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From: hok382@houxa.UUCP (P.CARSTENSEN)
Newsgroups: net.cooks
Subject: fruit drying
Message-ID: <373@houxa.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 6-Mar-84 08:30:32 EST
Article-I.D.: houxa.373
Posted: Tue Mar  6 08:30:32 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 7-Mar-84 07:13:00 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 16

My mother dries fruit in her electric oven (from an n of about 2
we have deduced that it just doesn't work in a gas oven).  She 
just turns the heat to 150 and opens the door periodically to
let out steam and wipe moisture off the inside of the door (twice
a day ~ periodically).  When my parents have the wood stove
working, she dries fruit about half way in the oven and then
puts it on trays on the wood stove to finish.  I think she has
been experimenting with using a convection oven and that cuts the
time by a factor of three or so (She got tired of waiting for my
brother to build her a drier.)
   Incidentally, one of her most successful products is fruit
leather:  you put plums, peaches, apricots, or whatever in a
blender and make slush of the fruit, add some sugar for stuff 
like plums with bitter skins, and dump the stuff on a cookie sheet
(enough to fill about 1/2 - 3/4 ") and dry.  She also dries
apricots, apples, pears, and bananas.