The most exciting thing to enter my kitchen in a long time is this Stainless Steel Five Tray Dehydrator from TSM. 
Most of my raw cookbooks recommend the Excalibur 9 tray, so I got that first. It was too big and too loud for my small house (I have an open floor plan), and frankly, I found Excalibur's customer service to be lacking.
Most of my raw cookbooks recommend the Excalibur 9 tray, so I got that first. It was too big and too loud for my small house (I have an open floor plan), and frankly, I found Excalibur's customer service to be lacking.
I looked and looked and couldn't find another option until I happened to notice someone talking about the Sausage Maker on a raw foods message board. Then the fabulous raw foods blogger, Susan, from Rawmazing, told me she used a Sausage Maker too. I did some homework and it turns out that TSM and Sausage Maker are one and the same. Sausage Maker originated as a dehydrator for hunters to preserve their game. But raw foodists caught on and started using their dehydrators because of their high quality. TSM realized they had another market demographic and wisely took the sausage logo off the machine.
The unit itself is very good looking. It's well built and has a sexy industrial appearance for the kitchen. It's quiet-very quiet which I didn't think would matter since I like white noise, but if you are going to have something on for 20 hours in a small space, it can be really annoying if it's too loud.
The trays are high quality stainless steel and it has a timer. A timer! This is so helpful when you have something going for many hours and is surprisingly absent from many dehydrators. Their customer service is friendly and helpful, I had to call about the temperature dial--it corresponds to the chart on the top left of the machine, raw foodists will want their knob to stay within that first space on the dial in case anyone else is wondering. Also, be sure to ask for one with a little hole in the door for a thermometer probe if you want to to monitor the temperature (and you probably will).
I'm still in the experimental stage food-wise but I will be posting more about my adventures in dehydrating (I'm pretty obsessed). For now I give you my utmost recommendation for this model. It's the nicest dehydrator I've ever seen and I've been looking like crazy. If you are embarking on your own raw foods journey or want to upgrade from your current dehydrator, or just need a fabulous gift for the raw foodie in your life, check it out HERE.
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18 comments:
thank you so much for this post. I'm in the market for one and the noise factor would defiately be an issue with my hubbie. I love the look of this too. Just need to find it in Canada.
:)
I have been thinking about the plastic in the excaliber and wondering if another dehydrator might be better at some point. they say heated plastic is not good. so this one may take off! some excalibers do have a timer, so that's not a huge difference.
have fun with it!
Hi Tamikko, you should be able to order online and have it shipped to you in Canada. TSM's customer service is super nice, so give them a call and see what they can do for you. (888-490-8525)
xo
Eco Mama
This does look very nice, you are really making me want a dehydrator. I have been enjoying the raw foods stuff you are doing, it's new to me too and I'm very curious to try some of these things. Looking forward to more posts about this!
Hi Bitt,
I think the plastic ones are great for just starting out or for the occasional food prep--but you're a pretty seasoned raw foodie, right? I think it would be worth checking into for you, it's very impressive, I'm totally in love with it. Thanks for your comments!
xo
Eco Mama
Hi Norma Jean,
I haven't been this excited about an appliance since I got my high speed blender a couple of years ago. Raw foods are so exciting and this is a wonderful tool. I encourage you to check it out and see what you think. Thanks so much for your support!
xo
Eco Mama
Now that looks like one serious dehydrator! I have a dinky little American Harvest (or something like that) that hasn't gotten much use... But it's such an awkward round shape, I can't use it to make fruit leathers or anything. Maybe I should look into getting a real one like this that I can actually use.
Thanks for visiting Hannah! I wish you would get into raw cuisine because you are an artist with food and I'd love to see what you'd do with it!
xo
Eco Mama
I looked at this model too, as I was a little concerned about the plastic in the other ones. It came down to this one and the Living Foods dehydrator. I went with the Living Foods one, which is wooden, and I bought the kit so I put it together myself. Like you, I am obsessed with drying these days. The Living Foods dehydrator is perfect for raw foodists. I am not one but try to do as much as I can. Would love to see some dehydrator recipes! My daughter loves fruit leather I make in it and I've got a couple of great cracker recipes too!
This one looks classic. I wonder if that's better than the plastic in excaliber. i have been using mince for years now and so far so good. Where do I find that here in Nevada.
Perforated metal sheets
That looks like an awesome equipment made of perforated stainless steel! It looks perfect with my on-going beef jerky project, because I want to make a delicious beef jerky without the long waiting time needed to make one batch.
I also liked how uniformly designed the grills are and its body of stainless steel. Extrusions like that not only makes the product good, but it also provides a certain factor that garners success on whatever foodstuff you want to prepare.
Does anyone know where this unit is made? I am looking specifically for non-plastic,non-Teflex dehydrators and accessories (for health reasons); but, also for health reasons, I prefer not to buy anything made in China that's destined to touch my food or go inside my body or be absorbed by it.
Does anyone know where this unit is made? I am looking specifically for non-plastic,non-Teflex dehydrators and accessories (for health reasons); but, also for health reasons, I prefer not to buy anything made in China that's destined to touch my food or go inside my body or be absorbed by it.
It turn the food dehydrated at the same time I get like that when I buying some products from viagra online because I get like a prune.
Stains can come from food being burned in the pan, from excessive heat or from mineral content in your tap water. If you have a high calcium content in your tap water, you may notice a chalky white residue forming on your cookware. This challenge in cleaning stainless steel cookware isn't too difficult.Stainless Steel Benches
Well, my thoughts may be a few years late for this conversation, but I am wondering about the research regarding chrome and nickel leaching out of 304 food grade stainless steel (see http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf402400v). I know the study used highly acidic tomato sauce to test the leaching process, but I wonder what extended hours in a dehydrator might mean for foods. Any thoughts?
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