No not me... food
I was on Kathy's blog a while back when she wrote of Summer's Bounty - August 16th.. and dehydrating food.. Now while I have used freezing, bottling and other mechanisms to hold over the harvest of food into winter I hadn't thought of using the dehydrating method... well actually I had for sun-dried tomatoes but never managed to find the space or location to dry them out successfully and most ended up wasted.
I managed to find a reasonably priced dehydrator from Westfalia UK, and it is en-route to me so I will be in time to do some dehydration before winter sets her fingers onto the market stalls of produce.
I will be doing some banana's both for use in cereals but also for the ratz as they like banana chips and prefer the harder ones to the softer ones, but these have so many preservatives that I am concerned for them and have to limit their intake..
I will keep you updated on how the experiment is going.
4 comments:
I don't know if you read an old blog of mine in which I showed my Mother's cookbook...but in that book were all the old hints and tips for preserving during and after the war. The Ministry of Food issued leaflets, and I am at this moment looking at No 34.
"Drying Fruit, Vegetables and Herbs".
Things were dried in the oven on the very lowest setting Reg 1/4 (quarter)
It listed apples,pears,plums, grapes,peas,beans,onions,mushrooms and herbs as suitable. Of course no one had ever seen a banana during the war!
Now see you get me there... what does Reg 1/4 translate into in electric terms... ( I am assuming you are mentioning Gas)
My only experience of trying to dry things in the oven were apple rings and it wasn't terribly successful.. maybe it was the oven, maybe my own incomptence but I would like to have another go at doing this to preserve some of the herbs from the garden as well.
Well from my war-time cookbook by Marguerite Patten, this is defined as "A very cool oven".
There is a table..
A very cool oven: often called very slow or very low is
90'-120'C, 200'-250'F, Gas 1/4-1/2.
BUT..on reading further in the leaflet it says DO NOT EXCEED 150'F.
It goes on to say it is best to use the oven after it has been turned off after baking etc. Also you need to leave the oven door open to allow the moist air out.
Sage, my dear, I will do you a blog tomorrow.
Thanks for the nice mention. I'm really enjoying my dehydrated apples, but the strawberries, cherries, and blueberries I did earlier in the summer are long gone.
Make sure you dip the banana slices in lemon juice or other citric acid so they don't turn brown.
Post a Comment