Are you finding it a little difficult to prepare delicious recipes using your newly bought dehydrator? We’ve compiled the market’s trending and best dehydrator cookbooks to make your process easier.
Not everyone can put together a meal or even individual food items using a dehydrator. After all, while dying foods seem to be a simple task, using a dehydrator can be quite intimidating and a daunting task.
Whether it’s figuring out the time needed for the food item or even the prep process, you may need some assistance drying your food in a dehydrator.
The good news is that there is a solution to this problem. With the right cookbook, the process of dehydrating food will not only be simplified but, even more fun, resulting in flavorful, signature dishes.
So, after extensive research and countless verified customer reviews, we’ve put together our list of the top 18 favorite picks for the best dehydrator cookbooks to transform your meal prep into a fun-packed gastronomical journey, resulting in delectable and luscious dishes.
Why Should I Opt To Dry Food In a Dehydrator?
In addition to the great flavors and nutritional value, you will also enjoy a plethora of benefits from dehydrated food. Drying your own food also helps to prolong its shelf life while significantly cutting down your overall food and prep costs.
Moreover, while you may spend some money during the initial investment, using a dehydrator for drying your food is also cost and time-saving.
How to Choose the Right Dehydrator Cookbook
You want to pay attention to several key factors when picking the best dehydrator cookbook for your needs. You can go for a cookbook that teaches you different things to dehydrate, like meat, seafood, vegetables, fruits, and herbs, to name a few.
Alternatively, some people choose to pick a specialty book with a particular food item, like spices, herbs, or mushrooms.
Other cookbooks even focus on occasions or activities, like dehydrator cookbooks for backpacking or camping. In addition to the recipes, a good cookbook should be comprehensive enough, with photo examples and step-by-step guidelines.
While this may not be important, you may also find cookbooks that offer extra value-adding information, such as storage tips and the best dehydrator to purchase.
1. The Hungry Spork Trail Recipes: Quick Gourmet Meals for the Backcountry
The Hungry Spork Trail Recipes specially caters to long and short-term outdoor adventurers. However, this book is not your regular dehydration cookbook.
Instead of teaching you how to dehydrate food, it focuses on the finished products, teaching you how to put together a complete meal. Backcountry dehydrator cookbook offers gourmet recipe alternatives to packaged trail foods at an even lower cost.
You will find a wide selection of tasty, nutritious, and simple to make “just add water” meals. To cater to your cultured self, the cookbook integrates some of the world’s major cuisine adapted to lightweight, packable dried foods.
For even better value, recipes include freeze-dried and dehydrated food options that you can have ready by adding warm water.
In fact, to cater to backpackers and other backcountry visitors, each meal outlined can be ready to eat by adding the water in the bag it is stored in with no need for simmering. Further, the cookbook’s author covers different dietary needs, including dairy-free, gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan recipes.
Ultimately, reading through the recipe book, you will find recipes for soups, stews, trail salads, breakfast, and dinners.
Chapters are divided to touch up on spice blends, broths, bouillons, gravy powder, and sauces. You will also find home hydration mixtures and smoothie recipes.
Moreover, each recipe comes with detailed nutritional information.
2. Complete Dehydrator Cookbook: How to Dehydrate Fruit, Vegetables, Meat & More
The Complete Dehydrator Cookbook stands out amongst the top best recipe books on the market for a reason. The best seller comes in the form of soft and hard paperback copy, either option with a pretty affordable price tag.
Using this cookbook introduces you to all the basics, guiding you on preparing individual ingredients, like yogurt or tofu, and a succulent meal.
Packed with up to 125 different recipes, the book also teaches you how to compile ingredients for stews, curries, spice blends, and even teas. Additionally, the cookbook also teaches you how to focus on producing big plant-based flavors at low temperatures, like mixed veggie bread or sweet and savory almonds.
Further, the cookbook offers exhaustive step-by-step recipes for a variety of foods along with tips on how to store and rehydrate the food. Moreover, you will learn about the essential tools needed and troubleshooting tips.
3. The Ultimate Dehydrator Cookbook: The Complete Guide to Drying Food
If you want to learn dehydrating tips and recipes from experienced authors, the Ultimate Dehydrator Cookbook is the best option. The dehydrator recipe book draws experience from Tammy Gangloff, an expert and leading authority in food dehydration.
Tammy co-authors the book with Steven Gangloff, a researcher in genetics and molecular cell biology, and September Ferguson, an avid food processing connoisseur.
The cookbook for dehydrator recipes packs over 390 mouth-watering recipes, teaching how to prepare everything from beef jerky to fruit leather. But, the book doesn’t only share detailed step-by-step recipes.
The book shares prepping instructions, dehydration temperature, and times for individual ingredients, like berries, fruits, herbs, and vegetables. Moreover, you will find various recipes for teas, herb blends, oils, and even baby food.
The cookbook also shares valuable tips on choosing a suitable dehydrator, sanitation practices, storage, and rehydration techniques.
4. The Dehydrator Bible
As the title suggests, The Dehydrator Bible is the perfect option for those looking for countless recipe options. The cookbook packs over 400 different recipes, covering everything from meat to vegetables and spices.
What also makes the cookbook one of the best on the market is its options for complete meal options.
In fact, you will have quite interesting and unique flavor packing options like Aloo Tari, Chipotle beef chili & chili cornmeal cakes, or a strawberry rhubarb tart for dessert. Inside the book, you will find 150 recipes dedicated to dehydrating ingredients like herbs, seasonings, vegetables, meat, and fish.
On the other hand, the remaining 250 recipes offer various meal ideals from the previously dehydrated ingredients. With The Dehydrator bible, you can instantly change your culinary game from a novice cook to a seasoned professional!
5. The Dehydrator Cookbook for Outdoor Adventurers
The Dehydrator cookbook for Outdoor Adventures is a superb tool for helping you prep your meals for the next adventure outdoors. The book works best for hikers, campers, and backpackers who want to unleash the power of their dehydrator and save on store-bought foods.
The dehydration cookbook for backpackers and campers outlines a series of recipes with easy instructions for cooking, dehydrating, storing, and reconstituting different food options. You will even find a variety of outdoor-friendly and delicious meals, like salmon and roasted sweet potato hash, lemony lentil salad, and porter-infused chili with bacon.
Moreover, the book shares tips on how to create food combos with instructions for each ingredient prep and covers breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and desserts. You will even find several samples for meal planning tips, including sample menus.
6. Preserving Everything
Preserving Everything cookbook gives you a bang for your buck, equipping you with all the necessary modern food preserving techniques.
The book shares all types of preservation techniques for your food. You will learn everything from dehydration to canning, culturing, pickling, freezing, fermenting, salting, smoking, and storing foods.
Plus, the recipe book includes a wide range of regular to unusual preserving foods, like fruits, vegetables, meat, and even milk.
The book takes an interesting approach to explaining these techniques and their recipe. It focuses on a single food type and touches on different preserving methods.
For example, you can use pork in your dehydrator to make jerky. You will also find other tips with synergized step-by-step instructions.
For instance, a recipe includes fish that is smoked, salted, dehydrated, and preserved in oil. Another good example is a detailed outline of how milk is cultured or fermented and preserved as cheese or yogurt.
7. The Ultimate Healthy Dehydrator Cookbook
If you are searching for a cookbook to complement your healthy dietary practices, The Ultimate Healthy Dehydrator Cookbook is the ultimate winner. The cookbook for dehydrators packs numerous recipe ideas for raw food and other healthy diets.
The cookbook particularly focuses on vegetarian and vegan foods, offering a range of delectable meal options, including eggplant, zucchini, and spinach lasagnas. While the book focuses on vegan and vegetarian recipes, you will still find a range of fun desserts and snacks.
Nonetheless, the book isn’t limited to boring recipes. Instead, it features a selection of fun sections including pretreatment practices, rehydrating techniques, essential tools and equipment, and homemade savings.
You will also find sections on ideas for a raw food diet, recipes to involve kids in making, and even what not to dehydrate.
8. The Spicy Dehydrator Cookbook
Just because you’re taking an unconventional path to prep food, doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy your favorites, like spicy food.
The Spicy Dehydrator Cookbook focuses on recipe tips to turn up the heat on your food. It shares nearly 100 superior recipes for spicy jerky, fruit leather, and even hot sauce and spice blends.
With the cookbook, you can enjoy your favorite spicy foods anywhere, whether hitting the road on a weeklong cross-country trip. To live up to its name, the dehydrator cookbook for spicy foods doesn’t share basic options you will find in just about any recipe book.
The author takes it a step further to ensure you produce the most innovative food items, whether it’s Cajun ghost pepper hot sauce or spicy coffee maple bacon jerky. Plus, to give you more value for your money, you will also find recipes for complete meals like coconut chickpea curry.
9. Cosori Dehydrator Cookbook
The Cosori Dehydrator Cookbook works best for those seeking a more detailed tool when it comes to the Cosori Dehydrator. The cookbook for dehydrated food offers 300 recipes outlined with clear details and easy-to-navigate guidance.
It also covers most of your favorite foods, including fruits, vegetables, meat, and more. The cookbook is sectioned into several parts to ensure all the key information is covered.
The first chapter includes an FAQ all about dehydrating, the best foods to dehydrate, and details specifically about the Cosori Premium Food Dehydrator. The remaining chapters are categorized by food group, each containing several delicious, affordable recipes. You will even learn how to use flowers, tea blends, and herbs in your dehydrator.
The book also includes recipes for unique dehydrated foods like chips, sweets & desserts, and dairy products. Food options include soups, stews, chili, full entrees, sides, sauces, stuffings, salsa, pickles, and desserts.
10. The Ultimate Guide to Preserving Vegetables
The Ultimate Guide to Preserving Vegetables is a cool companion tool for a perfect food preservation project. Whether it’s produce from the market, grocery store, farm, or your mini plant garden, the cookbook equips you with the right tools to make the most of the produce and helps you curb wastage and costs.
The guide shares up to 100 different recipes with illustrative full-page color images, step-by-step guidelines, and handy reference charts. You can choose any preservation technique, ranging from dehydration to canning, pickling, fermenting, and freezing.
The result is awesome, flavor-packed, out-of-this-world recipes, such as dried Asian broccoli chips, canned dill asparagus, fermented corn salsa, or dried scalloped potatoes, to name a few. Between each section, you will also find useful tips on growing your vegetable produce, equipping you with skills for managing food from farm to table.
11. The Farm Girl’s Guide to Preserving the Harvest
Do you want to enjoy your summer harvest or fresh groceries well into the cold season? The Farm Girl’s Guide to Preserving the Harvest can help you do so.
What makes this book unique is it outlines preservation tips beyond dehydration. You can learn how to can, freeze, dehydrate, and ferment the same garden harvest using this book.
To cater to beginners, the author exhaustively outlines the basics of each preservation technique, including dehydrating, canning, freezing, fermenting, curing, and smoking. You will also find information on how to choose and use the right tools for each technique.
With more than 30 recipes, you will find different stages of food preservation outlined based on your skill level. You can opt for a simple jam-making process with a hot water bath or try a more advanced pressure canner process.
12. Mary Bell’s Complete Dehydrator Cookbook
The Mary Bell’s Complete Dehydrator Cookbook is amongst the oldest cookbooks on dehydrated food but still carries incredibly valuable information. With extensive experience in dehydrating foods, the author teaches you everything there is to know about using and preparing foods using an electric food dehydrator.
In the book, you will also find 100+ user-friendly recipes with readily available ingredients, to make treats and full meals. You will find recipes for complete meals, high-end snacks, and lightweight trail snacks.
Further, you will also find a section on non-edible recipes like cosmetics, potpourri, and even pet treats.
With every recipe, you will appreciate the author’s detailed instructions, making it easy to comprehend and replicate the recipes. The author also shares tips for buying the right electric dehydrator in the book.
13. Dried & True: The Magic of Your Dehydrator in 80 Delicious Recipes and Inspiring Techniques
The Dried & True cookbook helps you curate special dishes, whether it’s a weeknight dinner or a wedding meal. After all, properly dehydrated food can unleash undiscovered flavor profiles while still packing optimal nutritional value.
With over 80 delicious recipes, the cookbook offers secrets for preparing all kinds of jerky, fruit leathers, savory vegetable crisps, and flavor-adding powders.
So, instead of helping you create completed dehydrated food meals, this cookbook focuses more on how to incorporate your dehydrated food ingredients into everyday recipes. Each dried food recipe offers tips on how to incorporate your dried food ingredients in your cooking, baking, and even drink cocktails.
14. Dehydrating: Simple Techniques and Over 170 Recipes for Creating and Using Dehydrated Foods (The Self-Sufficient Kitchen)
The cookbook incorporates all the key tips on techniques needed to successfully dry your food in a dehydrator. It includes a step-by-step process on how to choose your dehydrator, and use it successfully.
You will also find over 80 food preserving recipes you can try at home, whether it’s drying meat or mushrooms in your dehydrator. As an added perk, you will also find bonus tips on how to dehydrate food without a dehydrator.
These tips follow less conventional food drying tops like using a solar dryer or conventional oven.
15. Quick and Easy Dehydrated Meals in a Bag
The Quick and Easy Dehydrated Meals in a Bag does a perfect job in guiding you to prepare travel meals. It shares interesting recipes for light and packable dehydrated foods.
You will find countless recipes for prepackaged meals in a bag you can throw into a crockpot or take on the trail. Sections in the book cover crockpot meals, family dinners, and even camper, hiker, and backpacker meals.
Additionally, you will also find food ideas for survivalists, with recipes for long-lasting emergency foods. You will also have access to recipes for snacks, desserts, appetizers, seasonings, and dips.
16. The Beginner’s Guide to Dehydrating Food, 2nd Edition
Even with the best cookbook, food dehydration may not always be easy, especially for beginners.
The Beginner’s Guide to Dehydrated Food makes the process a lot easier by sharing recipes and tips for people only starting to dry their food. The cookbook shares tips on how to preserve vegetables, fruits, meats, and herbs.
Further, the dehydrator cookbook shares detailed instructions on how to easily dry specialty foods and prepare items like fruit leather, meat jerky, dried herb, and spice mixtures. You will even find recipes for baby food and backpacking meals – unexpected, right!
17. My Ultimate EXCALIBUR Food Dehydrator Recipe Book
My Ultimate Excalibur Food Dehydrator Recipe Book covers a wide range when it comes to food dehydration. The Cookbook particularly teaches you how to use Excalibur food dehydrators like a pro, although its recipes can be prepared with any dehydrator brand.
Furthermore, the cookbook packs over 100 different everyday recipes, including jerky, fruits, and vegetables.
However, it is also an excellent tool for those seeking non-food dehydrator recipes for items like potpourri or infused oils. The cookbook also offers valuable tips, including avoiding wasting food, perfecting dehydration times, avoiding sticky dehydrator trays, and balancing the results to ensure consistency.
18. The Complete Food Dehydrator Recipe Book
The Complete Food Dehydrator Recipe Book offers recipes that cater to any food dehydrator, despite the design or brand. Each recipe also works great for old and new recipes-alike.
The best seller shares a comprehensive guide that goes beyond dehydrator food prep. In the book, you will learn how to get the most out of your dehydrator.
Further, the recipe book shares the proper temperature for different foods, marinating tips, and proper storage conditions. The ultimate prize? Well, you get up to 101 delicious recipes, covering everything from fruits and veggies to nuts and meat.
Some of the cool snacks you’ll learn to make include vegetable chips, granola, trail mix, fruit leather, and jerky.
Conclusion
With the best dehydrator cookbooks, nothing is impossible when it comes to using your home dehydrator. Plus, each cookbook is not authored the same.
This means that you can find a book for anything from dried meal recipes for your next backpacking trip to fun dried ingredients to incorporate into your baking and drinks for your best friend’s next surprise baby shower.
Additionally, each cookbook comes with a varying price tag, allowing you to invest in more than one book for different occasions. Stocking up with over 1000+ recipes in your home means you never have to struggle to think of what to make with your dehydrator.
In fact, you can even adopt a dried food diet entirely and enjoy the excellent flavored and nutrient-packed meals.
Donaldina is a home cook and writer who enjoys experimenting with different flavors. She loves to take her readers on a fun-packed, palate pleasing journey through different recipes. Along the way she recommends the best equipment and tools to prepare tasty meals. Enjoy the adventure!