The Method of Freeze-Drying
Freeze-drying is a sophisticated approach of preserving refreshing or currently-cooked foods by eliminating up to 98% of the food’s moisture, leaving intact the food’s texture, flavor, aroma and nutritional value.
The approach requires that the refreshing or cooked food be swiftly frozen at temperatures as reduced as -50°C. The frozen food is then put into a vacuum chamber. This vacuum chamber lowers the stress, and raises the temperature to just about 0°C.
At this particular temperature and strain, the ice crystals in the food evaporate into water vapor, bypassing water’s liquid kind, by way of a method called sublimation.
This approach preserves the mobile framework and nutritional content of the food, resulting in a merchandise that, when rehydrated, very intently resembles the first food.
The approach also helps prevent the h2o from currently being reabsorbed by the meals and therefore decreases its weight substantially.
Most meals items this sort of as fruits, greens and meats are well-suited to freeze-drying, and can be utilised for long-expression foodstuff storage and preservation.
The Process of Dehydration
Dehydrating foodstuff is a foods preservation approach which has been used for hundreds of years. Indigenous People in america dehydrated their buffalo kills in their searching camps to make it simpler to transport. Pemmican (a dehydrated concoction of buffalo meat blended with fat and berries) was a staple of many of the nomadic North American tribes. This reduced-heat dehydration approach associated both air drying (with close by campfires), or sun drying strips of meat on drying racks.
Dehydrators are a modern approach for little by little removing the dampness from meals with no truly cooking it. A drawback of dehydration is the minimal quantity of foods which can be dried at 1 time. The optimistic element of dehydration is that this approach of processing for food storage can be easily done at house.
How Do These Two Techniques Impact the Foods?
Freeze-dried meals preserve a lot of the first colour, form, aroma and freshness of fruits, veggies and meats. Freeze-dried meals does not generally incorporate additives or preservatives, so it stays accurate to its original form. And the seem, texture and taste of the foodstuff stays soon after re-hydration.
Unlike reduced-heat dehydration, freeze-drying allows for the preservation of pre-cooked foods, like recipes these kinds of as soups, stews, stroganoff, and the like. An clear reward is that considering that the meal was geared up in its entirety prior to freeze-drying, all you want to do is just insert drinking water, then heat for a few minutes in order to produce sumptuous foods.
Rehydrating freeze-dried foods normally takes just a number of minutes, basically by adding boiling water. Some food items, like numerous fruits and veggies, need to have no re-hydration ahead of consuming.
Dehydrated foodstuff shrink during processing as the moisture is taken out. So the foodstuff product alone is substantially smaller than its authentic measurement.
The re-hydration time of dehydrated meals will take a little bit for a longer time than freeze-dried, but it stills tastes like the first kind of the meals. Some dehydrated foodstuff include additional elements to boost flavors or assist in preservation. As with freeze-dried fruits and veggies, dehydrated fruits and greens can be eaten without any re-hydration.
Both techniques of foods preservation increase the long-phrase storage lifestyle of foodstuff. Most commercially made freeze-dried and dehydrated food items have a shelf daily life of 15 to 20 years, if effectively packaged and stored in a awesome, dry atmosphere.
In addition to their getting a reliable source of meals in an unexpected emergency or long-expression survival state of affairs, because of their light fat and ease of portability, these foodstuff are also great for taking on tenting, climbing and searching trips. They are also a wise choice to keep in an emergency street-aspect kit for the vehicle, or in your bug out bag.
If you choose to maintain these foodstuff in your car as portion of an emergency package, remember to bear in mind to rotate them periodically. Temperatures in a auto can get to extremes, each hot and cold. Substantial warmth as effectively as constant temperature fluctuations add to quicker degradation of equally dehydrated and freeze-dried food items.
Which Variety is Better for Intake?
Every person is distinct, and every single person has their personal personal tastes and preferences. With that in mind, there are a couple of things to take into account prior to creating a choice in between freeze-dried or dehydrated meals.
Home-developed fruits and vegetables are greater preserved via dehydration, since the average particular person cannot manage the high priced machinery used in freeze-drying.
Foodstuff utilised in everyday cooking and meal planning ought to possibly be freeze-dried. This permits the food to be swiftly re-hydrated as it is cooked prior to serving. If accessibility and portability are critical, than possibly sort of preserved meals ought to fulfill people specific needs. When yet again, it really is a issue of personal tastes.
In a nutshell, each dehydrated and freeze-dried foods are exceptional choices for long-phrase foodstuff storage, as well as for everyday use or for hiking, tenting, and so on. They both offer light-fat, transportable, handy foods. The principal variation is that freeze-dried foods are likely to better protect the shape, texture and flavors of the original foods.
Most people will find that a combination will operate greatest for their wants. One-item foodstuff this kind of as vegetables, potatoes, and other staples and grains are effectively-suited to minimal-warmth dehydration. Andrew Accardo -drying is a lot more proper for meats and fruits (whose texture can be preserved), and for pre-cooked meals with a variety of substances this kind of as soups, stews and sauces.