[HN Gopher] Drying Fruits (2003)
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Drying Fruits (2003)
Author : the_bookmaker
Score : 59 points
Date : 2023-09-11 06:15 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (nchfp.uga.edu)
(TXT) w3m dump (nchfp.uga.edu)
| 11235813213455 wrote:
| Water in fruit is extra pure, so it's a bit sad to "waste" it,
| but if there's no other choice it's good
| h2odragon wrote:
| The cooler you can keep things while drying them, the more flavor
| the final result has. Airflow is important; but only up to a
| (rather small) velocity: as long as air is circulating around
| everything and not static you're good; beyond that you're just
| going to be adding heat and dust.
|
| Air will soak up an astounding quantity of water, but it takes
| time. I cold dry flowers at room temp in a closed cabinet (no
| outside air ventilation, full internal re-circulation) for 4 to 7
| days, usually. Depends on density and temp. If I need to rush
| I'll use a rock salt dehydrator bucket in the cabinet.
| fuzztester wrote:
| I've had a specific kind of dry dates in India in childhood. They
| taste pretty good. Unlike the "wetter" ones (which are not really
| wet, but with more water content), you can keep them in your
| mouth for a while, thereby getting the taste for a longer time.
| They are lighter brown in colour than the fresh ones.
|
| Images:
|
| https://www.google.com/search?q=dry+dates+india
| shpat wrote:
| Here's the fact sheet they reference[0] with nutrient loss info.
| Interestingly, vitamin C seems to suffer the most.
|
| [0] https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/dry/csu_dry_vegetables.pdf
| dylan604 wrote:
| Vitamin C is a temperamental thing. It oxidizes very easily,
| and then just becomes this inert thing. Luckily, it turns color
| when it oxidizes, so it lets you know it happened. Skin care
| products try to stabilize it with other ingredients while
| packaging it in UV protective containers. Some even go so far
| as to recommend keeping the product refrigerated. There are now
| many options for adding Vitamin C with the majority of them
| reducing the effectiveness of the Vitamin C to gain stability
| in the product as in some are not as efficiently absorbed by
| the body, but won't oxidize. Some are water soluble, some are
| oil soluble. Of all of the ingredients, VitC is definitely the
| most finky
| hammock wrote:
| > Vitamin C is a temperamental thing. It oxidizes very
| easily, and then just becomes this inert thing.
|
| Doing exactly what it was designed to do, biologically
| speaking.
| tomcar288 wrote:
| as far as vitamin and mineral intakes, vitamin C is the thing
| you need to worry about the least because it's so highly
| abundant in so many fruits and vegetables. I've calculated VitC
| density in foods and normalized it to calorie intake: It's
| incredibly abundant in many real foods.
| dfxm12 wrote:
| Raisins are just grape jerky :)
|
| _Arrange pretreated fruits on drying trays in single layers, pit
| cavity up. Dry at 140 degrees F (60degC) in an oven or
| dehydrator._
|
| Does anyone have an oven that can maintain such low temps?
| Fnoord wrote:
| I own an Excalibur food dehydrator (since approx 2005), but
| using it requires adequate space and electricity.
|
| We have a fig tree, a pear tree, and tons of herbs. Most of
| that is for whatever frolics outside though. Last year I was
| also on vacation at a farmer who had tons of fruit and nut
| trees on his yard. But people didn't wanna come to pluck so it
| ended up rotting on the floor. That made me sad, and it makes
| me sad I have this amazing device unused. But at least the
| birds and other animals such as bees and insects get to utilize
| them.
| mithr wrote:
| The Anova Precision Oven is one, it goes as low as 77F (25C).
| checkyoursudo wrote:
| Much lower than that and you are getting into dual use
| oven/refrigerator mode!
| rrauenza wrote:
| I use convection mode on my oven and set it to 170F. Convection
| mode on my oven doesn't actually use the temperature you set it
| to, but some auto slightly lower temperature to accommodate for
| the convection.
|
| I don't think it's as low as 140F, but I get good sundried
| cherry tomatoes out of it.
| hedora wrote:
| For dehydrating food, you'd also want it to have a fan + turn
| over air pretty rapidly. That speeds up the process, which
| matters even more if it's monopolizing your oven!
|
| A "food dehydrator" mode would be much more than at least half
| of the dozen modes our oven does have; I wonder why they
| omitted it, or if one mode could be tricked into that use case.
| It definitely has a fan to actively vent hot air from the oven
| cavity (I think this is mostly to protect its computer, and not
| particularly useful for anything except cost reduction), and it
| has a proof mode, so I know the thermostat can drop down far
| enough.
|
| As an aside, LG ovens have the worst firmware I've ever
| encountered on a home appliance, and it is by a large margin.
| hammock wrote:
| Just put your oven on convection roast at the lowest temp
| possible... boom dehydrator mode
| danuker wrote:
| Firmware on an oven? My cheap dehydrator has a thermostat and
| a on/off switch. My cheap oven also has a timer. How is
| software warranted on an oven?
| amenhotep wrote:
| Ovens are one of the few appliances where I can see some
| sense in smartifying them, honestly. Turn it on to preheat
| before getting home (or if you're just too lazy to get up),
| have it send alerts to your phone when the timer goes off
| so you don't miss it due to being on the other side of the
| house or having your headphones on, check how long's left
| on the timer before deciding whether to start watching a
| new episode, stuff like that. There's a combination of long
| cycle time + necessity to respond urgently that creates an
| actual use case that isn't there for eg toasters or
| dishwashers.
| dylan604 wrote:
| >Turn it on to preheat before getting home
|
| I know so many people that shove used pots/pans in the
| oven when they just can't face doing the washing. Turning
| the oven on when you're not home just sounds like a
| recipe for disaster.
| nsenifty wrote:
| Bosch ones (at least the one I have) can even be set to 100F. I
| haven't actually tested how well it maintains such low temps,
| but I use it for proofing.
| dylan604 wrote:
| i've seen recommendations about setting the oven at the lowest
| temp possible, and then leaving the door slightly open. i've
| also seen electric only ovens be able to set lower temps than
| gas only. i've only ever dried herbs in the oven because of the
| temp issue. for everything else, i just bought a dehydrator
| that can be set to the lower temps.
| 0_____0 wrote:
| I've used the incandescent light in my oven to keep sourdough
| starter warm before. If the wattage is too low, you could hack
| together a simple thermostat driven relay and a larger light
| bulb run into your oven.
| ch4s3 wrote:
| A big cup of hot water works pretty well too.
| kwhitefoot wrote:
| My oven can be used to prove bread dough at 30degC
| shalmanese wrote:
| > Does anyone have an oven that can maintain such low temps?
|
| They seem quite common for ovens outside of the US but most
| digital US ovens I've used have a minimum temp of 170F for what
| I assume is some liability reason.
| bagels wrote:
| Toaster ovens are cheap and have good enough thermostats.
| [deleted]
| purpleflame1257 wrote:
| Many air fryers have a "Dehydrate" setting.
| fullspectrumdev wrote:
| The "multi cooker" unit I have made by Ninja has such a
| feature, though I've found various aftermarket "racks" are
| needed for good performance dehydrating various stuff.
|
| It's fucking excellent for drying mushrooms, for example.
| Whenever I have some left over from cooking or harvest that I
| can't use immediately, I just dry and powder them to use as
| seasoning in soups and stocks and such.
|
| Other food scraps from cooking that are not destined for
| compost can be treated similarly, if one wants to get into
| making their own spices.
| a012 wrote:
| Not household ovens as far as I know, this is why I bought a
| commercial one (UNOX - an Italian brand) that allows me to set
| a low temperature. It's basically a convection oven with PID.
| phone8675309 wrote:
| I bet my car hits 140 in the summer sun.
| jrgoff wrote:
| I accidentally made raisins one summer by forgetting a
| cluster of grapes on my car dash for a few days. They tasted
| pretty good!
| thfuran wrote:
| At least in the US it seems to be the exclusive purview of
| high-end ovens, but there are ovens with proofing modes, which
| would be even lower temperature than that. Warming modes of
| around 150F are somewhat more common.
| jkonline wrote:
| We've been looking for additional uses for our new air fryer,
| including drying fruit.
|
| This is super helpful and interesting. Thank you!
| sdedovic wrote:
| I notice the title says
|
| > FOOD AND NUTRITION SERIES
|
| Are there more documents or a catalog?
| sdedovic wrote:
| I found Drying Vegetables
|
| https://extension.colostate.edu/docs/pubs/foodnut/09308.pdf
|
| And a catalog:
|
| https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/nutrition-food-s...
| mlnhd wrote:
| The National Center for Home Food Preservation has an extensive
| website for canning, pickling, drying, and fermenting.
|
| https://nchfp.uga.edu/
| goda90 wrote:
| We bought a countertop dehydrator to handle the excess tomatoes I
| grew one year since I didn't want to try pressure canning sauces.
| I think our favorite uses are for apples, strawberries and
| bananas. We've had some good experiences with cucumber that
| resulted in tangy chips that were great to dip, but I think that
| was dependent on my garden producing weird, oversized cucumbers.
| dylan604 wrote:
| I grow a lot of catnip. A few weeks ago, I dried enough to fill
| up an empty 40oz peanut butter jar. My cats won't touch the
| store bought stuff anymore. The stuff I dried is so fragrant
| that the cats magically show up like the "runs can opener"
| meme. Makes me want to become a catnip dealer at my local
| farmer's market.
|
| I've tried bananas, but honestly, the whole slicing part and
| keeping them whole slices is just too much effort for me. Do
| you have a tip on how to keep it from being so frustrating?
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