>My dehydrator can fit about one pound to one and a half pounds of thinly
>sliced beef in it. So I can in effect make only one pound or so  at a time.
>
>I need to increase my capacity, esp if I am going to go on a trip and take
>pemmican with me.

I'll cast another vote for the Food Pantrie (Perfect Health,free catalog
which has a picture of the dryer, in Oxnard, California.  Ph #
800-444-4584, $60 + $7 shipping). I have no relation to the company--in
fact, I had to seek them out when Real Goods stopped selling it a couple
years back.

It is a nifty low tech dryer. It hangs from anywhere and has 5 trays of
plastic mesh surrounded by fine nylon nettings to keep out insects. Because
there is no heating element--indeed, there is no plug of any kind--the food
is dried at room temp. Pointing a table fan at the Food Pantry speeds the
drying process considerably. IMO air movement and relative humidity are the
factors in drying. A heating element is unneeded in all but the most humid
climates--a fan does the trick.

We just bought two more, since our first one was crudded up from years of
fatty fish aging. (We used to let the ants clean the greasy crud off the
meshes, but the ants in southern CA wouldn't touch it :/)

These Food Pantries are so cool that I don't think I'd ever rig up a
homemade system again, but it is very easy to make some "shelving" out of
wire mesh (1/2" wire "cloth" from any hardware store) and have as much
surface area as you want. Again, we just pointed a table fan at the
meat/fish/fruit or whatever we were drying. We once had a very large sq
footage (30 sq ft or so) for drying in a pantry area--cost under $10 total.
And you will probably have less insect problems than you imagine.

We often carry a couple square feet of wire mesh when we travel (it folds
easily) and if we want to age some fish or meat, we can just set it out on
the mesh--even in a hotel room ;)

Cheers,
Kirt

Secola  /\  Nieft
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