How to dry pears for the winter and store them

Dried fruits are an excellent preparation for the winter. Firstly, such drying does not have a shelf life, they can be safely used in two years, and after five years, of course, provided they are properly stored. Secondly, this method is suitable for most sweet fruits. Thirdly, they do not contain additional sugars, but they retain vitamins. And, fourthly, it's just a delicious treat. Pears and apples are especially good for this. Here's how to dry pears, we'll figure it out.

Selecting the best

Before drying pears, you need to determine which fruits are suitable for this, and which ones are best left to something else. For the preparation of dried fruits, you should choose varieties of a small amount of juice, the so-called dry ones. Their flesh is usually dense, firm, and the chamber with seeds takes up little space. You can not use overripe, soft or tart pears for such a preparation, nor should you take fruit that was ripped off more than two days ago. If pears are too hard or unsweetened, they can be boiled in syrup. Selected fruits should be washed and thoroughly wiped.

Drying pears

How to dry pears: lobules or whole? It depends on their size. Smaller specimens are quite suitable for drying in their original form, but this will take a longer time. In this case, you should remove their tails. If you prefer slices, then remember that the optimal thickness of each slice is 1 cm. It is with this slicing that the future drying will get the correct ratio of meatiness and taste and at the same time it will be stored for a long time.

Oven or sun

How to dry pears better: in the oven or in the summer sun? In many respects it depends on the weather. For the inhabitants of the south, the natural method is quite applicable. To do this, the fruit should be cut into pieces, spread on trays or other substrate and put in a place that will be as sunny throughout the day. To prevent sweets from settling, you can cover them with clean gauze. For the night, trays will have to be brought into the house, so that moisture does not pile up the slices that have dried up in a day. The time for the complete drying of the pear shards will be about a couple of days and the same amount will be required until the condition is fully reached in the shade. After that, they can be packaged in linen clean bags and sent to storage.

For those who live in less sunny regions, it will be more convenient for another way of drying pears. In the oven, this procedure takes about a day. Fruits or their cutting should be spread out on a baking sheet in one layer and dried on low heat, often turning over. For those who are accustomed to orientate on the thermometer, the optimal mark is 70-90 degrees. Finished drying should be viscous on the teeth, and when bending, do not emit moisture. Of course, that for cooking whole pears the time will be needed more than for the cut ones.

It is not enough to know how to dry pears for the winter, you still need to save your work. Best of all, any dried fruit is stored in tissue bags-bags, and can also be placed in glass jars or plastic containers with a tight lid. But packages of polyethylene can be attacked by insects or rodents. Such a preparation does not tolerate moisture and easily absorbs other people's odors. Store dried pears preferably in small portions, since if one of them has a pest, the rest may not suffer. Regularly check the reserves in order to detect and remove the spoiled product in time.