DRIED VEGETABLES

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 257, 29 July 1942, Page 4

DRIED VEGETABLES

Success Of Experiments In New Zealand (By Telegraph—Press Association.) PALMERSTON N„ July 28. Important experiments in drying vegetables so that they can be served in a form closely allied to their usual cooked state far from New Zealand, be kept indefinitely, aud transported with a great saving iu weight and marked reduction iu space have been carried ou iu the past six mouths by teams of workers under the direction of Dr. B. W. Doak, in charge of the plant chemistry laboratory, Palmerston North, and Mr. L. W. Tiller, Wellington, member of the Department of Scientific Research. The processes have been so far developed that production on a commercial scale is now in view. From the point of view of making available vegetables carrying all the main protective values in their original vitamin contents at various points where frot?h New Zealand vegetables are unobtainable, the experiments are regarded as particularly valuable. New Zealand’s soldiers, sailors and airmen are engaged on fronts iu parts of the world where vegetables are a luxury, though often re<iuired to combat possible sickness. The dehydration processes are calculated to play a large part in the general scheme of provisioning theservices.

Practically all the usual vegetables can be treated successfully. Sliced carrots, cubed potatoes,- dried cabbage and dried onions, looking very much like prepared American breakfast foods, are packed in tins to keep them from the air. A goodly-sized cabbage was reduced to a pressed disk having the diameter of a saucer about half an inch thick. Onions lay packed, in short strips. Quarter-inch cubes of potatoes were packed firmly to fill a container. The carrots were waferlike in lightness and brittleness. To bring these vegetables back to their original form they are soaked first, preferably overnight, and then cooked in the usual way.