Unpacking The Appliance; Worth Knowing In Advance; What Else Should You Consider; Fruits - Proficook PC-DR 1116 Mode D'emploi

Unpacking the Appliance

1. Remove the appliance from its packaging.
2. Remove all packaging materials like foils, filling
materials, cable holders, and carton packaging.
3. Check the scope of deliveries for completeness.
4. If there are missing parts or obvious damage, do
not use the appliance. Return it to your retailer
immediately.
NOTE:
There may still be dust or production remains on
the appliance. We recommend that you clean the
appliance as described under "Cleaning".

Worth Knowing in Advance

Dehydrating is a method of long-term food preservation.
Vegetable and animal food contains a lot of water -
this is the reason why many foods only have a short
shelf life. Water is the basis of survival for bacteria
and other pathogens, such as fungi. By removing the
water, pathogens lose their livelihoods, which in turn
prolongs the shelf life of foods. The advantage over
other preservation methods is: The vitamins, minerals
and dietary fibers of the food are preserved.
In your food dehydrator, a fan circulates the heated air
throughout the sieve trays. Thus, it becomes possible
to speed up the dehydrating process compared to
drying in the open air.
You can set at the appliance the desired temperature
and the duration of the dehydrating process. Tempera-
ture range: 40 °C - 70 °C (100 °F - 160 °F), timer: 1 - 48
hours.
You have the possibility to dehydrate food by using
one sieve tray or up to four sieve trays simultaneously.
Please note that food which you have produced at
home in your food dehydrator may have a different
appearance to convenience foods that you buy in the
supermarket or organic food shop. The reason for
this is that no artifi cial colourings or preservatives are
used in your food dehydrator.
You can also (partially) reverse the drying process
by simply soaking the dried fruit or vegetables in cold
water or cooking them with other foods. (e.g. soup
vegetables or mushrooms)
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What Else Should You Consider?

• Do not use frozen foods. They contain too much
water.
• Always use fresh foods.
• Overripe foods or food with rotten areas are not
suitable.
• Do you want the dehydrating process of one type
of foods to be completed at the same time? In that
case, the pieces should be equally thick, so that
they can dry at the same speed.
• Place the prepared pieces on the sieve tray in a
way that they do not overlap each other. The air
duct in the middle of the sieve trays must not be
covered in order to ensure air circulation.
• The drying time depends on several factors: size,
condition of the pieces, quantities used, set tem-
perature at the appliance and ambient temperature.
You will find the standard values in a table at the
end of this chapter.
• It is only partially visible to the eye whether the food
dehydration has already been completed. Instead of
the visual inspection, it is advisable to touch the food.
- Fruits must not produce moisture when exposed
to pressure.
- Dried vegetables should feel almost like leather.
- Herbs are done when they crumble when grated.
- The meat must not have any spots that feel
soft. However, it must not break even when you
bend it.

Fruits

• We recommend using ripe fruits because they con-
tain a high level of natural sugar. Unripe fruits often
taste bitter after drying.
• Wash and dry the fruits thoroughly.
• If necessary, remove kernels, stones and all bruises.
• Fruits with a naturally waxed skin, such as grapes
or plums, can be pre-blanched in boiling water. This
shortens the dehydrating time.
• Cut larger fruits in equally thick slices (3 - 6 mm).
Halve medium sized fruits.
• It is normal that brightly colored fruits, such as ap-
ples or bananas, become darker when dehydrating.
You can prevent this by previously soaking the fruit
slices for 2 minutes into lemon or pineapple juice.
Dry the fruits then thoroughly with paper towels.
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