Many people like prunes, which can be bought all year round in the market. It is a very useful product and has been used in cooking for centuries. Unfortunately, not everyone decides to cook it at home, but this method makes it even more filled with vitamins.

When for the first time a person came up with the idea of ​​drying a finished plum in the sun, no one can reliably say, but the fact that this was done so many years ago is a fact. The historical documents indicate the characteristics of prunes, and they are dated back to the VI century BC.

Everyone knows that sweet plums are used to make seals - prunes. To do this, it is washed and dried in the sun. If weather conditions can not provide a normal process, this can be done in the stove or oven. When a stove is used, prunes become especially tastier, with a better aroma, thanks in large part to smoldering wood.

Unfortunately for consumers, not all manufacturers adhere to the correct technology for preparing prunes. Today, it is possible to achieve the maximum possible result with the help of liquid smoke and other chemicals. That is why it is recommended to cook a fresh product at home, so that year-round there is prunes of our own production.

Delicious prunes are always obtained from good ripe fruits. It is believed that a special sweetness and fleshiness is in those fruits that are sung the very last. Among the most common varieties are Wenger, Kroman, Naroch, Stanley and others.

Useful qualities of this product are its content:

• Potassium;
• Pectin;
• Vitamins A, C, B, P;
• Calcium;
• Phosphorus;
• Iron;
• Sucrose, fructose and glucose;
• Citric, salicylic and malic acid.

All of them have a positive effect on human health and its general condition.

To begin with, you must definitely prepare a plum, so that in the end you get a quality product. Choosing the right fresh fruit is very important - they must be ripe, you can even overripe.

They require thorough washing and pitting. Although they can not be removed (after all, even on the market you can buy prunes both with seeds and without stones). It is believed that their preservation in the sink leaves in it all the beneficial substances.

Already peeled fruits are blanched in a soda solution (temperature - 90 degrees) for about half a minute. At the same time, 10 grams of water accounts for 100 grams of soda. When the blanching is over, the drain is washed well and dried. This should happen in the oven, however, the process requires special supervision so that the prunes turn out to be tasty and all useful properties remain in it.

To obtain a quality product, you should carefully disassemble each stage of preparation:

• Washed plums are laid out on a baking sheet and sent to the oven for 4 hours at a temperature of 50 degrees;
• After draining the plums, they must be gently mixed so that they do not deteriorate, because they are very hot. When they have cooled, they must again be dried in the oven for 5 hours. The temperature should already be at 70 degrees;
• The plums cool again and undergo drying in the oven already at a 90-degree temperature for about 4 hours.

In order for prunes to have a smooth glossy surface, no additional chemicals are needed. To do this, shortly before the end of cooking, make the temperature in the oven at 120 degrees. This leads to caramelization of the fruit, which makes the peel glossy.

For long-term storage, dried fruits are packaged in paper bags and wooden crates. If there is only glass containers, the prunes should be completely dry. Sometimes bay leaves are used in banks for the same result.

If the plum is large enough, then it is better to remove the seeds. If it is small or medium in size, it is recommended to get rid of them.

A prune yield of 1 kg is obtained after drying 4.5 kg of fresh fruit.

On the baking sheet, it is better to spread the plums with the cut up.

The drying process usually takes about 12 hours, and between each step you need to take a break of 5 hours.

The resulting product at the same time is soft and elastic so that pressing does not cause the release of juice.

Although cooking prunes at home takes a lot of time, the result is worth it. Indeed, the hostess is sure that it does not contain chemistry, it is of high quality and will not bring harm to humans.

For proper nutrition and health it is important that certain conditions are met for the preparation of a product. This also applies to dried fruits, for example, prunes that are useful in all respects. Not everyone knows how to dry prunes at home.

Knowing certain rules, you can independently achieve a high-quality product that is different from the store one.

Two methods for drying drains:

1. Without the use of sugar. It will be an excellent addition to meat dishes, salads, etc.

Stages of cooking:

1.1. Dried prunes in the oven. A serving of plums is chosen at will and opportunity. Fruits should be ripe, although dense. It is better that the pulp is fleshy.

1.2. Having thoroughly washed the fruits in running water, they are engaged in removing seeds, on which soft fibers should not remain, otherwise the fruits are not suitable for drying. For effective drying, halves of fruit are used, less time will be spent.

1.3. Plum Blanched. A handful of halves are poured into a pot filled with boiling water, waiting a couple of minutes. Re-boil is not necessary.

1.4. Plum is sent to a basin of cold water. After cooling the fruit, wait for the droplets to drain to lay the plum to dry in one layer on a towel. Halves should be softer but not welded.

1.5. On a rag, prunes are dried for an hour, all this time they interfere periodically.

1.6. On a baking sheet cover paper, on which slices are poured with one layer.

1.7. In a preheated oven to 50 degrees, the leaf with the plums is set to dry for three hours. A couple of times the fruit is stirred.

1.8. After increasing the mode to 70 degrees, they stand it for another hour or a half.

1.9. Drain the pieces by placing them on a wire rack on a windowsill. You need to wait 2 to 4 days. Prunes dried by this method look dull, soft, but not wet. 2.

2. With sugar. A great dessert option for children.

Rules of the natural and artificial method

You can dry fruits in the sun or in the oven. For natural drying, follow the recommendations:

• • The fruits are washed and disinfected in a soda solution when it is boiled, rinsed in cold water and dried.

• Next, they are laid out on a sheet or sheet with a certain distance from each other under sunlight. They wait about half a week, turning over the fruits every day so that they do not mold.

• They clean it on the shadow side and wait for the final stage for several days, depending on the size of the fruit.

Tip for drying by artificial means: in order to disinfect and properly prepare slices or whole fruit for drying, the washed parts are 5 seconds. are in boiling soda solution (1 tbsp.spoon per liter), after which they are thoroughly rinsed in cold water. After the procedure, the peel will be in shallow small cracks. The process takes two days. It is better to get rid of damaged fruits. If the plum tree is cut, its inside should look up. For spicy blanching, you can use a mixture of water + citric acid (1 to 50), this will make the prunes soft and tender.

Advice on how to store dried raw materials: dried fruit will best be stored in a cloth bag or wooden box. It is necessary to prevent dampness and the presence of insects. In order to protect prunes from flies and bees, you can cover it with a piece of gauze. Milking for a long storage, after the raw material has been dried, it is dipped in syrup from a liter of water and a kilogram of granulated sugar. Boil for five minutes and leave for a day, after which it is necessary to boil, remove, rinse and dry the plum again, put it in jars and sterilize. The product can be stored for a couple of years.

Microwave Prune

Electromagnetic radiation allows the drain to be dried from all sides equally with the preservation of useful qualities. The washed and wiped parts are laid out on a special dish. Initially, they set the timer for half a minute, checking the fruits for readiness, add time if necessary, five minutes will be enough. The main thing is not to be distracted in the process, otherwise you can burn a valuable product.

Aerogrill plum

How to dry prunes if you have a modern air grill at hand:

• • The plum is washed and moved. The bones inside may remain.

• At 65 degrees, the fruit is dried for 40 minutes. Then it cools for an hour. A repeat of this step will be required. Next is the day to wait.

• After which the fruit is again subjected to a similar procedure, including aerogrill three times for 40 minutes, waiting between steps for an hour.

• They take paper and lay on it to dry delicious, odorless smoked, dried fruits. From one kg. Only 200 g of finished product is obtained.

The benefits of prunes

If you eat dried fruit every morning, it will be easy to cope with the problems of the gastrointestinal tract. The body is cleansed of waste waste. Prunes with anemia and vitamin deficiency are needed. It can also serve as an antibacterial, tonic and laxative agent that improves the body's metabolic processes. Plums, even when dried, are rich in vitamins, fiber, minerals and pectins.

Many people dream that in their stores lay a large number of dried fruits, which have many useful properties for the human body. Dried fruits are a delicacy that came to Russia from the East, therefore it is so amazing and appetizing. Prunes are a wonderful berry that will help a person lose weight or fight various heart diseases. It has a pleasant smell and is very popular with children.

Preparing plums for drying

To cook such a mouth-watering and healthy prune, you must first sort out the plums, choosing only only large berries. It is worth making sure that they are not soft, overripe. If such berries are caught, then juice will soon start to flow out of them. Then high-quality prunes will not work.

Usually, berries of approximately the same size are selected for drying prunes. All berries that have been selected for drying are well washed, and their tails are removed. Be sure they must pass and blanching process. To do this, they must be placed in a colander for several minutes and in boiling water, to which a little soda has been previously added.

This process will get rid of wax plaque.

The recipe is plum processing   very simple: one liter of boiling water requires one tablespoon of soda. The berry is usually kept in water for no more than 30 seconds. After that, it is thoroughly doused with cold running water, and laid out on a dry towel, allowing the berries to dry. If this procedure was done correctly, then there will be cracks on the surface of the drain through which moisture will be removed.

How to dry a plum in an electric dryer

You can dry the plum both with a bone and without it. If it is large, then it is better to cut it in half and, accordingly, the bone will have to be removed. So the berries will dry much faster, and most importantly, they will not rot. The draining drying process itself consists of several stages:

1. Sort and wash the plum.
2. Blanch the berries.
3. Divide the plums into those with pits and those without them.
4. Seedless berries must be laid slit up.

Dry plums in an electric dryer at a temperature no more than 40 degrees. First, they are placed in an electric dryer for 6 hours, and then they are cooled for the same amount. This will be the first drying step. The next step is to raise the temperature in the electric dryer to 60 degrees, but you must also dry and cool for 6 hours. And at the third stage, the temperature in the electric dryer should be at least 80 degrees. Drying and cooling times all remain the same. It will be possible to check the fruits for preparedness.

Ready prunes will differ from the original plums in that they will become resilient, elasticevenly dried. It is worth examining the berries well: juice should not flow out of them.

Oven draining

One of the easiest ways to make prunes is to dry the drains in the oven. The rules and stages of its preparation remain the same: you need to wash and sort the berries, their blanching and drying is mandatory. During drying in the oven, it is worthwhile to ensure that there is a certain temperature regime and you need to monitor the residence time of the berry in the oven and then its cooling.

Plum should be dried in the oven no more than 4 hours, but she needs to cool down for about 6-8 hours. Once this time is over, put it back in the oven, preheating it to 80 degrees. In this temperature regime, it should be dried for 6 hours, and then you need to leave it to cool for 3 hours. And again, we heat the oven to 100 degrees, place the drain there and hold for 30 minutes. Prune is ready! The berries will shine. It remains only to place them in a container with a tight lid.

Cooking prunes in the sun at home

The most natural way to dry a plum at home is to place it under direct sunlight. If you have your own house, which allows you to lay out the berries in the yard, then this is the best option for making prunes. To do this, you need some kind of cardboard sheet where the plums will be stacked. The cooking steps are simple:

1. The drain must be carefully prepared for drying: wash and sort out.
2. Plums for drying in the sun should not be dried completely, so they should be cut and a bone removed.
3. Lay them on a sheet of cardboard in one layer and put in a sunny place.

It is worth remembering that at night or in cool rainy weather, the plum must be removed, otherwise the berries will become damp. And then high-quality prunes, which would be stored for a long time, will fail. Occasionally need plums turn overotherwise the berries will not dry evenly. So, in the sunlight they should be kept for about a week.

Check, is prune ready, can be a simple old method: squeeze one of the berries.

If the juice does not stand out from it, and the berry itself is elastic, then everything is done correctly and the prunes are ready. To prevent flies and other insects from interfering with drying, it is recommended to cover them with gauze.

Microwave prune cooking

Drying plums in the microwave is considered the fastest way   making prunes at home. The berry dries quickly, but all its beneficial properties remain. Such drying is carried out in several stages:

1. Wash the plum, dry on a towel.
2. Put on a dish microwave.
3. Set the microwave timer for 30 seconds, and with a power of 250 watts.
4. Put the obtained dried fruits on paper and allow to cool.

Aerogrill plum drying

Even with a hot grill at home, you can cook delicious and sweet prunes, which will delight all family members in the winter. An interesting method of preparing prunes is that the final product has small smell of smoked meat. But the disadvantage is that it usually turns out less than it was originally. For example, from 1 kilogram of plums you get only 200 grams.

But the prunes cooked in the aerogrill have not only a pleasant appearance, but also mouth-watering aroma. The stages of prune preparation are practically indistinguishable from how it is prepared in other ways. Also, the drain must first be thoroughly washed and sorted out. In an aerogrill, berries can be dried both small and large, with a stone and without a stone.

Dry plum in an aerogrill should be at a temperature of 65 degrees for forty minutesand then you need to leave it for an hour so that the berry can cool. This process will need to be repeated two more times and left to cool until the next day. On the second day, this drying process is repeated three times and the time between them is approximately 60 minutes. It remains only to lay out the dried berries on paper and leave them until the next day. Prunes are ready, it can be collected in bags or wooden boxes where it will be perfectly stored.

How to Dry Pitted Plums

Prunes can be both seedless and with them. Delicious pitted prunes can be obtained by following these guidelines:

1. To wash.
2. Dividing them in half, remove the stone.
3. Bring a mixture of water and citric acid into the pan.
4. Bring this lemon mixture to a boil.
5. Blanch the plums in this lemon solution for 40 minutes.

Such a preparation will give prunes softness and tenderness.

Prunes are very good for human health. It is recommended to eat at least 5 pieces per day, as this will positively affect the work of the stomach. Prunes are also good for the heart, helping to restore its work.

It is better to take a ripe plum, but with dense pulp (the Hungarian variety is ideal, although I have successfully made prunes from large, dense round plums of an unknown variety).

• Plums need to be washed, dried and seeds removed. In this case, we do not divide into halves, we prepare whole fruits.
  
• Further, our task is to fill the plums with sugar and get more juice. If in the case of cherries, I did not know where to put the juice, then plum juice gives reluctantly. The first time I covered everything with sugar, and put oppression. After a day, sugar still had a white slide on the surface of the sink.
    The second time, I poured sugar in the middle of each plum, laid it in layers in a pan, and poured sugar in each layer. It didn’t take much time (after removing the seeds from the cherry, a little scared me :)), but it gave a good result.
  In addition, I periodically mixed the contents of the pan. As a result, juice was allocated, which was enough to make syrup.
• We put the pan on medium heat and heat to a boil.
  Gently mix the plum, make sure that all the fruits “pass” the syrup.
  Bring to a boil, but do not boil, while the plum will change color just like in the photo.
  Turn off the stove and hold the drain until it cools.
• We strain the plums from the syrup (we use a colander or sieve) and put it in one layer on a cloth or thick paper for drying.
  
• Next, put the future prune on a sheet covered with parchment, and send it to the ajar oven. The temperature is 40-60 degrees. The presence of a special dryer for vegetables and fruits would greatly simplify the process, but I have not yet acquired such an assistant. So while we do prunes in the oven at home. You can, of course, dry your prunes outdoors, but then the cooking time is much longer. I chose the best regimen for myself: prunes dry in the oven for 3-4 hours, and then I bring it to the desired condition on the windowsill for another 24-36 hours. (It all depends on the weather).
  
  
• I do not recommend increasing the temperature in the oven to speed up the process - you will lose in quality. Anyway, this will not be dried prunes.
• I determine the readiness of prunes “by eye”; it should not be wet, but elastic and dense.
• I pack ready-made homemade prunes in paper bags and store them in the freezer.
  I read that it can be stored at room temperature or in the refrigerator, but make sure. There was a sad experience in storing purchased prunes in the refrigerator. As a result, after a week he became moldy. I had to throw it all away. Therefore, with my own, home, “cherished and suffered” I do not risk :)
• Here he turned out to be dried prunes at home, partially cooked with the help of an oven. Be sure to try, feel the difference with a purchased product of dubious origin or sky-high price. After that, home-made dried fruits - prunes, plums, and even cherries and strawberries - are exactly written on your menu. (I read a lot about berries, but I haven’t tried to do it myself, I want to take a chance this year). Join and enjoy a healthy appetite.

In order to have dishes complemented by piquant on your table, it is not necessary to purchase this one in the distribution network, especially since it costs a lot. You can easily cook prunes with your own hands at home. And if you consider that now, as a rule, it is almost impossible to find a quality product that has not been processed with various hazards for long-term storage and presentable appearance, then the motivation for self-cooking is significantly increased.

If you are ready to start harvesting, then our following recommendations will help you to cope with the task perfectly, and as a result you will get a very tasty and without a doubt useful product.

Cooking prunes at home

To get a truly delicious and high-quality homemade prune, we select for this purpose the ripe fruits of plums, which very easily part with the seeds, without damaging the internal flesh.

Wash the selected fruits carefully and extract the seeds. Then we prepare a solution for blanching. To do this, dissolve one hundred grams of baking soda in ten liters of water and heat it to a temperature of ninety degrees.

The prepared plums are immersed in the resulting soda mixture and aged for twenty to thirty seconds. We immediately rinse the fruits with hot water, let them drain well, and lay them on a baking sheet, which is previously covered with parchment.

The whole process of drying prunes includes three stages. Initially, we place the plums in an oven preheated to fifty degrees and stand for three to four hours. Then we allow the fruits to cool completely by pre-mixing them, and again determine in the oven, now already preheated to seventy degrees. After five hours of drying, remove the pan, mix and cool. At the final third stage, place the cream in an oven preheated to ninety degrees and dry for another four hours. At each stage of drying, the oven door should be slightly open.

If you did everything right, then at the end of all the actions you should get a delicious homemade prune as a result. If desired, you can give the dried fruit a natural shine. To do this, at the end of the last stage, increase the temperature to one hundred and twenty degrees and stand for several minutes. In this case, the sugar contained in the fruit comes to the surface and caramelizes, thereby giving a glossy shine.

Owners of an electric dryer can easily prepare homemade prunes with its help.

How to make prune from plums in an electric dryer?

You can dry the fruits, both with seeds and without them. For drying and drying, it is better to choose the fruits of the Vengerka variety. They are quite meaty, and are great for this purpose to taste.

So, the plums are washed, if desired, they are spared the seeds. Now we need to, as in the traditional version, blanch the fruits. To do this, dip them for twenty seconds in a soda solution heated to a temperature of ninety degrees, prepared at the rate of one hundred grams of soda per ten liters of water. Then we wash the plums well, let it drain, and place the driers on the pallets of the dryer not very tightly to each other.

The temperature regime of the dryer should be about the same as when drying in the oven and also include several stages. Initially, dry at fifty degrees for about four hours. Then we increase the temperature to sixty degrees and stand for five hours. Still the same or slightly more time will be required for drying at seventy degrees. After each drying step, drain pallets must be removed for approximately five hours to cool and wind.

Perhaps your plums will turn out to be more or less juicy and the drying time will need more or less, respectively. We periodically check the readiness of prunes and determine the time of its preparation at home independently.

How to store prunes at home?

Ready prunes are best kept in paper bags or wooden boxes. But you can also fold it into glass containers, tie it up with paper and identify it for storage in a cool place.