Apples Drying Methods

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Drying apples does not require a lot of labor and material costs. Especially if apples grow in their own garden, and another year is so fruitful that drying apples becomes almost the only way to preserve a large amount of fruits and vitamins for the winter after dozens of cans of apple jam with jam are cooked and apple compotes are rolled up. These are the methods of drying apples I would like to remind the housewives who decided to preserve a decent harvest, and not bury it in the ground

Before you dry the apples

Rinse apples in water acidified with table vinegar before drying. Such water will well wash away dirt from the peel of apples, the remnants of chemicals if you sprayed apples during their ripening period.

The next step is to peel the apples from the core with a special spoon, while cutting them into slices. In later varieties of apples, the skin is also cut off. Darkening from hitting the ground on the pulp of apples, wormy places must be mercilessly removed.

Sliced apples are immediately dipped in an acidified solution for a short time so that they do not quickly darken. For this solution, two grams of citric acid should be dissolved in a liter of water. You can use 10 grams of salt per liter of water.

The method of drying apples in the sun

In central Russia and in the south, apples are dried in the sun. This is the cheapest and most convenient method for drying fruit. They do this, of course, not in the fall, when the sun is already low and it is not so hot. That is, apples that ripen in summer are used for such drying. Later varieties of apples should be dried in other possible ways, described below.

To dry apples in the sun, they should be strung on a nylon thread or fishing line, on thin wooden branches or sticks. You can also sprinkle apples on wooden fruit drying trays or on a baking sheet. Substitute apples directly under the rays of the sun. Turn them over daily. In a good hot sun, apples will dry out in just three to four days.

Drying apples in household units

The most convenient way to dry apples for residents of northern regions, and when you need to dry autumn fruits, is in electric dryers. The fruits will never burn in them, and they will dry evenly, preserving all the useful vitamins and minerals with this type of drying.

But not everyone has an electric dryer, and the harvest does not wait. That's when a regular home kitchen oven can help dry apples.

In the oven, the apples should be dried with the oven door open to avoid burning the fruit and to remove moisture evenly from them. But drying the fruit in the oven is not the final stage of the whole process. Fruit that was dried over a very low heat in the oven and shaken from time to time on a baking sheet should be dried in the sun, in a ventilated attic, or on top of a warm stove at room temperature. Turn or shake the apples more often while drying.

The airfryer for drying apples has shown itself well. Sliced fruits are loaded into it in 3-4 floors. The temperature is set exactly that is suitable for drying fruits. A table of temperature conditions for the airfryer can be found in the instructions for household appliances. In the airfryer, drying on the "upper floors" proceeds at a faster pace than in the lower ones, therefore, the "floors" with fruits must be rearranged among themselves during the drying process.

There are other tools with which you can dry fruit for the winter. For example, a thin plastic heater (like "Kind Heat"). Its power is small, and the heating temperature is low. Therefore, the apples on it will never burn or dry out. You can spread them out on such a heater on sheets of paper.

Or an ordinary room heater, say oil flat. It can be laid horizontally with a safe material underneath to prevent it from burning. Fruits are poured onto a leaf, which is placed on the heater. We remind you that apples need to be shaken constantly during the drying process.

Storing dried apples

Store apples dried by any of the above methods in a cool, dry place. It is desirable that it is well ventilated or has artificial ventilation. Dried apples easily absorb all kinds of odors, so they cannot be stored in a closet, in a garage, where they can smell like paints, gasoline and other sharp-smelling substances.

Dried fruits can be packed in a wooden box, in a cardboard box, folded in a linen bag, in a basket. Only the bottom of these surfaces needs to be lined with dry thick paper. On top of the container, when it is filled with apples, the paper should be tucked up.