Why Dehydrate Your Own Food?

(Prepared by University of Utah Cooperative Extension Service)

Drying of Food at Home

Preserving food by drying is the oldest method of food preservation. Sun drying of fruits

and vegetables was practiced before biblical times by Chinese, Hindus, Persians, Greeks

and Egyptians.

Tomatoes on sale

Dried foods have the advantages of taking up very little space, not requiring refrigeration and providing variety to the diet. They are good for backpacking, lunches, camping, and snacks in general.

Linda's Note: Plus, you can save a ton of money on groceries if you watch the sales and buy in bulk!  You can dehydrate all that extra food and store it long before it will spoil.

Dehydrating temperatures

There seems to be a bit of controversy regarding the temperature for drying fruits and veggies. Even some books and dehydrator manuals recommend drying at 135 to 140 degrees.

However, there is something I have found that they rarely seem to mention, and that is "case hardening"

 Case hardening is caused when the temperature is too high. It seals the surface, not allowing all moisture on the inside to escape.  That puts your food at risk for spoilage later down the line.

http://www.easy-food-dehydrating.com/dehydrating-fruit.html

"Fruits are best dehydrated between 125°F and 135°F – any hotter than that may cause the skins of certain fruits to get crusty i.e. 'hard' - this is known as 'case hardening' which prevents the inside of the fruit from drying properly. Don't be tempted to turn the food dehydrator on high to speed up the process!"

http://www.food-dehydrator.com/resource-center/glossary-of-terms.aspx

"Case hardening is a result of partially dehydrated food that. Case hardened food has the outermost portion of the food dried while the interior remains moist. This situation typically results when too high of a drying temperature is used. Case hardened foods will spoil due to microbial growth. Moisture from the interior of the food will migrate to the exterior."