Dehydrating

[SouthLeftCoast]

I got a PM from someone and when I try to reply, I get a "member not found" msg. The member is not in the member list, but member posts are visible and member is not listed as a guest. (Maybe a Mod can investigate what's up?)  I have no idea what the problem might be. So, I'll repost what I wrote and tried to send:

Quote from: [I'm omitting the name] on May 19, 2008, 07:17:10 AM
Hi - just going through some older posts, and I saw where you said bacon could be dried.

I've asked about this very thing, and have had mixed responses - do you pre-cook it in any way, or just dry it raw???

Thanks for any tips - also wondered about drying eggs...have you tried that?  Or chicken?  Raw or cooked?

Well, thought I'd ask anyway...

*************************

Hmmm, that's weird; I don't recall saying that (maybe I had recently read that, and it's now slipped my mind). I've dried beef jerky before (just thin slice and cook very slow in a low oven). I bet you could jerk or cure or dry or whatever pork that way, too. I know you can buy real bacon bits in jars, but I don't know what methods are used. Actually, I love bacon and it seems worth a try. There's probably a magic temperature/time so one doesn't grow salmonella or something but the fat factor might be the problem, potentially going rancid. The beef cut I used is very ultra lean: flank. The bacon I love is very fatty.

Beef, tomatoes, mushrooms and fruit are the only things I've dried. I need to get on the ball and try onions, peppers, celery and cabbage.

As for chicken, I am betting it would need to be cooked. I say that because people DO eat raw beef, but not raw chicken--that I'm aware of. (Beef tartare, e.g.) For my beef jerky, I marinate in soy sauce--maybe that semi-"cooks" it? When I make ceviche, I just let the lemon/lime juice "cook" the fish--I wonder if that would work with chicken? I dunno. I do know it seriously degrades the texture of beef if left too long.

I'm pretty sure I've read about dehydrating eggs, but I can't recall where. Possibly over at http://simplylivingsmart.com/?

Anyway, all these questions are worth asking in the garden section. Maybe start a topic about dehydrating. Mushrooms are dead easy as you need nothing but air--lay them out on paper and depending on the humidity, they just start shriveing up. I like to slice them; I snack on them. Fabulous!

Have you googled this yet? If not, give that a try or visit your local librarian. I bet the Foxfire (?) books might have some old-timey info on methods before refrigeration. What little I know is that both salt and sugar (and other spices--maybe pepper) are used to cure things--at least fish and pork--but whether they had to be smoked, too, I don't know.

Dehydrating is wonderful on the storage aspect, often tasty as is (fruit, mushrooms), but the veggies require water which might be difficult.

Hope some of this helps!

********************

So, anything anyone else can add would likely be appreciated!

[Meg]

A dehydrating thread!  This is good.

I have dehydrated apples, tomatoes, mushrooms, carrots and onions.  Apples and mushrooms are delicious to snack on.  Others do well in stews etc.

I have also done a ham by drying with salt and then air drying in the hayshed.

Here's a pic of the result.


Basically it was packed (raw & fresh) in salt for 4 weeks with a weight on top (with drains in the bottom of the container for the liquid to run out).
Then washed in water, then vinegar and lastly a little more salt patted onto exposed meat. 
Then hung wrapped in muslin (or an old sheet in our case) in the hayshed for 6 months or more....

Delicious.

[appies]

I'm so glad to see this thread!  Right off the bat I have a question that I haven't found answered in the archives. 

I'm trying to get lots of Swiss Chard dehydrated before it takes over the ranch.  My question is this.  The leaves are very fragile when I put place them in the jars, and so thin that I'm afraid they will rehydrate from the moisture in the air.  The jars are pretty airtight since I'm using mason jars and lids, but it seems that the leaves start to regain a little flexibility after awhile.  Is it safe to put little silica packets in the jars to help keep them dry?  If not silica then something else?

I'm also drying snowpeas.  They don't rehydrate well and they aren't very pretty, but they get so light and crispy that I eat them like snacks by the gazillions. 

I'd love to know what others are drying and how you rehydrate and cook the dried foods you put by.

Thanks in advance 
Angela

[greg]

I bought my dehydrator from her fifteen years ago. Her book Dry it - You'll like it is handy to have as well. I believe you can get both thru http://www.wildernessdining.com/pox908.html
greg

[Lua]

Has anyone ever dehydrated diced potatoes?  I have seen them in soup mixes, also instant dried potato flakes are sold to make mashed potatoes, so I figure it must be possible.  I'm growing a large quantity of potatoes this summer and would like to dry a bunch.

[greg]

By the by, blanching is handy to retain nice color in your dried food. It's also important for protecting texture in things like corn.
I also just get "Fresh start" (ascorbic acid) at the grocery store. Soak fruit etc.
for just a few minutes before draining and drying.
greg

[txgal2]

That was me! 

I had some issues because I thought my email address was available.  When I changed it to "hide", something happened, and it said it would send me a confirmation email.  Well, I never did get it - requested it several times - couldn't get back into the forum after that, so had to sign up again as a new member!  Whew!

Now I'll get back to all these great post...thanks for starting this thread.

BJ

[CMH]

Sally, can you add anymore info to curing a ham?  Everything I have read says the meat must be smoked, after the salt and before the aging....  Is this just an attempt for the books authors to "cover their butts" if someone gets sick from an unsmoked ham?  We are a sue happy country    What are the temperatures and humidity like in your hay shed?

Also, how do you use the meat, just sliced for sandwiches?  Does it need soaked to get the salty taste out before cooking?

I have wanted to try this, but would hate to do it wrong and ruin a good piece of meat, or worse make my family sick.

Thanks.

[justanouveaufarmer]

appies - you might want to look into getting a Pump n Seal.  I dry collard leaves and then store them in mason jars.  Then you can vacuum seal them.  They seem to stay very dry.  I've found it very handy to have dried greens.  We don't actually eat a potful of collards very often but I do find it easy to crumble a handful of leaves into soups, casseroles, quiches, any rice or bean dishes, even my husbands strawberry and kefir smoothies (shhh)

I've also wondered at what point is the food dried?  When it's rubbery or when it's brittle?  I dried mushrooms but they're still pretty flexible.  Red peppers still seem pretty flexible, but green ones get hard.  I think it's the sugar content?  Fruits seem to be really rubbery and sticky so I keep them in the fridge after drying because everything molds in this climate.

The best thing I've dried yet is lemons and limes.  I found organic ones at Walmart.  I sliced them very thin with a mandolin and dried them till they were fairly crisp.  I tried to grind the dehydrated limes but the skin was too hard.  It came out more like bacon bits.  The lemons I just left in slices and I've been just eating a handful everytime I go in the pantry.  The lime I've been mixing in muffins, I've made lime and coconut and banana lime muffins.  I also eat it by the spoonful.  Next time I'm going to blend the fruit up first and make lemon leather. 

I dehydrated onions, they came out really tough.  They need a lot of soaking.  I don't know if I left them in too long or had the heat too low.  I dry on low heat to preserve the enzymes.

My dehydrating book says strawberries come out tough and tasteless.  I'm going to try it anyway.  We'll see.
Well that's all I know about dehydrating.  But it's more than I did before I started!

[pamela]

I like dried tomatoes and use them a lot in soup mixes.
dried some spinach leaves and I think they will be ok.
also, trying to come up with a dehydrated salsa mix that you'd just have to add water and vinegar to.
I love salsa. 
This year we'll be drying everything we can get our hands on, especially veggies for my soup mixes.

I like the dried snow pea idea too.

for potatoes, I used Purple Peruvians last year for soups and they rehydrated very well.

[Meg]

Sally, can you add anymore info to curing a ham?  Everything I have read says the meat must be smoked, after the salt and before the aging....  Is this just an attempt for the books authors to "cover their butts" if someone gets sick from an unsmoked ham?  We are a sue happy country    What are the temperatures and humidity like in your hay shed?

Also, how do you use the meat, just sliced for sandwiches?  Does it need soaked to get the salty taste out before cooking?

I have wanted to try this, but would hate to do it wrong and ruin a good piece of meat, or worse make my family sick.

Thanks.

The recipe came from Hugh Fernsley Whittingstall (River Cottage) his site is here: http://www.rivercottage.net/ .  Although the recipe came out of a book of his that my sister has, I think it is this one: River Cottage Cookbook

He didn't mention the smoking.  

My sister did one 2 years ago and we ate the last of it with her last week.  Ours was done in Nov with a boned ham from one of her Tamworth pigs.  It was a 10kg ham, we added 3kg or so of salt (2cm deep around every bit of ham).  The salt was also rubbed well into meat and into the cavity where the bone was removed.  I added ground pepper and coriander to the rubbed in salt.  Laid 2cm salt in the container, ground more pepper etc onto the surface, put the meat flesh side down onto the salt, packed more salt round & on top.  Laid a board (that fits inside the container) on the meat with several kilos of weights on top.  Then out to a stable for 3-4 days per kilo. (We did 40 days I think.)  We had a couple of small holes in the bottom of the container - and we sloped the base towards these holes and put something else under to catch the drips.  Whole thing was then protected from vermin & bird droppings etc.

It looked a bit like it had been cooked (although not browned) on taking it out of the salt but it smelled fine.  Salt gets rinsed off.  Vinegar rubbed into all surfaces (esp in middle) then I patted some salt onto the exposed surfaces.  Wrapped it in an old cotton sheet.  Tied it up.  Put wire netting around it (vermin) and hung it in the hay shed.  We also added a wide circular disc on the hanging rope to ensure mice could not climb down the rope.  Then left it for 6 months.  Our shed is drafty but not open to the elements.

If it's going well - no smell - no drips of liquid.  We had none.

The photo is from the day we lifted it down.  It was covered in a "bloom" but did not smell foul.  The centre looked "interesting" around the area that had been de-boned, but I just cut the interesting colours  off (greenish and blackish - smell not unpleasant) and the rest was tasty.  I served it at my daughters 18th thinly sliced with salads etc and a choice of other meats.  It is salty, but pleasant.

I have also cut it into cubes and served it mixed through champ (mashed potato with butter, milk and chives).  No need to add extra salt to the potatoes this way.  Very tasty.

I have hung the large pieces outside again (will check now weather is warming again) and have some in the fridge in the kitchen.  It's a little chewy for sandwiches but nice to nibble on - or have for a lunch.  I like a green salad with balsamic vinegar and melted Stilton poured over it and the ham chopped on top.  Tangy tastes....

Of course all this is just what I do.  (Disclaimer stuff) There is no guarantee that if you follow these instructions that your ham will work as mine did.... but it worked for me and we had no tummy upsets after eating it.

[Cornelian]

I dehydrate a fair bit, and was supposed to be doing eggs this week but am not sure I'll get round to it - I have several methods to try.

Beans and peas - let them dry naturally, don't dehydrate them. They're far far better having dried naturally than dehydrated. They will retain all their colour and shape etc. Last season I dehydrated half of my bean crop and left the other half to dry naturally ... and while dehydrating works, they lost most of their colour and shape, but re-cooked OK. The naturally dried ones look fantastic (my dried beans are scarlet, purple and pink). Next season I'll be dehydrating none of the peas and beans and just allowing them to dry naturally.

Herbs etc always do well but do them at low temperatures. I make a lot of my own teas and medicines.

I have experimented with potatoes - they do best dried in thin thin papery slices rather than cubes, but they can discolour badly (even with dipping in lemon etc).

My triumph is dehydrating pumpkin and making flour from it.

I haven't tried meat yet - must try it one day.

Fruits and vegies - just about everything. Love dehydrated fruit as snacks.

Remember to do everything at as low a temp as you can as this preserves all the enzymes and colour etc.

Also don't forget to sterilize your jars and lids before packing stuff in - I also do it while the jars are hot, because then they can vacuum seal themselves to some extent.

[justanouveaufarmer]

Remember to do everything at as low a temp as you can as this preserves all the enzymes and colour etc.

Ah yes, I'm finding it's tough to know how low to go.  On the one hand I don't want to cook the food, but on the other hand I want it to be done by bedtime rather than at 3am.  A lot of it is trial and error, I spose.  I wish I had kept some of my raw food books.  They had good info on low temp drying.  The standard dehydrating books don't address that issue at all. 

Thanks for the info about beans.  I wouldn't have known that.  You should write a book Corny. 

[pamela]

corny, about drying beans and peas, do you mean like green beans dried whole?
tell us more about it, ok?
I'm loving drying the foods, takes a lot less space.

[Cornelian]

Ah, no, sorry,  I am talking about the beans you'd usually pod to get to the beans - I grow a variety of beans - Borlotti, Preston's, Hawkesbury - which are like the dried beans you'd find in a store. I forgot about green beans.  Green beans I don't actually grow, although I really like them.

Drying temp - I dry everything generally at about 40 C, which is about 105 F.  It can take time for the heavily moisture things - like pumpkin which will take about 3 days at that temp ... but I don't have the dehydrator running overnight (I have a horror of having it going overnight as I can imagine the cats knocking it everywhere ... a fire ... ), so it goes for about 16 or so hours a day. Fruit I might take up to about 50 C which is about 120 F.

Basil is the bloody most awful herb to dry. Takes YEARS! LOL