours.Even so, I believe this dehydrator will do the job for the smaller portions I want to dehydrate. I like that this dehydrator can be set up for one or more trays as needed, and that it has temperature and time controls. When the time set is done, it will automatically shut off. If you want to check food before the done time, you can press the off button to check the food and then press the on button to continue the dehydrating process where it left off.UPDATE 09/30/18:The more I use this dehydrator, the more I love it. I am growing so many herbs indoors that I can't possibly use them all before they get overgrown and the taste goes bad. This is particularly true of basil and parsley. With this dehydrator, I can easily dehydrate what I can't use and freeze them for later. Using this method, the herbs are still so much better than the jarred herbs you can buy in the store. I still plan to try the fruit leathers, and will update this review when I do.UPDATE 10/16/18:Tonight, I decided to try making the fruit roll ups in this dehydrator. It was so incredibly easy. We have a variety of different fruits that we buy when they are on sale and then freeze them. I have been using them to make smoothies, but I now have a new use for them.As I try more foods in this dehydrator, I will update this review and also add pictures. If you find this review helpful, please click on the helpful button. Tonight, I chose strawberries and bananas because the flavors go well together and both have enough pectin in them. I added an equal amount of each to the large cup of my Ninja food processor, and put the cup in the microwave to thaw the fruit. As the fruit was thawed, I added more of each until I had about 12 ounces.When using frozen fruit, you shouldn't add additional water, and since there is a lot of water in most fruits, most of it should be poured out to speed up the dehydrating process. Once the fruit was pureed, I poured it into the fruit roll tray and spread it evenly in the tray. I did use a spray oil in the tray as suggested, but next time I will use less or try skipping it. The instruction book says it will take 4-7 hours to dehydrate a fruit roll, and mine took about 6 hours, I did flip it in the middle to dry the underside more quickly. It smelled so good, I could hardly wait to try it. OH my, this is so yummy, I now have a new healthy snack for my family. The next time I plan to make 6 of them in different flavors. I have added a pictured of this fruit roll in the dehydrator,and one of what the fruit rolls looked like after I cut them. I must confess I ate a couple of them before I took the picture. My suggestions for fruit rolls is to use no more than 1 1/2 cups of pureed fruit, and make sure it is spread on the fruit roll tray as evenly as possible.