2. Wash the fruit. Pour the shaken plums into a wooden urn filled with clear water or wash them in a stream to remove bitter fruit juice and plant ash.
3. Evenly spread the washed plum fruits on pebbles or beaches, slates and cement boards by the river, and dry the fruits with solar radiation heat and hot air. Because stones and coarse sand conduct heat quickly, the temperature is high and the fruit dries quickly. Generally, after 2-3 days of exposure, the free water and most of the colloidal bound water in the fruit evaporate, which reduces the weight and volume of the fruit and turns the fruit red and black. At this time, the product can be put away for pickling.
4. The system of curing dried prunes can be divided into light alkali according to the amount of salt added. Dried plums are sweet without salt, but they are easy to be eaten by insects and not resistant to storage. Plum brine uses the high osmotic pressure of salt to attach microbial activity, so that the product can be preserved for a longer time. Usually, every 100 kg of fresh fruit is pickled with 1-2.5 kg, and pickled twice. Pickling for the first time, the product whose volume is reduced by about one-third after spreading and drying, which is about half of the weight of raw materials, is placed on the bamboo plaque at night, and 1.2-1.5 kg of salt is added to every 100 kg of fresh fruit, and then it is kneaded by 3-4 people for about 2-3 minutes, so that the salt is evenly attached to the plums. If the plums are wet, they can also be preserved layer by layer in wooden barrels without rubbing. Salt was added to the upper, middle and lower layers, with the proportions of 50%, 33% and 17% respectively. Cover the top layer with a small amount of salt, and the total salt content remains unchanged. After pickling for one night, the plums were taken out the next day and spread on the bamboo curtain for further drying, and then taken back for secondary pickling that night.
During the second salting, 0.8-65,438+0 kg of salt (accounting for about 2/5 of the total salt consumption) can be added to every 65,438+000 kg of fresh fruit, then the plum embryo is rubbed with salt, marinated in a wooden barrel overnight, and then spread in the sun until it is 65,438+08-20% of the fresh fruit weight or the water content reaches 28. The drying rate of hibiscus plum is generally 4.6-4.8: 1. Naturally air-dried plums are ruddy in color, commonly known as dried plums. The whole processing process can be completed in 5-6 days.
In the process of processing roasted plums, if it rains and the fruit is not completely dried, it can be temporarily salted. If it rains continuously for 3-4 days, it needs artificial baking, which is called baking plums.
Use bamboo baking cages when the amount of roasted plums is small, and use baking stoves when the amount is large. The oven is built in the house. Generally, the focal depth is 250 cm, the front height is 25 cm, the back height is 150 cm, and the width is 240 cm. A baking is about 150kg. The specific method is to pour the fresh fruit on the grill, the thickness is about 17-20cm, and bake until all the plums are hot (about 24 hours). Then add salt to marinate, and the method is the same as the natural dry method. The second baking is about 12 hour, and then salt is added. Bake for the third time until it is dry. Turn it over frequently when baking. To prevent burns. After baking, dried prunes are black but not bright in color and poor in quality, commonly known as "dried prunes".
6. Dried plums can be preserved for a long time. Fruit farmers in Yongtai often dry dried plums twice to a certain dryness, then put them in the sun for 3-5 days and then dry them again, so that more water in the stone can seep out of the pulp. After repeated drying, the moisture inside and outside the fruit is consistent, which is beneficial to long-term preservation. Dried dried plums can be put into clean wooden barrels and placed on dry floor-to-ceiling houses. The barrel is covered with straw and sacks, which can be sold at any time or further processed.