Why blanch vegetables before dehydrating?
We do this important step for certain vegetables before dehydrating them for a few good reasons:
One: It’s important that we deter the food-spoiling process caused by
enzymes being present in the vegetables. Blanching helps to stop the enzymatic process, which can cause the food to spoil. Additionally, blanching helps to preserve the flavor, and nutrients of the vegetables.
Two: It aids in the actual food dehydrating process. I’ll go more into that shortly on this page.
Three: Blanching makes it easier to peel and remove the skin from the vegetables.
Blanching blueberries?
Yes, you need to blanch blueberries (and most berries) so that their skins get tiny cracks. This allows for the dehydrating process to do its job properly and helps prevent case hardening (the crusting of the exterior which leaves the interior moist, which is an no-no).
Why blanch food?
There are a few key reasons for blanching many fruits, or vegetables prior to dehydrating them:
So in short—blanching extends the shelf life of dehydrated products by ensuring high quality flavors, textures, safety and appearances result as water content gets removed during the full dehydration process.
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Another reason we blanch vegetables before dehydrating is that blanching helps keep the beautiful color of your vegetables.
Your zucchini and broccoli will remain bright green! Your carrots will remain a vivid orange!
You get the picture.
Blanching also helps retain flavor.
Blanching simply means dipping foods into small amounts of boiling water for a short time.
Remember, we're not cooking the food here—so a "short time" really only means less than a minute!
For vegetables that have relatively thick skins (that we want to keep/eat), blanching creates tiny cracks in the skins.
These tiny surface cracks help dehydration to occur
at a much deeper penetration level that’s more
than just surface-skin deep.
For vegetables that have relatively thick skins (that we want to keep/eat), blanching creates tiny cracks in the skins.
These tiny surface cracks help dehydration to occur at a much deeper penetration level that’s more than just surface-skin deep.
For proper long-term storage, you must make sure the food you dehydrate has been “dried to the core,” if you will.
Why? You don’t want to end up with moist centers! A moist center will create a breeding ground for mold. And sometimes moist centers are simply NOT visible in large pieces of vegetables with thick skins.
Of course, we can ease that problem by cutting our vegetables into similar-sized strips before dehydrating.
You've spent time drying your foods, so don't forget to add your oxygen absorber inside your food vacuum sealer bags before drawing out the air and sealin' it up!
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Make sure to add an oxygen absorber to your dehydrated food packages, prior to vacuum-sealing. Oxygen absorbers do what their name implies: they absorb oxygen. This, in turn, helps inhibit mold growth, which is an essential factor for long-term food storage!
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Thanks for stopping by to read "Why blanch vegetables before dehydrating." Blanching is an important step for many vegetables AND fruits such as berries.
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