Preserving Food Through Drying

Drying has long been practiced as a method of preserving food even before freezing and canning came into the picture. It's a very easy process and doesn't require the use of a lot of equipment or ingredients. Drying involves dehydrating the food so that microorganisms will find it difficult to survive and grow in them, thus preventing rottening. The only thing about drying is that it can completely change the food's structure and turn it into some other type. Grapes, for example, turn into raisins and beef becomes jerky. Meat can be dried in its raw form, cured or seasoned. Some fruits and most vegetables, on the other hand, require blanching before drying them.The oldest method of drying food was to place them outside for several days to allow the sun and air to dry them, but this may not be a very suitable method in places where it's hardly sunny. This requires locations where the humidity is low and the temperature outside is usually 100 degrees Fahrenheit or hotter. If it's possible that rain will fall before the drying process is finished, cover it up or bring it inside. You will need to pay attention to it or put it in places where insects and animals will find it difficult to reach or take away. An easy solution to this would be to use a natural draft dryer which not only helps in intensifying the heat from the sun so that your food dries faster, but covers and protects them from the animals.There are commercial food dehydrators which are not very expensive, are small enough to fit in the kitchen, and dry your food at a much lesser time than sun-drying. If you don't want to buy additional food preservation equipment, you can use an oven if you already have one. This finishes the drying process at a faster time than sun-drying or using a food dehydrator. To dry the food using an oven, set the temperature to 140 degrees Fahrenheit and check it constantly to make sure it stays between 140-160 during the duration of the drying process, which can take about 4 to 12 hours depending on the amount of food. Simply put pieces of meat, fruits or vegetables in the oven, keep the oven door open slightly to allow the moisture to escape, and rearrange your oven trays every hour or so to ensure that the food is being dried evenly. A downside of using the oven to dry your food, though, is that it uses up a lot of electricity but can only dry fewer food at a time than a food dehydrator.
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