The Procedure of Freeze-Drying
Freeze-drying is a complicated method of preserving new or presently-cooked foodstuff by taking away up to ninety eight% of the food’s dampness, leaving intact the food’s texture, taste, aroma and dietary worth.
The process calls for that the fresh or cooked foodstuff be rapidly frozen at temperatures as minimal as -50°C. The frozen foodstuff is then positioned into a vacuum chamber. This vacuum chamber lowers the pressure, and raises the temperature to just about 0°C.
At this specific temperature and stress, the ice crystals in the meals evaporate into drinking water vapor, bypassing water’s liquid kind, via a approach known as sublimation.
This method preserves the mobile construction and nutritional material of the food, resulting in a merchandise that, when rehydrated, really closely resembles the original foods.
The procedure also prevents the drinking water from becoming reabsorbed by the meals and therefore decreases its weight substantially.
Most foodstuff products such as fruits, veggies and meats are effectively-suited to freeze-drying, and can be employed for lengthy-time period foods storage and preservation.
The Method of Dehydration
Dehydrating meals is a food preservation technique which has been utilized for centuries. Native People in america dehydrated their buffalo kills in their searching camps to make it less complicated to transport. Pemmican (a dehydrated concoction of buffalo meat mixed with body fat and berries) was a staple of numerous of the nomadic North American tribes. This reduced-heat dehydration procedure associated either air drying (with close by campfires), or solar drying strips of meat on drying racks.
Dehydrators are a modern day technique for slowly and gradually getting rid of the humidity from food with no really cooking it. A downside of dehydration is the constrained quantity of meals which can be dried at 1 time. The constructive aspect of dehydration is that this approach of processing for foodstuff storage can be easily done at home.
How Do These Two Strategies Affect the Foods?
Freeze-dried meals preserve a lot of the authentic shade, shape, aroma and freshness of fruits, vegetables and meats. Freeze-dried food does not usually have additives or preservatives, so it continues to be real to its unique kind. And the seem, texture and flavor of the meals continues to be right after re-hydration.
Not like low-warmth dehydration, freeze-drying makes it possible for for the preservation of pre-cooked meals, including recipes this kind of as soups, stews, stroganoff, and the like. An obvious reward is that because the meal was prepared in its entirety prior to freeze-drying, all you want to do is simply add drinking water, then heat for a handful of minutes in buy to create luxurious meals.
Rehydrating freeze-dried foodstuff will take just a handful of minutes, just by including boiling water. Some foodstuff, like several fruits and veggies, require no re-hydration prior to ingesting.
Dehydrated Share Fresh shrink in the course of processing as the humidity is eliminated. So the meals item itself is noticeably more compact than its first measurement.
The re-hydration time of dehydrated food items takes a little bit longer than freeze-dried, but it stills tastes like the original type of the food. Some dehydrated food items incorporate additional elements to improve flavors or support in preservation. As with freeze-dried fruits and vegetables, dehydrated fruits and vegetables can be eaten without having any re-hydration.
The two methods of food preservation enhance the prolonged-phrase storage life of food. Most commercially made freeze-dried and dehydrated meals have a shelf daily life of 15 to twenty a long time, if effectively packaged and saved in a cool, dry setting.
In addition to their becoming a dependable source of foodstuff in an unexpected emergency or long-expression survival scenario, because of their gentle weight and relieve of portability, these foods are also great for using on camping, climbing and searching excursions. They are also a sensible decision to hold in an emergency highway-aspect kit for the car, or in your bug out bag.
If you select to keep these foodstuff in your vehicle as element of an crisis package, please don’t forget to rotate them periodically. Temperatures in a vehicle can achieve extremes, each hot and cold. Substantial heat as effectively as constant temperature fluctuations contribute to a lot quicker degradation of the two dehydrated and freeze-dried food items.
Which Variety is Far better for Use?
Everybody is different, and every single individual has their own private tastes and preferences. With that in brain, there are a few items to think about just before making a decision between freeze-dried or dehydrated meals.
Residence-grown fruits and vegetables are better preserved through dehydration, given that the typical particular person cannot manage the costly machinery utilized in freeze-drying.
Meals used in every day cooking and food preparation need to probably be freeze-dried. This permits the foods to be speedily re-hydrated as it is cooked prior to serving. If accessibility and portability are essential, than possibly variety of preserved meals must meet these specific wants. As soon as once again, it is a issue of personalized choices.
In a nutshell, each dehydrated and freeze-dried meals are superb selections for long-time period foodstuff storage, as well as for daily use or for hiking, tenting, and so forth. They both give light-weight-weight, portable, practical foods. The major distinction is that freeze-dried food items are inclined to much better preserve the shape, texture and flavors of the original meals.
Most people will find that a blend will work very best for their demands. Solitary-merchandise foodstuff this kind of as greens, potatoes, and other staples and grains are properly-suited to lower-warmth dehydration. Freeze-drying is far more proper for meats and fruits (whose texture can be preserved), and for pre-cooked foods with a selection of components this sort of as soups, stews and sauces.