Dehydrating in an Oven

[Judy Wilson]

Has anyone tried dehydrating in their oven? Over on eGullet, Maxime Bilet mentioned that you should calibrate it first, because you need a really, really low temperature:

"The most important thing is to calculate just how low your oven really goes (and not just how low it says it goes). You don‚’t want your oven to get above 80 °C / 176 °F to 90 °C / 194 °F."

Has anyone been able to get their oven to go this low?

[Anonymous Modernist 1920]

I often do that for fish fillets, salting and dehydrating them before pan frying.

I put the temp at very low (at 30-40C) and leave the oven door open. The actual temp will be probably closer to room temp..so it is warmish and with oven fan blowing, it works for me. I don't bother about calibration.

[Anonymous Modernist 2565]

my home oven will go as low as 60c and is pretty good at maintaining temp. although the dial only goes to a minimum of 100c, i dont really use the oven thermostat anyway. i keep an oven thermometer in the bottom-centre of my oven and allow an hour extra prep time to fiddle with the temperature dial until the oven holds the temp i want.

I did try to get 55c, but it seems my oven wont get out of bed for less then 60

[Scott Heimendinger]

I purchased a food dehydrator (not the Excalibur, as I wish I had) and although it does a fine job, it's shaped like a cylinder which makes it a pain to arrange foods.

The top of the dehydrator is detachable and contains the fan, heating element and thermostat. I place this part on the top rack of my oven, then put my food on a wire rack on a sheet pan on the oven rack below and close the door. It performs beautifully :-)