Food Drying, part two
Preparing Food for Drying
Select ripe fruit for drying. Bruised fruit can be used if you trim away any bruised spots. Do not use molding food for drying.
Slicing foods allows the dry air to circulate and dry the surface area of the food first. Cut foods into 1/8-inch to 1/2-inch slices. The higher the water content, the larger you should make the slice size. Small slices of high-moisture foods, such as watermelon, would disappear when all the moisture has evaporated.
Be sure to peel fruits and vegetables, including bananas, melons, winter squash, and other tough-skinned foods.
Pretreatment
Pretreatments are techniques used to make quality products. Pretreatments include dipping, blanching, cooking, or candying.
Dipping prevents any oxidation or unattractive color changes in fruits and vegetables. Dip fruits in pineapple or orange juice. Dip vegetables in diluted bottled lemon juice (dilute a quarter of a cup of lemon juice with two cups water, then dip vegetables and some fruits for 2 to 3 minutes).
Commercial fresh fruit stabilizers can also be used (dilute one half of a Tablespoon of stabilizer with 2 cups water). Sodium sulfite is another commercial product for pre-treating foods. You may want to avoid this if you suffer sulfa allergies. If you want to make a homemade stabilizer, mix 1 Tablespoon of salt or vinegar with 8 cups of water or dissolve one 500 mg tablet of vitamin C per 1 cup of water.
Blanching is highly recommended for asparagus, green beans, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and peas. Blanch for a very short period to cause checking of skins.
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