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How to dry melon at home correctly
Melon helps to make blood vessels elastic, nails and hair strong. The sweet fruit helps fight depression, removes toxic waste from the body. How to dry a melon at home to enjoy a healthy treat in winter?
How to dry melon at home to preserve its beneficial properties?
How to dry melon in an electric dryer
The electric dryer allows you to preserve useful microelements and vitamins in vegetables and fruits, ideal for cooking dried melons.
Melon drying steps:
- wash, remove seeds, peel, all unsweetened pulp;
- cut the fruit into thin strips no more than 5 mm thick, the length can be any;
- warm up a closed electric dryer for 5 minutes;
- arrange pieces of product on trays in one layer, there should be a small distance between them;
- place the trays in the dryer;
- set the temperature to 55–70 degrees, dry the melon for 10–11 hours.
During the drying process, the pallets can be interchanged as the temperature is higher from below. Every 3-4 hours, turn off the dryer for 7-12 minutes.
You can store melon blanks in bags made of thin natural fabric or in glass containers with a lid.
How to air dry melon and in the oven
If there is no electric dryer at home, then you can dry the melon in the usual way – in the oven or in the fresh air.
For drying in the oven, the melon must be cut into pieces 6–7 mm thick, and the temperature in the oven must be set within 70–75 degrees.
Drying occurs in several stages:
- at the initial stage, which lasts 7 hours, the melon must be dried at the maximum permissible temperature;
- get the blanks, cool;
- continue drying for 2-3 hours at a temperature of 60 degrees.
To dry in the open air, small slices of peeled melon 4–8 cm thick should be cut into 2 parts lengthwise, but not completely – a small partition should remain, the prepared pieces should be hung on a fishing line or rope. If drying is carried out indoors, it should be well ventilated. The drying process lasts 12-14 days; daily, the pieces must be turned over for uniform evaporation of moisture.
The finished strips need to be braided into braids, wrapped with cling film or laid out in glass jars.
Knowing how to properly dry a melon, you can prepare a tasty, low-calorie and healthy treat for the winter. Such a blank will decorate any dessert, will delight both children and adults.
It is not recommended to combine melon with alcoholic and milk drinks, honey. Dried sweets should be consumed 1-2 hours after a meal.
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