Quote:
Originally Posted by lottie63
A guy from a band that I loved gave me some fries once. I put one in my memory box. this was probably in 1997. It still looks like new.
EDIT: I did not dehydrate it.  |
Dehydration (drying) can occur naturally. As long as the environment is relatively low in humidity, a slice of cooked potato (even without salt) will dry often naturally without molding. Once dried, as long as it's not subjected to a very moist environment, it can last indefinitely.
Frying is a method of dehydration, so the fast food restaurant did most of the dehydrating for you. In South America, and many other countries, people deep fry meat, to create a type of jerky. Deep frying pulls the moisture out of the food, preserving it without preservatives.
In 1820, William Perry tool along canned meat on his expedition in search of the Northwest Passage, toward the North Pole. At the time, food canning was about a 10-year-old technology.
At least one can of meat was not used and wound up in a museum in England. In 1938, it was opened and found to be edible. It was fed to a cat which suffered no ill effects from eating the 118-year-old meat.
Food preservation is a fascinating subject. Egyptians were so good at it, that there are reports of foods (honey and grains for planting, primarily) that were still edible (after a couple thousand years).
