The Beginner’s Guide to Making and Using Dried Foods
Preserve Fresh Fruits, Vegetables, Herbs, and Meat with a Dehydrator, a Kitchen Oven, or the Sun
By: Theresa Marrone
Publisher: Storey Publishing
Published: July 1, 2014
Genre: Cookbook
Rating:
Drying is a simple and easy way to preserve fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, and herbs. This comprehensive guide includes everything you need to know to get started, whether you are using a dehydrator, your own oven, or the sun. Expert Teresa Marrone thoroughly covers the basic techniques, all the way through storing and rehydrating your dried foods. From apples to watermelon, asparagus to zucchini, basil to beef, you’ll find solid instructions that will ensure great results every time. Marrone also includes recipes for using your dried foods in a wide range of delicious dishes, from pies and cookies to stews and casseroles. There are even instructions for drying fresh pasta and making vegetable snack chips and baby-food purees.
This is a great how-to for anyone looking to start dehydrating foods. I have been using my dehydrator primarily to make sweet potato and apple chips for my dog but never used it for myself. I had no idea that some fruits/vegetables need extra prep work before you dehydrate them. For instance there are some fruits that you need to blanch in a simple syrup instead of just putting it right in the dehydrator. I did not know this and would’ve done just that, put it in the machine and walk away.
Not only does this tell you how to prep the foods you may use but there are also instructions on how to reconstitute it as well. I’m sure I would have figured it out eventually but there would have been some mistakes along the way. She also gives you recipes where on how to use your dehydrated food. You pretty much learn everything from start to finish with this cookbook.
The one thing that I thought was by far the coolest though is the fact that the book covers different methods of dehydrating. You don’t have to have a dehydrator to utilize the book because it has other options like using your oven or sun drying. It even tells you how to build your own dehydrator. This is definitely a nifty book to have in your back pocket for those of us who are just starting to get into dehydrating.
