Food Dehydration: Food Storage You Can Do at Home!
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Food Storage You Can Do at Home!
Food dehydration is a process that allows for moisture removal from a food product, halting the microbial growth that causes spoilage. If properly done, food dehydration makes for a long shelf life of the finished product, even after the sealed package has been opened. Meat Dehydration Almost any lean meat can be used for jerky. Treat the meat if you are using pork or wild game to prevent parasite contamination. Slice the meat no more than six inches thick, and freeze for at least a month at a temperature of 0°F or below. Preparing Meat for Dehydration Trim ALL the fat and discard when slicing the meat. How you cut the meat will determine if it is chewy or tender. Slice it with the grain about ¼ inch thick for chewy, and across the grain for tender. Marinate the meat in the refrigerator for at least two hours for taste and tenderness. Marinated strips will also dehydrate faster. Check that Temperature For extra precaution, preheat the oven then heat your strips in the marinade for ten minutes prior to food dehydration. It takes approximately that long for the strips to reach an internal temperature of 160ºF. Do not reuse the marinade. If heating after food dehydration, place the strips in a baking sheet, single layer, without touching, in a preheated 275ºF oven for ten minutes. If your strips are thicker than ¼ inch, you have a longer wait for that safe internal temperature of 160ºF. Storing Your Strips Depending on thickness, the unmarinated strips may take up to 24 hours for proper food dehydration. Test for doneness. The strips should crack without breaking when bent. Remove any oil beads from the strips with absorbent paper towel after dehydration. Take the strips from the rack and cool. Use glass jars with tightly fitting lids or vacuum pack to store the food. If the dehydration has been done properly, they will store safely in an airtight container in room temperature for about two weeks. It is best if you refrigerate or freeze them. Fruit Dehydration Select fresh, firm produce as food dehydration will not improve quality. Since fruits are acidic and have elevated sugar content, you can either sun dry or solar dry them safely. Preparing Fruits for Food Dehydration Slice thinly and evenly. You can leave the peels, but dehydrating in that manner means longer food dehydration periods. Fruits that are light in color, like apples and pears, darken after cutting due to air exposure. Sulfite dip offers long-term protection from browning. Ask your druggist about it. Soaking in powdered ascorbic acid (a level teaspoon to 16 ozs. of water) is safe and can prevent browning, but is not as effective as sulfite dip. Leave the fruits in the acid solution for about five minutes. Add more ascorbic acid after using the solution twice. Drain the fruits on absorbent paper towels prior to dehydrating. Dehydrated Fruit Most fruits should be 80% dehydrated. Test several pieces for dryness. There should be no moisture, even when squeezed. After dehydration, it is a good precaution to pasteurize sun-dried or solar-dried fruits to kill insects that may be in the food. Position your dried fruits in a shallow pan, single layer, and place in a preheated 160ºF oven for a half hour. Allow the food to cool for about an hour prior to packaging. You can also put them in a freezer bag, and leave in the freezer set at or below 0ºF for at least two days. Reconstituting Dehydrated Fruit Reconstitute dehydrated fruits by soaking them in water. Place the soaking fruits in the refrigerator. Depending on the size, reconstitution would take about eight hours. Use the same water to cook the reconstituted fruits. Food dehydration is easy, but you need to make time to do it safely!
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