Excalibur 3926T

by Liz
(Northern California)

I absolutely love my Excalibur! I've made trail food, and it's hard to keep making beef jerky ahead of the demand. It's wonderful to know what I'm actually getting in the food, rather than a bunch of preservatives, artificial flavorings, and artificial food colorings. Having dried fruit is just like having candy. And most people who ate the dollops of dried flavored yogurt that I made thought they were some kind of taffy -- they were so much like candy.

If I had to pick one thing I didn't like about it is that I didn't buy enough of the Paraflex sheets to make fruit leathers and to dry the really liquid-y foods. I need to buy more of these.

There are so many things to love about it. I used to have a Nesco round dehydrator, and I sold that after I got the Excalibur. It's easy to use, easy to get trays in and out without having to unstack everything else, things seem to dry faster and more evenly (even if I don't rotate trays), and I can even use the box without trays to make yogurt in a bowl or use every other tray to raise yeast rolls. The Nesco used to live in a cabinet, but the Excalibur has earned its place on my countertop. I use it almost every day.

I also strongly suggest that people starting out with dehydrating foods get the book from Excalibur. "Preserve It Naturally" gives so much information on how to dry specific foods, including how long they'll take to dry in different parts of the country (US) and in different seasons. It's the first book that takes into account the amount of humidity generally found in an area, which greatly affects how long it takes to properly dehydrate foods.

There are a lot of kitchen appliances I could give up, but my Excalibur? Never!!!