Raisins means dried grapes. Ripe sugary clusters are suitable for drying. Depending on the variety of grapes used, as well as its color, there are light, dark, small, large, pitted and without raisins. Moreover, from seedless grape varieties it turns out - sultanas, and from varieties with seeds - raisins.

The range of application of raisins is diverse, it is used in bakery and confectionery(cupcakes, Easter cakes, buns); in compotes and drinks (kvass, fruit drinks).

Raisins are a useful dried fruit, and dark ones are more useful than light ones. This is a very sweet product, it has a huge amount of fructose and glucose, which remain in the product after the moisture has evaporated.

Dried grapes are rich in potassium, phosphorus, sodium, calcium, magnesium, iron, as well as vitamins B1, B2, B5, PP.

But at the same time, this is a high-calorie product, it contains 264 - 279 kcal per 100 g of the product, and overeating it can lead to obesity. It is not recommended to abuse it for obese people, peptic ulcer, acute heart failure, diabetics, because of the threat of provoking an exacerbation of these diseases.

Raisins, as mentioned earlier, can be cooked at home if there are raw materials and desire. It will be significantly different from the factory one, in aroma and purity.

Grapes are dried mainly in four ways, which we will now consider.

Sun drying

Drying grapes in this way, the most common, has practically no material costs.

We need:

• ripe grapes
• baking soda
• flat surface (tray, brazier, wood surface, mesh)
• gauze or mosquito net
• sun

Cooking:

1. Clusters of grapes are sorted, removing unripe, damaged and rotten berries. The sorted raw materials are washed, placed in a colander and blanched in a soda solution.

2. For blanching, take a pot and boil water, add baking soda at the rate of 1 tbsp. for 1 liter of water. Dip a colander with berries in boiling water for 3-4 seconds. After that, immediately dip into a bucket of cold water to cool, then rinse thoroughly with cold water.

As a result of this treatment, the wax coating is removed from the berries and a fine mesh is formed, which helps to accelerate the evaporation of moisture during drying.

3. Prepared clusters are laid out on a towel to remove excess moisture, and then they are placed on sieves and taken out in the sun to dry.

You can do otherwise, remove the berries from the bunches, sort them by size, small ones separately from large ones, and put each fraction separately on a baking sheet, any flat surface, after lining it with paper (parchment). We put on a sunny surface, cover with gauze to protect from insects and birds.

4. The grapes are dried for 20 - 30 days, depending on the weather. At night, it is recommended to bring pallets under a canopy to avoid rain. Stir the berries occasionally to dry evenly.

5. We put the dried grapes in an open box, keep it for 2-3 days, then put it tightly in an airtight container and store it in a dry place.

Drying grapes in the shade

This method is most common in the countries of Central Asia, it is believed that this is how raisins retain their original color and all vitamins. For this purpose, in these countries, special clay dryers are built with many holes for ventilation.

Cooking:

1. We sort and process bunches of grapes in an alkaline solution, as in the previous method.

2. Processed bunches of grapes, lay out on a flat surface and put in stacks, cover with something dense, it can be a tarpaulin, a film. Under them, a sulfur checker or a sulfur wick is lit, thus sulfuric fumigation is carried out for 45-50 minutes. This affects the appearance of the raisins, it turns out to be beautiful.

Then they are transferred to a permanent place of drying, stacked, covered with an anti-mosquito cloth, periodically once every 3 days, turning the bunches over. You can process and fumigated bunches, hang on ropes and dry like that.

3. Drying in the shade takes 20-30 days.

Drying raisins in an electric dryer

Nowadays, it is not difficult to buy a good electric dryer for fruits and berries. Drying in it saves a lot of time and labor and produces raisins no worse than in the sun.

Cooking:

1. Blanch the grapes in a soda solution and cool in cold water to stop the brewing process.

2. Then we must dry the grapes on a towel, thus removing excess moisture.

3. We cut off the grapes from the groin, sort by size and spread them on the drying grates, in an even layer.

4. First turn on the dryer at 50 degrees and dry for 3 hours, then turn it off. And so we do until the berries become semi-soft, swapping the grids, the raisins will turn out to be evenly dried, dried, but not hard. Periodically check and remove the finished berries.

The rest of the berries, at a temperature of 50 degrees, dry without interruption. In total, the drying of the berries takes 34 hours.

Exit finished products from grapes like this: from 2 kg of berries, 450 g of raisins are obtained.

5. Keep raisins in a closed glass container.

Raisins from the oven

Berries can also be dried in the oven, but this is the most time-consuming method, and expensive. And given the weather conditions, the heat, it is impossible to stay indoors for a long time.

But, nevertheless, there is such a way.

Cooking:

1. Prepared berries, put on a baking sheet, in an even layer and put in an oven preheated to 85 degrees. Leave the door slightly ajar to allow moisture to evaporate.

2. When the berries are half dry, reduce the temperature in the oven to 70 degrees. In total, drying takes about 30 hours.

Benefits of home drying grapes

1. Choose your own grape variety.

2. Guarantee of purity and quality.

3. When growing your own grapes, this is an opportunity to save it for the winter.

4. It turns out tastier than from the store.

5. Control over the consistency of raisins (dry or soft).

How to dry grapes at home

Dried grapes or raisins are one of the most popular dried fruit treats. Raisins are widely used in cooking, adding to pastries, first and second courses, desserts.

It is very important that dried grapes retain 70-80% of vitamins and 100% of trace elements. And besides, raisins are very useful for heart diseases, helps fight anemia, lethargy and irritability, and preserves eyesight. So why not dry yourself house grapes and use it throughout the year.

If you dry the grapes yourself, you will always be sure that the product is of high quality and clean. You can dry any variety of grapes, but large grapes of sweet varieties are best, and even better - seedless. For drying, choose intact, ripe fruits.

You can dry the grapes in the sun, in the shade, in the oven and in an electric dryer. Blanch the grapes before drying - this will significantly reduce the drying time due to the fact that a fine mesh forms on the surface of the skin. This mesh will help to evaporate moisture from the pulp much faster.

Store dried grapes in a dry, tightly closed container in a dark and cool place.

Many, visiting the food stalls, look at the beautiful and brilliant raisins. But few people know that in industry raisins are treated with sulfur diaside, as it makes the drying process faster. And in order to achieve a beautiful and shiny look, it is coated with a lot of oil, which makes it feel greasy and sticky. But it is easy to make raisins at home on your own, and then they will be matte. But he will not be inferior in anything purchased. It is better to use the Kishmish variety for cooking, because it does not contain seeds, and it will ripen quickly.
It is allowed to try to make raisins from different varieties grapes with seeds, but it will be different in its properties.

There are some of the most popular methods for preparing raisins, we list them below.

In the rays of the sun

This method is considered the oldest. Many years ago, grapes were laid out on paper in a thin layer and dried with sunlight for a month. But this method is only suitable if the weather is dry and sunny, in extreme cases, think about the possibility of hiding the grapes in case of rainy weather. Raisins made in this way are matte with a waxy coating.
The same way, only faster
Drying grapes in the sun a large number of time, which can be significantly reduced using this method. You need to take grapes and lower them into a boiling solution with soda for about 9 seconds. This procedure will make it possible to get rid of the wax coating.
In addition, when cracks form on the berries during processing, air passes through them, allowing moisture to evaporate. Then it is important to wash the grapes with cold water, and put a thin layer on the sun's rays.
To make a soda solution, you need: a dessert spoon of soda, which is dissolved in one liter of water.
Dry in a dark place with good ventilation
Raisins can be made by drying in an unlit place with excellent ventilation. The drying time will take about a month.

Drying grapes in the oven

In order to dry the raisins in the oven, you need to put the berries on a baking sheet and set the temperature to 85 degrees, then put it inside. The important point is to make a crack by slightly opening the oven door so that moisture leaves. As soon as the berries are half dried, you need to reduce the temperature to 70 degrees. This view takes approximately 30 hours.
Using an Electric Dryer for Fruits and Vegetables

Today in the store you can easily buy an electric dryer. To make raisins at home, it's hard to imagine a better remedy. One difficult moment is the choice of the optimal mode for harvesting berries. In all other respects, such a dryer will help any housewife stock up on berries and raisins for the whole winter, without putting much effort into it.

Drying of grapes is usually carried out in special dryers, where the berries slowly lose moisture. At home, you can cook raisins in the oven by drying part of the crop from a home vineyard in 2-2 days. How to dry grapes for raisins in this way, read below.

If you take seedless berries like raisins for drying, then raisins can be added to Easter cakes, muffins and other pastries. You can also cook raisins from blue grapes with stones in the oven - it is suitable for compotes. In any case, you will receive a quality product that will definitely come in handy on the farm. And then you will be happy to tell all your friends how to make raisins at home using the oven.

Ingredients:

• grapes - 1 kg;
• water - 1 l;
• baking soda - 1 teaspoon with top.

Drying grapes for raisins in the oven

Wash grapes in cold water to remove impurities. We let the water drain a little, after which we remove the berries, while rejecting dry, frostbitten, rotten, damaged by diseases or pests.

In order to speed up the drying, the grapes must be placed for a few seconds in a boiling soda solution - under its influence, cracks will appear on the surface of the berries, through which moisture will intensively leave.

To prepare the solution, you need 1 full teaspoon with the top of food water, which must be dissolved in 1 liter of boiling water.

Dip the grapes in the soda solution for 5-7 seconds, then drain the boiling water and rinse the berries in cold water to wash off the soda particles. Dry the grapes treated in this way on a waffle towel for a couple of minutes in order to remove excess moisture.

We cover the baking sheet with parchment, pour grapes on top of it in one layer and put it in the oven to dry at a minimum temperature of 50-60 degrees with the door ajar.

After 10 hours, the grapes will dry noticeably. In general, you need to dry the raisins for 2 days, you can take breaks, while not forgetting to leave the door oven open.

Since the grapes are of different sizes, the smallest grapes will dry out faster than the larger ones. Therefore, you must either initially sort the grapes to different levels of the oven, or simply check readiness from time to time, removing the finished dried raisins so that they do not burn.

After 2 days, the grapes will dry completely - the degree of readiness of raisins is easily determined by how it stops sticking to your hands.

Ready dried grapes are poured into glass container and leave for a while to equalize the level of humidity.

For storage of raisins, cloth bags or parchment envelopes are suitable. It can be stored in this form for up to 1 year in a dry, dark place. Homemade raisins will be an excellent alternative to the store-bought ones: sweet and meaty, pitted, it will be indispensable for baking and second courses, and made from blue grapes with a stone will be an excellent basis for making fragrant compotes.

You need seedless grapes. There are many varieties and colors of seedless grapes.

• A very common seedless grape variety for growing at home is Thompson. It is a very fertile variety and you can harvest a large number of grapes from a single vine. It self-pollinates and can curl itself around a fence or T-post, while remaining a solitary element in your landscape. Ripe berries are medium in size and yellow-green in color. Due to the high sugar content, these grapes dry much faster than other larger seedless grape varieties.
• Any grape variety needs three years from planting to production. In order to reap a good harvest, it is necessary to prune and cover the grapes before winter, apply organic fertilizer in the spring and water during the dry season. With this little attention, you'll have your own natural raisins drying in your dryer in September.

Drive pests away from your grapes. Birds are very fond of these berries, so be ready to pick grapes if you see one that has fallen to the ground. It does not matter that the berries are so overripe that they fall from the vine. This makes them even sweeter.

• Hold the pot under the bush while cutting the bunches. Thus, the most ripe of them will go to you, and not to the birds.

Wash the grapes. Separate the berries from the stems after that. Fill the sink with grapes, then pour water into it. Rinse the grapes well, then transfer them to another sink with an open drain and let drain. Of course, you can use a saucepan or colander for this, and if you have a lot of grapes, a dish drainer with a drip tray will work just fine. This will leave your second sink free for other things. Let the grapes drain for at least an hour so they don't add moisture to the dryer.

Separate the berries. When separating the berries from the bunch, pay attention to the small stems at the top of each berry. When carving grapes with your hands, use a pie pan. By filling the base of the mold with a layer of berries, and wiggling them with your palm, you can see the little stems that are still on top of the berries. They shouldn't be in your raisins. Remove them and then place the grapes on a drying tray.

• Feeling the berries, you may notice that the bottom layer of the grapes is still quite wet. After you've finished carving them, turn the pot full of berries over in a towel and roll them out with the palm of your hand. This will prepare the berries, drying them enough for use in drying.

Use dryer. After filling the pallets, close the dryer and turn it on. The temperature should be set to maximum for at least the first twelve hours of drying. If you need to turn the trays, you will need to set the maximum temperature for another twelve hours. The skin of raisins is moist and contains juices, so you need to make sure that all the berries are warm enough and not sour.

• Reduce the temperature to medium only when you see that the berries have turned dark in color and have begun to dry out. These fairly small green grapes will turn dark brown and look like raisins in just a few days.
• If you have high-quality drying, the process of preparing raisins in it will take two to three days.
• If your dryer does not have a fan and a heating mechanism, it is better to use an oven. Grapes can turn sour if the temperature is not high enough to sugar the juice that is under the skin.

Readiness test. Squeeze a few dark dry grapes on a pallet. If you feel slipping under the skin, then they are not dried enough yet. From this it follows that during long-term storage they will turn sour. If they feel flexible, but stable, then drying is over.

• You can dry the grapes until they harden. This will allow you to store many more raisins in the container and will also extend the shelf life. If you are going to use raisins, put the required amount in a cup, add a spoon or two of water, cover and microwave for half a minute. This will make the raisins fluffy and soft, like from a store. If you are using the raisins for salads or other recipes other than baking, pour the remaining water out of the cup and let the steam dry the raisins a bit.

Raisin storage. If you were treated to grapes by friends and you want to keep a small amount of grapes. Or you may have your own crop that you want to keep for longer than a year.

• Storage for one to two years: Well-dried raisins can be stored for several years if you seal the lid with paraffin. This will allow you to use the peanut butter containers to store the raisins. All you have to do is melt the paraffin in a tin can and pour it over the edge of the lid. Remove excess paraffin and screw on the lid while the wax is still warm. You can use leftover candles for this. This method of storage will prevent insects from entering the jar and their penetration to food products.
• Indefinite Storage: If you have a canning machine, you can fill liter jar, close it and preserve it. Apply pressure of about 2.2 kg for forty minutes.
• Using the oven: Since not everyone has a canning machine, it's very easy to prepare raisins for storage in your oven.
  • Place the raisins in clean, sterilized containers, adding a teaspoon of water to each. Wipe the top of the container to remove any remaining small particles from the filling.
  • Screw the container tightly with a sterilized lid, and place it inside the oven.
  • When all the containers are in the oven, set the temperature to 120 degrees Celsius and leave them there for an hour.
  • Turn off the oven and let the bowls cool down in it. To speed up this process, you can open the oven door, but not too much, because a draft can blow your preservation. Canned raisins will last indefinitely. Don't worry about the expiration date. There are none on the sealed jars.

Check containers. In order to check if the raisins are canned or not, tap the jar with the handle of a teaspoon. If you hear a ringing instead of a dull sound, then everything is in order.

• Storing raisins in an unsealed container: If you store raisins in an uncanned state, keep them in the refrigerator and use them within one year. It won't go bad in the fridge, but it can turn sour on the shelf because you washed it with water when sorting it out.