Dried Foods Centuries ago, man discovered that
removing moisture (51) food helped to preserve it, and that
the easiest way to do this was to expose the food to the sun and wind. In
this (52) the North American Indians produce dried meat and
make it into cakes, the Scandinavians make (53) fish and the
Arabs make dried dates. All foods contain (54)
, cabbage and other leaf vegetables contain as much as 93% water,
potatoes and other root vegetables 80%, lean meat 75%, and fish anything
from 80% to 60% depending (55) how fatty it is. If this water
is (56) , the activity of the bacteria which causes food to
go bad is stopped. Now day most foods are dried mechanically.
The most common (57) of such drying is to put food in
chambers. This is the usual method for drying such things (58)
vegetables, minced meat, and fish. Liquids such as
milk, coffee, tea, soups and eggs may be dried (59) pouring
them over a heated horizontal steel cylinder or by spraying them into a chamber
through (60) a current of hot air passes. In the first
(61) ,the dried material is scraped off the roller as a thin
film which is then broken up into small pieces, though still relatively coarse
flakes. In the second process it falls to the bottom of the chamber as a fine
powder. Where (62) pieces of meat and vegetables are
required, as in soup, the ingredients are dried separately and then
mixed. Dried foods take up less room and weigh less
(63) the same food packed in can or frozen, and they
are (64) to climbers, explorers and soldiers in battle, who
have little storage space. They are also popular with housewives (65)
it takes so little time to cook them. Usually it is just a matter of
replacing the dried-out moisture with boiling
water.
