93 



that sort and in many cases you will find that he has eaten 

 it all as a confection because he could not wait to soak it 

 back to a sauce. 



How to know when the products are sufficiently dry 

 is a matter which troubles some. Generally speaking there 

 is no great danger of getting vegetables over dried, the 

 greatest danger being of having too high a temperature and 

 cooking them, but with care about this you will soon learn 

 when they are sufficiently dry. A simple test which may 

 be tried until you have had experience enough to know 

 when the products are dry is to put a little of the product in 

 a glass preserving jar with a dry cracker on top of them and 

 seal the jar for over night. If the cracker is dry in the 

 morning the product is all right; if not you will need to re- 

 turn it to the dryer for a little while. Nearly all vegeta- 

 bles will dry under good conditions of dry and moving air 

 in about three hours, but of course conditions vary so much 

 that no stated time can be given. 



The test for fruits is that you should not be able to get 

 any pulp from them and that they should not stain your fin- 

 gers when crushed- It is possible to dry fruits so much 

 that it will take them a very long time to soak out again as 

 it takes fruits always longer to absorb water after being 

 dried than it does vegetables. Prunes, figs and raisins are 

 a good example of dried fruits. You know they are not so 

 dry that they are brittle and break, but no pulp comes from 

 them and they do not stain your fingers. All fruit butters 

 if dried to the consistency of figs will keep indefinitely. 



In storing dried products two things are necessary to 

 remember. First to store them where they will be free from 

 moisture, and second to be sure that they are secure from 

 mice. They are fairly aromatic and will atract mice if 

 they are where they can reach them. Paper bags are good 

 containers if twisted together at the top and tied firmly, 

 and several bags may be put into lard pails or coffee cans. 

 Any number of containers may be found in any home with- 

 out the expenditure of any money and a supply of vege- 



