Drying Ways for Food

Centuries ago,mandiscovered that removing moisture from food helps to preserve it,and that the easiestway to do this is to expose the food to sun and wind.In this way the

North AmericanIndians produce pemmican(dried meat ground into powder and made into cakes),theScandinavians make stockfish and the Arabs dried dates and"apricot

leather".

2.All foodsincluding water,cabbage and other leaf vegetables contain as much as 93%water,potatoes and other root vegetables 80%,lean meat 75%and fish,anything from

20%to 60%,dependingon how fatty it is.If this water is removed,the activity of the bacteria whichcauses food to go bad is checked.

3.Fruit is sun-driedin Asia Minor,Greece,Spain and other Mediterranean countries,and alsoin California,South Africa and Australia. The methods used vary,but in

general,the fruit isspread out on trays in drying yards in the hot sun.In order to preventdarkening,pears,peaches and apricots are exposed to the fumes of burning sulfur

before drying.Plums,for making prunes, and certain varieties of grapes for making raisins andcurrants,are dipped in an alkaline solution in order to crack the skins of thefruit

slightly and removetheir wax coating,so as to increase the rate of drying.

4.Nowadays mostfoods are dried mechanically.The conventional method of such dehydration is toput food in chambers through which hot air is blown at temperatures of

about 110℃at entry and to about 43℃at exit. This is the usual method for drying such things asvegetables,minced meat, and fish.

5.Liquids such asmilk,coffee,tea,soups and eggs may be dried by pouring them over a heated steelcylinder,by spraying them into a chamber through which a current of hot

air passes.In thefirst case,the dried material is scraped off the roller as a thin film which isthen broken up into small,though still relatively coarse flakes.In the second

process,it falls tothe bottom of the chamber as a fine powder. Where recognizable pieces of meatand vegetables are required,as in soup, the ingredients are dried separately

and then mixed.

6.Dried foods takeup less room and weigh less than the same food packed in cans or frozen, andthey do not need to be stored in special conditions.For these reasons they are

invaluable to theclimbers,explorers and soldiers in battle,who have little storage space.Theyare also popular with housewives because it takes so little time to cook

them.Usually it isjust a case of replacing the dried-out moisture with boiling water.Paragraph 4______

A.Drying Fruit in the Traditional Way.

B.Food Drying Histrory.

C.Water in Food.

D.Drying of Liquid Food.

E.Advantages of Dry Food.