A food dehydrator is a useful tool for anyone who wants to preserve food for long periods of time. With this device, you can preserve the shelf life of your food while still maintaining its flavor. It’s an easy process that doesn’t require a great effort on your part.
Prepare Your Food
To begin, you want to be considerate of the food you’re using. It’s best to start off with fresh produce and meat. In addition to using fresh produce and meat, you also want to take time to wash your produce beforehand to make sure it’s nice and clean before dehydrating them. Lastly, make sure your food is dried off before you dehydrate it. This simply makes the process go smoothly. Properly preparing your food means you can see much better end results.
Cut Into Uniform Pieces
Another way to improve the dehydrating process is by cutting your food properly. You want to do your best to cut your food into uniform pieces. If your food is cut into different sizes, it won’t all dehydrate the same. Your dehydration times will vary and some pieces might come out overdone or underdone. Similarly, you want to space out your food well. If you over-crowd your food dehydrator, then this reduces the airflow and the food won’t dry out evenly. Start with smaller batches at a time. This may take longer, but you will end up with higher-quality dried foods.
Check Often
Food dehydrators take a long time to thoroughly and properly dehydrate food. Since it takes so long, you don’t need to worry about things burning or over-drying while your back is turned. However, it’s still a good idea to check back on the food often. You want to keep an eye on the food to see when it’s ready. One way to test if your food is dried enough is by putting it in a glass jar with a lid. If the jar fogs up, there’s still moisture in your food, and it needs to keep going.
Store Food Properly
Once you’ve dehydrated your food, you want to make sure you store it correctly so it won’t spoil. Dried foods are susceptible to moisture, heat, air, and even light. After you’ve finished drying your food, make sure you allow it time to cool. Otherwise, the heat may cause the food to sweat which reintroduces moisture. Next, you need to store your food in a container that blocks out light and reduces any other risks of spoiling the food. Mylar bags are a perfect option because they effectively protect against light, oxygen, and moisture.
With a food dehydrator, you can dry fruits and vegetables, and meat and you can even make your own homemade jerky. It’s an effective tool that doesn’t use much electricity or take up your oven space. Having your own food dehydrator makes it easy to dry out your own food.
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