Summer is in full swing, which means it's time to start harvesting vitamins for the winter. The standard method of most housewives is seaming, but it has long been known that almost no useful substances are preserved in products that have undergone heat treatment. Therefore, now the freezing of products and their drying is gaining more and more popularity. In this article, we will take a detailed look at the latter method - drying vegetables and fruits.
Pros and cons of dried foods
Dried fruits are even more useful than some fresh fruits and vegetables - when drying, all harmful substances are removed, and only useful ones remain. They also contain fructose, an excellent sugar substitute. The disadvantages of dried fruits include their caloric content, as well as the fact that they are quite concentrated products, so you need to eat them in small portions.
How to dry vegetables and fruits?
To dry vegetables and fruits, you can use the old "grandmother's way" - wash, cut into circles or half rings (apples, pears), divide into parts (apricots, cherries), string on a string and hang in the sun in a well-ventilated place. Disadvantages - it takes quite a long time, you need to take care of insect protection. This drying method has the right to exist, but modern technologies have stepped far ahead, which has greatly simplified our lives. Electric dryers for fruits and vegetables are very popular now.
What are the types of drying for vegetables and fruits?
There are two types of such devices. Dryers of the first type operate with the help of infrared rays that affect the water contained in vegetables and fruits. This makes it possible to dry the products at a relatively low temperature of 40-60 degrees, which is the key to 100% preservation of useful substances. The second type is convective drying. They are cheaper, but of lower quality, since they work with hot air. In them, moisture evaporates only from the top layer of the product, while a film is formed that retains water inside the fruit and does not allow them to dry out qualitatively.
Drying selection rules
Did you want to buy? Then pay attention to the following criteria.
The power of the device. It can be higher or lower, but the most acceptable is 350 – 450 watts. If you want to get dried fruits faster, choose more power.
Material. Plastic dryers are considered to be of the highest quality, metal ones are inferior to them in that they have more weight and, with prolonged use, can overheat and unevenly dry vegetables and fruits.
Heating element. It is better to choose devices where it is located on top or on a small elevation. So this element will be protected from moisture from the products.
Volume. The formula is simple - the more vitamins you want to prepare, the more pallets should be in your drying. The minimum number is 3, the maximum is 8.
The presence of the auto-off function. It is quite important, because when exposed to temperature for a long time, the device can overheat, and this is fraught with fire. If there is such a function, you are safe.
Thus, it is not so difficult to preserve vitamins until winter. The main thing is to be a little guided in modern methods of processing vegetables and fruits and be able to apply your knowledge in practice. It is a pity that in their youth, people make so many mistakes like me, who trusted my money to obscure bookmakers who deceived me, but now I only trust mostbet casino bonus where I have been betting for the past two years, and during this time I managed to withdraw more than one or even two million rubles from the account.