How to dry pears at home: 7 ways

Dried pears are dried fruits that contain beneficial vitamins that have a beneficial effect on the entire body. The drying method plays an important role when preparing juicy fruits.

To preserve the harvest, it is necessary to use alternative harvesting methods in order to subsequently cook delicious compotes, jams and preserves and other treats.

Fruits can be dried in the sun or in the oven, the main thing is to do it correctly, so that later you can enjoy dried fruits for a whole year.

In winter, we feast on them and cook delicious compote. Add dried apples and you get a fragrant and tasty drink. The whole point is to let the drink steep, then it will release all the vitamins and you will get a rich, beautiful color.

Drying rules

Processing using this method has a number of features that need to be taken into account when preparing fruit for future use.

1. You should not choose overly juicy and overripe fruits.

2. For the blanks you will need medium-sized pears. Too large ones are not suitable for cooking.

3. Preference should be given to fruits with a small seed pod. It is better to harvest immediately, immediately after harvesting, otherwise they become too soft and are not suitable for drying.

4. Fruits should have a dense texture.

5. The taste of dried pears is adversely affected by viscosity, for this reason it is better not to use such varieties.

6. Dry slices 1 cm thick. Small fruits, such as wild game, can be prepared whole.

Fruit selection and storage

When buying pears, you need to look at the appearance, aroma and density of the fruit. They must not be damaged or infested with worms. Do not store with dents. Fruits that are too hard and odorless are considered unripe. If the fruit is loose, this is a sign of beginning rotting. It is better to purchase unripe fruits than overripe ones. The fruit ripens during storage if it is not washed. If you put pears together with apples or bananas, the ripening process will speed up. This is due to the gas - ethylene, which is released by ripe fruits.

Soft, ripe fruits should be stored in the refrigerator. This way they can last up to 4 or 5 days.

For long-term storage, only autumn or winter varieties are used. The pear should be removed from the tree while still a little green. Ripe pears fall off the tree and are not stored for long.

You need to collect it in clear, sunny weather directly from the tree along with the stalk.
Pears are stored in a dry, ventilated room at a temperature from 0 to + 2 degrees.
The fruits are placed in dry wooden boxes. The fruits should not touch each other. You can wrap it in paper or sprinkle it with clean sawdust.
Pears need to be sorted periodically, removing damaged ones.

Storing fresh pears is difficult, especially if there are no suitable conditions. For this reason, various preparations are made from aromatic fruits. But they contain sugar. The best option is to dry pears at home.

There are several most common ways to dry pears. This is the best option for large fruit harvests. Dried pear can be stored for at least 2 years. A fragrant compote is prepared from it, which has healing properties.

Fruit preparation

It is important to use quality products to preserve the delicious aroma.

Before harvesting, the fruits must be prepared appropriately.

All preparation is as follows:

Washing and cleaning fruits;
Thorough drying of fruits;
Sorting of pears, rotten and overripe specimens are removed;
The fruits are placed in a boiling liquid for 10-15 minutes, sugar is added to the liquid;
The product is left to cool;
The pears are cut, the seeds are removed, and the spoiled areas are cut off;
To preserve the color, the workpieces are dipped in a solution of 1% tartaric or citric acid.

The cutting method is determined depending on the original size of the workpieces. Fruits that are not too large are chopped into slices or two parts.

Large ones are chopped into slices, not too thick in size. This way it will be possible to preserve the rich aroma and taste. For harvesting, you can take whole fruits of a much smaller size, not forgetting to remove the stalk.

Wild pears (proper drying)

To obtain a fragrant and sweet product after drying, wild game must be properly collected and prepared for future preparations. You should not remove it from the trees, you need to wait until it naturally falls to the ground.

Then the fruits are placed in a box or bucket so that they rest and after a while turn brown.

After drying, stale and darkened wild game will become sweetish and have a rich aroma instead of a bitter and tart taste.

Often, uninformed people mistake such pears for spoiled ones and throw them away, but this is considered a mistake.

After selection, the game is washed and chopped into pieces, or dried entirely by any available method.

The seed nest is not removed, and the products are not blanched or fumigated.

The pliability and elasticity of the slices when bent indicates the complete readiness of the product.

When to collect wild game for drying

The trees begin to bloom at the end of April, the fruits are fully ripened at the end of the first month of autumn. During this time period they are harvested for various purposes.

Fruits can be collected by shaking, churning, or by hand, placing a cloth under the tree crown.

Falling fruits can be damaged and break on the ground, which significantly reduces their shelf life.

Next, the game is sorted, small twigs and leaves are removed, and the fruit is examined. Rotten and damaged ones are not suitable for harvesting. They taste sour and bitter. They must be left to rest.

After a while, they turn light brown and become juicy.

How to dry it properly

You will need ripe fruits that are not beaten or cracked, without black areas.

It should be noted that dark yellow game birds, as well as green ones, are not used for harvesting.

1. Rinse and dry the game.

2. Cut into 2-6 pieces, leaving the core.

3. Place in a solution of 1% citric acid for one hour.

4. Transfer the slices to boiling liquid for 2 minutes, then dip into cold liquid. This is how they blanch.

5. Dry using any of the methods.

If desired, the treatment can be carried out on the fabric under direct sunlight. Fruits are good for 2 years.

In winter, you really want to pamper your family with a real vitamin product and remind you of summer with its great abundance of fruit and berry plants. Dried fruits are great for these purposes, because they perfectly preserve useful components. The best way to prepare pears at home is to prepare them. How can this be done using an oven?

Read also Arrangement of dried flowers MK

How to dry pears in an electric dryer

Chopped fruits are placed in the device and cooked at a temperature of 70 degrees.

Cooking time is from 15 to 19 hours. While drying, the slices must be turned over to ensure even cooking.

Properly prepared slices do not crumble when broken. They acquire a pleasant light brown hue, as well as elasticity.

Proper drying in the sun

The product should be prepared, washed and dried, cut into thin slices. To prevent darkening, the slices are kept in 1% tartaric acid. Dip into boiling water for 2 minutes.

The blanks are evenly distributed on any plane - a piece of plywood, a board or a box. All this is exposed to the sun. A good place is on the roof of a summer cottage, provided that there is direct sunlight.

If there is no suitable place for cooking, then the slices are strung on a thread like mushrooms and hung on the sunny side. In the winter, they sometimes dry it near heating appliances.

The whole process lasts about two days. In the evening, the product is hidden indoors. Two days later, the pieces are taken off the street and left to dry in a dark place for another three days. At regular intervals they change sides.

How to air dry pears at home

This method is very labor-intensive, but with its help it is possible to preserve the maximum of useful substances. If there is no room to lay out the fruits, they are carefully pierced with a needle and thread threaded in, and hung to dry naturally.

Either we place the fruit on a tray, baking sheet, or an inverted box, and dry it.

Before the cooking process, you should determine the location of future drying.

It must meet the following requirements:

Must be windless and dust free;
Access to fruits by midges, flies, mosquitoes and other insects should be limited in advance;
Cover the strings with fruit with a layer of gauze.

The pears are ready in 3-4 days. They are removed from the threads and prepared for further storage.

Having determined that all the slices have dried evenly, they are placed in a dry container for subsequent storage. Carefully inspect the fruits: if mold is found on at least one part of the product, then all the preparations will be spoiled.

What to do to prevent moths from getting in?

In glass jars, before placing the fruit, you need to place a small circle (or any other shape) of wax paper. It will protect dried fruits not only from moths, but also from other bugs. On a note! If you use fabric bags, then you should wash them first in a saline solution. And, of course, dry without rinsing! Then they will be inaccessible to moths and other insects.

It is also believed that insects are afraid of the smell of mint. But! With “sticky” fruits you should be careful in this matter. Or it prepares for the dried apricots or raisins to become saturated with a slightly minty taste or smell.

Advice!

You should also place a few sprigs of mint on the shelves next to the drying rack. At the same time, a light pleasant aroma will appear in the apartment.

By the way!

Storing dried fruits
And, of course, another important condition is the storage time of dried fruits. Each fruit has its own expiration date, so it is worth considering this issue in more detail.

There are two types of raisins - black and light (raisins). In principle, they do not differ in service life.
If the temperature does not exceed 18-19 °C, then the shelf life is naturally reduced to 1 year.
Well, a higher temperature reduces the storage time of raisins to 6 months.
Dried apricots and prunes have a similar and slightly shorter shelf life.
If the temperature is up to 18 °C, the shelf life will be reduced to six months.
And, naturally, at temperatures above 18 °C, fruits will last no more than three months.

Storing dried fruits
Another question arises - is it possible to store dried fruits in the freezer? And won’t this affect their usefulness and taste?

Nowadays it is very popular to store various products in the freezer. Of course, it's much more convenient. After all, the shelf life increases significantly. It is especially good when there is a large separate freezer, in which you can not only place fresh fruits or vegetables, but also, for example, dried fruits.
Yes, the shelf life is practically unlimited. Just don’t be fanatical – you shouldn’t store prunes or dried apricots in the freezer for three years either.
It is worth freezing in small portions, which will be in separate containers. For example, in small plastic containers or sealed bags.
You need to defrost only the required amount and only at room temperature - this is an important condition!
And be sure to take into account the fact that the product will partially lose the entire list of useful substances. Therefore, it is still better not to freeze dried fruits, if possible. A little advice! If raisins, dried apricots or prunes seem visually questionable. But, at the same time, they do not contain moths or mold, then place the dried fruits in the freezer for several hours. Thus, the product is revived. By the way, you can also resort to high temperatures. That is, you need to place the fruit in the oven for a while. The oven door should not be closed, and the temperature should not exceed 75 °C.

These are the basic requirements for storing dried fruits such as dried apricots, raisins and prunes. In principle, all these tips, which comply with GOST, apply to all types of dried fruits. And the basic standards for a long and most optimal shelf life were outlined above.

Drying pears in the microwave

Using kitchen appliances, you can dry any amount of fruit in an apartment, if it is not possible to do this, for example, in the air. The cooking speed depends on the power of the microwave oven.

Only ripe fruits are suitable for drying.

Cooking process:

1. The fruits are thoroughly washed and cleaned, sorted and only suitable fruits are selected.

Cut into not too thin slices.

2. Cover a container suitable for a microwave oven with a sheet of parchment. Place the slices on the prepared surface with a slight indentation from each other.

3. Place the container with the contents in the microwave. Set the power to 300 W. Set the time to 5 minutes. If the slices are not completely dry, add another 90 seconds.

To prevent the pieces from darkening, they are kept in diluted citric acid for about 20 minutes.

How to dry pears in a gas stove oven

As in the previously described method, the slices should be placed on a baking sheet so that they do not touch each other.

You should clearly control the temperature and periodically adjust the heating down or up.

Before starting cooking, the temperature is set to 50-55 degrees. This will reduce the likelihood that the skin will crack.

After 2 hours, when the slices are slightly dry, you can increase the heating to another 80 degrees.

After the product has decreased somewhat in size, change the temperature again to 50 degrees. At this temperature, you can dry the product until it is completely ready.

The size of the pears plays an important role in calculating cooking time. For small pieces, 12-14 hours will be enough, and whole pears will need approximately 24-26 hours.

While the oven is operating, the premises should be well ventilated, since a constantly burning fire in the appliance contributes to strong heating of the air and combustion of oxygen.

Features of drying whole pears

Cooking steps:

1. Wash ripe ones, without visible damage or black spots, trim the stalks and dry with a towel.

2. Prepare high-sided baking sheets by lining them with parchment sheets. Place the fruits on them tightly to each other.

3. Set the temperature to 90 degrees. Place a baking sheet in it and place it on the highest level. Bake for one and a half hours. Turn off the heat and leave the pieces to cool without removing them from the oven.

4. Place the finished fruits in a room with a source of fresh air and keep them in this form for several more hours. After which the cooking procedure in the oven must be repeated.

All drying stages are repeated throughout the week. The finished product must be dry and free of pulp.

5. Move all drying materials into dry, clean containers and hide them in a place with a low temperature for safekeeping.

Recipe

How to dry pears for the winter? Dried pears recipe: cut the prepared pears into slices and boil in sweetened water for 5-7 minutes. Preheated to 60°C

Place the oven on a baking sheet with pear slices laid out on it.

After 20-30 minutes, when the fruits are soft, they can be removed from the oven, allowed to cool and strung on a thread.

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The resulting “pear necklace” can be hung on the balcony (with good ventilation). The degree of drying of the fruit
is determined by the absence of juice released during compression.

Tip: if the fruit is dry

(sometimes this happens) - don’t be upset. You can make pear powder from overdried pears, which will give the first and second courses a unique taste.

To prepare this powder, dried fruits need to be broken into small pieces. Granulated sugar must be added to the crushed pears

(1 part sugar to 9 parts dried fruit) and a little ground cinnamon. The resulting mixture can be ground in a coffee grinder.

Dried pears - photo:

Properly prepared dried fruits can delight you for a long time with their excellent taste and beneficial qualities. Shelf life

This product is up to 24 months!
How to store dried pears in an apartment? In fabric bags in a cool, dark place. By following the storage rules for 2 years,
you will have a tasty treat and a natural remedy for many ailments at your fingertips.