How to Dehydrate Foods by Deanna DeLong

For all-around general information on dehydrating, I definitely prefer this book. Deanna is thorough and goes to great detail with many charts and tables and offers a variety of dehydrating methods, slick tricks and tips, and a wealth of information. 

Linda’s note: my copy is a 1979 edition. She has since updated and revised the book.

Herbal Combinations

Linda’s Note: I took a class called  Put a Little Spice in Your Life class with Barbara Hotaling, owner of Paya’s Restaurant in Dubois, Wyoming.  She gave us a CD she had downloaded from the University of Deleware College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. It’s most complete information I’ve ever seen on herbs and spices. It’s free and available for you to copy.

http://ag.udel.edu/extension .

Here is an excerpt from that file:

Creating Seasoned Rubs

Seasoned rubs are great on meats and vegetables. However, the premixed seasonings found at the grocery store often contain up to 90% salt in order for the manufacturer to reduce production costs. You can make your own flavorful rubs with much less sodium and more flavor.

Making your own rubs is especially helpful for people with chemical or nutritional issues.  For general health, you probably want to stay away from the chemicals and toxins manufacturers put in their rubs.

Compound Butters

Here is an interesting way to use those wonderful home-dried herbs.

If you go to really nice restaurants or specialty delis, you can find seasoned butters… at VERY high prices.  However, making your own butters are so easy, you’ll smack your forehead with “why didn’t I think of that!”

You can put together a custom-blended compound butter in less than ten minutes.

Basically:

• Mix your desired herbs and spices into the butter.
• Room temperature butter
• Place butter into mixing bowl with paddles
• Add desired spices and herbs
• Mix until well blended
• Roll it in plastic wrap to make a tight sausage shape.
• Refrigerate or freeze to make it firm.
• Then slice and use.

By the way, this is a great opportunity to use that wonderful micro plainer, if you happen to have one.  Use it to zest lemons, oranges, or other citrus into your butter mixtures.