Interactive lesson

Dried fruit, step by step

Interactive lesson: from choosing and cutting fruit to the dryer, the dryness test, conditioning and storing it free of moths.

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The whole lesson as text

1. Choosing the fruit

Fruit for drying is picked fully ripe, sweet and firm.

Ripe, sweet, firm — A plum is ripe when it wrinkles at the stalk. Pick pears ripe but still hard.
How much fresh fruit — For 1 kg of dried fruit you need roughly 3–4 kg of prune plums, 6–8 kg of apples or 5–7 kg of pears.
Throw out mouldy fruit — Mouldy and split figs can carry aflatoxins, which aren't destroyed by drying or cooking. Throw out watery, split plums too.
Wash and drain — Wash the fruit and drain it on a cloth before cutting.

Why: The more dry matter fruit has, the faster it dries and the more dried fruit you get per kilogram. Drying removes 75–90 % of the water, and moulds and bacteria can't grow without water.

For plums the best are prune plums that come away from the stone: Italian, Stanley, Czar, French (d'Agen) or the Balkan Požegača.
For apples choose sharp and sweet-sharp, firm varieties such as Cox, Egremont Russet, Braeburn or Granny Smith; don't dry mealy or overripe apples.

2. Cutting and colour

Even thickness matters most.

Even slices — Cut apples and pears into slices or rings 5–6 mm (¼ in) thick. A mandoline or a knife with a guide helps.
Stopping it browning — Dip apples, pears and apricots in cold water with 5 g of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) per 1 L, for 5–10 minutes.
Check the plum skin — Dip whole plums and grapes in boiling water for 30–60 seconds, then straight into cold. Tiny cracks appear in the skin and water gets out faster.
Or halve them — Halved plums dry twice as fast, and the stone comes out straight away. Cherries are dried stoned.

Why: Slices of 5 mm and 10 mm on the same tray can't be done at the same time: the thin ones scorch, the thick ones stay moist. Pale fruit browns without protection, but it stays tasty and safe.

Instead of vitamin C you can use lemon juice half and half with water, 10 minutes, or steam blanching for 3–5 minutes.
We don't recommend sulphuring at home: sulphur dioxide is dangerous to breathe, and sulphites cause severe reactions in some people.