Whithering Bites - Recap

Seasonality, Alton explains, is the new battle cry of the foodie. By this he means the concept that planet and palette both benefit from serving locally grown foods, and only in season. This is an adjustment for Americans used to a steady supply of everything, all the time. Most of us lack the canning skills of our grandparents, and our freezers are jammed so full of pizza and popsicles there’s no room for serious puttin’ up. During the harvest months so much fruit flows that we cannot eat it all, leaving bacteria, yeast and molds to reduce it to a gooey puddle. Then when the fruity flow ebbs, we pay high prices for fruits grown in distant places – fruits that might not taste like anything at all save for the chemicals growers spray on them. But, Alton continues, there is an alternative. One might reduce an entire season’s worth of fruit to a small package. He’s talking, of course, about home-dried fruit. Sure, one might buy dried fruit, but that offers a far smaller variety and there are those chemicals again. Whereas drying fruit at home is easy and... Good Eats!

At Whole Foods, Alton explains that fruit goes bad quickly because it contains water and sugar, two things that support abundant growth of microorganisms. Some varieties contain acids, which discourage such growth, but rarely enough. Alton drives the point home by citing a few fruits: plums are 80% water, peaches 89%, figs 78%, strawberries 90%, apples 84%, bananas 76% and watermelon contains a whopping 92% water. Alton proposes to reduce the water to 10-20% while increasing the sugar to a point where it becomes dangerous to microorganisms due to osmotic pressure hazards. But getting fruit to dry involves more than simply removing the water – just ask a mummy!

Alton, now jackal-headed, visits a tomb where he explains: the Egyptions knew the secret wasn’t just the arid climate, but proper preparation. There’s no need for the jars that would hold the viscera, for fruit lacks these. And as well there is no need for the long hook Alton eyes distastefully, for fruit has neither brains, nor nose through which to extract them. There’s no need for sawdust or tree resin or hay to stuff the head cavity – shuddering, Alton pauses...

Before wrapping their mummies, the Egyptians soaked a pharaoh’s remains in natron, a chemical mostly sodium carbonate with sodium bicarbonate and traces of other compounds. The body remained in that mixture for forty days, during which moisture left and the pH changed so the body became unappealing to bacteria. Modern fruit driers do not use natron. Instead, they use sulfur.

Anyone who has purchased dried fruit or red wine has witnessed the power of sulfur, which remains one of the most popular preservatives. It mimics Vitamin D, microorganisms ingest it and die (as Alton demonstrates using a hand puppet and a few shavings of sulfur). Sulfur also slows the rate fats go rancid by discouraging oxidation (a process by which less stable molecules steal electrons from other molecules). And, it shuts down the process that makes cut fruits turn brown.

The home cook could take this preservative power into his own hands, constructing a series of racks on which he lays fruit. Under them he would place a heat resistant vessel to contain food-grade sulfur. He would light the sulfur and cover the assembly with a cardboard box to contain the fumes; the arrangement would function as a fumigation or smoking rig. Or, he might dip his fruit in any of a number of sulfur-based chemical baths. The problem with both approaches is the sulfur. Many folks, especially asthmatics, are prone to sulfur and sulfite allergies and may have very bad reactions. So Alton searches for a better solution.

In his pantry he finds ascorbic acid (perhaps better known as Vitamin C) but this is very bitter. Near it rests a bottle of vinegar – effective, but almost as overwhelming. Finally, he settles on citric acid, available in powdered form, or, perhaps available from common lemons.

Alton squeezes lemons until he has a cup of juice, and then he dilutes that with a quart of water. He peels and cubes some mangoes and some Gala apples, and splits some strawberries, then covers each bowl of fruit with the lemon juice mixture. This doesn’t take long – thirty seconds to two minutes (and never longer than two minutes).

Alton dislikes food dehydrators. For one thing, they are unitaskers, which (with just a few exceptions) Alton has banished from his kitchen. For another, they are mostly cheap fans with heaters and cheaper plastic boxes. They either don’t work or they cook the food, which isn’t the same thing as dehydrating it at all. Alton hopes to remove 75% of the moisture from his fruit in a reasonably short time, and to do that, he returns to a prior technique that he calls the “Blowhard 5000.” This is a simple box fan and several cellulose (never fiberglass) furnace filters.

Fruit is sticky, so Alton needs something to keep it from sticking to the filters. Once, he used ordinary window screening, but that’s not really food safe, so he has found something better: dehydrator tray liners. These plastic mesh sheets are food safe, cheap, and easily had from Internet vendors. Alton needs six. He puts a filter on top of the fan, lined up so the pleats will be horizontal (parallel to the floor) when he sets the fan on its feet. On that he puts a mat (already loaded with strawberries), then another mat on top to make a sandwich. Another filter, another sandwich of mats (with papaya), another filter, another sandwich of mats (apples) and finally, a last filter with the metal mesh (if there os one) facing out. Alton stops at three layers because experience has taught him that four is one too many for the power of the fan. Using a pair of bungee cords, he fastens the whole stack together and sets that in an out of the way spot, because it will take 24-48 hours to dehydrate the fruit.

Larger fruit requires some heat. The fan/stack arrangement would work, but not quickly enough – there might be time for some nasties to get into the fruit and cause problems. So for this kind of fruit (apricot halves or melon) Alton uses a different approach.

Alton wants a temperature between 115º F and 120º F and most ovens can’t cruise below about 170º. That high a temperature can lead to cooked flavors, which is exactly what he doesn’t want. One answer might be to load the fruit onto mats (or cooling racks) and crack the oven about four inches to let the heat out, but that’s incredibly wasteful of energy. Another approach might be light bulbs, but they would also waste energy, and light destroys certain nutrients, like Vitamin A. During the cold months most hardware stores sell little heaters for about twenty bucks, designed to sit right against a wall. Alton has used these successfully, but great care is needed to get the right results, since they are almost too hot. Finally, Alton found the answer at a pet store. Lizards like dark warmth at night, so pet stores sell ceramic heaters. Alton uses such a heater, which screws into an ordinary light socket, together with a camping type fan to circulate the warmed air. To track the temperature he attaches a probe thermometer to the oven with a binder clip. A foil ball keeps the oven open to let out humid air, and (properly placed) holds the light switch open so the oven light does not light. How long this takes depends on the oven, the type and amount of fruit and how that fruit is cut; Alton suggests that four mats will require 12-18 hours to fully dehydrate. His last step? He puts a piece of tape on the oven to remind others not to turn it on and melt the dehydrator mats!

It’s time to harvest the fruit from the Blowhard. Alton can smell the fruity goodness. Removing the fruit, Alton notes it is shriveled and has darkened, but there is little browning, thanks to the lemon juice dip. Alton can tell the fruit is dry because it bends without breaking, feels slightly leathery, and when he squeezes a bunch in his hand, it doesn’t leave any moisture behind. He cautions those dehydrating in a heated rig to let their fruit cool first, because warm food usually feels moist.

The fruit is mostly dry but not entirely dry. To finish the drying, Alton stashes his fruit in a large container (so there’s plenty of air space) for about a week, giving it the occasional toss. This permits the pieces to reach equilibrium; once conditioned, fruit may be stored in whatever sort of container the cook desires. Sealed in jars, freezer bags or other airtight containers, and keep in a cool, dark, dry place, dried fruit lasts as long as six months. When calculating storage requirements, Alton offers a quick tip: 12-14 pounds of fruit reduces to fit into 2-3 pint jars.

Okay, Alton continues, now you’ve dehydrated some fruit. What do you do with it? There are, he answers, thousands of recipes that call for dehydrated fruit in both cooked and raw forms, and he has a favorite in each category – and they’re both very simple.

Two campers sit chewing on snacks. One has something with peanuts, chocolate chips, “bitter stuff” and “stuff that gets stuck to your teeth.” The other complains hers contains mummified oatmeal with an old hiking boot cut up into it. That’s when Alton drops by with an impossibly huge rucksack on his back. He has the ingredients to make a trail mix they’ll want to eat. To some of his home dried fruit he adds mixed nuts and some granola, then he seals it and mixes it thoroughly. And that’s it!

A doctor appears, evidently Alton’s hiking buddy. He tells the campers that in dried fruit nutrients are concentrated, so a handful of dried fruit delivers a basketful of nutrients, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals like chlorogenic and neochlorogenic acids. Alton and his friend disappear down the trail, leaving the trail mix with the campers – and the reason is soon apparent: a bear was following them! The campers run off, but they don’t leave their new trail mix behind...

Back in the kitchen, Alton explains how a cook may rehydrate dried fruit by steeping it in boiling water for ten to fifteen minutes, but he’s found it may be just as easy to rehydrate fruit in the target food: muffin batter or rice pilaf come to mind. He has also cooked dried fruit into ice cream base and soaked it in a salad’s vinaigrette before sprinkling it over the greens. And, there’s his favorite (pair of) fruit application(s)...

Side by side, Alton explains his recipes for sweet and savory fruit compote. The savory version starts with dried pears, apples and apricots. To that Alton adds an onion, cut into rings, some garlic, brown sugar, lemon zest, orange juice and cider vinegar. He brings that to boil over medium heat, while...

...over on the savory side, he has prepared some dried fruit by soaking in water for an hour. He adds more water and some orange juice, some sugar and some lemon zest (carefully avoiding any pith), then brings that to a boil...

...and when each is boiling, he reduces the heat to a simmer and adds cinnamon, a clove and to the savory side only, some rosemary. He simmers them for 40 minutes until the fruit is soft and the mixture thickens. These compotes may be served hot or cold. The savory compote adds flavor to pork chops, chicken, light fleshed fish and even venison. The sweet version adds to cakes like angel food cake and pound cake, ice cream and yogurt. Alton also shows how to make a nice pocket pie, by cutting a round of puff pastry and folding it around a small amount of compote. He seals it with a fork, docks it, and brushes it with an egg wash before baking it at 375º F for 25 minutes.

Back in the mummy’s tomb, Alton mentions something he forgot when he was there “a few thousand years ago” (earlier in the episode). In the last couple of decades, archaeologists have found dried fruit in several tombs opened in Egypt. Whether the Egyptians dried the fruit before interring it remains unclear, but some of the more adventuresome archaeologists rehydrated some of the fruit and sampled it. The reported that it still tasted fruity. Alton sees this as further proof that dried fruit is an extra fine... Alton pauses as a mummy’s hand reaches from the sarcophagus and snags some dried fruit. Then Alton decides there’s somewhere else he needs to be, pausing long enough to sign off until next time on... Good Eats!

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