My Food Dryer Experiment (3)

After buying a food dryer, I can't wait to find something to dry, and the easiest thing to prepare is of course fruit. I originally planned to freeze the refrigerator at home for a long time, and throw ugly or half-rotten fruits into the dryer as soon as possible. Fortunately, I read online recipes to do my homework. Drying is a process of concentrating the essence of food. Because the food loses more than 75% of its moisture during drying, the dried product will have more than four times the original food flavor and taste. In other words, if the original fruit has an unsavory taste due to rotting or fermentation due to being frozen for too long, this taste will also be magnified by more than four times during the drying process. Therefore, in order to obtain good dried fruit products, the freshest, sweetest, and best quality fruits should be used for baking, so that the concentrated and concentrated flavor will be the best.

Each kind of fruit is not suitable for drying because of its different water content and fiber composition, and the drying temperature and time are also different. The picture below shows the suitability of various kinds of fruits for drying, as well as the recommended drying temperature and time listed by Excalibur. The drying time will also be adjusted according to the local humidity level. The humidity in Taiwan almost always reaches 100% , so the longest drying time should be selected.

Fruit peels contain wax and pectin to prevent water from evaporating. Therefore, when drying fruits with peels ( such as grapes, tomatoes , etc. ) , it is usually necessary to put the fruits in boiling water for a short time to remove the film on the surface. In order to increase the drying efficiency. Generally, fruits that need to be peeled and dried are usually best cut into thin slices, so that the drying effect will be the best. In addition, when the fruit is heated, it is easy to oxidize and turn black. If the lemon juice is soaked before drying, it can effectively reduce the oxidation of the surface, so that the dried fruit can maintain the original fruit color. In addition, the dried fruit will have a leather-like texture and will not have a crispy taste. Dried fruits or vegetables that are crispy in the market have been deep-fried, and their fat content and calories are much higher than those of purely dried fruits or vegetables, so they are not suitable as healthy food.