What's a good and cheap treatment solution for dehydrated foods?

[superior]

Hi guys and gals..I just got a new dehydrator (without instructions) and I would like to know what a good and CHEAP solution for dipping fruits and light colored vegetables in before they are dehydrated. I'm told you can use lemon juice and citric acid. I'm looking for a more readily available solution. Can I use salt water, for example? How about blanching? I tried to dehydrate some apple slices for practice and they turned brown on me.

[crashdive123]

I have not gotten my dehydrator yet, but many here use them. I'm sure they will offer up their advice when they check in.

[Rick]

First, go out on the web and find your manual. It will have a lot of recipes and probably answer your question. Just do a google search on the brand name and the word manual. You should be able to find it.

Second, pick up a copy of:

Mary Bell's Complete Dehydrator Book. It's excellent and fairly cheap.

http://www.amazon.com/Mary-Bells-Com.../dp/0688130240

As to your question, the only reason you need to dip the fruit is to prevent color change. Items such as apples and bananas can really darken if you don't dip them in some kind of citric acid. You can use sodium bisulfate or ascorbic acid to create a bath for bananas, for example.

Having said that, the change in color doesn't bother me so I don't mess with dipping them. There is no advantage other than cosmetic so the fruit is just as good and just as nutritious without the bath.

[superior]

Thanks for the replies. If the only difference is cosmetic, than I wont bother. I'm after the nutritional value.

[Rick]

Dehydrating the fruit concentrates the sugars so your fruits will actually be much sweeter.

[Chris]

oxidation isn't just a color change, it also promotes rot.

I would dip them, I would use lemon juice, I would wonder where you live that lemon juice is scarce. Consequently you can also use any other acid. Lime juice, orange juice, vinegar. vitamin c.

I also wouldn't be sure the nutritional value of your partially rotted food stays the same, since indeed the chemical makeup of the fruit has changed and started to break down.

[Swamprat1958]

I use a 50/50 solution of Realemon and water.

[Rick]

I have bananas, strawberries and apples that I dehydrated in June and July and they are still good. None of it was dipped. None of it is rotted.

[woodsy_gardener]

I have bananas, strawberries and apples that I dehydrated in June and July and they are still good. None of it was dipped. None of it is rotted.

Lucky you! Consider dipping in lemon juice or my favorite: 1 gram Vit. C to 16 oz. water, to be insurance. Might not matter, but it's cheap, so why not.

[edr730]

Ascorbic acid (vit C) is sold in the canning section at any store. It could be used in food drying too. Acid and vinegar is the more modern method. So is drying things that most people never dried. Apples have been dried since forever. They turn the color of leather with no acid treatment, but they last for years and I never knew anyone who got sick. But I see no reason not to use the ascorbic acid today.

[Chris]

I have bananas, strawberries and apples that I dehydrated in June and July and they are still good. None of it was dipped. None of it is rotted.

the rotting would have stopped once it was dried, but the period of time while it was being dried the oxidized flesh would have been releasing ethelyne gas causing the flesh to break down and rot.

Or... overripen if you prefer.

[Rick]

Or... overripen

Well okay then. I like that better.

[rwc1969]

i've always used OJ if I didn't want it to discolor, but what I'd like to know is how you get it dry enough without being over dry?

I dried some mango cubes once and they turned pointy and hard. Was kinda like eating sharp leather. also, it didn't have the good sweet flavor of the mango once dried.

[Rick]

RWC, I've never done Mango so I can't speak to it. Strawberries and bananas will concentrate the sugars and be much sweeter once dried. Pineapples, too. Your fruit doesn't have to be hard. Pliable or leathery is good for most fruits.

Some fruits, like blueberries require special treatment so it really is best to get a book or search for instructions online. Blueberries should either be dipped in boiling water for 15-30 seconds to break their skins or cut in half. They will dry much faster that way. For grapes, I always cut in half or thirds if they are large.

[LowKey]

over ripen is a better word. They don't really rot.

I use a 1cup ReaLemon in 3 cups water when I do dip. Apples and pears only though. And not if I'm doing millions. I'll dip bananas too just cuz I hate them all black looking.

Strawberries get sliced.

Rather than cutting blueberries I stab them. Get em in one layer in one of those green fruit boxes and have at em with a fork.
Same with Cranberries.

Cherries get pitted but they take a loooong time to dry.

With Mango, I made the same mistake you did the first time. Just mix the hard bits in your oatmeal or use them for baking. Now I boil the slices in a "light syrup" sugar and water mixture until they just start to turn soft, about 5 or so minutes. You don't want to candy them (or maybe you do). Then I dry them to leather. Same with pineapple and cranberries (after stabbing, you don't want cranberries to get too mushy in the syrup). It's a great sticky mess and hopefully you don't have a dryer with the fan in the bottom. You can do them straight up I suppose but I like them this way better.

Fruit and yogurt leathers are great. Especially if your fruit is too overipe for slice drying. You can mix spices in with your apples when doing leathers. Tasty. They don't last as long as dried slices though.

A quick check to see if your fruit is dry enough is to put some in a sealed plastic bag and put it in a cool place for a few minutes. If you get condensation, it isn't done yet. Leathery works.

Most of the drying 'recipes' I use came out of the Country Living book by Carla Emery. A book chock full of advice and practices for living with the land and a must for every bug-in bookshelf.

[Ole WV Coot]

Back when some of you were still in three corner pants people in this part of the country sliced and dried apples in the sun, kept all winter or until used. Green beans were strung on thread, hung almost anywhere and lasted forever, called leatherbritches. The green beans were light brown, apples and other stuff about the same color. We dried or buried what we called holed up apples, turnips, potatoes by covering with dirt and hay or feed sacks in a mound. Nothing rotted. I watched Grandma do this for many years. What wasn't dried or holed up was canned and put in the cellar by a cloth covered churn of pickled corn and meat salted down and hung in the smokehouse, sliced as needed. Simple process and used for many years.

[Rick]

I know dad and grandpa used to dry fruit in the sun. They placed them on the roof and covered them with screens to keep the flies off.

I'm not familiar with the holed up process, however. Can you give a bit more detail? Was a hole dug or were they placed on the ground to be covered? How much over burden?

[Ole WV Coot]

I know dad and grandpa used to dry fruit in the sun. They placed them on the roof and covered them with screens to keep the flies off.

I'm not familiar with the holed up process, however. Can you give a bit more detail? Was a hole dug or were they placed on the ground to be covered? How much over burden?

Folks dug a large shallow space, seldom froze real deep in KY. Placed potatoes, apples, turnips under enough dirt covered with straw or just more dirt to keep from freezing. Kinda like "heeling" or covering a plant to keep it from freezing. A cellar was usually dug head high under the side of the house, unlined or lined with rough oak shelves for canned goods, got cold but not freezing. Churns were used a lot and the cloth kept the bugs and varmints out. If you had room the potatoes, apples etc were put in the cellar and potatoes always sprouted there but not outside. We also dried everything in the sun, usually on an old sheet and covered with screen wire. It wasn't strange at all to see beans strung hanging behind a coal stove used for heat in a kitchen. Apples were strung and dried the same way. Dried apple pies Grandma made were great. Lots of the old ways have been forgotten. Grandpa was born in 1895 and I was in my mid 20s when he died, in my 30s when Grandma died. Great Grandma born in 1870 died when I was in my teens. I was always curious and learned a lot of things from them and folks older that were used before electricity was available or plumbing.

[Rick]

My grandparents were only slightly younger but all before the turn of the 20th century. I'm familiar with the root cellar but holing veggies or fruits is a new one. Maybe they did it but I sure don't recall it. I know my parents didn't. That's one I'll try this fall just to see how well I can get it to work. Thanks!!

Lots of the old ways have been forgotten.

Oh, you bet. That is the exact reason I became interested in the old ways. I love the new knowledge but not at the cost of the old. Tried and true methods should be retained and taught!

[rwc1969]

i like the idea of storage without refrigeration, even now a days. There's only so much room in the fridge.

We still string our beans and dry em. They taste real good too. Do the same with morels.