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freeze some vegetables, for instance broccoli
or asparagus, better than to dry.
–
Vegetables are ready if they are hard and dry.
Preparation of products
–
Wash the products carefully.
–
Remove the stones and rotten parts of the fruits.
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If necessary, peel off the vegetables skin.
Always peel off the skin if the vegetables are
covered with wax.
–
Remove the fruits stalks.
–
Cut the vegetables or fruits in slices or cubes.
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Berries or grapes should be dried whole.
–
Dry the greens or spice herbs whole with stems.
–
If you want to improve the taste and prolong the
storage life of the products, preprocess them.
This is not obligatory.
–
Try drying preprocessed products and not
processed products and decide which way of
cooking suits you better.
Preprocessing of fruits
–
You can use pine apple, lemon, orange or lime
juice to keep natural color of fruits. Dip the fruits
pieces into the juice for 2 minutes, then let them
dry and put them on the trays for dehydration
(5).
–
Use natural juice made of the same type of
fruits that are intended for drying (for instance,
apple juice for apples) to enhance the natural
taste of fruits. Dilute 1/4 glass of juice with two
glasses of water; soak the fruits in the solution
for 2 hours.
–
Some fruits are covered with layer of natural
wax (dates, grapes, cranberry, plums etc.).
To remove the wax and speed up the drying
of products put them into boiling water for
1-2 minutes.
Preprocessing of vegetables
Preprocessing of vegetables destroys ferments
that cause the change of taste of products during
the storage.
Steam treatment or microwave oven treatment of
vegetables is more preferable than boiling water.
–
Put the vegetables on the upper tray of a food
steamer and warm them up for 2-3 minutes.
Right after that put vegetables on the trays (5).
–
Put the vegetables into the container suitable
for microwave oven, add some water. Cover the
container with a lid and put it into a microwave
oven. Set the time which makes 1/4 of the time
of cooking, specified in the instruction manual
for your microwave oven. Put ready vegetables
on the trays (5).
–
Put the pieces of vegetables into boiling water
for 3-4 minutes, dry them with paper towel and
then put on the trays for dehydration (5).
Temperature and duration of dehydration
Food dehydration time indicated in the tables may
be used for reference only, because time of drying
for every ingredient is set individually and depends
on the quality and size of the used food products,
temperature and relative humidity of the room.
After learning the food dehydrator better, you will
be able to set the desired time of dehydration by
yourself.
Ready fruits should be soft, without moisture.
Overdried fruits are stored worse and contain fewer
nutrients.
Dried vegetables should be hard and brittle.
Recommended temperature
Product
s
Temperature (°С)
Herbs, greens
40-45
Baked breads
40-55
Vegetables
40-55
Fruits
55-60
Meat, fish
55-70
Note: If you didn’t dry all products at a time, you can
continue drying at any appropriate time. In this case
let the products in the trays (5) cool down to room
temperature, put them into polyethylene bags or
food containers and place them in the freezer.
Additional functions
Herbs, flowers, spices
–
Practically all herbs are suitable for drying.
–
Dry spice herbs together with stems, separate
leaves from stems after drying.
–
Make sure that the herbs are well-dried; other-
wise they may start to rot.
–
You can use dried flowers for making fragrant
sachets.
Drying of meat and fish
–
You can dry raw or cooked meat or fish.
Preprocessing of meat or fish keeps you healthy
and is obligatory.
–
You can use dried meat or fish for making first
or main courses. Before use soak it in water or
broth for 1 hour.
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