CHAPTER XIII 
FRUIT DRYING (continued ) 
ALL fruits require some preparation before they are 
placed in any of the machines mentioned for drying. 
Take apples, for instance, they can be dried in three 
or four different ways, but if they were just peeled, 
sliced, and cored, and put into any one of the machines 
for drying, and taken out again, at the expiration of 
the stated time, the result would be a bitter disappoint- 
ment. A shrivelled, brown-looking object would come 
out instead of the beautiful white slices or whole apple 
that had been put in. To get proper results all fruits 
which have to be kept white must be bleached. Abroad 
this is done frequently by sulphur fumes, and when 
properly done it is supposed to make the fruit none 
the less wholesome, and it is even stated that bleaching 
by sulphur actually improves the flavour and quality of 
the fruit as well as its appearance; but there is always 
the danger in using sulphur of over-doing it, and so 
flavouring the fruit. To get over this difficulty in 
home preparation, immediately the apples are cut they 
should be thrown into a vessel containing water with 
either lemon juice or salt init. ‘The proportion is the 
juice of one lemon to every two quarts of water, or 
salt I oz. to three quarts. [Some of the evaporators are 
so constructed that the bleaching takes place while the 
drying is in process. In these cases sulphur only is used. ] 
Apples are dried in Three Ways.—(1) Whole. For this 
they are simply peeled and cored and dropped at once 
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