🫐If we want to get high-quality dried fruit and avoid such side problems as watery and browning, it is necessary that the plums are newly ripe and not soft and overripe.
➢ If the fruit is poisoned, it is better to put it in salt water for 1 hour to remove harmful substances from the skin. We dissolve 1 tablespoon of salt in 10 liters of water. We limit the amount and proportions according to the amount of fruit.
➢ Drying by bio standards is done by two methods
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1. Put the pickled fruit in running water, let it sit for a few minutes in a colander to drain. Then we empty the turkey and put it on a drying board. (Fruits dried by this method retain their beneficial properties as much as possible, however, in conditions of high humidity, the risk of larvae hatching and making the product unusable increases. To avoid such a problem, it is recommended to dry the fruit with a maximum humidity of 20%.
2. Using the blanching method - we place the fruit in a strainer and put it in boiling water for a maximum of 1 minute. 1 liter of boiling water needs 1 teaspoon of baking soda. After removing the fruit from the boiling water, put it in cold water and put it on a tushphalang to squeeze. In the fruit processed by this method, the danger of laurel is removed and it is possible to leave the moisture in the fruit up to 25%.
For drying according to bio-standards, it is recommended to dry fruits in the maximum range of 45-55 degrees.
🔺To speed up the drying of the fruit and to obtain a quality product, it is necessary to cool the fruit periodically so that the pores do not close completely. If your machine has automatic drying control, leave this process to it. Otherwise, you will have to control the process yourself. Every 6 hours you stop the process and wait for the fruit to cool. This may take an average of 2-3 hours and you continue until you get the desired dryness condition.
1 kilogram of plums yields 180-200 grams of dried fruit (the volume depends on the variety and how much moisture we left in the fruit)
✅It is not necessary to use sugar syrup or other not so healthy means to give the dried fruit a shiny color. For this, we take the plum fruit and boil it (1 kg of fruit is poured into 1.5 liters of water), after boiling well, we squeeze the juice and put the already dried dried fruit in this juice, place it on the tushphalang to be squeezed and return it to the drying machine until the surface dries. The fruit is given a glossy, caramelized look, and the fruit juice acts as a preservative on the product.
📦 Naturally, after making plums, it is also important to ensure the necessary conditions for its storage. Dried plums should be stored in paper bags or wooden boxes. They also use transparent polyester boxes, which are specially made with small holes for aeration. (To make the holes, they use such a diameter that the insect cannot move. Of course, you can store dried plums in a closed glass container, but for this, the plums must be 100% dry, which creates many difficulties. Some housewives use bay leaves, pour a small quantity of laurel.
☀️☀️ We store the finished product in a place protected from sunlight and with low humidity.