EVAPORATION" OF FRUITS. 49 



APRICOTS. 



The dried apricots found in the markets are wholly a California 

 product, as the fruit is not dried in commercial quantities elsewhere. 

 For the convenience of the occasional operator who may desire to 

 Bvaporate small quantities, an outline of the method to be followed 

 is given here. 



The treatment of apricots is essentially that given to peaches. 

 The fruit is graded into three sizes for the sake of securing uniform- 

 ity in drying, split and stoned, placed upon trays, stone cavities up- 

 permost, as closely as possible, precisely as recommended for peaches. 

 The sulphuring of the fruit must be begun as promptly as possible 

 and is continued for two to two and one-half hours if it is desired 

 to secure a uniformly translucent golden-yellow dried fruit, al- 

 though one hour's treatment will give sufficiently thorough pene- 

 tration to prevent discoloration. The same precautions are neces- 

 sary in the handling of trays, in order to avoid loss of juice, as are 

 recommended in the case of peaches. The temperatures to be em- 

 ployed are those recommended in the case of peaches, as are the 

 criteria for determining when the fruit is dry and the subsequent 

 treatment in the conditioning room. 



PEARS. 



The drying or evaporation of pears in the humid regions has not 

 received sufficient attention to establish any definite methods or rules 

 of practice. Dried pears form one of the smaller though important 

 products in the dried-fruit industry of California, where the drying 

 is very largely by exposure to the sun rather than through the use 

 of artificial heat. Of the varieties more commonly grown in the 

 humid regions the Bartlett and the Seckel are the only ones which 

 make a product of such quality as to compete in the markets with 

 the California sun-dried pears, which are almost wholly composed 

 of the Bartlett variety- 



Usually the fruit is cut lengthwise into halves, pared, the stem 

 and calyx removed but the core left in. If the fruit is very large 

 it may be quartered or cut into other smaller sections to facilitate 

 drying. 



Bleaching is necessary, as with apples and peaches, in order to 

 secure an attractive-looking dried product. For equally good re- 

 sults it is necessary to continue the bleaching for a considerably 

 longer period than with apples and to use larger quantities of sul- 

 phur; an exposure of one to one and one-half hours, using sulphur 

 at the rate of 8 to 10 pounds per ton of fruit, is believed to be suffi- 

 cient. If the fruit is placed in a weak salt solution (1 per cent) as 

 soon as it is peeled and kept there until it is spread on trays, the 

 time of exposure to sulphur fumes may be reduced to 20 to 30 

 minutes. 



The same general qualities described in connection with apples 

 and peaches will indicate when a lot of fruit is ready to be taken 

 from the evaporator, and upon removal it is handled in the same 

 wav. 



