Dehydrators are used to dehydrate fruit, meat, berries, vegetables, herbs and more. The machine circulates warm air with the help of a fan to slowly reduce the amount of water in foods which, in essence, creates that dry, crispy, and sometimes powdery texture. While dehydrators have been around for a while, one of the most popular questions regarding these appliances seems to be a simple one.
Can you put aluminum foil in a dehydrator? You can put aluminum foil in a dehydrator but take into consideration that aluminum foil isn’t non-stick so make sure to only put ingredients that don’t stick. Aluminum foil may also restrict the dehydrator’s airflow and acidic food may react to the aluminum foil and corrode, leaving small pieces of aluminum foil on your food. If your dehydrator is of the kind that goes in the microwave, then you should not put aluminum foil in it.
The aforementioned dark patches of aluminum foil leave a metallic taste and can ruin the taste entirely.
In this article, we’ll cover what you should take into consideration when using aluminum foil in your loved dehydrator.
What Should I Think of When Using Aluminum Foil In My Dehydrator?
It isn’t rare to put either aluminum foil or parchment paper on the mesh trays when dehydrating something juicy to avoid liquids from dripping through the holes. However, using aluminum foil or parchment paper will definitely restrict the dehydrator’s performance by blocking the airflow inside the dehydrator.
The overall time of a cooking cycle in the dehydrator may, therefore, be longer than usual if you use any of these two options. Once you’ve finished dehydrating a batch of your ingredient of choice, the pieces need to be removed from whatever surface you’ve dehydrated them on.
If you have dehydrated something really oily you may have experienced the trouble of scraping the ingredients off the dehydrator’s trays (which seldomly comes easy and successfully).
Aluminum foil isn’t non-stick which will cause said ingredients to stick and create a lot of extra work just to remove. With this said, I recommend only using aluminum foil when you dehydrate ingredients that rarely stick to the surface they’re dehydrated on.
Because you’ve searched for this article, probably by asking Google if you can place aluminum foil in a dehydrator, I’m guessing aluminum foil is the best option you’ve got available at home.
Now, I should mention that parchment paper is a better option many times. Using high-quality, thick parchment paper will cause the ingredients to pop right off when they’re dehydrated. It’s a simple method and a superior one for certain ingredients such as; bananas, apples, pears, pineapples and other fruits.
If that doesn’t sound attractive enough and if you can consider making a very small investment that will go a long way, a plastic screen could be worth the very affordable price they’re asking for it on Amazon (these are only made for Nesco dehydrators – but there should be other alternatives specifically made for other brands on Amazon).
These plastic dehydrator screens are made to hold ingredients that are saucy, and keep food from sticking to the dehydrator’s trays. They’re easy to use and can be put in the dishwasher after use. The screens material and design allows these screens to be bent, which causes the ingredients to pop right off the screen. It doesn’t get easier than that.
The ones I’ve linked to are specifically made for Nesco dehydrators but there’s a bunch of options available on Amazon.
One last thing to take into consideration no matter what material you’re using to hold your ingredients is that if the surface doesn’t have holes in it, the dehydrator will not be able to run as effectively, the circulating hot air that dehydrates the ingredients won’t be able to flow through properly.
This will cause each cycle to take more time, it will not be as effective, and results may vary depending on which dehydrator and how much foil you’re using.
Is It Bad To Put Aluminum Foil In a Dehydrator?
This is a totally valid question. There are scenarios where aluminum foil shouldn’t be used. In combination with acidic foods, for instance. When acidic food comes in contact with aluminum foil, the aluminum may react to it – this often causes the foil to crumble into small dark patches that end up in your food.
What I’ve found to work very well is to use two-sided aluminum foil (where one side is non-stick) the ingredients won’t be in contact with the aluminum foil but instead have a thin layer of non-stick between them. Not only will the ingredients pop off easily, but the juices will remain on the foil – creating a juicy coat around the ingredient when it dries up.
And, as I’ve mentioned before – if your dehydrator goes in the microwave, do not use metals – such as tin foil.
How Do Dehydrators Work?
Dehydrators are designed to remove the moisture of whatever is placed inside the dehydrator. Heating elements inside the dehydrator operate at low temperatures while a fan evenly distributes the heated air between the trays that hold the food.
In order to remove the moisture without burning or overcooking the ingredients, the dehydrator must operate at low temperatures over a long period of time. Most foods are dehydrated at 130 °F (54 °C) but can sometimes stretch up to 155/68 degrees when making jerky.
Regulating temperature and ensuring proper air-flow is key to food dehydration. If the temperature is too high, foods will be cooked on the outside by still moist on the inside – this will make the foods vulnerable to spoiling.
Successfully removing the moisture from foods will also remove parts of the bacterial growth, making the dried-out foods to last longer without spoiling.
As you may understand, food dehydrators are often used to preserve foods. When camping or hiking it may be useful to create batches of dried-out foods as they take up less space and can be preserved for a longer period of time when proper storage isn’t available.
Now, take this into consideration when you’re using aluminum foil and you may understand why foil can restrict the dehydrator from doing its job as effectively as possible.
What Else Can You Use as Dehydrator Sheets?
There are a few viable alternatives that can act as dehydrator sheets, which users are recommended to use by most manufacturers to prevent food from sticking to the dehydrator’s trays. These sheets are, however, not included with the purchase of a dehydrator – there are exceptions to that rule, of course.
Users may need to purchase the sheets separately and even though they aren’t very expensive, some people will not go out of their way to purchase a sheet.
Down below is a list of the substitutes I’m familiar with (we’ve already covered a couple of them in this article)
- Parchment Paper
- Nori Sheets
- Wax Paper
- Plastic Embroidery Mesh
- Teflex Sheets
What Are The Best Foods To Dehydrate?
Dehydrators can be used to dry fruits, veggies, meat, and herbs. While there’s a lot of other stuff that can go in the dehydrator as well, these are the most popular ones, for sure.
You can choose to dehydrate your fruits in thin slices but you can also puree them and spread them out across the tray. Once dehydrated, you will have a thin layer of fruit leather. You can either cut it up into small pieces or stripes.
It’s important that the pieces are sliced equally thin so the batch finishes simultaneously. You don’t want half the batch complete while the other half is still moist and gooey on the inside just cause the pieces weren’t sliced evenly. It can be done with a kitchen knife but your best bet is definitely to use a mandolin.
The mandolin is without a doubt the best tool to accompany a dehydrator, together they will provide everything you may need to make the best out of every ingredient.