The Ancient Way of Food Preservation: Dehydration

Miss Ingrid had bought a "new" Kirby from a yard sale and needed to learn how to use it and its attachments. I wanted to learn how to dehydrate foods, but I needed a food dehydrator. My husband had sold Kirbys for a while and knew all the information Miss Ingrid needed, and Miss Ingrid had a five-tray food dehydrator she was not using since she had bought a bigger model. The swap was quickly made, and thus started my love-affair with dehydrating foods.

Dehydrating preserves food by exposing the food to heat and air, which forces the moisture out of the food and carries the vapors emitted during the drying process away from it. Bacteria and mold needs water to survive, so drying produce or meat, whether by using the sun, wind, an electric dehydrator, or the oven, is a safe, effective way of preserving food! It can be used in conjunction with most other methods of food preservation that we have studied as well!

THE HISTORY

Dehydrating food as a means of preservation has been used for centuries. Fishing settlements used the open air to dry fish. The Chinese dried tea leaves, and the Egyptians dried out their grains for storing, as in Joseph's day. The Native Americans dried fruit, meats, and vegetables by means of the wind and sun. The French dehydrated their food and are credited with creating the the first food dehydrator. People from all around the globe have used this means of food preservation since ancient times and still use it today. The Italians still bring us sun-dried tomatoes. Our jerky is dehydrated meat. We have sun-dried raisins from California, and the list goes on. Dehydrating always has been, and still is, beneficial, since it removes the water for storing, but leaves all the flavor and nutrients behind for our enjoyment.

                                      SUN AND WIND

You can set certain fruits and vegetables out in direct sunlight on windy day to dehydrate, providing the temperature outside is 85 degrees or higher and the humidity level is low, but to insure proper dehydration when using this method, I would recommend building a solar dehydrator. There are two  that I found blueprints for. One is a quick and easy and would take a few hours and about $10 to build. It is made with cardboard and plastic wrap and can be found here. The other is a more hard core dehydrator, which will take more time and effort to build, but will last longer. Blueprints for this one can be found here.

OVEN DRYING

Although I do not recommend this method, it is possible to use your oven to dry foods. Ovens do provide a moisture-free, warm area to dehydrate in, but since they take more energy to heat due to their size, and since they take longer to dehydrate food since they do not have a fan to move the air, it is not a very economical way to dry food. It is also an unsafe method if you have small children or pets.

If you decide to use this method, set your oven to 140 degrees, prop the door open about two to six inches, and set a fan at the open oven door to aid in circulation. Place the food you intend to dehydrate in a single layer on a cookie sheet or tray that is smaller, both by length and width, than the oven racks and place them inside. The drying times will vary depending on the food you are drying and the thickness of each piece.

HOMEMADE DEHYDRATOR

Yes, I said a homemade dehydrator. I personally would not use one of these. I would be so worried about burning my house down or it not working correctly that all I would get done is worrying! However, if you are adventurous or if you want to do a REALLY COOL SCIENCE EXPERIMENT, this might be fun to make. It seems simple enough. They can be made from cardboard boxes, aluminum foil, a light bulb, a light socket, and an electrical chord. For step by step instructions on how to build one , visit this website. This particular dehydrator is made with 2X2s, plywood, and nails, so it is a little bit more durable, but I am still iffy on the safety of it.

ELECTRIC DEHYDRATOR

NOW, WE ARE TALKING MY LANGUAGE! There are many different brands and sizes of dehydrators out there to fit any number of needs. I could not find the specific dehydrator I use, but one similar to mine is the Deni 7100 Food Dehydrator. I only require a small one, since most of my food gets preserved through canning and freezing. There are larger dehydrators, like the LEM Products 10 Tray Food Dehydrator. If you need to dehydrate more food at one time, I would recommend a larger dehydrator to make the job quicker and easier.



THE PROCESS



Any fruits, vegetables, and most meats can be dried. Select foods that are ripe, as those that have naturally ripened dry the best. You also want your produce to be in excellent condition. If they do happen to have any spots or bruising, remove those before you begin drying. Any meats, herbs, or flowers should also be of high quality to insure good results.

Clean your produce carefully. Use a vegetable brush and running water to be certain all the dirt and bacteria has been removed from the outside of the food. If any is remaining, it can be pushed down into the fruit or vegetable when you slice it.

You can peel the fruits if you wish, but it is not necessary. Leaving the skin on will add to the drying time, but the skin is a highly nutritious part of the fruit. To peel, or not to peel... that is the question. This can only be determined by your personal preference.

Be sure to cuts the foods in each batch all the same size so that you do not have some of them dry and crispy while some pieces are still raw. Slices should be about 1/4 of an inch thick for best results. Your foods can be sliced, shredded, or diced. I use a food processor for this step. After the food is cut, quickly place them on the trays to dry to keep spoilage or browning from occurring.

Some fruits and vegetables are best when they are pre-treated prior to being dried. This will help the vegetables retain their color. Blanching helps them retain their color and helps to break down the waxy skins of some fruits. Instead of being blanched, some fruits can be soaked in lemon, orange, lime, or pineapple juice for two minutes, then patted dry immediately before they are placed on the dehydrator trays. Syrup blanching, a process that helps some tree-grown fruits (apples, apricots, nectarines, figs, peaches, plums, and pears) to retain their color and also produces a sweeter tasting, candied fruit can also be used.

       **SYRUP BLANCHING**
       Mix 1 c of sugar, 1 c of white corn syrup, and 2 c of water in a heavy sauce pan. Add 1 1/2
       pounds of cut fruit. Bring to a boil, then remove it from the heat and let stand for 35 minutes.
       DO NOT STIR! Drain, and lightly rinse with water, then place on dehydrator trays.

When placing the food on the trays, do NOT let anything overlap, although they are fine to touch each other. Put all of your dehydrator's trays in place, whether they are being used or not, to utilize air flow, which is important to the drying process. Rotate the trays from top to bottom often while the food is dehydrating to insure even drying.

Drying foods, even the same foods, can take differing amounts of time. The time it takes varies depending on humidity levels, temperature, the number of trays used, what you are drying, and more. For ballpark figures on drying times, see your dehydrator manual.

Fruits will be pliable and leathery, but not hard and tough. When you tear a piece of dried fruit, no moisture should develop. If it does, your fruit is not yet dry enough.

Vegetables are hard and brittle with sharp edges when they are dry. Some foods, like tomatoes, will be more leathery. Beans, corn, and peas are hard and seed-like and will shatter when hit with a hammer. Leafy thin vegetables will be brittle, and larger chunks or slices of vegetables will be leathery when they are dehydrated.


STORAGE AND LABELING


Dehydrated food can be stored in ziplocks, vacuum-sealed, or placed in glass jars. They should be stored in a cool, dry, dark place. They can be frozen or refrigerated to increase shelf life. Do not forget to label the contents!

Most fruits, if properly dried and stored, have a shelf life of up to one year. Vegetables only last six months unless they are frozen as well. Jerked meats can be refrigerated for two to three months or frozen for up to a year. Dried fish can be refrigerated or frozen for up to three months.


A FEW RECIPES

STRAWBERRY LEATHER ROLL-UPS
Puree about 2 c of fresh strawberries. Strain through cheesecloth to remove some of the seeds. Pour onto the fruit roll tray. Spread 1/4" thick. Dry for 8-15 hours. (For variety, you can add apples to the strawberries or sprinkle cinnamon or coconut on the fruit puree after it is on the tray.)

DRIED SOUP MIX
Mix any combination of your favorite dehydrated vegetables with rice or noodles and your favorite meat bullion and place it in an airtight container.

JERKY
Slice your preferred meat into thin strips or slices, cutting across the grain (Cutting it while it is frozen may make it easier.). Mix together 3 c of soy sauce, 1 c of brown sugar, and 1 c of liquid smoke. Let stand for 5 minutes. Add 1-2 pounds of meat, cut into thin strips or slices, and let it marinate for 3 hours or overnight in an airtight container in the fridge. Drain and place on the dehydrator trays to dry. DO NOT OVERLAP! Dry i a dehydrator until it cracks when it is bent, about 8-15 hours. Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks... if it lasts that long...


Happy Drying... and Nibbling!
Nishoni Harvey
Author of The Fanatics

"Obsolete Ways" of Preservation

There are many ways of preserving food that are considered "obsolete" yet are still used to some extent in our modern day. Most are considered obsolete simply because they are not used to the same extent that they were in centuries past. They were done away with with the invention of refrigeration and freezing. These are the methods we are going to cover in today's blog.

SALTING

Salt preserves food by drying it out (everything needs water to grow) and killing the bacteria that causes disease and fermentation. Most bacteria cannot grow where the salt content is above 10 percent. Most things do not have a salt content this high. To give you an idea, a piece of beef jerky only has a salt content of 2.2 %, ham has a content of 1.2%, and a dill pickle only has a salt content of 0.9%. Salting in and of itself does not preserve food, but the added methods used, including the drying in jerky and the acidity in pickling, also help to prevent spoilage. Many salt-preserved foods require refrigeration after they are opened.

In the old days, people preserved their vegetables by soaking them in a 50 or 60 gallon-size barrel covered with a heavy lid and left all winter. This is called wet curing, or brine curing. A form of this is still the most popular way of producing hams.

Dry curing is the method of using a mixture of salt and other ingredients to completely rub the meat being preserved, which is then allowed to cure for four to eight weeks. With ham, a mixture of twenty-five pounds of salt, two pounds of brown sugar, and two ounces of potassium nitrate is rubbed into the fresh ham, then tightly packed in salt and placed in a curing tub for six weeks. A curing tub has holes in the bottom, which allows the water produced while the meat is drying out to drain out. It is then followed by two weeks of smoking.

For more information on salting, I found a book on Amazon.com called The Joy of Smoking and Salt Curing: The Complete Guide to Smoking and Curing Meat, Fish, Game, and More (The Joy of Series) that might be helpful.

PICKLING

 This is the type of preservation I want to focus on. Pickling is not just for pickles! You can pickle many meats, fruits, and vegetables. It is a great way to preserve many foods that would otherwise spoil.

Pickled foods provide many benefits. They are high in fiber, contain antioxidants, and, depending of the vegetable you are pickling, contain calcium, magnesium, and iron. Pickled foods lower the fat in the bloodstream, improve circulation, lower blood pressure, and more.

You can pickle just about anything that you can grow, including: beets, beans, carrots, bell peppers, banana peppers, onions, and okra. You can also pickle some fruits, including watermelon, some meats, and eggs. Cucumbers, of course, can be pickled according to many different recipes, which include dill, garlicky, spicy, bread and butter, and sweet.

When pickling cucumbers, you want to pick the darkest, firmest, and wartiest cucumbers available. As cucumbers age, they get lighter and lose their warts. A good size for pickling cucumbers is four to six inches long.

My husband's favorite type of pickles are SWEET PICKLES. For that reason, I am including the recipe from www.whatscookingamerica.com that I used to make them, although I tweaked it somewhat. This is a very simple recipe, however, it requires patience, as it takes eight days from start to finish.

For this recipe, you will need:

* fresh pickling cucumbers, scrubbed well and cut into 1/4" slices (discard the ends)

* water

* pickling salt (I used Kosher salt. When using this, simply use 1 cup + 2 TBSP of Kosher to every 1 cup of pickling salt called for.)

* Alum (This is what gives your pickles their crunch.)

* Apple Cider Vinegar

* Pickling Spices

* Granulated Sugar

* Canning Jars

* Tongs

* Patience :-)

Like I said, this is an eight day process. 

On DAY ONE: Put your cucumbers in a large metal bowl. Boil water in a separate container, and pour the boiling water over your cucumbers. This will scald the cucumbers. DO NOT put a lid on the cucumbers, as you DO NOT want them to cook.  Take note as to how much water it takes to cover your cucumbers. This will help you to know exactly how much to use in the future days so you do not waste any of the future ingredients.

On DAY TWO: Drain off the water. In a separate pot, boil however much water you ended up needing from day one and pickling salt (1 1/2 cups of pickling salt to every gallon of boiling water. If you choose to use Kosher salt, like I did since I had this in the pantry, use 1 1/2 cups + 3 TBSP of Kosher to every gallon of boiling water). Pour the boiling water over the cucumbers. Salt is used to help preserve them.

DAY THREE: Drain off the water and salt mixture. DO NOT RINSE THE CUCUMBERS AT ANY TIME DURING THIS EIGHT DAY PROCESS! Boil water with a mixture of 2 1/2 TBSP of alum to each gallon of water. Pour the boiling water over the cucumbers. The day of soaking in the alum water helps the pickles to maintain their crispness.

DAY FOUR: Drain off the alum water. Boil enough apple cider vinegar and pickling spices to cover the cucumber slices (You should already know how much of the mixture you need from the measurements you made on Day One.) You will need to mix 3 TBSP of pickling spices to every 1 gallon of cider vinegar. Some people do not like the spices themselves in their pickles later. If you are one of those people, you can use a tea ball or cheese cloth to put the spices in during this process. I personally like the look and taste of the spices, so I put them directly into the mixture. Pour the boiling cider mixture over the cucumbers.

For DAYS 5-7: Let the pickles continue to soak in the cider and pickling spice mixture. You can leave them uncovered, but I covered mine with a cloth napkin. In order to keep the cloth napkin from falling into my mixture, I crossed some utensils over the top of the bowl and taped them down so they would not fall inside from being bumped or moved. I placed the cloth napkin over the top, which I also secured in place. I tied a length of yarn around the outside of the bowl right under the ledge, but over the napkin, then folded the corners up and secured them in place with tape so the yarn would hold secure, but could not fall downward.

On DAY 8: Wash and boil enough canning jars, lids, and rings for the amount of pickles you have. Drain the cider vinegar off of the cucumbers, and discard it. You will not need this again for this process. Tightly pack the cucumber slices into the jars, adding about a quarter of cup of sugar after every dozen or so slices. Yes, it uses a lot of sugar. Put lids on tightly. As the sugar dissolves, it will pull the vinegar out of the slices and make a sweet, sticky syrup. The syrup should completely cover the pickles once the sugar has completely dissolved. I periodically slightly shake the jars and turn them upside down and then, later, upside right until it has all dissolved. Be sure the lids are tightly screwed on before you flip the jars upside down, or your hard-worked-for liquid will leak out!

I can my pickles, but you do not have to, as the process used in making these pickles will preserve them well. The salt, the alum, and the sugar are all used for preserving, so you can just place the pickles in a dark, cool place, like on your pantry or on a shelf in your basement, if you wish.

Let them sit for a week, then enjoy! We really enjoy these pickles, and they are wonderful when served cold! (NOTE: This picture also features the pear butter I made the same day.)

I am also planning to make PICKLED BANANA PEPPERS this week. This recipe is from www.food.com. 

Ingredients: 

* 1/2 lb banana pepper, seeded and sliced crossways into rings 

* Pickling Juice: 
    - 2 cups white vinegar
    - 2/3 cup white sugar
    - 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
    - 1/2 teaspoon celery seed 

Directions: 
1) Sterilize 2- 1/2 pint jars. 
2) Bring the vinegar, sugar, mustard seed and celery seed to a rolling boil. 
3) Place peppers in the 1/2 pint jars. 
4) Pour on the hot pickling juice, and bring liquid to within 1/2" of the top. 
5) Be sure the edge of the jar has no juice on it. 
6) Place lids, and screw on bands finger-tip tight. 
7) Seal jar, and leave for 2 weeks.

Read more at: http://www.food.com/recipe/sweet-pickled-banana-peppers-17254?oc=linkback.

You can find more pickling recipes in this book, The Complete Book of Pickling: 250 Recipes from Pickles and Relishes to Chutneys and Salsas. I hope you enjoy pickling as much as I do!

Your Fellow Preserver,
Nishoni Harvey
Author of "The Fanatics"

Preserve Your Food?

More and more people are starting to preserve their own food. Why? Is there a benefit to doing all that work when I can just buy it at the store already frozen, canned, or dried? What if I am too busy to put my own food up? What if I do not havep much room to store all that extra food? Why? What is it? How? I hope to answer some of these questions over the next few days, but, for today, let us focus on the "whys", "whats", and "ways" of preserving food.

WHY DO IT?
There are many reasons for preserving your own food, including the feeling of accomplishment, the time spent training your children, and the fun your family will have eating foods that you put up, but I only want to focus on the two biggest reasons I do it.

My biggest reason is the price. In a world where jobs are scarce and food prices are rapidly rising, being frugal with your money is important. There are ways of preserving food that cost nothing except the price of the food, and, if you have a garden, then that is zilch. There are other ways that require a little bit of money up front the first time, like canning and dehydrating, but will have virtually no expense involved in later years. Even when you get into the more pricey ways of preserving, the cost to put up your own food is lower than purchasing the same items from the grocery store.

The second reason I choose to put my own food up is because of the health benefits of doing so. If you preserve your own food, you know exactly what you are getting when you open that jar or freezer bag. You know the food you are feeding your family is free of chemicals and preservatives. You know the fruits and  vegetables have not been cooked so long that they have lost all their nutrition value. You know what is in each food, and you know it is good for you.

WHAT IS IT?
When we preserve food, we are "preventing the growth of bacteria, yeast, fungi, and micro organisms" on that food. These are the things that are responsible for decay, deterioration, and food poisoning. You must do this if you are planning to keep the food for any length of time.

WAYS OF PRESERVING
There are many ways of food preservation out there, but I am only going to discuss those that can be done safely and frugally in your home. These include salting, pickling, sun-drying, smoking, dehydrating, canning, and vacuum sealing. Tomorrow we will begin to talk about each of these and more, beginning with "THE OBSOLETE WAYS"!

Each day's topic will include: a list of what you will need, step by step instructions on the how tos, and a recipe or two! If you are interested at all in preserving your own food, now or in the future, you do not want to miss this series! Click "join" or "subscribe" so you will not miss a post!

Do you put up your own food? What kind of food do you preserve each year? What preservation method or methods do you use? Do you have any hints, suggestions, or questions you would like to share?