Dehydrating consists in eliminating the highest possible concentration of water present in a product.
A dehydrated aliment at low temperature preserves the vast majority of foods with the same vitamins and minerals, nutrients and enzymes as their fresh counterpart, and with more concentrated flavors.
According to Energize for Life, "The process of dehydration retains almost 100% of the nutritional content of food, conserving the alkalinity of fresh products and inhibiting the growth of microorganisms such as bacteria."
Little vitamin C is lost in dehydration, and all vitamin A and Beta Carotene in plant foods are preserved. Minerals such as selenium, potassium and magnesium are conserved.
Dehydrated foods are usually expensive if you buy them. But food dehydrators allow you to keep your food fresh and nutritious yourself, at cost.
If you want a healthy diet and preserve food in your time, then dehydration is a perfect way of preservation for you.
What are the advantages of dehydration?
1. Preserves all foods (fruits, vegetables, mushrooms, herbs, spices), meals (purees, meals), raw diet preparations (crackers, cookies, pizza, rolls, cakes, crepes, snacks, bars...) and others (ferment bread, dry flowers ...).
2. Preserves for months or years: the conservation is longer the less water is retained and the totally dehydrated foods are perfectly preserved for years in closed containers.
3. All nutritional properties of food: better conservation the lower the temperature of dehydration.
4. More intense flavors when concentrating. Fruits become real goodies!
5. Less space for storage, handling and transport.
6. Ideal for when we travel or do excursions (they occupy little, they do not stain, they are nutritious and delicious).
7. If you are tempted to snack between meals... better these healthy snacks.
8. Keep surplus crops.
9. Keep those fruits or vegetables that you do not spend before they spoil.
In what cases can dehydration be used?
Crackers, pizzas, crepes, cookies, bread, cakes, different masses, more elaborate dishes, dehydrated fruits and vegetables and everything that the imagination takes you.
How much does a dehydrator consume?
Actually, they are small drying cabinets with fans and controlled temperature. They have a simple operation, they only need power to move a fan plus the resistance to reach the right temperature.
The resistance will be switched off and on to maintain the temperature, which does not entail high energy costs.
Therefore, although it takes several hours of dehydration, it must be borne in mind that these dehydrators do not consume as much energy as a conventional oven at any time.
Types of dehydrators
When we start investigating food dehydrators, the first thing we find are two types: circular and square. These are the main differences between these 2 types of dehydrators:
- Circular dehydrator: The heater and fan is located at the bottom or top, this causes the food that is closer to the fan have a different drying time than the rest. This means that we must monitor when using a circular dehydrator, because in addition to being more dry foods than others, it also happens that they dehydrate on the outside but not on the inside. When this happens, the conservation of food is lost and there is a high risk of mold.
The only benefit we see is that in the circular dehydrator you can choose how many trays to use, but it is cheaper to always use it at maximum capacity since it consumes the same energy.
- Square dehydrator: The square dehydrator usually has the fan in the back (it is important that you always check it despite the shape of the dehydrator). This works by creating a constant flow of hot air that dehydrates uniformly, both outside and inside.
With these dehydrators you do not have to monitor the dehydration cycle, you will be sure that all trays are dehydrated equally.
When using and comparing both products, we immediately noticed a big difference between the square vs round dehydrators. Another advantage is that many square dehydrators allow you to remove some of the trays from the middle to create more interior space, which allows you to bake bread, make yogurt and other recipes that require more space.
Advantages of dehydrators
Sun drying is a cheap method, but it has its drawbacks:
- Climate variability: the temperature is not stable, it is not always sunny and hot to dry (what if it rains?)
- Exposure to dust and insects (with their larvae, flies, etc.)
- We can not adequately control the drying time or the temperature.
If we dry in the dehydrator, we have one more device at home, but we enjoy many advantages:
- Stability of conditions: controls the time of dehydration and temperature, which remains stable.
- With temperatures around 40º, all enzymes and thermolabile vitamins in food remain intact. And of course, no other nutrient is altered: proteins, carbohydrates, fats, minerals, trace elements and vitamins remain the same. Only lose the water.
- Choose different degrees of texture: from crunchy sheets, chips and crackers to soft textures. We program the dehydrator so that it stops at the desired time.
- Low power consumption, since we use very low power.
- Savings: Keep the surplus if you have a field, including fruits and vegetables when it is your time or food that can deteriorate because we do not have time to consume them. With the dehydrator do not throw anything!
- Make jelly beans for children (and not so children), with dehydrated fruits that you can cut with cookie molds (giving them shapes: moons, flowers, stars) or fruit purées that we roll and cut.
- CrudiVegana food (cakes, pizzas, crackers, crepes, cookies ...).
- If you pulverize dehydrated foods you can make your own salts of herbs, seasonings, flavorings for cakes and sweets, mushrooms ground for sauces ... everything you can think of!
- By dehydrating yourself, you are sure that your dehydrated products are healthy: they do not contain sulfites (commercially dried fruits contain sulfites to have bright colors), neither flour nor preservatives of any kind.
Differences with other types of conservation
- Freezing: food is subject to abrupt and extreme temperature changes that distort the quality of nutrients. The water turns into ice crystals, which alter the molecular structure of the food, which is why once thawed the products may have a different flavor and consistency than the original product. It is not recommended to eat foods that have been frozen for more than 6 months.
- Canning: Foods have to be subjected to very high temperatures to ensure the non-proliferation of bacteria and spores, so there are molecular changes in all the nutrients. Food can be kept for years in aluminum cans with plasticizers inside, with the toxicity that this implies.
- Brine and salted: acidify food.
- Radiation: consists in exposing food to gamma rays or X-rays to destroy microorganisms, delay germination and maturation.
Dehydration is a good thing for your health and economy ... a good method to incorporate into your eating habits.
