Food-Drying Calculators & Tools
Free, practical calculators for jerky, dried fruit, and herbs — time a batch, dial in a temperature, work out a cure ratio, estimate water activity, rehydrate dried food, and plan a bigger batch.
Drying Time Calculator
Choose a food type and enter slice thickness and dehydrator temperature to get an estimated drying-time range, scaled from a reference thickness and temperature for that food.
Dehydrator Temperature Guide
See the commonly recommended dehydrator temperature range for meat, fruit, vegetables, herbs, and mushrooms in both °F and °C, and check a planned temperature against it.
Jerky Cure & Salt Ratio Calculator
Enter a trimmed meat weight to get the plain-salt amount at your chosen percent-of-weight ratio, plus an optional cure #1 amount at a common, capped ratio.
Water Activity Estimator
Estimate the water activity of a salt/sugar brine or marinade from its water, salt, and sugar content, using the ideal-solution mole-fraction approximation.
Rehydration Ratio Calculator
Convert between a dried weight and its rehydrated yield in either direction, using typical rehydration ratios for beans, fruit, vegetables, mushrooms, and herbs.
Batch Yield Estimator
Project the dried-weight range a batch will produce from its fresh weight, using typical yield-percent ranges by food type, and estimate how many trays you'll need.