How to dry chokeberry: 4 ways

How to dry chokeberry? You enter a query in a search engine, read the first article and eyebrows crawl up in surprise. The authors of the texts recommend collecting chokeberry only after frost, but drying in the sun. I wonder where in our climate, after frosts, is there such a sun that can evaporate juice from a fairly dense pulp of berries? This is how many days will chokeberry collect dust on the street? An incredibly valuable product will turn out. With a decent film of all chemical elements.

Gentlemen, turn on your brains before giving your advice. Otherwise, do not turn curses from those who follow them. Let's look at how to actually dry a chokeberry, and debunk the rest of the misconceptions.

Oven

Read on. “La la la la and turn on the oven to a temperature of no higher than + 45 ° C with convection.” Yeah. The average article has the simplest cooker. And the oven is also ordinary there. Without convection, the minimum temperature is not lower than + 100-120 ° С. What to do?

Stop blindly following ridiculous advice. Russian people have always been famous for conjecture. No convection? Leave the oven door ajar. Can't work with temperature? Reduce drying time and mix berries often in the process. This is very simple.

Just don’t try to drop the whole brush on a baking sheet, bringing them from the garden. You can’t do without some preparation:

• Berries are carefully separated from the bunch.
• Sort from garbage and spoiled mountain ash.
• Rinse thoroughly under running water.
• Throw back to a sieve or colander.
• Sprinkle on an old towel or piece of unnecessary cloth.
• Once the chokeberry has dried, you can begin the drying process.

Try to perform all the choke manipulations as carefully as possible. No, not out of fear of losing a lot of juice. It’s just that it is very difficult to wash and does not wash off the skin for a long time.

How to understand that chokeberry dried up? There is no exact schedule and time in seconds. Will have to determine by touch and by eye. We squeeze a few berries into a fist, open our palm. Rowan berries did not become lumpy, easily separated from each other? So ready. Still sticking together? So let them still dry.

Outwardly well-dried aronia of dark color, wrinkled, but with a glossy sheen.

Dryer

For happy owners of an electric dryer, there is no problem at all. Aronia was prepared, as described above, laid out in trays. The device was turned on first for an hour at + 55 ° С, it is necessary to dry it at a temperature of no higher than + 40 ° С. On average, 3-5 hours is enough, depending on the load.

Fridge

Just be sure to lay a newspaper or cloth under the layer of chokeberry, they will absorb excess juice, if any. This is very rare, because you can’t name a black chokeberry, but it can happen after frosts.

The berries should be mixed 1 time per day, and sprinkled with a layer of not more than 1-1.2 cm. After about 5-6 days, chokeberry can be removed for storage.

Thread drying

So, what else are there readers who are advised by extraordinary experts in drying aronia? Yeah, tie the shields into bundles and hang. Without washing and others like them. Use in winter, etc.

Interestingly, but they know that it is much easier to wash a fresh smooth chokeberry than a dried shriveled one? And what individually berries dry much faster than bundled? They did not say where to hang such blanks so that they dried. And in the yard is October.What to do?

Remember childhood. Beads from ordinary mountain ash probably did everything. Well, the female half of the country for sure. Here we go. Aronia prepared (washed without fail!), Dried from residual moisture. Now you need a needle and a strong thread. It’s not worth taking a long one, then you yourself will get confused in it, you will be angry. Optimum length from 50 cm to 1 meter.

Cooked and started making rowan beads. At the same time, children can be asked to help, maybe they will like it. So what if they have other interests. To help mom as much as I can - that’s what I understand of interest. Now is not about that.

Strung up? Now hang up. You can do it yourself, of course, but it is better in the attic, in a dry barn, in a loggia, in a hot pantry. Just do not, there are such pantries. In the corner apartments of the old Khrushchevs, they are all hot, and they live in such houses half the country.

What if no one of these rooms is available? Well, there’s certainly a kitchen. Hang there. Yes, higher, the most warmly gathers under the ceiling. Just don’t attach the chokeberry beads to the wall. The wallpaper will be painted, the workpiece will result in an unexpected repair.

A little bit about storage

After drying the chokeberry should still be able to save. Like any dried fruit, it has very hygroscopic properties. Therefore, it should not be kept in plastic dishes, cardboard boxes and paper bags. The best containers are glass jars with sealed lids. In them, dried chokeberry can be stored for up to 11 months. In the second place are tin, with a tight lid. In such dried aronia, calmly live up to 7 months. Food plastic containers and special bags with zip fasteners complete our hit parade. Dried fruits can lie there for up to 4 months.

Just do not put containers in the refrigerator. Condensation forms on the walls and the lid, which will help mold grow inside. A dry, cool, dark place is ideal. For example, the far shelf of a kitchen cabinet or pantry.

How to dry chokeberry? By any method described. Choose the one that suits you. Just make sure that the berries do not lighten during drying. No, they will not become poisonous. Just from a useful medicine will turn into a sweet preparation. The taste will remain, but the healing properties will be gone.

Video: candied aronia