I have a friend who has a bumper crop of onions and is seeking directions on how best to dehydrate them. Any suggestions?
Whole? Leave the tops on and braid them and hang them. sliced put between two cheap window screens and dry in the shade. You can also dry them in bins but oniins, unlike potatoes news lots of air circulation so that they don't rot
How to Braid Garlic (or Onions)Photo & Video tutorial | The Art of Doing Stuff Slicing and laying the onions between two pieces of window screen and just letting them dry takes several days but you can tell when they are dry I prefer the braided method because you can hang them in the attic or from the roof rafters
Cut them into slices, then section those (1/2 or 1/4) spread on the trays and dehydrate. If you want full slices to use in soups you may need to blanche them to help dehydrate faster. Store in Vac seal bags in the freezer. Or in mason jars. Heat the jar in boiling water(keep inside dry), remove and quickly pour in dehydrated slices and place the lid and ring and tighten. When the jar cools, it will form a slight vacuum. Place on shelves or freezer. When ready to reuse them, place dehydrated onions in warm water until rehydrated and plump then use as you would if fresh. You can also diec the fresh onions, dehydrate and store as above or when dehydrated use a motar and pistal to grind into a powder and this can be used as a "spice" onion powder. The powered kind should be done at a higher temp or longer to get most all of the moisture out. Caution it will make the house smell like onions. For me thats a good thing cuz we cook a lot so thats a good thing. There are plenty of youtube videos on this subject and other vegies. I try to dehydrate all of my parsley, cilantro, onions, apples, bananas just before they go bad if we dont use them. Save money and makes them usable. Apples and bananas are great snacks dried. I have this Lem dehydrator with Stainless steel trays. Its great. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001K246KW/?tag=survivalmonke-20
I love the LEM all stainless. Timer and temp range are pretty accruate(i have remote temp probes I use) Pros: We went with stainless so there is no outgassing from plastic versions and its easy to clean. CONS: BIG. Unless you have a commerical sized kitchen where you can leave it out on a counter, it needs to be stored somewhere when not in use. That makes saving/drying small batches of product a pain cuz I Have to take it out of the garage. It comes with chrome racks, so we had to buy the stainless steel set as well.
all 7 dehydrators are sunbeam and magic chef with 6 trays each and a heat setting for different things
I like getting a bushel of apples and using a peeler/corer I cut the rings and roll them in pumpkin pie spices/cinnamon/and nutmeg mixed in sugar and dry them --sorry went off on a favorite subject and this tread is about onions
never hold your nose you will miss a taste treat then again I love Limburger cheese but dehydrating is my passion