Читать книгу Canning & Preserving For Dummies - Amelia Jeanroy - Страница 42

Dehydrating or drying food is a long, slow process of removing moisture from your food while exposing it to low heat. While nowhere near as glamorous as creating shiny jars of canned food, it’s a super way to preserve a lot of food in a small space. If you’re interested in taking the slow boat to delicious, here are some items you’ll want to have for this process, which is explained in Chapter 16.

 An electric dehydrator: This machine dries your food in an enclosed chamber while it circulates warm air around your food. All that comfy, warm air turns your food into beautifully dehydrated and perfectly preserved bounty.

 A conventional oven: If your oven maintains a low temperature (under 200 degrees Fahrenheit or 93.3 degrees Celsius) and you can stand to be without it for up to 24 hours, use it for drying before making the investment in an electric food dehydrator.

 Oven thermometer: An oven thermometer tells you if your oven temperature is low enough to dry your food without cooking it (see Chapter 16 for detailed instructions for checking your oven’s temperature).

 Trays and racks: These are used for holding your food while it’s drying. They’re included with an electric dehydrator. For oven-drying, use mesh-covered frames or baking sheets. For sun-drying, clean screens are necessary, along with clean cheesecloth to keep hungry bugs off the food as it dries.