{"id":987,"date":"2012-02-13T20:31:05","date_gmt":"2012-02-14T03:31:05","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2016-04-22T17:26:26","modified_gmt":"2016-04-22T23:26:26","slug":"dehydrating-a-simple-q-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/articles\/dehydrating-a-simple-q-a\/","title":{"rendered":"Dehydrating: A simple Q & A"},"content":{"rendered":"

We just finished a wonderful weekend in Dallas, Texas, as a store and as teachers, at the Self-Reliance Expo<\/a>.\u00a0 What a wonderful venue\u2014if you ever have one come near you, please take the time to go.\u00a0 You\u2019ll find a wide variety of things, from homeschooling to homesteading to survival supplies.<\/p>\n

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The first reaction most people have when walking into our store is this\u2014they head straight to our \u201cpantry\u201d, a 6 foot shelf full of jars.\u00a0 The colors range from the bright yellow pickled eggs steeped in tumeric to the deep green of dehydrated spinach, to the red homemade jams and jellies.\u00a0 The fruit leathers, the jerky, the thinly sliced dehydrated peaches, and the raspberries that melt in your mouth\u2014these draw passers-by into our booth.\u00a0 They take in the colors and produce.<\/p>\n

\"pantry<\/p>\n

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\u201cI didn\u2019t know you could dehydrate that!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried dehydrating potatoes once but mine turned black.\u201d<\/p>\n

We love these conversations because we often learn something new, too.\u00a0 We also find that many questions are echos of the ones asked by others coming to our booth earlier.\u00a0 Because of this, we thought that perhaps we\u2019ll relate some common dehydration questions now in case you share them.<\/p>\n

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Q:<\/strong> How do I know if the food is fully dehydrated?<\/p>\n

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A:\u00a0 If this food item is going to be an immediate snack food, such as fruit leather or chewy apple rings, you will want to leave moisture in and dehydrate to taste.\u00a0 This will be based on your personal preference, and this process stops short of what you will need to store foods over long-term.\u00a0 If you are dehydrating for long-term food storage you should be able to hear a \u201cclunk\u201d when you drop it onto the table, or it should snap when you break it in half.\u00a0 Remember, these foods will partially rehydrate with moisture in the air (and start the rotting process) if you do not immediately package them properly.<\/p>\n

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Q:\u00a0<\/strong> How do you clean out your dehydrator?<\/p>\n

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A:\u00a0 The bottom of an Excalibur is easily wiped clean with a cloth and your cleaner of choice<\/a>, but it is true that the sticky trays are sometimes frustrating.\u00a0 We found a foolproof way (through a customer\u2019s brilliant suggestion) to clean the trays.\u00a0 Run warm water in your bathtub and add Epsom Salts.\u00a0 Let the trays soak overnight.\u00a0 They will usually only need a quick rinse when you return to them.\u00a0 If they need further cleaning, it will just be a simple wipe-down.<\/p>\n

\"jar<\/p>\n

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Q:<\/strong>\u00a0 Those jars are beautiful\u2014where did you get them?<\/p>\n

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A:\u00a0 Many are standard canning jars and we pick as many up as possible at thrift stores and yard sales.\u00a0 Others are empty product jars<\/a>, such as spaghetti sauce.\u00a0 We always save glass jars!<\/p>\n

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Q:\u00a0<\/strong> Can I put my food in glass jars for long term food storage?<\/p>\n

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A:\u00a0 Yes!\u00a0 Any jar of spaghetti sauce that comes home from the store with us is on a one way trip.\u00a0 After the commercially packed contents are consumed, we save the jar.\u00a0 Why would we do that?\u00a0 Because the jar can either go into the waste pile or the asset column.\u00a0 If I preserve part of my food surplus, I will need to put it some where.\u00a0 A glass jar is impermeable by vermin, is portioned properly for use (I do not want to open up a 5 gallon bucket of cornmeal when I only need 4 cups).<\/p>\n

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The biggest variable is the lid of the jar. If the vulcanized rubber ring on the inside of the far is still pliable when you poke it with your finger nail, then chances are it will seal just fine with an oxygen absorber on the inside of the jar.\u00a0 If the oxygen absorber<\/a> is valid, it will mitigate the oxygen and create a seal.\u00a0 Keep your long term food storage in a dark, cool place, and remember to ROTATE!<\/p>\n

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Q:<\/strong> What considerations are there for storing dehydrated food?<\/p>\n

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A: There are four enemies of food storage: Moisture, Oxygen, Light and Heat.\u00a0 Any living thing needs moisture and oxygen to live.\u00a0 Dehydrating will eliminate the moisture.\u00a0 The oxygen can be mitigated with an oxygen absorber<\/a>.\u00a0 This also (depending on the condition of the jar and lid) create a sealed container where the \u201cbutton\u201d on the lid does not pop.\u00a0 Lastly you need to protect the food from light.\u00a0 The energy carried on a ray of light will have a negative effect on the nutritive value of the food according to the Second Law of Thermodynamics<\/a>.\u00a0 If you store the food in a mylar bag, this is much better for protecting from light.\u00a0 Lastly heat, think cool and a dark place for your food storage.<\/p>\n

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Q: <\/strong>What is \u201ccase hardening\u201d?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A:\u00a0 It is when the outside of the food dries out too quickly and the interior has moisture locked in it.\u00a0 When I am trying to cook a roast, I set the oven to a high temperature and put the meat in there to sear the outside, then continue to cook it a much lower temperature so that it stays juicy.\u00a0 When I want to dehydrate a food, I want to avoid doing that<\/em>.\u00a0 Dehydrating is best done with low heat over a longer time<\/em>.\u00a0 Case hardening is when the outside is dry and the moisture has sealed into the interior of the food product and it will deteriorate and rot.\u00a0 There are a few things that can cause this.\u00a0 Many dehydrators have the bottom-to-top heating unit that means some trays get too much heat while others are dried insufficiently which requires rotating the trays.\u00a0 Because of this, we highly recommend a dehydrator like the Excalibur<\/a> because of the back-to-front design where all trays heat evenly.\u00a0 We also recommend lower heat for a longer time!\u00a0 Even using Excalibur\u2019s suggestions, we typically turn the heat down ever-so-slightly and plan for a longer dehydration time (36 hours is typical).<\/p>\n

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Q:\u00a0<\/strong> What is \u201cblanching\u201d and do I need to do it?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A:\u00a0 Foods that are high in cellulose and fiber such as a carrot will need to be blanched.\u00a0 I suggest looking at the Preserve It Naturally<\/a><\/span> book for food-by-food instructions as to whether an item needs this process.\u00a0 (Note: We give this book free with the purchase of a 5 tray or a 9 tray Excalibur Dehydrator or you can purchase the book separately).\u00a0 Blanching softens the outer skin of food and is easy to do.\u00a0 Get a pot of boiling water and drop the food in very briefly.\u00a0 Blanching does not generally take more than a minute or two (if you are at a full rolling boil).\u00a0 Other items can be quickly steamed instead such as cauliflower.\u00a0 Items like a potato are best to be boiled thoroughly until cooked, cooled, sliced then<\/em> dehydrated.<\/p>\n

\"Dehydrated<\/p>\n

Basically, foods with a thicker outer surface than interior, such as cherries and other berries, carrots, etc. should be blanched. If an item needs to be blanched prior to freezing, it should also be blanched prior to dehydrating.\u00a0 Here\u2019s our favorite trick:\u00a0 If you find frozen vegetables on a great sale, stock up!\u00a0 Any items that require blanching will have already received the necessary treatment by the vegetable packers.\u00a0 Just put the veggies straight onto the trays without thawing!\u00a0 You have now saved substantially<\/a> in both the purchase, labor and in the storage.<\/p>\n

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Q:<\/strong>\u00a0 Did you really do this yourself??<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A: This is our most common question, and I think that it conveys the notion that this is too much work or too difficult.\u00a0\u00a0 The home economics of dehydration means that I save exponentially by being able to buy sale items in bulk and preserve my own summer harvest\u2014no wasted spinach for us!\u00a0 With this in mind, dehydration and food storage becomes a natural way of life.\u00a0 An Excalibur Dehydrator<\/a> is the work horse for the do-it-yourself food storage minded family. \u00a0And yes, you can do it too.\u00a0 I promise.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We just finished a wonderful weekend in Dallas, Texas, as a store and as teachers, at the Self-Reliance Expo.\u00a0 What a wonderful venue\u2014if you ever have one come near you, please take the time to go.\u00a0 You\u2019ll find a wide variety of things, from homeschooling to homesteading to survival supplies.   The first reaction most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[19],"tags":[83],"yst_prominent_words":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Fvks-fV","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=987"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}