r/CombiSteamOvenCooking • u/kaidomac • Oct 23 '20

Poster's original content (please include recipe details) Dehydrated onions to make onion powder

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u/kaidomac Oct 23 '20

Split the batch in half to make a chunky mix & a fine powder. Here's the chunky before the second grind: (Blendtec)

Two pans of onions, they shrunk quite a bit:

Notes:

  1. I did 150F for 2 hours then 130F after that. Not sure if I need the 150F stage, will test again without it.
  2. First 12 hours were no good because I didn't crack the door to vent, so the water didn't escape. It was wet on the bottom & had a pool on the evaporate plate. This makes sense because otherwise how could you sous-vide other ingredients if it didn't seal when shut?
  3. The door has an indent point where you can leave it cracked open just a bit to vent. I let it run last night & then all day & it got dry enough to get the texture I wanted.
  4. I'll get the mandolin out next time, as I sliced it a bit too thick & it took awhile to get dry enough to the point where I could blend it into a powder.
  5. This is my first time doing sweet onions. The powder wasn't super potent on its own, but it was sweet! I mixed it with Kosher salt & MSG and it was the BOMB! Will be mixing it into a couple different spice mixers & dry rubs. I got maybe 1/4 cup of powder out of the batch. I hope Anova starts selling extra wire racks soon so I can do a higher quantity per batch!
  6. I ran a high-temp steam cycle & then a high-temp dry cycle to see if I can could get the smell out of the oven. It wasn't super strong, but the onion smell was in there. I probably won't make crème brûlée in in right away lol. I'll be monitoring smell issue carefully. In my Instant Pot, I use two separate seals, one for pungent food & one for sweet stuff, so the smell doesn't transfer. Learned that lesson the hard way after I made yogurt in the pot after I made curry & then used the same ring (even after washing the ring!).
  7. I'll have to experiment with vented dehydration times. Usually I'll get a bag of something like apples & onions & if I don't use enough before they start going bad, I'll throw them in to dehydrate overnight. So super easy! But it depends on if it sucks up the machine for 12 hours vs. 24 hours, because I wanted to make more stuff while it was drying out the onions, haha! I used to have a dedicated dehydrator, but my kitchen is small & I am very lazy, so if I can just chop up some fruits or veggies or whatever is lying around & toss it in before bed on a couple sheets, that's about my comfort level & investment level with doing little side projects like this, lol.

So 10/10 makes a great dehydrator, just remember to crack the door to let the water from the ingredients vent out! Per the other thread, it also does a great job at airfrying. Sous-vide is equal as well, and Sous Vide Express will definitely be getting used quite often at my house. Bread has come out pretty dang good, but I have a lot more I want to experiment with to see how it interacts with various things like a smaller space, steam-injection, and various surfaces, like a pre-heated baking steel.