Taking delivery of a dehydrator soon

[doofaloofa]

FYI

http://www.ebay.ie/sch/Appliances-/2071 ... dehydrator

[Odsox]

Hoping to dry a lot of blackcurrants,

I just noticed our blackcurrants are starting to ripen, and there are LOTS this year. I am going to make loads of juice but was intrigued by your dried blackcurrants, how do you use them after they are dried ?
It had never occurred to me to dry currants and Mr Google unusually has very little to say on the matter, is it just a case of reconstituting them in an overnight soak and stewing or do you have something more interesting in mind ?

[diggernotdreamer]

I was thinking about using them on my breakfast cereal, I put dried cranberries on at the moment, but I would like to use my own blackcurrants instead, I make muffins with cranberries as wel,l so why not blackcurrants, I was hoping they would still be quite soft like bought berries?

[doofaloofa]

Current buns?

[diggernotdreamer]

You say the nicest things

[Potter's Farm]

There was a mention of apricot harvests in West Cork....what variety do you grow? I have none here, but I had one tree in the UK. I forget the variety, it was one specially bred for the UK climate. When I bought it, a very knowledgeable gardening friend almost wet herself laughing at me!!

[Odsox]

Sorry to disappoint you but my apricot tree is on the back wall of my greenhouse. I wouldn't dare try growing one outdoors down here, it would get stripped of all it's flowers by the February storms.
It's a Petit Muscat and it's loaded with fruit this year and just starting to ripen.

[Potter's Farm]

I have a small poly tunnel which will now be used for fruit, I like the idea of putting an apricot in there, might have a think on it. Thanks Tony.

[doofaloofa]

I have a couple of outdoor peach trees with tiny little fruits on

My apricot died

[diggernotdreamer]

Have used the dehydrator for herbs and flowers, with good results, especially tricky things like coriander and parsley leaf which have dried really well. Had a go at some blackcurrants, I don't know if I am doing something wrong, but it seems to take A G E S to dehydrate the berries, most of Sunday afternoon and then the machine was on again Monday for most of the day as I didn't want to leave it on all night (did I do that wrong??). Eight pounds of blackcurrants have now turned into wizened little rabbit droppings, but ....... took the lid off the kilner jar this morning and the amazing smell of concentrated blackcurrant wafted out, had a few on my breakfast and they were really lovely, did not need too many of them. I now wonder whether I needed to take the hairy bit off the bottom as it may well just fall off during the process, I sat there for hours with the big nail clippers trimming the currants. Can any seasoned dehydrators tell me if this is normal for things to take hours, I had the temp up to 135f as recommended in the book

[Odsox]

I have no idea really how long blackcurrants take, but they do take longer than you would think. I don't know how you do yours but ours are blanched in boiling water for a couple of minutes and then dumped into cold water. That splits the skins and allows the moisture (juice ?) to evaporate faster, well that's the theory anyway. Not my idea, found that on our soon to be censored Googley thingy.
Our dehydrator is now working non-stop with a kilo of apricots every day as well as blackcurrants and strawberries, so things just get taken out when they're done, that's why I have no real idea how long anything takes.

[diggernotdreamer]

oh, I did the thing with boiling water, but not cold water, some of them did get really fat and round and they are the ones that are not mainly dehydrating properly, will try the quenching after the hot water and see how I get on. From my description, would you say my currants are similar to yours???

[Odsox]

Ours look just like grape currants of currant bun fame, but a lot more seedy and a lot more aromatic.

[Thomzo]

Ours look just like grape currants of currant bun fame, but a lot more seedy and a lot more aromatic.

Now there was me thinking that the dried currents that you buy are just that - dried currents.

I thought that grapes became sultanas and raisins depending on which colour they were.

I've found that fat fruit, grapes, strawberries etc, take ages to dry. Half a day for a whole strawberry. Much quicker if you slice them. I've not bothered drying currents as they freeze so well. I would have thought that you needed to split the skins to allow the juice out quicker. Squashing them might do the trick but I've not tried it. If you boil them and they swell then it's just more water to remove.

I bought my dehydrator and then found it was just as good loading up the baskets and popping them into the conservatory on a sunny day. No need to run the electrics.

Happy drying.

Zoe

[Odsox]

I would have thought that you needed to split the skins to allow the juice out quicker. Squashing them might do the trick but I've not tried it. If you boil them and they swell then it's just more water to remove.

Boiling them for a couple of minutes and then dunking in cold water makes the skins split by thermal shock (swelling then rapid shrinking). Squashing would certainly let the juice out, but I think the idea is to NOT let the juice out, rather to remove the water from the juice concentrating the flavour.

But take note of my disclaimer.