FOODS, DESICCATED

Neither molds nor bacteria will grow in the absence of moisture. This is particularly true of bacteria which require from 25% to 30% of moisture in a substance before they will multiply in it. The drying of foods is therefore, the oldest and most widely used method of preservation. Nature herself uses the method for the preservation of the seeds of plants, the ripe seed being dried in the sun until it is so low in moisture that it will no longer decay. The preservation of many important foods by desiccation occurs, therefore, naturally as in the case of corn, wheat, and other grains, and the flour made from them. These flours, when mixed with water, rapidly putrefy, and even when cooked and y re-dried, as in the case of read, they produce mold growth, but when well dried, as in the case of crackers, they will keep indefinitely. This method of preservation has been adapted by man to many varieties of foods. Meat of different kinds is dried by frontiersmen and uncivilized races and the resulting pemmican, as it is called, can be kept for months with no sign of decay. A combination of drying and salting is very common, you sands of tons of dried meat being prepared annually in South America and shipped all over the world. Hams and bacon and other smoked meats are preserved by a combination of drying, salting, and smoking. Fish of various kinds, such as haddocks, herrings and salmon, are preserved by drying, and among the more recent animal foods treated by this proce are milk and eggs. Vegetable foods of many kinds have been dried for centuries. Raisins (dried grapes), prunes (dried plums), currants, apples, pears, figs, apricots, peaches and many others are succe fully dried, and during recent years much attention has been given to improving the equipment used for desiccation. Drying in vacuo at comparatively low temperatures has met with considerable succe , and by this method almost all the common vegetables, both leaf and root, have been dried for preservation.