Centuries ago, man discovered that removing moisture from food helped to preserve it, and that the easiest way to do this was to expose the food to sun and wind. In this way the North American Indians produced pemmican (dried meat ground into powder and made into cakes), the Scandinavians made stockfish and the Arabs dried dates and apricots.

      All foods contain water - cabbage and other leaf vegetables contain as much as 93% water, potatoes and other root vegetables 80%, lean meat 75% and fish anything from 80% to 60% depending on how fatty it is. If this water is removed, the activity of the bacteria which cause food to go bad is checked.

      Fruit is sun-dried in Asia Minor, Greece, Spain and other Mediterranean countries, and also in California, South Africa and Australia. The methods used vary, but in general the fruit is spread out on trays in drying yards in the hot sun. In order to prevent darkening, pears, peaches and apricots are exposed to the fumes of burning sulphur before drying. Plums for making prunes, and certain varieties of grapes for making raisins and currants, are dipped in an alkaline solution in order to crack the skins of the fruit slightly and remove their wax coating, so increasing the rate of drying.

      Nowadays most foods are dried mechanically; the conventional method of such dehydration is to put food in chambers through which hot air is blown at temperatures of about 110oC at entry to about 45oC at exit. This is the usual method for drying such things as vegetables, minced meat, and fish.

      Liquids such as milk, coffee, tea, soups and eggs may be dried by pouring them over a heated horizontal steel cylinder or by spraying them into a chamber through which a current of hot air passes. In the first case, the dried material is scraped off the roller as a thin film which is then broken up into small, though still relatively coarse flakes. In the second process it falls to the bottom of the chamber as a fine powder. Where recognizable pieces of meat and vegetables are required, as in soup, the ingredients are dried separately and then mixed.

      Dried foods take up less room and weigh less than the same food packed in cans or frozen, and they do not need to be stored in special conditions. For these reasons they are invaluable to climbers, explorers and soldiers in battle, who have little storage space. They are also popular with housewives because it takes so little time to cook them.

Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?

Câu hỏi liên quan

• The paragraph preceding this passage most probably discusses _________ .

• What is the last paragraph mainly about?

• It can be inferred from paragraph 4 that ..............

ZUNIA12

• Where in the passage is the name of Pippin’s hometown mentioned?

• If you have a desire to travel, when does the writer suggest that you do it?

• The best way to protect children from improper material is .............

• What is the purpose of the paragraph 1?

• What does the author mean by staring that, "At interpersonal levels, tone may reflect ideas and feelings over and above the words chosen" in lines 8- 9?

• Which of the following is closest in meaning to “frigid” in paragraph 1?

• Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?

• It can be inferred from the passage that the Puritans who traveled to the Massachusetts colony were ............

• The word “laundry” in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to ..........

• Who will play music at the picnic this year?

• The word "their" in line 12 refers to .......

• The word distinguishing as it is used in this selection means ________.

• The word “Conversely” is OPPOSITE meaning to ...............

• What is the purpose of the passage?

• Students who continue studying at university after having graduated are called .........

• The word “clogged” is most likely to correspond to ............

• The first songs of the Beatles were ................