How to Make a Square Dehydrator Sheet Fit a Round Tray

Sometimes You Need to Improvise to Get the Job Done. Need to Make a Square Dehydrator Sheet Fit a Round Tray? It’s No Problem With This Trick.

I have been immersed in dehydrating for months now, preserving my small harvest and additional food purchased from the grocery and local CSA. Dehydrating is a skill that every self-reliant person should acquire. It lets you put up a large amount of produce with a minimal amount of effort.

I especially like to save time when I dehydrate and one of the things I dread doing is cleaning the trays after a batch. Some food doesn’t stick or make a mess at all, but others, like zucchini chips, leave bits of sauce and spices behind that must be cleaned off.

To get around this, I cover my round dehydrator trays to make future cleanup easy. Now, this doesn’t mean that you’ll never have to clean a tray (because yuck!) but it does cut down on sticky messes.

Recently, I purchased a Nesco Gardenmaster Food Dehydrator and I use it for all of my projects. The trays are a generous 14 inches around and I love that I can stack up to 20 trays in a batch without having to rotate the trays from top to bottom. I can really get a lot of produce dried at one time!

The other benefit that I really like? It has a top blowing motor with a digital thermostat that controls heat (in 5-degree increments) and time (in 30-minute increments) so I can completely control the whole process right from the beginning.

4 Reasons to Use Tray Sheets:

1. Cuts down on tray cleaning
2. Great for putting in between different types of fruit that drip during drying (blueberries, strawberries, watermelon)
3. Place at the bottom of a tray stack to reduce dripping onto the motor or dehydrator base
4. Keeps food from sticking to the dehydrator trays

Take These Steps to Make a Square Dehydrator Sheet Fit a Round Tray

Fold the square sheet in half and secure with paperclips. Crease the sheet and line it up with the markings at the half tray.

Make markings around the middle tray hole

Using scissors, cut several pie shape slices inside the hole marking. Don’t forget to cut the two bottom slices in half.

Using the cut-out section, fit the sheet on the tray and adjust cuttings as needed. It should fit snugly.

To complete the circle: use your fingernail or a pencil and make a marking around the outside of the sheet to crease it. Cut out the corners.

 

Other Items to Try from Amazon:

You may want to purchase dehydrator netting in a large roll and cut out your own sheets. These make light work of herbs and bigger pieces of fruit that you want to dry. These are the Square Non-Stick Food Dehydrator Sheets that I purchase, and this is the Nesco Gardenmaster Dehydrator I use.