Drying Vegetables

The essential differences between drying fruit and vegetables is that most vegetables must be blanched before the drying process. For plunging the vegetables into boiling water you can use either a wire basket or a muslin bag as a container. Except for string beans it is not necessary to immerse the vegetables in cold water after blanching. Drain them, pat dry to remove any surface moisture and then spread them in thin layers on baking trays in the oven.

String beans: The delicate colour of the beans can be preserved by blanching in boiling water to which salt and bicarbonate of soda have been added (1¼ level teaspoons salt and 1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda to 1 gallon water). Blanch for 5 minutes, then immediately dip beans into cold water before drying as above. The beans will take from 3–4 hours to dry at an oven temperature of 110–145°F.