Dehydrating onions

[Gardening with Rabbits]

Yesterday I had tears rolling down my face. I made my DS have tears. I decided to dehydrate onions. Thank goodness I did read other people say dehydrate them outside, but I did not do the cutting outside. I could barely see what I was doing. My DS comes in from another room in the house with his eyes all red and having a fit. LOL. I used 4 trays with old 2007 chopped frozen onions that I found in the freezer. That was 4 quarts and then I cut fresh onions for the other 5 trays. I should have weighed the onions that I cut fresh, but it was about 1 onion on each tray. I put the dehydrator outside and I was really worried neighbors would complain. Next time I will put it out when I think everybody has gone to work and school on a weekday, and maybe a chilly day when they are all inside. I left them out for hours and then they started getting a kind of cooked smell and I brought them in and let them dehydrate during the night. I turned the old onions into powder and got half a quart. The other 5 trays I put in a quart jar. They are chopped small, but not tiny. They are the size I would use for soup. They are Sweet Spanish. I bought them at the store. They have a pink color to them in some trays and I read that is the sugar content. They are sweet to taste. I just thought I might let you know what it was like if you had never dehydrated onions before.

 

[thistlebloom]

I dehydrated some for the first time this summer and I know what you mean GWR! I did them in the garage with both doors open and had to shut the walk through door because the pungent breeze was driving me out of the garden. They're worth it though. Great to toss in soups and sauces.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I have dehydrated onions before, as you said a size to use in soups. I dehydrate everything in an outbuilding, it's the most convenient place I have and yes some things really smell. It's nice that my closest neighbor is about a 1/4 mile away.

If you want a smell, try dehydrating chives. I think it is worse than onions. If memory serves, @Smart Red earlier this year said she was thinking about dehydrating chives. Wonder if she did and how they turned out.

 

[journey11]

For all the tears, I'm sure it will be worth it in the long run. I like dehydrating them because they are much handier to use and it makes use of more of my onion crop that might have gone bad with time. They'll all fit neatly in one or two quart jars...awesome!

It may be because I wear contacts, but they don't make me cry when I cut them. Another tip I've heard and use that is supposed to prevent most of the off-gassing that causes your eyes to water is to keep the root end intact and cut up the onion from the top end then down to the root. I halve them, cut each half in angles like the sun rays, then slice, tossing the root end last. See if that helps next time.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

If you want a smell, try dehydrating chives. I think it is worse than onions. If memory serves, @Smart Red earlier this year said she was thinking about dehydrating chives. Wonder if she did and how they turned out.

I am glad you told me because I was going to dehydrate chives this winter. I have a bunch frozen. i think I will leave them frozen. LOL Our garage and the shed with electricity are too close to the house I think, so I will run out of nice weather to be doing this outside.

 

[PhilaGardener]

Interesting idea/problem. I wonder if carefully cutting fresh onions under water in a large pot might keep the odor under control. (I have peeled onions under running water before for this reason.) A quick run in the salad spinner to remove the excess water and into the dryer. No ideas on how to best deal with the drying step, however - those sulfur compounds are pretty volatile. This approach wouldn't work on pre-frozen onions as they will just leak their contents since the cells will be broken from the freeze/thaw.

 

[Smart Red]

My first thought when I read the thread title was NO! NOT IN THE HOUSE!
No problems here. I did the chives in the garden shed.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

They sure smell good and seem to have a stronger smell than the ones you buy in the store. I have 15 more pounds to dehydrate. I dehydrated 5 pounds of carrots yesterday. It fits in a quart jar.