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Hi, I'm just this week i started an experiment using a little oven as dehydrator it goes to 40 degree celcius a bit on the edge but it works (slow very very very slow) I can get it lower I think but it need some thinkering and 40-45 degrees is still in the save range. I really think you shoudn't dry it at to high temp. the food start to change if its to high.
I've used my oven to dehydrate with reasonably good success. The temperature may not be ideal, but I figure it is still better than actually cooking the food. A lot of things I have read recommend starting out at 145 degrees, so 120 shouldn't be a problem. My oven says the lowest temp is 140, but if I fiddle with it, I can get it lower. I use a regular thermometer to check the temperature. During the day I usually turn it on for 30-60 seconds, then turn it off and it stays warm for a while. At night I set it higher and leave the door slightly ajar, which is also good for ventilation. It's not an exact science, but I can't afford a dehydrator right now, so I do what I can.
I have also heard that dehydrators don't heat to the temperature you set them to. They maintain the food at that temperature, so it's often hotter inside the dehydrator than the set temperature states.
Honestly, it takes food a while to heat all the way though, so I can't imagine that short exposure to higher temperatures immediately kills all of the enzymes (as some people seem to think). It does take a long time for food to heat all the way through, especially at lower temperatures.
thanks, this helps me! I'll just have to give it a try I guess :)
I also thought about keeping the door open. Or maybe put in some ice haha. Btw, how do I know if I've killed the enzymes?
I don't know how you can tell if you've destroyed the enzymes. I guess eat it, and see how you feel after? :)
I find that when I eat food that I have dehydrated in my oven, it's comparable to how I feel when I eat other dehydrated foods, which is different from when I eat cooked food (but also different than, say, a bunch of fruit). So, my oven dehydrating may result in some loss of enzymes, I don't think it's a significant amount. I think it's pretty easy to monitor the temperature with a thermometer though, and if you are not going too high, it shouldn't be a problem.
Gabriel Cousins, I believe, advocates initially using a higher temperature up to 140 or 145 (I can't remember which). He says this doesn't affect the internal temperature of the food, but kind of jump starts things (and maybe helps prevent bacterial growth? I can't remember!). I do that, with my oven door cracked open, so It's not actually that hot in the oven. Then, I will turn the oven on just for a short time to warm it, and let it sit with the oven off and the door shut. My oven won't reach a very high temperature in the 30-60 seconds it is on. It gets up to about 100 degrees. I do this every hour or two (of course, that makes it difficult to dehydrate while you are gone). That works for me, but there are a lot of different theories out there about what temperatures are acceptable, so I think you just have to figure out which one makes the most sense for you and go with it.
I should add that I don't dehydrate many foods, or do it very often. I go back and forth on getting a dehydrator because of that. I think, it's not worth the money or the space it would take up if I am only going to use it once a month (if that), but at the same time, wonder if I would dehydrate more things if I had a dehydrator. Because doing it in the oven is certainly not the most convenient thing.
But you know what? Sometimes I just want a cookie! And I can't afford tiny $12 bags of cookies, and I don't have a dehydrator, so I do the best I can with what I have. It's not perfect, but it is a lot better than a SAD cookie.
My point exactly. I bought 4 slices of raw olive bread yesterday. For 4,50 euro, which is something like 6 dollars. I was so curious!! And it tasted great. But I cannot keep up that lifestyle. So it's either no bread, which I miss very much, or making some myself. In the oven. I sometimes think about a dehydrator. If I could afford one. But I don't know where to put it. My kitchen is tiny! I will get an oven thermometer though. That doesn;t take up too much place :)