Fruit Dehydration Instructions

A Complete and Entertaining Guide to Dehydrating Fruit for Backpacking and Home Storage.

Topics covered include:

How to safely and efficiently dehydrate fruit.

Fruit cocktail recipes, trail mix recipes, fruit leather recipes, and fruit smoothie recipes.

A Comprehensive and Entertaining Guide on Dehydrating Fruit for Backpacking and Home Storage.

Fruit dehydration converts pounds of luscious sweetness into ounces. One average-sized apple weighs roughly eight ounces when fresh, but just one ounce after dehydration. The calories, fibre, flavour, minerals, antioxidants, and vitamins are all concentrated, giving you the most nourishment for the least amount of weight. The heat reduces the vitamin C content of fruit, although this can be partially compensated by dipping certain fruits in lemon juice or an ascorbic acid and water solution.

Fruit that has been dehydrated is light in weight, nutritive, and calorically packed.

Fruit that has been dehydrated is light, nutritious, colourful, and delicious!

Fruit Dehydration :

Apples, Apricots, Bananas, Berries, Cantaloupe, Cherries, Grapes, Lemons & Limes, Mangoes, Oranges, Peaches, Pears, Pineapples, Strawberries, and Watermelon are some of the fruits and vegetables available.

Making Fruit Cocktails and Dehydrating Fruit Leather are more options.

Fruit Dehydration Instructions

For the most sugar and nutritious value, choose mature, firm fruits. Fruit that is bruised or overripe should be avoided.

Before chopping, rinse the fruit to remove dirt and pesticides. Dehydrating fruit with the peel on maintains more nutrition, particularly the beneficial flavonoids.

Cut apples, apricots, bananas, mangoes, peaches, pears, and strawberries into 18-inch to 14-inch thick slices.

Fruit Pretreatment Before Dehydration

After cutting and dehydrating, the flesh of apples and pears may darken slightly. This is known as oxidation, and it has no effect on the taste or nutrition of the fruit in the short term.

To reduce oxidation, place fruit in a bowl with lemon juice or a solution of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and water for 10 minutes after cutting it.

Lemon Juice Pretreatment: Lemon juice contains citric acid, which acts as an antioxidant. If you use full-strength lemon juice, the lemon flavour will transfer to the apples and pears, which can be pleasant, especially with grated apples. Dilute the juice with an equal or greater volume of cold water for a less powerful transfer of lemon flavour. To coat each piece of chopped fruit, stir it around in the lemon juice.

Pretreatment with Ascorbic Acid: Dissolve 8 teaspoons (36 g) ascorbic acid in 1 quart or litre of cold water. Use around 48 crushed vitamin C tablets (500 mg) per litre of water if using crushed vitamin C tablets. Soak the fruit in water for 10 minutes. Dehydrating Fruit, Colorado State University Extension.

After pretreating the fruit, use a salad spinner or softly wipe dry the fruit with a clean towel to eliminate extra moisture.

Fruit Dehydration

With the exception of lemons and limes, which turn brown unless dried at 115°F (46°C), the ideal temperature for dehydrating fruit is 135°F (57°C).

On dehydrator trays, arrange sliced fruit in a single layer. Dehydrating fruit on mesh dehydrator trays is much faster than dehydrating fruit on nonstick sheets. Excalibur dehydrators offer flexible mesh sheets that make it easier to pop off dried fruits like sliced grapes and overripe bananas that may become sticky when drying.

Blueberries, cherries, and grapes should be cut in half or quarters. Grapes can even be cut into slices. Although it is time-consuming to cut these fruits and berries through their waxy skins, it opens the insides to evaporation and significantly reduces the time it takes to dehydrate them. Another way for "cracking" the skins of these fruits is to immerse them in hot water for 30 seconds before immersing them in ice-cold water. Backpacking Chef discovers that this procedure isn't completely effective, that it likely destroys certain vitamins, and that dehydration takes considerably longer than if these fruits and berries are cut or sliced.

Most dehydrated fruit will be flexible or leathery when finished, which means you can bend and rip it but not snap it.

The drying times for fruit shown below are what you may expect if you use an Excalibur Food Dehydrator. Fruit drying time is affected by factors such as dehydrator type, humidity, thickness of your fruit pieces, volume of fruit in the dehydrator, and juiciness.

When purchasing a food dehydrator, ensure that it has a fan and temperature settings. Otherwise, while you wait for the fruit to dry, you might grow a beard.

Fruit Dehydrator Conditioning

Place the dried fruit in a glass or plastic container with a cover once it has been dehydrated. Conditioning permits any moisture present in thicker sections of fruit to flow into drier bits of fruit. For a week, shake the container once a day. If any moisture accumulates on the inside of the container, return the fruit to the dehydrator and dry it for a longer period of time. Mould can grow if fruit is not dried thoroughly enough. So make sure it's completely dry!

How to Pack and Store Dehydrated Fruit

Fruit's nutritional content and flavour will deteriorate over time due to oxidation. If you need to store dried fruits for more than a few months, tight sealing or using oxygen absorbers will slow the pace of oxidation.

Mason Jars: Dehydrated fruit can be stored at home in glass containers with tight-fitting lids, such as Kerr or Ball mason jars. To accommodate the dried fruit, use the smallest jar possible to reduce the amount of oxygen in the container. Add a 100cc oxygen absorber to the jar for storage of more than a few months.

Pack 12-cup amounts in snack-size Ziploc bags for another method to pack and preserve dried fruit at home. To let air to escape while vacuum-sealing, place a little piece of paper across each zip closure. Insert multiple individually packaged portions of fruit into a larger vacuum-seal bag, add a 100cc oxygen absorber to mop up any residual oxygen, then vacuum seal the bag. Mylar storage bags are another option.

On the Trail: I pack individual servings of dried fruit in snack-size Ziploc bags, usually half a cup apiece. I consume one or two portions of dried fruit per day while trekking. My daily supplies are vacuum sealed, so one or two servings of dried fruit go in the same bag as breakfast, lunch and dinner.