Firstly, welcome to the wonderful world of food dehydrators! If you’re a stranger to this concept of ‘cooking’ or ‘food preservation’, let me first take you a step back in time to understand the roots of food drying.
Don’t worry, this brief history class won’t put you to sleep, but grabbing a coffee wouldn’t hurt either.
Where it all began
Drying is one of the oldest methods of food preservation that traces back to ancient civilizations. How old? Really old – we’re talking since 12,000 BC here, a long, long, long time right?
Basically the concept is that by removing the moisture and water content out of foods, this extends it life period because it stops the growth of bacteria, yeasts and molds. These nasty microorganisms only grow and multiply in conditions where there’s enough water, so by getting rid of these conditions, dried foods can then be stored for a longer time without any spoilage or decay, usually for months and even years!
From fruits and vegetables, to spices, grains, meats and fish…our ancestors dried nearly everything they could get their hands on! This was crucial for human survival because it allowed people to get through those tough periods of droughts or seasons where fresh produce was scarce. All they had to do was reconstitute the dried foods with water before eating again.
So I think you might owe your smart ancestor’s knack for food drying for your living existence today
Back in primitive times, people also didn’t have additives and artificial preservatives to keep foods from going off nor did they have the technology like we do today, so instead they would use the sun to preserve dry their food. If the sun wasn’t in the best of positions to do its job, still-houses were built containing fires to help smoke-dry foods, especially salted meats and fish.
It’s interesting to think that back in history where there was no real advanced communication between countries, different ethnic groups still enjoyed the practices of food drying and did so according to their own customs.
In the East, the Chinese loved to dry their leaves to make tea, while the Europeans were particularly fond of drying fish into crispy morsels. Heck, even the Egyptians have been found to place dehydrated grains in their tombs.
Flash forward to today …
And what do we have? The a-la food dehydrator thanks to mother technology! Born in the 1920s, what is a food dehydrator exactly though?
As it’s name explains, it’s a kitchen appliance used to dry food, either commercially or in the household. Encapsulating trays where food is laid out on, it utilizes a source of heat to circulate warm air and reduce the overall water content of the food being dried.
Food dehydrators are an easy, healthy and economical way of preserving food, plus it kicks butt compared to back in the days where people had to wait for days for their foods to sun dry (not to mention having to swat the flies away at the same time).With the help of its internal fan, the heat source in the dehydrator is circulated around the appliance and through the air vents until food is dried to your liking.
Most food dehydrators manufactured today generally work in a range from 105°F (40°C ) to 155°F or (70°C). The temperatures you use and the times to dehydrate food will depend on the type of food you want to dry.
Of course, if you dry foods at a lower temperature it may take more time than doing so at a higher temperature, but do know that if you dehydrate at fairly high temperatures this may cause inconsistent drying. What I mean is, the foods exterior may harden quicker while the inside stays moist… which is a bad thing because it can still lead to molds and bacteria growing!
There’s kind of an ‘art’ to drying foods I would say, because there’s a need to understand how to balance drying foods without over dehydrating or under drying. Luckily though, there’s a lot of dehydrator models today which don’t require much effort from us and come with different functions and features, to read more about them, check out this site.
And there you have it, my introduction to what this thing that I keep talking about actually is and does. I know that the name of a food dehydrator sounds pretty unappealing and you probably first thought it was something that belongs in the back of a science lab rather than a kitchen, but trust me, the wonders of these gadgets are amazing.
What do you think of drying foods and have you used a dehydrator to do it before?
Don’t worry, this brief history class won’t put you to sleep, but grabbing a coffee wouldn’t hurt either.
Where it all began
Drying is one of the oldest methods of food preservation that traces back to ancient civilizations. How old? Really old – we’re talking since 12,000 BC here, a long, long, long time right?
Basically the concept is that by removing the moisture and water content out of foods, this extends it life period because it stops the growth of bacteria, yeasts and molds. These nasty microorganisms only grow and multiply in conditions where there’s enough water, so by getting rid of these conditions, dried foods can then be stored for a longer time without any spoilage or decay, usually for months and even years!
From fruits and vegetables, to spices, grains, meats and fish…our ancestors dried nearly everything they could get their hands on! This was crucial for human survival because it allowed people to get through those tough periods of droughts or seasons where fresh produce was scarce. All they had to do was reconstitute the dried foods with water before eating again.
So I think you might owe your smart ancestor’s knack for food drying for your living existence today
Back in primitive times, people also didn’t have additives and artificial preservatives to keep foods from going off nor did they have the technology like we do today, so instead they would use the sun to preserve dry their food. If the sun wasn’t in the best of positions to do its job, still-houses were built containing fires to help smoke-dry foods, especially salted meats and fish.
It’s interesting to think that back in history where there was no real advanced communication between countries, different ethnic groups still enjoyed the practices of food drying and did so according to their own customs.
In the East, the Chinese loved to dry their leaves to make tea, while the Europeans were particularly fond of drying fish into crispy morsels. Heck, even the Egyptians have been found to place dehydrated grains in their tombs.
Flash forward to today …
And what do we have? The a-la food dehydrator thanks to mother technology! Born in the 1920s, what is a food dehydrator exactly though?
As it’s name explains, it’s a kitchen appliance used to dry food, either commercially or in the household. Encapsulating trays where food is laid out on, it utilizes a source of heat to circulate warm air and reduce the overall water content of the food being dried.
Food dehydrators are an easy, healthy and economical way of preserving food, plus it kicks butt compared to back in the days where people had to wait for days for their foods to sun dry (not to mention having to swat the flies away at the same time).With the help of its internal fan, the heat source in the dehydrator is circulated around the appliance and through the air vents until food is dried to your liking.
Most food dehydrators manufactured today generally work in a range from 105°F (40°C ) to 155°F or (70°C). The temperatures you use and the times to dehydrate food will depend on the type of food you want to dry.
Of course, if you dry foods at a lower temperature it may take more time than doing so at a higher temperature, but do know that if you dehydrate at fairly high temperatures this may cause inconsistent drying. What I mean is, the foods exterior may harden quicker while the inside stays moist… which is a bad thing because it can still lead to molds and bacteria growing!
There’s kind of an ‘art’ to drying foods I would say, because there’s a need to understand how to balance drying foods without over dehydrating or under drying. Luckily though, there’s a lot of dehydrator models today which don’t require much effort from us and come with different functions and features, to read more about them, check out this site.
And there you have it, my introduction to what this thing that I keep talking about actually is and does. I know that the name of a food dehydrator sounds pretty unappealing and you probably first thought it was something that belongs in the back of a science lab rather than a kitchen, but trust me, the wonders of these gadgets are amazing.
What do you think of drying foods and have you used a dehydrator to do it before?