$2 Download. DEHYDRATING FOODS FRUITS, VEGETABLES, FISH AND MEATS. 1920 – 242p

DEHYDRATING FOODS

CHAPTER I

REGARDING DEHYDRATION

The dehydration of foods is one of the most important

considerations in the world. It is the means of

preserving foods quickly, cheaply and perfectly, and it

will save thousands of tons of garden, orchard and farm

produce which have gone to waste hitherto.

By dehydration, all kinds of foods — fish, meats,

fruits and vegetables, and even milk and eggs — may

be reduced to a fraction of their original weight and

bulk. Moreover, when properly dehydrated, the foods

maintain not only their nutritive properties, but their

flavorings and colorings as well, being far superior to

canned products in this regard.

Those of us who have worked practically at dehydra tion

and with dehydrated products realize that this

art or science is bound to effect a revolution in our

means and methods of food preservation, and interest

in dehydration and appreciation of its possibilities are

spreading rapidly throughout the world.

During my lectures upon foods and cookery during

the past two years most of the questions coming from

DEHYDRATING FOODS

the audiences were about dehydration, or "drying'*

as the majority consider it, while I have people calling

at my testing kitchen almost daily regarding systems

and methods, among them being visitors from Cuba,

South American countries, Italy, France, Great Britain

and Canada, in addition to those from all over the

United States.

There is a very essential difference between drying

and dehydration, and this fact must be recognized.

As we know, all food materials are composed of myriads

of tiny cells, these cells holding flavorings, colorings

and nutrients, together with a large percentage of

fluid — practically water. The problem has been how

to extract the water from the cells without causing

chemical changes and loss of essential principles.

Broadly speaking, dehydration is a method of ex tracting

the water quickly without rupturing the mem branes

or cell walls. Thus only the water is taken away,

and the volatiles, the flavoring essences, the colorings

and the nutritive properties are left in the cells. It is

just the principle of osmosis (a sweating, as it may be

termed), and when the dehydrated or dehumidified

products are soaked in water for a time their cells

absorb moisture, and furnish, to all intents and pur poses,

fresh food materials which may be cooked and

dealt with just as could be the original raw foods.

Drying, on the other hand, is a slow process, — so

slow that the cell walls crack and open, allowing the

volatiles and aromatics to escape and the coloring prin ciples

to change; hence the flavor and appearance of

2

REGARDING DEHYDRATION

dried products are not and cannot be equal to those of

dehydrated products.

As tangible evidence of this we will consider grass

and hay. Hay is dried grass, and even though you

soak hay in water you cannot "restore" it, whereas

dehydrated grass "comes back" fresh, green and succu lent.

Let us take dried apples as another example. Dried

apple pie is always dried apple pie, as every one can

tell upon tasting it, whereas pie made from dehydrated

apples yields a dish that is really fresh apple pie, and

it cannot be distinguished from pie made with the

fresh-cut fruit.

To emphasize still further the conspicuous merits

of dehydrated fruits and vegetables, I have often

served dehydrated products and strictly fresh ones at

the same meal, and no one could tell which was which.

Recently a food commissioner from a neighboring coun try

wrote to ask me what I thought of dehydration, and

what plant or system of dehydration could I recom mend.

I replied that the subject was too important to

deal with satisfactorily by correspondence, but that

if he would call at my testing kitchen in New York he

could see my exhibit of dehydrated products, — fish,

oysters, meats and almost every fruit and vegetable

grown in the United States, and that we could then

discuss the technical details of dehydration to good

advantage.

This man came and brought another food official

with him, whereupon I prepared a luncheon at which