Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1917-06-13
THE DRYING OF VEGETABLES.
Most Economical Way Of Keeping
Vegetables and Fruits.

Drying is a cheap way in which to
keen vegetables and it has this ad-
| vantage: that the vegetables keep
| well and require but little space.
| Dried vegetables can often take the
place of canned.
Almost all vegetables are blanched
or gvein light cooking in boiling
water in order to change or coagulate
the albuminous matter and thereby
prevent the dried vegetables from
tasting like hay. They are boiled
| from five to six minutes Except as
stated below counting time from the
! moment the boiling commences. The
| vegetables are cleaned, rinsed and
prepared before the boiling, so that
they, after being dried, need only to
be rinsed in cold water, then soaked
in lukewarm water and boiled as
fresh vegetables. A wire basket is
, very handy to use during the boiling
or blanchihg. The vegetables are
placed In it and the basket then low
| cred into the boiling water. A cheese
cloth bag may also be used
After the boiling or blanching, the
water must be drained off we'll before
the vegetables are placed on the dry
ing trays in the evaporator. tf it is
but small lot, the stove oven may
be used The pans or trays are then
covered with paper. Some drying
trays Of galvanized wire netting.
made to tit the oven, may be used.
The trays or pans are cleaned by
brushing with soda water and then
rinsed)
The heat must, to commence with,
be 10 degrees f. Cor 43 c. increas-
ing to l35 degrees T.. (57 c. to l45
degrees +. &C" c.. and the driving
requires from an hour and half to
, almost three, sometimes four hours.
In order to take the correct tenn
perature OF the oven or evaDorator
for drying vegetables or fruits. put a
, thermometer in a cylinder glass filled
with sweet oil, cooking Oil, or olive
oil, and set in the oven.
When the drying is complete and
while the vegetables are warm they
arc very brittle. but this will soon
disappear with exposure to the air.
. Then they are packed away in tin or
wooden boxes lined with parchment
paper and with parchment paper be-
tween the layers (each layer about
half an inch thick). The dried vege-
I tables must be packed closely and the
box closed, not to be opened until
they are ready to be used. Where
the climate is very damp. good way
! to keep the dried vegetables is to put
! them In small paper sacks. tie with
string and then paint all over with
melted paraffin, which will prevent
the ABSORPTION of moisture. Remem-
ber that vegetables lose in weight
during the drying process.
Beans.
All varieties OF string beans can
be dried. If desired to dry them
whole use only young string beans.
Wash and string, put in wire basket
or cheese cloth bag and blanch in
boiling water from to 10 minutes,
depending on age OF beans. If it is
desired to preserve the green color,
add half teaspoonful Of soda to
each gallon Of water in which they
are blanched. Drain we'll, spread on
cloths or in the sunshine in order to
remove surface moisture. Place on
drying trays and put in evaporator or
stove oven. at 40 degrees. Slowly
increase temperature to 40 or 145
Tin about one or one and n half
hours) and finish drying at that tenn
perature. They will dry in about two
or two and half hours.
If string beans are little older
thalf or three-fourths grown wash
and string, slice in quarter-inch
strips crosswise with knife or vege-
table slicer. blanch six minutes and
dry as above. Old string beans (not
ripe) are hulled or shelled. put i'm
boiling water six minutes and dried.
Wax beans are treated like string
beans. Lima beans, if young and
tender. are blanched S to 6 minutes.
If full grown and still not hard.
blanch from s to 10 minutes. and
dry as above, only increase the heat
more slowly in order not to dry a
hard crust on outside Of beans and
thereby leave inside moist.
Sugar Peas.