Home-Dried Food

U.S. housewives, getting ready to put up a record home pack of fruit and vegetables for next winter, are confronted with a choice between canning and dehydrating.

For the new household art of mechanical dehydration, engineers and food chemists have worked out a home food dryer that can be used in any kitchen. Like the first horseless carriage, the home dehydrator is crude and sometimes unreliable, but it can save a lot of time and labor. The Department of Agriculture thinks so well of its possibilities that WPB has allotted manufacturers enough material to make 100,000 home dehydrators this year.

The chief wartime advantage of home food drying is that it requires no sugar, jars or pressure cookers. Moreover, thanks to the armed services' extensive use of dried foods, improved methods of dehydration have lately been developed. Biggest improvement is "blanching" (steaming) of vegetables before they are dried, which deactivates the enzymes that are a prime cause of spoilage, bad flavor and loss of food value.

The home dehydrator (as designed by Agricultural Engineer P. D. Rodgers of TVA) is a simple contraption: a small wooden cabinet with five 200-watt electric bulbs, a fan and trays for the food. The fan blows air heated by the bulbs over the food, slowly dries it. But good timing and skill are necessary to prepare and dry foods properly.

The fruit and vegetables to be dried must be picked when they are just ripe and dried at once, before they begin to lose their freshness and flavor. Before they are put in the dehydrator they are cleaned, peeled and cut in small pieces; vegetables are blanched with steam, fruits blanched or sulfured with fumes from a sulfur candle. They lie in the dehydrator for seven to 20 hours (tomatoes and pears take longest) at a drying temperature of about 145DEGF., finally emerge a tenth of their original size and are stored in a cool, dark place in moisture-proof jars, boxes or bags (heavy waxed paper is good). Before cooking, they are soaked in water until plump (usually about two hours).

Home drying of food costs almost a third less than canning. According to University of Tennessee's Chemist G. A. Shuey, properly dried foods keep most of their food elements and a good part of the vitamins, except vitamin C.

Thus far few of the 100,000 home dehydrators (price range: $20 to $80) promised by manufacturers have actually appeared on the market, but numerous designs for home-made models have appeared. A handy man can easily build one at home for about $15.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.