PRESERVATION OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES 33 



GRAPES 



Most of the raisin grapes are sun-dried, unless drying by artificial 

 heat is necessary to provide against losses resulting from early fall 

 rains. A small part of the grape crop is dehydrated. 



The unstemmed clusters or bunches of grapes are dipped into hot 

 lye or soda solution, thoroughly rinsed in cold water, trayed, and dried. 



Grapes stand high temperatures better than most other fruits. 

 Temperatures up to 200° F. have been used for some varieties without 

 visible injury to the fruit. The safer temperatures, however, are those 

 given in table 5. 



If the grapes are to be marketed in clusters, they are removed from 

 the drier when they contain 15 to 20 percent of moisture. If they are 

 to be stemmed, the moisture content should be reduced to 10 percent 

 or less and the stemming begun as soon as the fruit has cooled. Under 

 these conditions the grapes are hard, the stems are brittle and easy to 

 remove, and the special stemming machines used in the process will 

 not be gummed or clogged. 



The seeding of grapes follows the stemming. Stemmed grapes are 

 treated with steam or hot water, to increase their moisture content to 

 about 20 percent, and fed into seeding machines. 



The stems of grapes constitute about 14 percent by weight of fresh 

 material before it is prepared for drying. From 24 to 27 pounds of 

 stemmed grapes containing 10 percent of moisture are obtained from 

 100 pounds of fresh grapes, not including stems. If stemmed fruit 

 containing 10 percent of moisture is processed until it contains 20 per- 

 cent, the increase in weight will be about 12 pounds for every 100 

 pounds of the original product. 



PEACHES 



Yellow freestone peaches of the Muir and Lovell varieties are 

 generally preferred, although the Elberta is dehydrated to a limited 

 extent. The fruit should be firm, fully colored, and free from soft 

 spots. The color of the fresh fruit should be uniform. 



Peaches are graded for size and halved by being cut completely 

 around the line of suture, and the pits are removed. The halved and 

 pitted fruit may be peeled by any of the lye-peeling machines or left 

 unpeeled. In either case the fruit is trayed, cup side up, in order to 

 retain the juice that collects in the cavity, sulfured, and dried. 



PEARS 



The chief varieties of pears for drying are the Bartlett and the 

 Anjou. The fruit is picked when the color is beginning to change 

 from green to yellow and when, by merely being lifted, it is readily 

 loosened from the branches. The pears are kept in boxes or crates 

 under cool well-ventilated storage until firm ripe. 



Pears are prepared in both the peeled and unpeeled forms. In 

 preparing the peeled fruit, the stem is pulled out, the calyx is cut off, 

 and the peel is removed by hand or by lye dipping. The fruit is then 

 halved, and the core is removed by special scoops or knives. Between 

 the operations in preparation the fruit should be kept in cold running 

 water or cold weak saline solution to prevent darkening of the tissues. 

 The prepared fruit is trayed, sulfured, and dried. 



