Using A Car As A Dehydrator

All you gotta do is thinly slice your meats, fruits and vegetables and place them in your car…more specifically on the dashboard, where the sun hits directly. After a few hours or days, you should have nicely dehydrated food, ready for storage or consumption! Not only is it easy—it’s cheap, saves energy and money and is a great skill to know.

Drying is one of the oldest techniques used by man to preserve food. Native Americans would dry strips of elk, buffalo and rabbit in the sun. Later, the American pioneers dried their meat by draping it on the side of their wagons on their days-long trips. Today we have access to ovens and dehydrators, which saves time and effort…but it’s still important to know and learn the skills of harnessing the sun’s heat for our advantage, especially when it comes to food.Unfortunately (but fortunately for other reasons), temperatures reach above 100 degrees only in few places across the United States, making it tough to use the sun alone to dry meats, fruits and vegetables. Without high temperatures, what’s there to do?Even on a relatively cool day, the temperature of the inside of a car can swell to over 100 degrees. At 70 degrees, after about half an hour, the inside of a car can reach an average of 104 degrees. That’s 40+ degrees of added heat, which is crucial when you’re trying to dry meats, fruits or vegetables outdoors…especially with a limited amount of time. If temperatures outside of the car reach up in the 90’s, the inside can produce some sweltering heat perfect for dehydrating.