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Login Here Signup Here Signup using FacebookHello everyone, my mother is beginning to limit or even rarely let me eat dehydrated food (crackers, cookies, etc.) but I really want to be able to make freezer fudge and Kandace’s Frozen Vanilla Bliss (both have nut/seed butters). Also I can’t have any unsoaked nuts. I really like nut butters too but you can’t make nut butter if the nuts are wet, because it will just turn into a mushy cream. And nt being able to have unsoaked nuts does’t help either. Does anybody know of a way to dry the soaked nuts/seeds without a dehydrator so I can have nut butter?? Maybe freezing them would “freeze-dry” them? I would really appreciate it if somebody could help. Thank you everyone.
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Hmmm, interesting. Freezing them to “freeze dry” them. Sounds like it could work… but I’ve never tried it.
Why is your mom limiting your dehydrated foods? Just wondering.
Oh, it’s because she and me too a little have experienced digestive problems and have thought about the theory that there is alot of mold that forms in the food before it’s done dehydrating, bacteria, and other unwanted things. Also, we believe that the dehydratation process drys and “wilts” the food. Weird, but it kinda makes sense.
I would think if you froze them the water would one turn into ice chunks around the nuts, and two they would more than likely get stuck together. I don’t think it would work, because as the nuts thaw the moisture will still be there. Why not air-dry them?
Air dry would be your best option in my opinion.
Freezing would be like drying and wilting the food to.
Mold? How so? I want to know more. Mold only grows if their is moisture… (am I wrong?) ...and dehydrating gets rid of the moisture.
Your exactly right germin8, mold only grows if there is moisture. But when you first put the wet batters or whatever in your dehydrator, there still will be moisture for several hours before the food will dry. Mold, bacteria, anything else could grow on the food. About 4 hours after I put something in the dehydrator, I taste it and it tastes spoiled. But then, the food tricks you once it’s completely dry as there is no mold falvor after the food is dry. It’s a really weird thing.
My other suspicion is that the temperatures for dehydration are WAY too high. 116 degrees?? What?
If a person could die of a fever at 104 degrees because the enzymes die, then why wouldn’t the precious enzymes in our nut and seed creations (or anything else) survive at 116?? Tell me that makes sense. Yeah yeah, the temp of the dehydrator is not the same as the temperature of the food, but still people, come one. Your eating cooked food if your eating dehydrated food, because most likely alot of those great enzymes are killed. From now on in my dehydration, I am going to dehydrtae at 90 degrees to be safe.
Thanks for the air dry tip! How exactly do you air dry them? Just pour the water off and let them dry in the air? Thanks!
hmmm, interesting point, but last time I checked I wasn’t a stalk of celery! :) Plant chemistry is differetn to ours. Studies have shown that 118 is the degree that plant enzymes die at. i am sure to be safe dehydrating at lower temps is because some ezymes may perish at lower temps.
About the mold issue, perhaps if the dehydrator is not efficient, the food will stay moist too long before it reaches the dry state. Just speculating here!
rawclaire, I’m going to have to try that… taste my food after 4 hours of dehydrating. I have only made one recipe like that (that needed 6 hours of dehydrating), but I didn’t notice anything. I am sure something like raw honey (anti-bacterial), fresh lemon (preservative or other natural preservative) will help.
Also! I understand what you mean about 104F degrees… BUT, I have taken hot-cold showers before… and although, I couldn’t stand very cold water like some… I could take 118F hot water. So, yes 118F sounds fine to me. I certainly felt pretty good after that… of course, I finished with a cold shower which feels even better.
To be safe? Well, if you are concerned about mold, wouldn’t lower temperatures allow for even more time for bacteria/mold to grow?
BTW, enzymes do not get killed… they are denatured
And I agree with Luna blu (and from my understanding), not all enzymes begin to denature at 118F.
Hello everyone. I just wanted to add this, because I heard it was good (by many people), but have never tried it myself...
A lot of people say that "sprouted" almonds and other nuts are much easier to digest. Some places call it "Better than Roasted" (I believe). I'm sure there are many sellers to choose from, but I found this one and it reminded me of this discussion.
http://www.live-live.com/Almonds-Italian-65oz-BTR_p_1016.html
(above, these are the "BTR" ones that are sprouted, washed, dried, etc... that are supposed to be much easier to digest.)
http://www.live-live.com/Freeze-Dried-Mineral-Enhanced-Organic-Raw-Almonds_p_1565.html
(and these are a freeze dried version that has been "mineral enhanced" (in a good way) with ocean minerals.)
Both are all natural, organic, gluten free and I believe they're vegan. I'm not a vegan, but I think I'm going to try them. I have trouble digesting things and nuts are an essential source of vitamins, minerals, protein and good fats that you don't get s lot of other places (especially vegetarians and vegans). I found them doing a searh for "an nuts be freeze f=dried?", because I wanted to find them for long term food storage. Unfortunately they're very hard to find. This is the only place I've found that sells freeze dried nuts of any kind. With them being so nutrient packed with essential nutrition that would be even more important in an emergency it makes my surprised that they're so hard to find.
Hope this helps.
(P.S. I don't have any affiliation with "live-livee" or the manufacturer of the nuts. They're just the ones I found immediately after finding this discussion... and the only place I found that sells freeze dried nuts of any kind. I don't know if there are any other companies that sell the freeze dried ones, but there are a lot of companies that sell the sprouted nuts of different varieties and qualities... and some are probably cheaper.)
Sprouted almonds sound like they might be good. Thanks for the links, David!