Whether you use the sun, your oven, or a home-made or purchased dehydrator, getting started is easy with Making And Using Dried Foods. There are even complete plans included for building your own efficient food dryer.
Simple step-by-step instructions guide you through the process of drying and storing more than a hundred kinds of fruits, vegetables, grains, meats, and herbs. And when you're ready to use your bounty, just choose from dozens of recipes for using dried foods in nutritious and delicious snacks, soups, and entrees.
You'll learn how to prepare
Originally published as Garden Way Publishing's Guide To Food Drying, this newly-designed edition of Making And Using Dried Foods has been completely revised and updated.
From the Introduction:
"Who invented drying foods? We like to think some prehistoric hunter and his mate discarded a chunk of meat beside their camp fire, and a few days later noticed it had turned black and dry. Curious and daring, one of them chewed into it, Curious and daring, one of them chewed into it, uttered the Cro-Magnon equivalent of "Not bad," and slowly realized that here was a way to save food for the leaner days that came so regularly.By the time records were being kept, the drying of food was widespread. Phoenicians and other fishermen were drying their catches in the open air; the Chinese were sun-drying their tea leaves.
In this country, the Indians taught early settlers how to dry corn and grind it into meal; jerky was made from the meat of bear, deer, elk, and buffalo living in the forests and on the plains. The French had invented a dehydrator to dry vegetables by 1795, while American families were still using fire, sun, and smoke to dry their grapes, herbs, peppers, and meats.
Today a desire for natural, healthful, and inexpensive methods of food preservation has put dehydration in modern kitchens. People in all walks of life can dry many kinds of food in all kinds of weather at home.
The art of drying foods is a natural alternative to canning and freezing and benefits the family on a tight budget, because drying fruits, vegetables, grains, and breakfast cereals can offer a low-cost, energy-efficient way of eating for less. Drying foods benefits the hiker, the camper, the skier, or the fisherman looking for a compact food supply light enough to carry in a knapsack. It benefits the homemaker looking for delicious, healthful snacks to offer the family, and it benefits vacationers with two homes, because drying can be a safe way to store food over the winter. Drying is an ideal way of storing foods for those who live in isolated locations where electricity to operate a freezer may be undependable or nonexistent, and it is a good way to stockpile an emergency supply in a small storage area.
The goal of drying foods is to remove excess moisture, getting the water content down to 5 per cent to 25 per cent, so that bacteria that cause decay cannot survive.Since dried foods are only one-half to one-twelth the weight and bulk of the original food, a small, dry, cool closet will supply all the storage space needed for a winter's supply of food. If dried food is protected by airtight packaging, it will keep indefinitely.
Compared with canning, drying foods is simplicity itself. There are no complicated procedures to learn or potentially dangerous pieces of equipment to operate. You don't need a pressure canner or a hot water bath canner, nor will you have to shop for glass canning jars and boxes of canning lids. Neither will you have jar lifters, filling funnels, or tongs. The only special equipment manufactured for drying is a dehydrator, and it is possible to dry without one. Everything else, from oven drying trays to storage jars, you already have on hand or you can make from castoffs.
Compared with freezing, drying is inexpensive and woory-free. Drying in the sun or with an oven pilot flame is absolutely free. It is costly to operate a food freezer, depending upon the efficiency of the freezer, the amount of food it contains, and the electricity rate in your area.
Even if drying food were not simpler, less expensive and more convenient, many people might still prefer dried foods for their taste. Dried apricots, dried apple slices, and raisins compare well with fresh fruits, and honey-dipped pineapple slices, chewy, fruity leathers, and tough, tangy meat jerky have a universal appeal.
Because drying is a more natural method of preservation than canning or freezing, many people believe drying foods preserves more of the nutritional values present in raw foods, and a USDA study backs up this belief. Vitamins are lost in blanching, a pretreatment necessary for some vegetables before drying, but this nutritional loss can be kept to a minimum if the foods are steam blanched for no more than the specified time.
Almost any food can be dried by following the instructions in this book, which are aimed at preserving as much of the nutrients and the flavor of the food as possible.
Will your dried food be as good as what you can buy on the market? Commercial manufacturers have the advantage of expensive freeze-drying equipment, but you have the advantage of sweet, tree-ripened fruit and just-picked, garden-fresh vegetables. Your own homegrown fruits and vegetables, or those bought at local farmers markets or roadside stands, should be more delicious and nutitious than those the food processors have."
A superb and comprehensive practical guide to preparing, drying, and storing your own long-lasting, long-term supplies of dehydrated food. Essential for those making serious preparation for the potentially lengthy disruptions in food supply and distribution which increasingly appear likely to follow the rapidly-approaching energy and economic crises!
Paperbound; 182 pages.
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See also:
'Living On Less'
'Putting Food By'
The Superb 'Foxfire' Books
'The Encyclopedia Of Country Living'
'Essential Books For Independent Living'
'Back To Basics: Traditional American Skills'
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