Fresh apricots are very healthy and tasty. Ripe fruits contain carotene, B vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin PP, potassium and iron. But how to reinforce your body with vitamins and minerals when the season ends? Apricots can be dried and consumed at any time of the year.
It is necessary
-
- fresh apricots;
- lemon juice;
- cotton swabs with sulfur.
Instructions
Step 1
For drying, it is better to choose slightly unripe apricots. You can dry them in the oven or in the sun.
Step 2
Apricots can be dried with seeds (apricots) and without (dried apricots).
Before drying apricots with seeds, they just need to be washed well in warm water.
To dry pitted apricots, cut them in half, remove the pits and quickly put them in water acidified with lemon juice so that they do not darken in the air. When all the fruits are cooked, they must be removed from the solution and allowed to dry.
To prevent the apricots from darkening during drying, they should be fumigated with sulfur. The lattice with the prepared fruits must be removed in a closed box, in it, set fire to cotton swabs with sulfur. Fumigation takes about 3 hours. For 1 kilogram of fruit, 2 grams of sulfur are required.
Step 3
To dry in the oven, place a clean cotton cloth on the wire rack, put the apricots on top in one layer. If there are a lot of fruits, you can use more than one wire rack. The temperature in the oven should be 65 - 70 degrees. In order for the apricots to dry evenly, they must be turned over from time to time. When the fruits are slightly dry, they should be transferred to a baking sheet covered with paper. You can stop drying when the fruits become elastic, dry and, when pressed, will not release juice. Cooking time for dried apricots is approximately 11 - 12 hours.
Step 4
In order to dry apricots in the sun, they must first be held in the shade in the breeze for several hours, and only then taken out in the sun. Processed apricots should be laid out on a wooden or trellised base and dried for 6-7 days.
Step 5
Apricot fruits can still be dried in this way - strung on a thick thread and hung in a well-ventilated place in hot weather. Do not allow direct sunlight to come into contact with the fruit. In this way, the apricots need to be dried for several weeks.
