The Process of Freeze-Drying
Freeze-drying is a complex process of preserving clean or presently-cooked foodstuff by removing up to ninety eight% of the food’s moisture, leaving intact the food’s texture, flavor, aroma and dietary benefit.
The method requires that the fresh or cooked foods be rapidly frozen at temperatures as low as -50°C. The frozen foods is then put into a vacuum chamber. This vacuum chamber lowers the force, and raises the temperature to just about 0°C.
At this specific temperature and pressure, the ice crystals in the foodstuff evaporate into drinking water vapor, bypassing water’s liquid type, by means of a procedure referred to as sublimation.
This process preserves the cell structure and nutritional material of the foodstuff, resulting in a merchandise that, when rehydrated, very carefully resembles the unique foods.
Daniel Zetterholm helps prevent the drinking water from becoming reabsorbed by the meals and therefore decreases its fat considerably.
Most meals objects this sort of as fruits, veggies and meats are effectively-suited to freeze-drying, and can be utilized for lengthy-phrase foodstuff storage and preservation.
The Process of Dehydration
Dehydrating food is a food preservation method which has been utilized for centuries. Indigenous Americans dehydrated their buffalo kills in their hunting camps to make it easier to transportation. Pemmican (a dehydrated concoction of buffalo meat blended with excess fat and berries) was a staple of several of the nomadic North American tribes. This low-warmth dehydration procedure involved possibly air drying (with close by campfires), or sunlight drying strips of meat on drying racks.
Dehydrators are a contemporary approach for slowly removing the moisture from food with out really cooking it. A drawback of dehydration is the limited volume of food which can be dried at one particular time. The constructive element of dehydration is that this method of processing for foodstuff storage can be simply accomplished at house.
How Do These Two Methods Influence the Meals?
Freeze-dried foodstuff preserve much of the authentic color, form, aroma and freshness of fruits, vegetables and meats. Freeze-dried meals does not usually contain additives or preservatives, so it stays real to its first form. And the search, texture and taste of the foodstuff stays following re-hydration.
As opposed to minimal-warmth dehydration, freeze-drying enables for the preservation of pre-cooked foods, which includes recipes such as soups, stews, stroganoff, and the like. An clear benefit is that considering that the food was well prepared in its entirety prior to freeze-drying, all you want to do is merely add drinking water, then warmth for a handful of minutes in get to create luxurious meals.
Rehydrating freeze-dried food normally takes just a couple of minutes, merely by incorporating boiling h2o. Some foodstuff, like numerous fruits and vegetables, need no re-hydration ahead of ingesting.
Dehydrated meals shrink for the duration of processing as the dampness is taken off. So the foods item alone is substantially scaled-down than its unique dimension.
The re-hydration time of dehydrated meals normally takes a bit more time than freeze-dried, but it stills preferences like the authentic form of the foods. Some dehydrated foods include additional substances to increase flavors or aid in preservation. As with freeze-dried fruits and veggies, dehydrated fruits and vegetables can be eaten with no any re-hydration.
The two strategies of foods preservation improve the extended-term storage daily life of foods. Most commercially produced freeze-dried and dehydrated meals have a shelf existence of fifteen to twenty years, if properly packaged and stored in a cool, dry environment.
In addition to their being a reputable resource of meals in an unexpected emergency or lengthy-term survival situation, due to the fact of their mild fat and simplicity of portability, these foodstuff are also wonderful for getting on tenting, hiking and looking excursions. They are also a smart choice to keep in an unexpected emergency street-side kit for the automobile, or in your bug out bag.
If you choose to preserve these foods in your car as portion of an unexpected emergency kit, please keep in mind to rotate them periodically. Temperatures in a automobile can achieve extremes, the two hot and chilly. Large warmth as well as steady temperature fluctuations add to a lot quicker degradation of the two dehydrated and freeze-dried foodstuff.
Which Kind is Greater for Use?
Everyone is distinct, and every single individual has their possess individual preferences and choices. With that in thoughts, there are a handful of things to contemplate prior to making a choice between freeze-dried or dehydrated meals.
Property-developed fruits and vegetables are greater preserved by way of dehydration, since the typical individual can’t afford the high priced equipment utilized in freeze-drying.
Foods employed in every day cooking and food preparing need to possibly be freeze-dried. This permits the meals to be swiftly re-hydrated as it is cooked prior to serving. If accessibility and portability are critical, than both type of preserved foods must meet up with people specific demands. Once once more, it’s a matter of personal choices.
In a nutshell, both dehydrated and freeze-dried foodstuff are outstanding choices for prolonged-term meals storage, as effectively as for every day use or for hiking, tenting, etc. They both offer gentle-weight, transportable, hassle-free meals. The principal variation is that freeze-dried foodstuff tend to greater maintain the shape, texture and flavors of the first meals.
Most people will find that a mix will operate greatest for their wants. One-item foodstuff this kind of as veggies, potatoes, and other staples and grains are effectively-suited to reduced-warmth dehydration. Freeze-drying is a lot more proper for meats and fruits (whose texture can be preserved), and for pre-cooked foods with a variety of components this sort of as soups, stews and sauces.