Dried cherries

Dried cherries

　　1. Raw material preparation. Select varieties with bright skin, short stems, small pits, uniformly sized fruits, sweet taste, and low juice content. Remove moldy or underripe cherries, then detach the stems, place them in baskets, and rinse 2–3 times with running water in a sink or basin to remove impurities.

　　2. Alkali soaking and rinsing. To shorten the drying time, it is best to briefly blanch the cherries in a 0.2–0.3% boiling alkali solution, then thoroughly rinse them in clean water to remove the alkali solution, and then let them sit in a basket for 5–10 minutes to drain excess moisture.

　　3. Sulfuring. Place the fruit on drying trays and transfer them to a sulfuring room. Put sulfur in a bowl, add kindling such as wood chips, light it, then close the sulfuring room door and allow it to fume for about 1 hour. Generally, 2–3 kg of sulfur powder is used per ton of fruit.

　　4. Drying and softening. Spread the sulfured cherries evenly on drying trays and place them in a drying oven. Initially, control the temperature at around 60°C. Once they begin to dry slightly, raise the temperature to 75°C–80°C. After 8–12 hours, remove them, pick out any under-dried cherries, and place them on another tray for further drying. On sunny days, they may also be sun-dried until dry. To achieve moisture balance inside and outside the fruit and ensure a soft texture, pour the dried cherries into a wooden box and let them soften for 2–3 days.

　　5. Grading and packaging. Sort according to quality standards into two grades: Grade A dried cherries are dark red, while Grade B are dark red with a slight tinge of pink. Then package them separately in food-grade bags before boxing them in cartons.