Drying is the easiest and cheapest way to preserve fruits and vegetables. In this form, they are well preserved, without requiring special storage conditions, and take up little space.
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Preparation of vegetables and fruits for drying
To get quality dried vegetables and fruits, use good raw materials. For drying, you can not take unripe and overripe fruits. Before drying, vegetables and fruits must be prepared. To do this, you should sort and sort. Throw away beginners to rot vegetables and fruits. Wash the remaining fruits thoroughly in running water. If they were grown using pesticides, dilute 5-6 g of soda or 1 tbsp in 1 liter of water. spoon of vinegar and wash the fruit with this solution, then rinse in running water.
Remove inedible parts. Peel the root skin from the root crops, remove the cabbage and the outer leaves from the onion, and remove the remaining flowers and the stalk from the berries. The rose stalk and receptacle are not removed from the wild rose, but the berries are dried with them. Cut the fruits: in circles, stripes or columns, so they dry faster.
To prevent vegetables and fruits from darkening during the drying process, blanch them in a solution of citric acid (10 g per 1 liter of water).
How to dry vegetables and fruits
Put prepared vegetables and fruits on baking sheets or metal sieves, lay them in a thin layer to provide good air access. Place them in a well-ventilated, sunny area. Dry the greenery by hanging its bunches in a place protected from the sun and wind. You can finely chop it, put it on sheets of paper, and cover with gauze on top. Hot red pepper is strung with a needle on a thread. The threads need to be hung in a dry, warm place, it is advisable to dry the pepper in direct sunlight. Dry vegetables and fruits continuously for several weeks.
Artificial drying can be carried out in a special dryer, oven or in the oven. For drying in the oven, place the baking sheets inward 1-1.5 hours after the furnace. At home, the drying of vegetables and fruits is carried out using a conventional oven. Heat the oven to 60-70 ° C, place the baking sheets in it, the oven door needs to be ajar. The duration of artificial drying can be from 5 to 12 hours.
Different varieties of vegetables and fruits are dried separately from each other.
Ready dried vegetables contain 10-14% of moisture, in fruits - 18-22%. Qualitatively dried apples have a light cream color, elastic, but if they are bent, they do not secrete juice. Dried pears are soft; when squeezed, they do not emit liquid. Ready prunes should be black with a bluish tint, the flesh should be elastic, when the dried plum is twisted in the hand, the bone is separated from the flesh. Cherry berries do not secrete juice when squeezed and do not stick together. Dried carrots keep the color and smell fresh, and the cabbage turns dark green with a yellow tint.