Cooking is an art. And to make the cooking life easy, usually, we use several effective cooking items. Parchment paper is one of them, which is heat-resistant, super non-sticky, and coated with silicone. These characteristics make it a more useful and unique item than others.
Parchment paper is so popular because of its versatility. When it comes to using it in a dehydrator, one question may be peeping into our minds, or anyone can ask, “can you use parchment paper in a dehydrator”? The answer is affirmative.
This blog post is all about parchment paper and its versatile usage. So, stay with us to know everything about it in detail.
What is Parchment Paper?
Nowadays, parchment paper is used widely in every cooking sector. It’s well coated with heat-resistant silicone, convenient, and easily accessible everywhere. You would be wrong if you think wax paper and parchment paper are the same things. Though structurally, they are the same, they function differently. Each of them has its characteristics and nature.
Wax paper is coated with wax, so it can be melted if it gets a high temperature. On the other hand, parchment paper can exist in high temperatures too. You will get parchment paper in pre-cut formats and use it several times until it remains paper-coated.
Why Will You Use Parchment Paper in a Dehydrator?
That would be impressive when you try to dry any food using a dehydrator. This section will explain why you will use parchment paper in a dehydrator. And what type of benefits you will get from it.
Parchment Paper is Safe
Parchment paper isn’t made with harmful chemicals, and even it doesn’t provide any harmful chemicals inside the food during processing time. Despite all these, you can use brown (unbleached) paper, which uses fewer chemicals. And it is super safe than other available papers on the market.
The silicone coating makes it heat resistant, although the melting-ness of silicone is very high. You know that the dehydrator operates in a low-temperature mood, so it doesn’t need to be paused for melting parchment paper.
The liners & paper need to adjust based on the dehydrator tray’s size and shape. This paper can be cut easily, and excessive portions need to be flapping at the edge side.
Normally the parchment paper could be used 3/4 times easily until it becomes brittle. Since the paper has no up or downside, both sides could be used easily.
Parchment Paper Keeps Dehydrator Trays Neat & Clean
Dehydration with and without parchment paper has several core differences of effort and time. Badly, you need to clean up trays if you don’t use parchment papers inside them. It takes more time and effort.
All the attached ingredients shouldn’t be easy to remove from trays once done. It takes more effort and time to complete it. To avoid facing these issues, one must use parchment papers in a dehydrator.
Parchment Paper Prolongs Trays Longevity
When you don’t use parchment paper, the food particles stick to the tray surface. So obviously, you will have to scrub it.
On the other hand, less food is attached to trays and doesn’t need to detach them. As a result, you don’t need to scrub and wash them frequently. So, the trays remain in good condition and last longer.
Parchment Paper Don’t Let Food Fall into Cracks
The dehydrator has a hole pattern on its trays, and it allows heat to circulate through the trays easily. These holes are small in size and save food from falling through trays. At the same time, when food starts to moisturize and shrink, the hole of the tray becomes big to fall ingredients through it easily. Using a thick layer of parchment paper works as a net and saves your food from being dried.
Parchment Paper Allows Food Breathing
Aluminum foil and wax (plastic) papers make food air-tied. On the other hand, parchment paper allows air while dehydrating foods. It can generate heat and dehydration, so you don’t need to stop it from reaching the food. The paper is used for drying the fruit, vegetables, several natural herbs, etc., all in one solution.
How to Use Parchment Paper in Dehydrator?
Sometimes we fail to utilize the capability of cooking tools due to a lapse in knowing the standard operating procedure. You can only get the best outcome when you use it appropriately. Here we have listed a few steps that can help you to get the best result using parchment paper.
- Measure dehydrator trays and cut the papers based on them. Ensure that your paper isn’t smaller than the tray. If so, then be mentally prepared to accept a mess.
- To avoid any destruction, first put the paper on trays and then place food on top of it. We’re pretty sure you get the point why we suggest doing so.
- After placing trays in the dehydrator, then start dehydrating. Keep an eye on it and let the food dry completely.
- Just after removing the trays, lift remove the paper from them. And keep the tray in a safe place.
- Gently remove the dried food from the paper. Don’t hurry to avoid making a mess.
- If required, save the paper for next usage; otherwise, throw it into the dustbin.
What Can I Use to Line up Dehydrator’s Trays?
First, you need to know what type of food you will dehydrate. Are they start to react after contacting some chemical actions or not.
Second, you might be wondering to know cooking acidic food in aluminum foil can be caused to fold corrode and see some black patches on food. The aluminum fold is best-suited for non-acidic foods.
When foods are dried with a non-stick property, you need to consider how they can react at all? Some foods are more easily lined up than others. Aluminum foil could be used, just for instance usage only. Not for non-stick and sticky ingredients. Aluminum foil is best suited for cooking low-acid and non-stick foods.
The plastic wrap could be ideal for juicy and fruity-type foods. When the juice and flavor are released from food and go top to bottom of the dehydrator, the plastic wrap would be a super flexible choice.
Usually, nori sheets are made from seaweed, and it provides strong fish and seaweed flavor in them. This is used for dehydrating ocean things. It will be the best choice if you don’t want to mix the ocean things flavor with other things.
Plastic embroidery is needed for solid food only. The liners are available online, and they could be cut to fit on dehydrator trays.
Teflex sheets are re-usable and coated with Teflon as well. Due to being so flexible, we use it to make purees and fruit leathers. We recommend buying it from Amazon; they provide the best.
Popular Parchment Paper Brands
Many manufacturers produce the best parchment paper for various uses. Among them, some brands are preferable to use in a dehydrator. Let’s look at some of the most popular and market-leading parchment paper brands.
Certified Parchment (Baking) Paper
They produce chloride-free & environment-friendly parchment paper. We recommend them due to providing the best quality and super strong paper. Please, don’t consider it an expensive item, because it could be used several times if you want. We will suggest investing here because it wouldn’t let you expense again and again.
Smartake parchment (Baking) Sheets
These sheets are packaged in a pre-cut way. And these are presented in an un-fold and straight way so that the ingredients can’t wrap during curl. The food always stays on top of it; it’s amazing. I personally always go for a pack of 200 pieces un-bleached version. And these amounts seem to be a lot because we can use it a minimum of 3-5 times for each paper. The medium-sized paper could be placed in a dehydrator easily.
Frequently Asked Questions
Parchment paper or Wax paper?
Don’t think these two papers are the same thing. You couldn’t place wax paper in a dehydrator because it can melt at low temperatures, and if it happens, it levels the food. Even you don’t use its liner in a dehydrator.
Baking paper or Parchment paper?
Yes, both baking paper and parchment paper are the same things. In the USA, sometimes these are known as bakery paper.
Is over dehydrating could be done for any food?
You can over dehydrate your food when you dehydrate them at a high temperature for so long. If you make plenty of food for the dehydrating process, you need more area for a long time (possibly up to 14 hours).
How to clean dehydrator trays?
- First, try to fill up the sink with hot water.
- Second, put soda (baking) and dishwasher soap in the water.
- Try to remove the tray’s dust by brushing with a soft rubber brush.
- Do wash and rinse with clean water and let it be dried fully.
What things could be done with a dehydrator?
- Making fruit leather
- Making Yogurt
- Drying granola & sprouted flour
- Making seeds, jerky, tempeh & crispy nuts
Is Pasta could be dried in a dehydrator?
You can dehydrate homemade Pasta in a dehydrator. Set 2 ply parchment paper on the boiler and then put the Pasta on top. And keep the medium heat until it becomes fully moisturized.
Do you dehydrate soup with a dehydrator?
You can dehydrate soup by placing them on top of the dehydrator’s trays. In this regard, you can use it oven too. But, you have to use wax paper in exchange for parchment paper; it’s not mandatory to keep soup below room temperature. You can dehydrate anything you want; just keep the temperature medium-low moisture level.
Conclusion
So now, you have all the information about using parchment paper in a dehydrator. If you wish to go with custom-made dehydrator trays, you must go with parchment paper due to its versatile uses and nature.
We are at the end of this article. Hopppefy, it was helpful for you. This paper is a versatile item that has many applications. You can even use parchment paper in pressure cookers. So, if you can utilize its versatility, it will make your cooking easier than ever.