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Preserve the Flavor: The Ultimate Guide to NESCO Food Dehydrators
Preserve the flavors you love with NESCO’s American-made food dehydrators! Whether you want to transform fresh fruits into delicious snacks, craft homemade jerky, or dry your garden’s herbs and spices, NESCO makes it easy and affordable. Let’s dive right in and look at how these food dehydrators made in the USA are the next must-have for your kitchen!
Dehydrate, Save, and Savor: Smart Reasons to Add a NESCO Dehydrator to Your Kitchen
In addition to canning with my All American Pressure Canner, having a NESCO food dehydrator is another way I’ve preserved my garden harvest to enjoy throughout the year. I’ve dehydrated everything from diced zucchini for future soups to fresh peaches from the tree I planted. It’s especially great for preserving my own herbs and spices.
But garden produce isn’t the only thing a food dehydrator is good for. With a NESCO food dehydrator, you can preserve fruits, vegetables, herbs, flowers, and even meat. Some of my favorites are dried bananas and strawberries. Yum!
Save Money
My NESCO food dehydrator lets me preserve fruits and vegetables that would otherwise go to waste. How many times has that last banana or two rotted on the counter? When I see the bunch getting passed up, and have more than plenty in my freezer for banana bread, I slice it up and put it in my NESCO dehydrator.
Another great way to save money with a dehydrator is to stock up on produce when it’s in season and buy meat when it’s on sale. Pop it in your NESCO for future snacks and hearty meals.
Health Benefits
When you dehydrate your own food, you can skip the added sugar, preservatives, and dyes. Whether you make your own trail mix, fruit rolls for the kids, or jerky for dad, you pick the ingredients (or lack thereof)!
Fun and Functional: Endless Possibilities with Your NESCO Dehydrator
A NESCO food dehydrator isn’t just for food. You can use your dehydrator to dry flowers for potpourri, herbs for handmade soaps, make homemade firestarters, or string old-fashioned citrus garlands for the holidays. You’re only limited by your imagination.
Nutritious Snacks
- Fruit: My favorite thing to dehydrate in my NESCO is fruit. Dried strawberries taste like red licorice, and nothing beats a banana chip. Kids love apple sticks and citrus fruits, which are amazing in homemade trail mixes.
- Veggies: Drying veggies are a great way to get the little ones to eat vegetables. Many vegetables become French fry sized sticks while produce like zuccini makes great “potato” chips.
- Jerky: Jerky is my second favorite! It’s so expensive at the grocery store but you can make your own at a fraction of the cost. Add your own spices for a signature recipe.
Meal Prep Made Easy
- Herbs & Spices: My garden produces an abundance of flavorful and aromatic herbs in the spring. Most of it would go to waste without my NESCO dehydrator, but with it, I dehydrate chamomile and echinacea for tea, lavender for scented satchels, yarrow for homemade tinctures, mint for future recipes, and so much more.
- Vegetables: How pretty is a glass jar of dried peas in the pantry? But those vegetables aren’t there for aesthetics. Dried peas, beans, peppers, tomatoes, and other fresh garden vegetables can be enjoyed year round in soups and stews.
- Meat: Speaking of soup, you can have small chunks of meat ready for those soups and stews. Imagine an especially windy fall day or an unexpected winter snow and having all the ingredients you need on hand to make a single bowl or vat full of homemade soup.
DIY Crafts
- Flowers: A NESCO food dehydrator works as well for drying flowers as it does for food. You can preserve a special flower from time to time or preserve armfuls of flowers and greenery for homemade wreaths, garlands, and other decorative florals.
- Potpourri: Use your NESCO dehydrator to dry herbs, flowers, and aromatic greenery to make fresh potpourri, handcrafted soap, home remedy tinctures, and other home products that are free of toxins and preservatives.
- Citrus: Dried citrus gives potpourri and garland an old-world touch. Make primitive Christmas ornaments and simmer some on the stovetop too! Add lemon shavings to ice cubes for an extra special lemonade, or enjoy some orange slices for a healthy snack.
The NESCO Advantage: What Sets NESCO Food Dehydrators Apart?
NESCO food dehydrators are affordable, expandable, and easy to clean. NESCO makes dehydrating simple, too with easy-to-read temperature guides right on your dehydrator.
NESCO Features
- Affordable: Prices for NESCO’s American-made food dehydrators start at about $50.
- Expandable: The food dehydrators made in the USA are expandable to maximize your dehydrating space.
- Easy to Clean: The individual stacking trays easily fit in the kitchen sink and are dishwasher-safe. It’s as easy as washing a dinner plate.
Food Dehydrators Made in USA
All NESCO round food dehydrators, and the Snackmaster Square Food and Jerky Dehydrator are made in the USA.
Which Model is the Best NESCO Dehydrator for You?
NESCO offers multiple home use food-dehydrating models, and all of them can be used for making jerky, fruit rolls, and more. So, which one is the best food dehydrator for you?
Let’s figure it out!
Popular Models: NESCO’S Top Food Dehydrators Made in the USA
- NESCO Gardenmaster: NESCO Gardenmaster food dehydrators are expandable to 20 or 30 trays and ideal for preserving your garden’s bounty.
- NESCO Snackmaster: The NESCO Snackmaster line is excellent for families that want to make homemade snacks.
- NESCO JerkyXpress: The JerkyXpress comes with jerky-making accessories, seasoning, and cure samples.
Remember, whether “garden”, “snack”, or “jerky” is in the name, all NESCO dehydrators can be used to dehydrate a wide variety of foods from herbs to proteins. It’s more important to look at how many trays a model comes with and how many it can be expanded to.
Side-by-Side Comparison: NESCO Dehydrators at a Glance
| Model | Watts | Trays | Expand to: |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gardenmaster Pro FD-1010 | 1000 | 4 | 30 |
| Gardenmaster Pro Digital FD-1040 | 1000 | 4 | 20 |
| Snackmaster Pro FD-75 | 600 | 5 | 12 |
| Snackmaster Pro Digital FD-79 | 600 | 4 | 12 |
| Snackmaster Encore FD-61 | 500 | 4 | 12 |
| Snackmaster Express FD-60 | 500 | 4 | 12 |
| Snackmaster Square FD-80 | 700 | 4 | 8 |
| JerkyXpress FD-28JX | 350 | 4 | 7 |
| Clear Cover FD-37 | 400 | 4 | 7 |
| Food & Jerky Dehydrator FD-75PR | 600 | 5 | 12 |
NESCO Food Dehydrators Made in the USA
All of NESCO’s food dehydrators made in the USA, trays, screens, and sheets are BPA-free and made of high-quality food-grade plastic. NESCO dehydrators come with 52-page instruction & recipe books as well.
Nesco Gardenmaster Food Dehydrators
NESCO Gardenmaster Pro FD-1010
With 1000 watts of drying power and even heat distribution from 95°F to 160°F, the Gardenmaster Pro can handle up to 30 trays at a time!
- 1000 Watts
- 4 trays
- Expandable to 30 trays
- 1 fruit roll sheet
- 1 clean-a-screen
NESCO Gardenmaster Digital Pro FD-1040
The NESCO Gardenmaster Digital Pro has a digital time and temperature control and heats evenly from 90°F to 160°F. With 1000 watts of power, it’s expandable to 20 trays.
- 1000 Watts
- 4 trays
- Expandable to 20 trays
- 1 fruit roll sheet
- 1 clean-a-screen
Nesco Snackmaster Food Dehydrators
NESCO Snackmaster Pro FD-75
The NESCO Snackmaster Pro has 600 watts of drying power and provides even heating from 95°F to 160°F for various foods.
- 600 Watts
- 5 trays
- Expandable to 12 trays
- 2 fruit roll sheets
- 2 clean-a-screens
My set-up is the mid-price range FD-75 with 3 sets of Add-a-Trays (2 trays per set, 11 total trays), 6 pairs of Clean-a-Screens (2 per set, total of 12), and 1 set of Fruit Roll Sheets (2 per set).
NESCO Snackmaster Pro Digital FD-79
The NESCO Snackmaster Pro Digital has an adjustable digital time and temperature control with a heating range of 90°F – 160°F.
- 600 Watts
- 4 trays
- Expandable to 12 trays
- 2 fruit roll sheets
- 2 clean-a-screens
NESCO Snackmaster Encore FD-61
The NESCO Snackmaster Encore has a 95-160º F temperature range ideal for a wide range of foods, and a patented drying system forces air down the exterior pressurized chamber.
- 500 Watts
- 4 trays
- Expandable to 12 trays
- 1 fruit roll sheet
NESCO Snackmaster Express FD-60
The NESCO Snackmaster Express has a temperature range of 95°F to 155°F and a compact, yet expandable size.
- 500 Watts
- 4 trays
- Expandable to 12 trays
- 1 fruit roll sheet
NESCO Snackmaster Square FD-80
The NESCO Snackmaster Square has 1.2 square feet of drying space per tray and an adjustable temperature control that ranges from 95°F to 160°F.
- 700 Watts
- 4 trays
- Expandable to 12 trays
- 1 clean-a-screen
NESCO Jerky Dehydrators (Not Just for Jerky)
NESCO JerkyXpress FD-28JX
The NESCO JerkyXpress comes with a jerky gun, three tip attachments, and seasoning and cure samples.
- 350 Watts
- 4 trays
- Expandable to 7 trays
- Jerky gun and tip attachments
NESCO Clear Cover Food & Jerky Dehydrator FD-37
The NESCO Clear Cover food and jerky dehydrator has a top mount power head and fixed temperature of 160°F ideal for making jerky.
- 400 Watts
- 4 trays
- Expandable to 7 trays
Accessories: Up Your Dehydrating Game
NESCO offers additional accessories for their selection of food dehydrators made in the USA, including add-a-trays, clean-a-screens, and fruit roll sheets.
NESCO Add-a-Trays
NESCO’s expandable system lets you decide how big your food dehydrator is and how much you can dehydrate at a time.
NESCO Clean-a-Screens
NESCO Clean-a-Screens removable mesh screens keep sticky fruits from sticking to your trays and will keep small foods like herbs and spices from falling through the trays.
Small Round Mesh Clean-a-Screens
Compatible with 13.5″ trays in NESCO 20, 30, 60, and 70 Series Dehydrators
15.75″ inch Clean-a-Screens for FD-1000 FD-1010 FD-1020 FD-1040 NESCO Food Dehydrators
NESCO Fruit Roll Sheets
Nesco fruit roll sheets have an exclusive no-spill lip and let you dry up to three cups of pureed fruit per sheet. You can also dry soups, sauces, and other liquids!
NESCO Food Dehydrators: The American-Made Choice for Every Kitchen
Whether you’re crafting your own jerky, preserving herbs, or making healthy snacks for the family, NESCO food dehydrators made in the USA offer expandable versatility and convenience at an affordable price. It’s fun too!
NESCO dehydrators and accessories can be purchased at big box retailers like Walmart and on Amazon in the Official NESCO Amazon Store.
All information about NESCO products is accurate to the best of my knowledge at the time of writing. If you find anything that needs an update, please let me know in the comments.
