Excalibur Dehydrator

[zac150]

I have just upgraded dehydrators after 12+ years using a Fowlers Vacola (pm me if you anyone wants this). Whilst the Fowlers has been a solid workhorse over the years the Excalibur is at a whole new level, as you can tell I am very impressed.

Most notable is the change in trays, the excalibur uses a silicon mesh that is very flexible making the removal of food very easy.

The timer options means ensuring the food is not over dried easy and the heat control is fantastic and has nice graphics to ensure you get the temps correct.

I am in the process of hydrating for an upcoming trip so will add some photos of machine and food for those interested.

[sim1oz]

We just got a 9-tray Excalibur as well. Love it!!! I'm busy dehydrating meals for our upcoming trip to Tasmania. Look forward to seeing your photos.

[monika]

Zac, are you keeping or selling your old dehydrator? I'm looking at purchasing one for the occasional extended walk and if it's worked well for you, I'd be interested in buying it! cheers

[zac150]

monika, pm me if you are interested, i am happy for it to go to a good home as I wont be using it. It still has a little life felt in it.

[srforum112]

Its great to read the excellent reviews on the excalibur dehydrator. I am keen to upgrade to this dehydrator as my fowler dehydrator is struggling with my dehydrating load and schedule! It has been a very good machine.

Zac, could you tell me which model you purchased and where you brought it from.

Thanks Sonja

[zac150]

So, I have now completed my first full trip's food in the excalibur dehydrator and I must say I am really impressed. The main selling points so far are for me have been:

1) The quality of the food
2) I have been able to dehydrate food that I have failed in the past
3) Peeling sticky items off the tray is very easy with the silicon trays
4) The size of the machine has allowed me to dehydrate food for 6 people for a three day hike over a weekend.

So my menu for the trip is:

Breakfast - home made breaky bars, I hate cooking in the morning and prefer to get a quick start so breakfast is coffee and a bar.



Bar is made from puffed rice, corn flakes, bran and mixed fruit; I mainly use apricot delights and coconut to give them a tropical flavour. Each bar weighs in at 200g

Snacks on the trial include dried fruit:



rollups made from dried yogurt stuck to dried mango





We also have some rice crackers.

Lunches are wraps, we have soup for when we get to the hut and dinners are Spag Bol & a Shepherds pie (without base)



For six people for 3 days we have the food to around 1500g each.

[JohnDaly TakeAWalk]

We are pretty impressed with the Excalibur dehydrator as well.
If you are looking for some really tasty, well tested menus for dehydrating, have a look on our website - http://www.takeawalk.com.au/TakeAWalkTucker.htm
We can generally get our food down to 1kg per day for multi day walks.

[zac150]

John, some nice recipes there, I like the look of the satay chicken.

On shorter easier trips where weight is not at a premium I like to dehydrate the ingredients separately as I find I get better results in the actual meal. Longer trips I tend to focus on whole meals. Although at 1.5kg of food we have some things which are over the top like smoked trout to go with our cheese entree.

[sim1oz]

We had a fabulous time on the Overland Track and our dehydrated food worked out brilliantly. I am embarrassed to say I don't think we lost any weight. I aimed for very simple one pot meals, or at most two-step cooking. Some of the things I dehydrated included minestrone soup; lentil tomato & coconut cream soup; raspberries and blueberries to jazz up our porridge; strawberry apple compote (or baby food as someone liked to call it); zucchini chips; several dips including pumpkin, tahini, hummus, and tomato salsa; and cooked rice for a tropical fruit rice pudding for dessert. Everything re-hydrated well and we even had too much sticky date pudding so we shared it with 4 other people.

Our Excalibur worked overtime leading up to the trip and delivered perfect results. My experimenting will continue!

Re-hydrated minestrone soup

Tasmania 409 cropped.jpg (79.5 KiB) Viewed 29430 times

Sticky date dumplings

Tasmania 453 cropped.jpg (61.06 KiB) Viewed 29430 times

PS. I should have mentioned that with dehydrated food, we only carried 500g each of food per day.

[srforum112]

I am upgrading my dehydrator to a Excalibur from a Fowlers Vacola (6 trays and 5 solid inserts). If anyone is interested in buying my Fowlers Vacola please send me a PM.

[JohnDaly TakeAWalk]

Hi Zac,
You are right - sometimes the meals just don't rehydrate as tasty as they were when they were fresh, so we usually wrap up some additional chili flakes, some dried ginger, garlic or curry to give them a bit of a lift. We just vac the extra stuff into the packet with the meal.

[zac150]

Well back from my walk and all went well.

By far the best meal was the dehydrated yogurt stuck to fruit leather, very tasty and gave a great energy boost.

[Wolfix]

We are pretty impressed with the Excalibur dehydrator as well.

Hi John,

Firstly, thanks to you and Lyn for your excellent guide books.

I'm researching dehydrators at the moment and really my only concern with the Excalibur is the shallow trays. Do you find these a problem when dehydrating meals? It seems to me that it's designed more for drying whole foods than cooked meals and perhaps the Ezidri, Fowlers etc provide better tray shapes for this purpose. How have you found it, seeing as this is your main use?

I am keen about not having to move trays around or flip the meals mid-dry as you need to in the stackable dehydrators. Your input would be really appreciated as I don't know many who own them.

[srforum112]

I brought an Excalibur plus a number of tray liners to dry meals.
Recently I dehydrated tomato sauce and didn't have a problem. I've also dehydrated a number of cooked meals and hummus. I don't find the trays too shallow. If I need more height I reduce the number of trays in the dehydrator and space them evenly in the box.

I had a fowler before the Excalibur. The Fowler was a good dehydrator, the Excalibur is so much better.

[Wolfix]

Thanks for the info. I found one for a very good price on Gumtree and am awaiting its arrival now! I really hope the seller isn't dodgy...

It's the 9 tray model with timer and I paid only $282 including postage. Pretty sweet deal! I can't wait to use it.

[Onestepmore]

Let us know how you go.
I recently bought a hardly used Fowlers on E-bay for $69 with just the 4 base trays. I feel I need to purchase additional trays (they take up to 12) to make it more economical power and time-wise. So far my efforts just with fruit and roll-ups have been great - except I need to work on the thickness of the rollups more, as some bits were brittle, some too sticky. The ring shape is hard to deal with as regards fruit leathers, and I can see the definite advantages of the rectangular drying sheet of an Excalibur.
Yet to try some brined roo meat, and precooked meals. I need a full weekend to experiment!

[JohnDaly TakeAWalk]

Hi Wolfix,
Sorry for the delay in responding - we've just returned from leading a hiking trip to Spain & France.
Pleased you picked up a dehydrator. Would be interested in how you find it.
We have a link to their website on our Take A Walk Tucker page so we are keen to get some more customer feedback.
Cheers
John

[claudicles]

I'm just looking at Dehydrators and I'll spend the money if there is a good reason but I'm really keen to find out what th major advantages of the excalibur over the cheaper ones is. Do they do as well on fruit and vegies? How do they cope with meals? Is it mainly a capacity or time advantage?

Thanks

[Wolfix]

I believe the advantage is distribution of heat, as every tray has equal access to the element and fan. I picked one up from Gumtree. It worked out to be cheaper than the EziDri would have been to buy new. So far have yet to use it.

[Pongo]

In contrast my el cheapo Luvello has the element at the top and although reasonably even, the top two trays dehydrate quicker then the bottom ones.

What this means in practice is that i rotate the trays through once or twice when I'm dehydrating to ensure even treatment.

It sounds like (not that I've used the brands mentioned here) with a timer and even heat distribution you can set it and walk away. Less TLC required.

FWIW, cheap or top shelf, get one, they are awesome! I've discovered a whole new world of bush tucker.

[claudicles]

Thanks. I think I might get one of the sunbeam ones. I read through the instruction book in a shop today and it said to rotate the trays anyway. I'm not likely to do any dehydrating when I am away from the house anyway. Looking at the number of plums I have growing atm, not to mention the crazy herb crops I seem to get some years it sounds like I'll gt great use from one.

[Wolfix]

I always think investing in the best tools is worthwhile. Read up on user reviews because Sumbeam stuff is usually crappily made and you'll end up spending more in the long run.

[Pongo]

In contrast my el cheapo Luvello has the element at the top and although reasonably even, the top two trays dehydrate quicker then the bottom ones.

What this means in practice is that i rotate the trays through once or twice when I'm dehydrating to ensure even treatment.

It sounds like (not that I've used the brands mentioned here) with a timer and even heat distribution you can set it and walk away. Less TLC required.

FWIW, cheap or top shelf, get one, they are awesome! I've discovered a whole new world of bush tucker.

The fan in My Luvello is now dead... It's now time to buy a REAL dehydrator... This is gonna cost.

[simonm]

Any recommendations for best places to buy an excalibur? Do people prefer the 5 or 9 tray model?

[JohnDaly TakeAWalk]

The best thing to do is contact Excalibur on 07 4094 2090, or email lorraine@excaliburaust.com
They will tell you where to get one. There's a promotional code in the Excalibur Advert in the latest reprint of our South East Queensland book (due out soon) that gives you a Free Recipe Book valued at $26.00.
Cheers
John

[Jason L]

This is my first post and I was wondering has anyone bought one of the dehydrators that are being sold on eBay that look like the Excalibur. I can buy an 8 draw with 2 shelf sheets for $120 new. And could you use baking paper to stop food falling through the holes when dehydrating.
Cheers
Jason