Making Italian Squash Chips

After many iterations making vegetable chips, we succeeded in making some that are as good as any commercial chips. My brother gave me the recipe, lent me his food slicer and four batches later I'm an expert. It takes less than an hour to slice five long Zucchino Rampicante squash (Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds) into discs, marinade them in a mixture of:

1. 1/2 cup of pureed garlic
2. 3 Tablespoons of olive oil
3. 2 Tablespoons of cumin
4. 1 Tablespoon of smoked paprika
5. 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne
6. 3 Tablespoons of lemon juice
7. (optional) 1 Tablespoon of turmeric

102 Ounces of Zucchino Rampicante Squash

The Electric Toastmaster Food Slicer Processed Five Squash in 10 Minutes!

and arrange them on dehydrator sheets. Disc thickness that worked best for me: 1/8 inch. Insure each squash chip is covered in spice and place closely-packed on teflon or silicone sheets on dehydrator trays. I tried placing chips directly on grates but they tend to wrap themselves around the wire - although they do make fancy fluted chips that way (that don't pack well). Dry for 8 hours at 115 F and then flip each one and dry another two hours, or more if they are not yet very crisp. After removing the stem and blossom scar, 100 ounces of fresh squash made 8 ounces of crisp chips! They lost 92% that was water! Both thickness and diameter were greatly reduced so the flat chips easily pack into a quart zip-lock bag.

Close-packed Squash Slices on Teflon Sheet

Same Sheet as Above, After Drying 8 Hours

Another Sheet Before Drying

Same Sheet After Drying

Dehydrating Fruits and Veggies

This year's apple and pear crops are the largest ever. We already have enough jars of canned applesauce so we were looking for other ways to preserve bumper crops. We tried dehydrating slices of apple in a small round plastic dehydrator but the heater failed so we ordered a large, all stainless steel appliance that has 10 large rectangular shelves. 

Granny Smith Apple Slices: Fresh

Granny Smith Apple Slices: Dry Are much Smaller than the Plump Slices Above.

Tomato Puree, 0.13 Inches Thick Covering a Layer of Teflon-coated Fiberglass.

Fresh Tomato Puree Ready to Lose Water: One-eighth Inch Thick Layers Became Paper Thin Chips. The Tomato Puree Coats the Teflon Coated Fabric.

We've now tried three different ways to make kale chips, three forms of apple slices, apple leather, two ways to dry tomatoes and make hot pepper slices. Next we will try slicing pears, many varieties of veggie chips, and venison jerky. 

Interesting apple statistics: it takes 26 large Granny Smith apples, weighing ten pounds, to make nine trays of skinless slices weighing nine pounds to make 1.8 pounds of dehydrated slices requiring eight hours of drying at 130 degrees F. 

Tomato stats: use a colander to remove five gallons of clear yellow liquid from six gallons of pureed tomato/tomatillos/garlic. Spread the thick ten pounds of red paste one-eighth inch thick on nine square feet of teflon coated sheets. Drying for ten hours at 130 degrees F. results in ten ounces of tomato "paper" that easily fits in a quart zip-lock bag.