PRESERVATION BY DRYING 145 



the mass can be reduced to a powder. Powdered meat, 

 however, is an article of commerce not very widely used. 



Drying is adopted extensively for a variety of other 

 animal foods. It is much used in preserving fish, some- 

 times without salting, sometimes with an abundance of 

 salt. The heat of the sun, artificial heat, and smoking 

 are all employed. Mussels and other shellfish are some- 

 times preserved by drying. 



One of the most recent and useful applications of dry- 

 ing is in evaporating muk. Milk is now easily dried by 

 special devices and is put upon the market at a low price. 

 The dried product will keep indefinitely, and is an extremely 

 valuable food, since it is one of the cheapest as well as 

 the most nutritious that can be bought. It will not take 

 the place of fresh milk, for when subsequently dissolved 

 in water it has a peculiar flavor, not unpleasant, but not 

 like milk. For baking and for many other purposes, how- 

 ever, it has proved to be one of the most useful as well as 

 one of the cheapest of foods. It is as nutritious as milk, 

 is easily digested, and has the great advantage of keeping 

 indefinitely without decaying, souring, or molding. 



In the drying of flesh, milk, etc., it must be remembered 

 that the process simply checks the growth of bacteria, but 

 does not necessarily kill them. Hence, if the meat con- 

 tained any disease germs at the time of drying, the process 

 itself would not remove the danger of eating it. Meat 

 from diseased animals cannot, therefore, be rendered fit 

 to eat by drying. Even the parasitic worm, Trichina, can 

 withstand the smoking in the curing of ham. Unless the 

 temperature is raised quite high during the drying, the 

 process does not, therefore, remove dangers attending 



