Why is dehydration a good way to preserve food?
Answers
There are many benefits of this method of food preservation. Dehydration…
1. Does Not Require Electricity.
Most of us are familiar with electric dehydrators seen on infomercials and in stores. But long before any of us came up with those devices people were drying food for the winter. Native Americans dried strips of meat over campfires to take with on hunting trips. Herbs have been put in bunches and hung upside down to dry for centuries in Europe and all over the world. We have been using an electric dehydrator this year, but my husband hopes to build a solar dehydrator similar to David’s someday.
2. Is Less Time Consuming.
I find canning to be quite the process with all of the washing, sterilization, boiling water, and preparing of jars, lids and food. It doesn’t help that I’m a novice, but I do find that drying requires less hands-on time and less preparation. Simply chop, blanch if necessary and place on the trays of your dehydrator and let the sun (or electricity) do the work. Cleaning the trays afterward is the only seemingly big job.
Requires Less Storage Space.
I like to store the dried food in either glass jars (my preference) or resealable bags. When you dehydrate you remove the water content, which for a tomato can be upwards of 95%. So you are storing the same amount of food, minus the water content that you will replace later, only using much less space.