The first snow flakes are falling and mushroom season 2017 has ended. Not going into a detail, but just quickly, chantarelle and boletus season was fair, while funnel and black chantarelles were difficult to find in numbers. And it was especially now when I invested on a dehydrator for only funnels and black chantarelles - and actually bought immediately two units with huge bargain.
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| These boleti are not dried, but eaten right here, right now! |
So, with struggle I managed to pick some 20 liters of funnels and black chantarelles for dehydrator test. As OBH Nordica 6775 is quite cheap piece of equipment (~40€), I was expecting lack of adjustment, too high temperature, and high noise. Still, I was expecting that even cheap dehydraror would help my life by avoiding oven/sauna/heated-floor dehydrating.
Well, OBH Nordica 6775 indeed was very noisy.. and way too hot... and there was only limited possibility to tune the system: two steps for air blow intensity, and two steps for rack height. Naturally, the first round of funnels were overcooked. But after some trial and error (and spending all the picked mushrooms), I finally found a decent way of working with dehydrators.
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| Dehydrators in action like the manufacturer suggests. Result: burned mushrooms. |
So to prepare "better than oven-dried" funnels and black chanterelles, you need two OBH Nordica 6775 dehydrators. Take all the racks and pile them up with the highest setting. Then add only one heating/blowing unit to the top of the tower and use it at lower blowing speed. It works quite nicely, and is fast enough (some 8 liters in 8 hours). If you want higher quality, use matches between racks, to get some extra temperature loss by increasing air flow from the sides of the tower. With modifications and bargain price, I'm very satisfied. Hope the next season will bring more than 20 liters of stuff to dry!
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| See the difference! On the center can dried mushroom with manufacturers advice; on the left can I used racks from two dehydrator units, but only one heating/air blowing unit! |
// Sienikausi oli ja meni. Kanttarellia ja herkkutattia löytyi hyvin, suppilovahveroita ja mustia torvia huonommin. Ja juuri tänä vuonna ostin sienikuivurin, nimenomaan suppiksille, ja kerralla kaksi kun halvalla sai, joten aika raivolla sai kerätä 20 litraa testimateriaalia metsästä.
Itse kuivuri on äänekäs, todella kuuma ja mitään erikoisempaa säätövaraa nyt ei tietysti ole (asento I ja II puhaltimelle, kaksi korkeutta tasoille) kun kyseessä on halpa laite (~40€). Jos laitetta käyttää kuten ohjeissa, palaa suppikset pilalle. Mutta kokeileva tiede osoitti, että kun pinoaa väljään asentoon kahden kuivurin telineet, ja laittaa huipulle vain yhden puhallinyksikön minimiteholle, saa parempaa jälkeä kuin kiertoilmauunissa. Ja jos haluaa hifistellä, niin tulitikkuja voi työnnellä tasojen väliin, jolloin ilma pääsee virtaamaan ennen aikojaan pois ja lämpö laskee entisestään. Modauksien jälkeen, ja halpa hinta huomioiden erittäin hyvä ostos. Nyt vaan toivotaan tulevaisuudelta isompia saaliita!
