Every Step in Canning: The Cold-Pack Method

Chapter XIII: How to Dry Fruits

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Having decided to add the accomplishment of drying to your other housewifely arts, you have given some thought and study to the subject of driers. You now know whether you prefer sun, artificial or fan drying. You have either made or bought some kind of a drier. Little other equipment is needed.

A few good paring knives, some plates, and if possible some cutting or slicing device to lighten the work of preparation are all that are necessary. A sharp kitchen knife will serve every purpose in slicing and cutting fruits for drying, if no other device is at hand. The thickness of all slices of fruit should be from an eighth to a quarter of an inch. Whether sliced or cut into strips the pieces should be small, so as to dry quickly. They should not, however, be so small as to make them hard to handle or to keep them from being used to advantage in preparing dishes for the table, such as would be prepared from fresh products. Berries are dried whole. Apples, quinces, peaches and pears dry better if cut into halves, rings or quarters.

Cleanliness is essential. A knife blade that is not bright and clean will discolor the product on which it is used.

Winter apples should be chosen for drying when possible, as sweet apples and early varieties are not so well adapted to the purpose. The Northern Spy, the Baldwin and the Ben Davis give a good-flavored dried product. Most early varieties lack sufficient firmness of texture for the best results. On the other hand, some comparatively early kinds, such as Gravenstein and Porter, are considerably prized in some sections.

To prepare them for drying, apples are peeled, cored, trimmed and sliced one quarter of an inch thick. Be sure to cut out all worm holes, decayed spots and other blemishes. Defects are easily cut out with an ordinary straight-back, sharp-pointed knife having a blade two and a half to three inches long.

To prevent discoloration, as fast as the fruit is prepared dip it into a weak salt solution--three level teaspoonfuls of salt to one gallon of water. After all the apples are prepared, remove surplus moisture and put on trays, water-bath drier or whatever device you are using.

HOW TO REGULATE THE HEAT

Start with the temperature at 110 degrees Fahrenheit, gradually raise it to 130 degrees and do the drying at that temperature. It is important to know the degree of heat in the drier, and this cannot be determined very accurately except by using a thermometer. Inexpensive oven thermometers can be bought or an ordinary thermometer can be suspended in the drier. If a thermometer is not used the greatest care should be given to the regulation of the heat. The temperature in the drier rises rather quickly and the product may scorch unless close attention is given to it.

The reason sun drying is popularly believed to give fruits and vegetables a sweeter flavor probably is that in the sun they never are scorched, whereas in the oven or over a stove scorching is likely to happen unless one is very careful. An oven or dairy thermometer is a good investment. If you do not have a thermometer test the heat by the air feeling warm to the hand. The product should never be so hot that it cannot be grasped in the hand. In order to prevent the fruit from burning where artificial heat is used and to keep it from sticking to the drier by remaining in contact with it too long, stir the fruit occasionally. To insure the most uniform drying in sun drying, the fruit also should be stirred occasionally.

Remember that if trays with metal bottoms are used for drying, they should be covered with cheesecloth to prevent acid action. Oven racks may be covered with either cheesecloth or heavy wrapping paper.

The interval between stirring varies with the type of drier used, with the condition of the fruit and with the degree of heat maintained. Make the first stirring within two hours after the drying is begun. After that examine the product from time to time and stir often enough to prevent scorching or sticking and to insure uniform drying. Use a wooden paddle for stirring. Where several trays or racks are placed one above the other, it is necessary to shift the trays from time to time, so the upper tray goes to the bottom and the bottom tray to the top.

The time necessary for drying fruit depends upon several factors: The type and construction of the drier; the depth to which the fruit is spread; the method of preparing, whether sliced, quartered or whole; the temperature maintained; and weather conditions, whether bright and sunny or cloudy and damp.

If the atmosphere is heavy and damp the drying is retarded. Under some conditions it is hardly possible thoroughly to dry fruit.

There is possibly no step in the entire drying process that requires better-trained judgment than the matter of knowing when the fruit is sufficiently dried. A little experience will soon teach this.

The fruit should be so dry that when a handful of slices is pressed together firmly into a ball the slices will be "springy" enough to separate at once upon being released from the hand. No fruit should have any visible moisture on the surface. As the dried apples, pears, peaches and apricots are handled they should feel soft and velvety to the touch and have a pliable texture. You do not want fruit so dry that it will rattle. If fruits are brittle you have dried them too much.

After the apples and all other fruits are dried they must go through another process, called "conditioning." The best way to "condition" fruits is to place them in boxes or cans and pour them from one container into another once a day for three or four successive days. By doing this you mix the fruit thoroughly and give to the whole mass an even degree of moisture. Pieces that are too dry will absorb moisture from those that are too moist.

You may lose a whole bag or jar of dried products if you neglect the conditioning, for if one moist piece goes into that bag all is lost. Moisture breeds mold and mold means decay.

Ask yourself these questions: "Do I ever lose any dried products? Are my dried products when soaked and cooked as near like the original fruit as possible?" If you lose products and if your dried fruits are tasteless you had better start the conditioning process. For with this one step added to your drying you need lose no dried products, and you need not dry the fruits to the brittle stage, as you must of necessity do when you put them away immediately.

After you have poured the dried products back and forth every day for three or four days as an additional precaution, reheat the dried fruit to 140 degrees just long enough--about thirty minutes--to allow the heat to penetrate throughout the product.

Two kinds of moths stand out prominently among insects that attack dried fruits and vegetables. They are much more likely to get into the fruit during the process of drying than to find their way through boxes into the stored products. This applies particularly to drying in the sun. The Indian-meal moth is the most destructive of these insects. It is about three-eighths of an inch long and has a cloaked appearance, one-third gray and the rest copper-brown. The fig moth is about the same size, but dark, neutral gray. A minute, flattened chocolate-brown beetle usually accompanies these moths and does considerable damage. Both of the moths deposit their eggs on fruit when it is on the drying racks--usually at dusk or after dark, for these insects are not fond of daylight.

It takes from three to ten days for the eggs to hatch into whitish or pinkish grublike caterpillars, and from five to ten weeks from the laying of the eggs before more moths appear to lay another lot of eggs. A number of "broods" or generations are produced yearly, so if a few of these moth eggs are stored away on dried fruits or vegetables hundreds of caterpillars are produced and many pounds of valuable material may be destroyed during the winter if the products are stored in a warm room. Dried fruits stored in warm, dark bins or in sacks offer especially favorable places for the development of these destructive moths.

It is evident that the larger the package, the greater the chance of a few eggs doing much damage. Small cartons or containers confine the injury from these moths to small quantities of material; for if the containers are closed tightly the insects cannot easily escape from them and infest other packages which may not have been infested previously.

If you are drying by sun and the products are not thoroughly dry at night, finish the process on the stove. If you desire to carry it over to the next day screen the drying racks early in the evening and fasten down the cheesecloth. With these precautions and with proper storage, no danger ordinarily need be feared from these insects. The additional precaution of heating the dried product to 140 degrees for thirty minutes sterilizes it if already infested.

Though not necessary, tin cans or glass jars make good receptacles for storage of dried fruits or vegetables. Pasteboard boxes with tight covers, stout paper bags and patented paraffin paper cartons also afford ample protection for dried products when protected from insects and rodents. The dried products must be protected from outside moisture, and will keep best in a cool, dry, well-ventilated place. These conditions, however, are difficult to obtain in the more humid regions, and there moisture-tight containers should be used. If a small amount of dried product is put in each receptacle, just enough for one or two meals, it will not be necessary to open a container, the contents of which cannot be consumed in a short time. If a paper bag is used the upper part should be twisted into a neck, bent over and tied tightly with a string. A further precaution is to place the small bags in a tin container with a tightly fitting cover, such as an ordinary lard can. All bags should bear a label.

Pears and quinces usually are prepared and dried exactly as are apples. Pears are attractive when cut lengthwise into halves, with the stem and calyx removed but the core left in. Or they may be quartered. If sliced like apples the drying period is shortened.

Peaches usually are dried unpeeled, but they are better if peeled before drying. The first step in the preparation of peaches is to split them open to remove the pit. To do this, cut completely round the peach in the line of the suture with a sharp knife. The cut must be complete, for tearing of the flesh will make the finished product less attractive. If the fruit is to be peeled the paring should be done before it is cut open to remove the pit.

To facilitate the removal of the skin, dip the peaches in a kettle of boiling water for one and a half minutes; then plunge directly into cold water, after which the skins can be easily slipped off. After the pit has been removed, lay on drier pit side up. The juice of the fruit will collect in the pit or "cup" and will add to the flavor and quality of the dried peaches. The peaches can be cut into smaller pieces if you wish to lessen the drying period.

Plums and apricots are not peeled, but are cut into halves, the pits removed and dried in the same way as peaches. Small, thin-fleshed varieties of plums are not suitable for drying.

When drying cherries always remove the stems. The pits may or may not be removed. The best product for later cooking or eating has the pit removed, though large quantities of juices are lost in the pitting unless you provide some way of saving and utilizing it.

A prune is simply a plum having certain qualities not possessed by all plums. All prunes are plums, but not all plums are prunes. The final test as to whether a plum is a prune is the ability to dry without fermenting with the pit still remaining in the fruit. If a plum cannot dry without fermentation unless the pit is removed, it is not a prune. Prunes for drying, like other fruits, should be fully ripe.

Prunes are merely washed and then dried without removing the pits. The fruit is dry when the skin is well shrunken. The texture should be firm but springy and pliable enough to yield readily when pressed in the hand. The drying should not be continued until the individual prunes rattle as they are brought in contact with one another in handling. Prunes must be conditioned before storing.

In drying, prunes shrink about two-thirds in weight--that is, for every three pounds of fresh fruit you get one pound of finished product.

Smaller fruits, such as red and black raspberries, blackberries, huckleberries, dewberries, strawberries and blueberries, are simply washed and then put to dry. Berries must not be dried too hard; if too much moisture is removed they will not resume their original form when soaked in water. But the material must be dried sufficiently or it will mold. Haven't you often tasted extremely seedy dried berries? They were dried until they rattled. Stop the drying as soon as the berries fail to stain the hand when pressed.

To obtain the most satisfactory results soft fruits should be only one layer deep on the drying trays.

Fruits contain about 80 to 95 per cent water and when dried sufficiently still retain from 15 to 20 per cent of water, so it is a good plan to weigh before and after drying. The product should lose from two-thirds to four-fifths of its weight.

STEPS IN FRUIT DRYING

1. Thoroughly cleanse the product.

2. Prepare the product by slicing and so on.

3. Spread on trays; put in oven or put on commercial drier.

4. Stir occasionally.

5. Shift trays.

6. Test for completeness of drying.

7. "Condition" for three or four days. Sweet fruits may contain more moisture without spoiling than those of low sugar content.

8. Heat to 140 degrees Fahrenheit for thirty minutes, to kill all insects.

9. Pack immediately in available receptacles.

10. Label and store.

FRUIT PASTES

Fruit pastes are delicious and can be dried.

1. Select, wash, prepare fruit. 2. Cook until soft; stir. 3. Add sugar to sweeten. 4. Continue cooking until very thick. 5. Spread out flat by spoonfuls on oiled paper. 6. Dry in slow oven; finish drying over kitchen range. 7. Turn from time to time like griddle cakes.

Nuts of all kinds can be dried in these cakes, which may be left whole or cut in strips with scissors.

CANDIED FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

1. Select product of uniform size and ripeness.

2. Wash; prepare in usual way.

3. Cut fruit in halves, quarters or smaller sections; cut vegetables in narrow strips two and a half inches long.

4. Drop in a sirup cooked until it spins a thread. To prepare ginger sirup, add a few roots of ginger to the sirup.

5. Cook until transparent.

6. Drain.

7. Dry in slow oven; Finish drying over kitchen range.

8. Roll in granulated sugar. (May be omitted for fruits.)

This method is recommended especially for candied apples, peaches, pears and carrots.

In a properly constructed sun drier, all fruits will dry in from 3 to 12 hours, under normal summer conditions. Time depends on dryness of atmosphere, sunshine and wind. Products dried in a sun drier, no matter how crude, are superior to those dried in the open without protection of some kind. Products dry more rapidly in high altitudes than at sea level.

Racks in oven can be used. Plates or platters can be used in oven. A stove drier hung over the stove can be used. A water-bath or other commercial drier can be used with the stove.

TIME-TABLE FOR DRYING FRUITS

[A] ARTIFICIAL HEAT TIME IN HOURS TEMPERATURE 110° TO 130° F.

[B] FAN--NO HEAT APPROXIMATE TIME IN HOURS

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Every Step in Canning: The Cold-Pack MethodChapter XIII: How to Dry Fruits

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