How to make prunes at home

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Prunes are a very useful dried fruit, which is made from plums of different varieties. It is not only commercially available for everyone, it is very easy to prepare at home. This will require a lot of fresh plums and knowledge of the preparation process.

Some facts about the history of prunes

Mankind has long known how to make prunes. The recipe comes from Asian countries. In the old days, the tradition of drying fruits was very common, because it was not possible to store them, for example, frozen.

For the first time, the plum tree is mentioned in writings that date back to the 6th century BC. There is an opinion that the plum tree is the result of crossing wild thorns and cherry plums. Varieties that are suitable for drying are unpretentious, therefore they grow throughout our mainland. In Europe, the plum appeared only in the 17th century.

Useful properties of prunes

What is the use of this dried fruit and why is it so widely used in cooking?

Plum, like prunes,rich in special substances - phytonutrients, namely neochlorogenic and chlorogenic acids. They have antioxidant properties.

Prunes contain fiber, which helps normalize blood sugar levels. This product is useful for the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes. Also, dried fruit helps reduce appetite. Many diets include it in small amounts, so it's good to know how to make prunes.

Dried fruit lowers cholesterol levels and also protects the intestines by maintaining he althy microflora. Reduces the risk of serious diseases such as colon cancer and hemorrhoids.

Prunes are rich in potassium, a complex of vitamins that can stabilize the water-s alt balance and kidney function, normalize the body's metabolism; has diuretic and choleretic properties, is used to treat anemia and beriberi. Its antibacterial function is not inferior to some medical preparations.

How to choose the right kind of plum for drying

Before you start harvesting dried plums, you need to find out the features of how to make prunes at home correctly and what varieties of plums are suitable for this. After all, not all fruits are suitable for harvesting this type.

The variety of fruit needs to be given great attention. To do this, you need the fruits of such varieties that ripen last. Such a plum will be fleshy and sweet.

If you understand varieties or have the opportunity to askthose who understand, then choose Hungarian (Italian, ordinary, Azhan, purple), Renklod, Raisin-Eric, Stanley, Cromagne and Burton.

Hungarian is best suited because its fruits are large, have a dense skin, and the flesh is elastic. The stone is easily separated from the pulp, there is little acid in it, and a lot of sweets.

How to prepare a plum for drying

Now the plum needs to be prepared for the drying process, let's look at how to make prunes at home.

It is important that the fruit storage process is not delayed for more than 3 days, as ripe plums will start to spoil and ferment.

The drain must be thoroughly rinsed. Rinse until the water runs clear.

Fruits must be sorted by size, as this determines the time of their preparation. You also need to remove the bones.

Also, before making prunes at home, you need to blanch the plums in a 1% soda solution. In other words, douse them with hot water and baking soda for 25-30 seconds. This is necessary so that the tissues of the plums become softer, and their cells are larger, and so that the fruits lose excess air. Next, the plum must be thoroughly rinsed again.

At the last stage, the fruits will need to be cooled. After you do all these processes, you will see small cracks on the skin. This is correct, since they will help release water when dried, the juice will remain inside.

How to make prunes in an electric dryer

Forpreparation of dried fruits not so long ago they came up with special equipment - an electric dryer. This appliance can be used for cooking not only prunes, but also for drying any other fruits and vegetables.

Before you make prunes in the electric dryer, you need to arrange the fruit on the bowls so that they do not touch or overlap each other.

Depending on the type of equipment, up to 600 grams of plums can be placed on the tray, and the dryer can be designed for different volumes, for example, 14 kg. In total, the electric dryer must be turned on for 41 hours until the prunes are completely cooked. The processing temperature will be 55 degrees Celsius.

After cooking, the finished product is easy to separate from the trays, they are well dried and ready to eat. From 16 kilograms of plums, you can get about 2.5 kilograms of prunes.

How to make prunes in the oven

A more popular method of preparing prunes is in the oven. This does not require special equipment. And the process itself is different from how to make prunes in a dryer.

Spread the plums on a baking sheet in one layer. The temperature regime for this is also selected in the range of 50-55 degrees at the initial stage. The plum will need to dry for 3-4 hours.

After the first interval, you need to take out the baking sheet, turn all the fruits on the other side and let them cool down (within 4-5 hours, in order for the product to turn out to be of high quality).

Next step alsoit will take 3-4 hours, but the drying temperature will now be higher - 60-70 degrees. After the specified time has elapsed, the prunes must be taken out again, mixed and left to cool.

The last step will take at least 5 hours. Prunes will need to be dried at a temperature of 90 degrees. To obtain a shiny surface at the end of drying, you can raise the temperature to 100-120 degrees.

Thus, the question of how to make prunes is solved. The procedure is simple and does not require special knowledge, but only the presence of time and a little patience.