Nutrition
| Per 100 g | Per 1 oz (28 g) | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 288 kcal | 82 kcal |
| Protein | 4.4 g | 1.2 g |
| Fat | 1.9 g | 0.5 g |
| saturated | 0.1 g | 0 g |
| Carbohydrate | 61.9 g | 17.5 g |
| sugars | 61.9 g | 17.5 g |
| Fibre | 8.8 g | 2.5 g |
| Sodium | 0 mg | 0 mg |
Estimated from the ingredients, for the finished dried product. Actual values vary with the produce you use and how far you dry it.
Ingredients
- 6.8 kg fresh plums (or frozen)
Instructions
- Use plums that give under a thumb at the shoulder, not only at the tip. A firm plum still has its sugar locked up as starch and dries to something sour and tough.
- Cut around the stone along the natural seam and twist the halves apart. Cut against the seam and the halves tear, losing juice before the fruit ever reaches a tray.
- Turn each half inside out by pushing the skin up from underneath. The skin is a waxy barrier that water cannot cross, and inverting the fruit puts the open flesh where the air is.
- Set the halves cut side up with space between them. A plum face down pools its own juice against the tray and sticks hard enough to tear when you lift it.
- Resist cramming the trays even though the halves take up room. This is the longest run in this batch and crowding it adds hours rather than saving them.
- Dehydrate at 57 °C for 22 hours, swapping the top and bottom trays over once the halves have visibly shrunk.
- Squeeze a cooled half between finger and thumb. It should be pliable and slightly sticky with no pocket of juice inside it, which is the whole difference between a prune and a plum that will ferment in a jar.
- Condition them for a week in a loosely closed jar and shake it daily. Halves finish at very different moments depending on their size, and this week is what evens them out.
- Once the glass stays clear, tighten the lid and keep it dark for a year. A jar that ever smells of alcohol had damp fruit in it and the batch should go.
