REVIEW – I love dried fruits and nuts. When the Paris-Rhône PE-FD001 Food Dehydrator came up for review, I thought it might be a chance to see if homemade really is better. I’ve been testing with various food items and am now ready to report my findings.

The Paris-Rhône PE-FD001 Food Dehydrator is an electric food dehydrator with six metal racks, a plastic mesh for finer items, and a tray for fruit leathers

The Paris-Rhône PE-FD001 Food Dehydrator is a stainless steel box 12.5″ x 13.25″ x 17.875″ with a glass door on the front. The door opens downward, and is sealed with a magnetic lock. Above the door on a 30º slanted panel are four buttons and a .875″ x 2.5″ LCD display. When plugged in, the panel lights up and displays time and temperature. To the left of the panel, a “+” and “-” button allows you to adjust the parameters. To the right of the panel, the Time/Temp button toggles between the two readings. The fourth button is a start/Stop button.

In the rear of the box is a large, very quiet fan, about 7.5″ in diameter. Behind it are several air intakes cut into the back panel. On the top are vent slits to allow warm, moist air to escape. The vent area is about 3″ x 5″. (You’ll want to keep these two areas unblocked during operation.)

There is no hardware setup – just wash and dry the grids, put the food in, plug the Paris-Rhône PE-FD001 Food Dehydrator in, and turn it on.

This is where the hardware enables art, rather than engineering. The time and temperature controls, combined with your preparation, will determine the quality of your results, and, like all things in life, it seems, preparation and planning let to a better product. Experimentation will also improve your product over time.

For instance, on the very first batch I ran (herbs – basil, parsley, and cilantro), I found that cilantro needs to use the fine mesh tray because the leaves dry up to such small bits. Basil and parsley weren’t as bad, but all the herbs do better with the mesh.

While the manual goes over the basics of time and temp for common foods, there are many more nuanced preparation steps to using this tool. (How thick to slice? Do I use vinegar water or ascorbic acid water to prevent apples from turning brown? Should I dip banana slices in honey water?) I really like it (and the results!), and am continuing to experiment with how best to get the results I want. The simplicity of operating the Paris-Rhône PE-FD001 Food Dehydrator encourages experimentation, because there is next to no cleanup, and at such low temperatures, cool-down is almost instantaneous. Drying foods does take time, however.

Somewhere in our distant past, someone discovered that drying foods quickly in a fairly dry environment would allow them to keep much of their flavor without rotting or being eaten by vermin. As we moved indoors, discovered electricity, and perfected other methods of food preservation, we kept improving what tools we used for this process. Today, food dehydrators preserve everything from spices and nuts to citrus, stone fruits, and veggies.

As with anything in our modern world, there is a wealth of knowledge (as well as misinformation and blatant sales tactics) online about how to use a food dehydrator. I’m only covering the hardware, and through my testing found this: The Paris-Rhône PE-FD001 Food Dehydrator does what it says it will do quietly and without taking up a ton of space or requiring a lot of fussy assembly or cleaning.

Price: $149.99 Where to buy: Amazon Source: The sample of this product was provided by Paris-Rhône.

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