Jeanette Hurt's new cookbook "Dehydrating" encourages users to "up their cocktail game" with dried wheels of lemons, oranges or limes as the garnish for mixed drinks.

Jeanette Hurt's new cookbook, “Dehydrating,” is part of a series of books called The Self-Sufficient Kitchen.

Jeanette Hurt is a Cedarburg-based author and food writer. Her latest book is about dehydrating food, flowers and more. 

Jeanette Hurt's new cookbook "Dehydrating" encourages users to "up their cocktail game" with dried wheels of lemons, oranges or limes as the garnish for mixed drinks.

Jeanette Hurt's new cookbook, “Dehydrating,” is part of a series of books called The Self-Sufficient Kitchen.

Jeanette Hurt is a Cedarburg-based author and food writer. Her latest book is about dehydrating food, flowers and more. 

As the poets say, “the course of true love never did run smooth.” Thank goodness for that, or Jeanette Hurt may never have discovered the culinary possibilities of a food dehydrator. 

“It was kind of funny,” Hurt said. “My best friend broke up with her boyfriend, and when he moved out, he left a dehydrator behind. She knew I was a foodie, so she asked if I wanted it.” 

With that, Hurt began a journey with food preservation that has resulted in two cookbooks and a pantry now well-stocked with dried herbs, vegetables and fruits — plus dehydrated dog treats, a plethora of fruit leathers and even some dried flowers from special occasions. “Dehydrating” was published by Penguin Random House earlier this month ($20.45 at Bookshop.org).  

“Drying is one of the oldest ways to preserve food. Civilizations have literally been doing it for thousands and thousands of years,” Hurt said. “There’s a reason for that. It’s easy. And the results are delicious.” 

Hurt is a prolific writer based in Cedarburg, the author of more than a dozen books including one about the cheeses of California, an unofficial Aldi cookbook, comfort recipes using cauliflower, the process of making hard apple cider, and a definitive work about Wisconsin cocktails. 

Hurt’s new cookbook, “Dehydrating,” is part of a series of books called The Self-Sufficient Kitchen. Other titles include a primer on canning produce and jam called “Preserving,” a guide to making pickles, kimchi, kombucha and sourdough titled “Fermenting,” and a step-by-step tutorial for smoking everything from meat to cheese to ice cream called “Smoking Foods.” 

Hurt attributes this recent focus on old foodways to a variety of factors. First, there’s a desire to move away from the dyes, artificial flavors, excess salt and sugar, and chemical preservatives that go into a lot of processed food. 

“When you are dehydrating, you have complete control over the ingredients,” said Hurt. “It’s like anything homemade. Making soup mixes, dried fruit snacks, even meringues from scratch in the dehydrator, you can really taste the difference.”

The interest in “do-it-yourself” techniques is another reason Hurt believes home food preservation is becoming more popular, thanks in part to cooking fads during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“People famously started making sourdough bread at home when we were all sheltering in place. They realized how easy and how satisfying it was to make delicious food in your own kitchen,” Hurt said. “You definitely feel a sense of accomplishment when processing big batches of zucchini from the garden or apples from the orchard. Once they are dried, you can enjoy them all year long.” 

Another compelling reason to dry food? “From an environmental perspective, we want to keep food out of the landfills,” Hurt said.

“Drying produce you can’t use is obviously a better alternative to simply throwing it away. And with inflation driving up food prices, it’s a great way to ensure you get your money’s worth from all the fresh produce you buy.” 

Hurt said that in her house, there is always a half-eaten bag of celery lurking in he fridge. 

“Celery is not something we eat a lot. I buy it when I’m making stock or chicken salad, but I never finish the whole package,” Hurt said. “So now I use the amount I need fresh, then dry the rest … I can make celery powder, which is a great ingredient to add flavor into salad dressings, soups and other dishes.”  

Unlike frozen food, dehdyrated food takes up very little room, Hurt explained. 

“When you dry fruits and vegetables, they shrink down,” she said. “With the water removed, you can keep a lot of produce in small, plastic, air-tight containers for up to a year.”

Perhaps the best argument for dehydrating food, Hurt explains, is that it’s very easy. Compared to canning, or even freezing food to preserve it, dehydrating requires virtually no cooking skills and very little active time. 

Once fruit is sliced into even pieces and treated with lemon juice or citric acid, it is simply placed on trays and left in a dehydrator for several hours. Vegetables may need to be blanched first, but then the process is the same.

“There’s no stirring, no hovering over a stove, you can’t really burn things. Dehydrating just takes patience and some basic equipment.” 

While the principle is identical for drying food, herbs and flowers, there are a few variables that Hurt has worked out that will help beginning home dehydrators immensely. 

Each recipe lists the temperature — which typically ranges from 100℉ to 175℉ — and the time required to dehydrate a wide range of foods. Since a radish has a very different water content than a tomato, for example, the time required to dry them differs greatly. 

Following Hurt’s instructions, it’s possible to quickly expand your dehydration repertoire from fresh produce to beef jerky, granola and even baby food.

Although cooks have been using the sun to dry food for centuries, to be both safe and efficient, Hurt recommends buying either a stackable, round dehydrator or a cabinet style model, which can process more food at a time. These small appliances should have a heating coil, temperature guage and a fan for ideal drying conditions. Silicone mats are also a must if you are planning to dry fruit leather. 

As readers page through Hurt’s cookbook, they’ll find a range of ingenious projects she discovered for her humble home dehydrator. 

“Once you have one, you find lots of applications for it,” she said, “from making lightweight, packable meals for camping trips, to upping your cocktail game using dried wheels of lemons, oranges or limes as the garnish for mixed drinks.” 

Hurt has dehydrated wedding bouquets so the bride could make potpourri or dried flower arrangements to commemorate the special day. Raw food enthusiasts can add variety to their diets with Hurt’s recipes for dehydrated crackers and breads that aren’t technically cooked. Even the family dog has done some taste-testing of dried treats featuring veggies, peanut butter, chicken skin and liver sausage. 

Hurt has moved on to her next project, and is currently finishing up a book on the history and variations of the whiskey sour — some with dehydrated garnishes, of course. And while she always encourages experimentation, there is one food she knows is just not a good fit for dehydration. 

“Watermelon,” she said with a grimace. “Water is right there in the name. After hours in the dehydrator you’re left with this sticky goo … it’s just not a good idea.” 

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