Dried figs. Dried figs - fruits of the fig tree

Figs are a tasty and healthy delicacy. It can be bought ready-made, because this product is in almost every store. Better yet, cook it yourself. How to dry figs at home? To do this, several proven methods are used, which will be discussed in the article.

Preparation

There are several drying options. With each of them it will be possible to save many vitamins and valuable substances. Before you learn how to properly dry figs, you should prepare it for the procedure. For drying it is necessary to choose ripe fruits. It is important that they themselves fall from the tree. Then the figs must be washed, remove the damage. It is necessary to determine what it will be - sweet or with a natural taste.

If you like the sweet taste, then you should prepare the fruits for drying. Pour water (3 cups) into the pan, bring it to a boil. Then add sugar (1 cup), boil the figs for 7-10 minutes. Stir gently while cooking. Then they should be thrown into a colander and dried. After that, the product is ready for processing. How to dry figs at home is described below.

In the sun

How to dry figs at home in their natural form? Clean and dried fruits should be laid out on a wire rack. When drying, figs attract insects, so the grate should be wrapped with gauze, which will also protect against dust.

The product must be installed so that air flows to the fruits from all sides. To speed up the process, the figs are cut in half with a sharp knife and placed on the grill with a cut top. Drying time is 4-6 days. Then the fruits are strung on a strong thread and taken to the shade for drying.

Oven

How to dry figs in the oven? To perform this procedure correctly, you must follow some recommendations. Dry fruits should be placed on a wire rack. Do not use a baking sheet for this. In order for the figs to dry out, air must come from all sides. If the grate has large holes, it is covered with gauze.

Turn the oven on to minimum and leave the door ajar. Turn the fruits over every 2 hours. The duration of the procedure is 2-3 days. This is the answer to the question of how to dry figs in the oven.

Electric dryer

This device reduces the drying process, while the product retains juiciness and acquires a golden hue. How to dry figs in a dryer? This work is performed according to the following instructions:

1. Cut the fruits into 2 even parts and put on a towel, which will allow you to remove the liquid after blanching.
2. The halves must be laid out on the pallets of the device.
3. If the fig is not large, then the processing time is no more than 10 hours.
4. Large berries dry for a long time.

Drying figs at home in a dryer is very convenient. The fruits are no less tasty and healthy.

Storage

Housewives need to know not only how to dry figs at home, but also how to store them. To do this, you need bags made of thick material or paper. This will preserve the juiciness and taste, as well as prevent the appearance of mold.

If a white coating has formed on the dryers, this indicates the presence of crystallized glucose, due to which the product has a sweet taste. Fruits should not be left in a humid room so that they can be preserved for a long time.

Benefit

Figs have other names: fig or fruit is medicinal, so it is used in the treatment of various ailments. The leaves serve as raw materials for the Psoberan remedy for baldness and vitiligo. And the fruits are used in the manufacture of the drug "Kafiol" for the treatment of constipation. Infructescence is used to get rid of cough, diseases of the nasopharynx.

Fruits are treated:

• anemia
• fever
• bronchial asthma;
• muscular rheumatism;
• constipation;
• gastritis;
• urolithiasis;
• colds of the genital organs of women;
• skin diseases.

Figs have antipyretic, laxative, diaphoretic effects. It is also known for its nourishing, softening, healing and antioxidant effect. The fruits contain pectin, which restores connective tissue. This property is indispensable for the treatment of injuries, fractures, diseases of the joints.

With the regular use of figs, the blood is cleansed, the vascular system is strengthened, the elasticity of veins and capillaries improves. The dried fruit contains ficin, which reduces blood clotting, protects against the formation of blood clots, and reduces atherosclerotic plaques in the vessels. Dried figs restore strength in case of exhaustion, beriberi. It improves brain function, improves tone and performance. Fruits treat a lingering cough, make breathing easier. There are special recipes according to which remedies are prepared to eliminate the symptoms of a cold.

Who doesn't need to eat a berry?

Fruits should not be consumed when:

• diabetes mellitus;
• obesity
• acute gastrointestinal disease;
• diarrhea
• pancreatitis;
• gout.

People with allergies should also not include dried figs in their food. In case of contraindications, it is advisable to consult a doctor.

calories

100 g of the product contains 248 kcal. This delicious, sweet dessert will be suitable for those who follow their figure. When choosing dried fruits, you need to pay attention to:

• color - light brown;
• shape - slightly flattened;
• size is the same.

Dried figs should not smell of mold, sourness. This indicates a poor quality product. It is better to throw away such berries than to get poisoned. If there are sugars on the fruits, then the product is prepared with syrup. There should be no dark spots on the surface.

How to use?

Figs are included in many dishes. Dried berries are eaten:

• as a standalone product;
• as an additive to sauces, desserts, compotes;
• with honey, cream, cheese.

Just keep in mind that with the addition of other products, the calorie content of the dish increases.

How else can you prepare?

Figs can be prepared in the form of jam. It will take 1 kg of fruit, 0.5 kg of sugar and 1 liter of water. Berries should be pierced with a toothpick. Syrup is made from sugar and water. When it boils, figs are added to it. It only takes 5 minutes to boil. If the fruits remain at the top, they must be immersed in syrup with a wooden spatula. Then remove the workpiece from the heat and leave for 12 hours.

Then the jam is boiled again for 5 minutes. Then the gas must be turned off and the product left for 12 hours. The third time, you should boil it again, after which the dessert is laid out in jars. The result is a tasty and healthy jam.

Freezing is considered another way of harvesting. It is advisable to take dark figs, which must first be washed. The fruits should be dried, and then put into bags, remove the air and place in the freezer. In winter, a tasty and healthy delicacy will be ready.

Thus, figs can be harvested in many ways. Drying is a common method of harvesting berries. They retain taste, aroma and benefits. Using any suitable method, it will be possible to prepare a valuable dried fruit.

Fig tree, fig tree - so sometimes they can call figs in a different way. Its dried fruits have long ceased to be an exotic product. They are a natural source of substances vital to our body.

How to dry figs with your own hands? This is what we'll talk about today.

All the beneficial properties of dried figs are determined by the vitamins and minerals contained in it, pectin and fiber.

Fig fruits are very delicate, so it is impossible to keep them fresh for a long time. They will not withstand long-term transportation, one of the ways to harvest them is drying. There are several ways to prepare figs at home.

Preparation for processing

Fruit for drying is better to collect fully ripened. To protect figs falling from a tree from debris, it is necessary to spread a clean cloth under it in advance. The entire fallen crop is sorted, whole fruits without damage are left for processing. If necessary, you can rinse the figs under the shower. After that, they are laid out on a sieve to evaporate moisture.

Drying

Dried fruits are dipped in bubbling sugar syrup for a couple of seconds to avoid fermentation processes. Then they are laid out on lattices, while the upper part of the figs should be directed towards the sun. In wet weather or in case of rain, as well as at night, the grate is brought into the house. Every 2 days the fruits are turned over to prevent them from caking.

Make sure that fruit flies do not sit on them. Ah, read the link.

After a week, the fruit will dry out and be removed from the grill. The upper part is slightly pressed inward to give the fig the shape of a flattened disc. The fruits are strung on a strong thread and placed in a shaded place until the final drying.

If it is not possible to dry figs in natural conditions, then you can do this using drying for vegetables and fruits. It maintains good ventilation and you can adjust the temperature. The temperature in it should be maintained no more than 60 °, otherwise the sugar contained in the fruits caramelizes, worsening the taste of dried fruits.

To speed up the process, you can fumigate the figs before drying with sulfur. A kilogram of fruit will require 2 grams of sulfur. A tray with burning coals is placed in a special box and sprinkled with sulfur, a grate with figs is installed on top. Ready dried fruits must be elastic; when the fruit is compressed, the pulp is not squeezed out through the eye.

Beneficial features

Not all lovers of this sweet fruit know what dried figs are useful for and how to choose them correctly. High-quality fruits are relatively soft to the touch, painted in light shades of beige or brown, and slightly flattened in shape.

In folk medicine, dry figs are used to treat coughs and colds. When dried, the fruit has a laxative effect. Due to the presence of magnesium and iron salts, dried figs help increase hemoglobin, are useful for anemia, and improve blood quality.

Among the other dried fruits, dried figs, the benefits of which have long been known and well studied, rank first in terms of fiber content, after eating it, a feeling of satiety remains for a long time.

Figs are an extremely healthy fruit. In addition to its taste, it has a number of medicinal properties. The most useful varieties of figs are considered to contain a larger number of seeds than those where the seeds are smaller. Figs come in three colors: white, blue and red. White figs are the most perishable and less tasty, more often used for dried fruits.

Figs are widely used in the treatment of colds, as a diaphoretic and diuretic, and are also recommended for people with iron deficiency, the so-called. anemia, hypertensive patients and people suffering from cardiovascular diseases, promotes blood thinning, lowers cholesterol.
Figs are rich in potassium, vitamin B6. It contains several times more iron than our usual apples.

Due to its high sugar content, this fruit is not recommended for people with diabetes, since 24% of fresh fruits contain sugar, dry figs contain even more sugar, up to 37%.

Unfortunately, fresh figs do not have a long shelf life: in practice, on 3-5 days, ripe fruits begin to deteriorate, but in the refrigerator they can be kept in a form suitable for eating, up to a maximum of 7-10 days. That is why, as a rule, fresh figs go on free sale only in places of growth, and even then, only in a certain season. These fruits are extremely delicate and very difficult to transport. Due to the perishable factor, fruits are either consumed fresh or processed into jams and marmalades. But, nevertheless, up to 80% of the fig crop falls on drying.

Drying figs in the sun is not a particularly difficult process. Like the preparation of any other, it is recommended to collect figs for drying in their mature form. It is better if the berries themselves fall on a previously prepared, clean fabric surface, in order to avoid soil, debris and foreign objects. Harvested fruits must be sorted from damaged and dirty fruits. Only absolutely whole and clean fruits will be suitable for subsequent drying. Local residents who harvest figs for future use in large quantities do not wash these fruits at all. The lower part of the fig fruit can be slightly ajar, like a blossoming flower, into four parts - this is a kind of indicator of the maturity of the fig. Since the skin of figs is extremely thin and delicate, fruits should be washed very carefully under low pressure of water, it can be from a spray bottle, or a light, gentle shower. After that, for about 20 minutes, the fruit is laid out on a sieve and the water is allowed to drain. Then, the already dried fruits are dipped individually for a few seconds in boiling sugar syrup in order to avoid possible subsequent fermentation, and laid out on grates. It is desirable that the gratings are not metal, but wooden.

Since figs grow in countries with a relatively hot climate and a lot of sunny days, figs are mainly dried in the sun, using a natural resource. Although, it can be dried on gas. All fruits in even rows should be laid out on grates and directed with their upper part up towards the sun. At night or when there is danger of rain, you need to bring fruit indoors. Every day or two, the fruit must be turned over so that it does not stale. As a rule, in some 7-9 days, the figs in the sun already become dried. It can already be removed from the grates without fear of damaging the skin. After that, each berry must be flattened: slightly press the upper part of the fruit inward, giving it the shape of a flat disk and strung on a thread until it is completely dry. Threads with fig disks can be placed in good weather somewhere under a canopy. Take care of special insect nets.

Fruits and berries

Description

Ingredients

Steps

Of course, the first thing you need to do is prepare the main ingredient, that is, figs. You can buy it in a store or market, or you can grow it yourself. However, you should know that such a miracle grows only under certain conditions, but that's another story.



Cut the figs in half, after washing the fruit itself with running water. In the event that the fruits are small enough, you can not cut them, but simply pierce them with a needle or a toothpick in some places so that the peel does not burst.



Place the figs in a bowl or any other suitable container, sprinkling sugar on top of the figs. You need a little granulated sugar, just to let the figs juice. Fruit must be infused in the refrigerator for a whole day.



While the fruit is infusing, you can prepare the syrup. For its preparation, you can use any suitable container. In our case, it was a Turk for brewing coffee, since it is very convenient to prepare syrup in it. Type three hundred milliliters of water into a container and pour the same amount of sugar. Put the container on the fire and cook until it boils and the sugar is completely dissolved.



When the sugar melts and the syrup boils, you can start lowering the figs into it one by one. Keep fruit in syrup for a short time. It will take a minute or even less for the figs to change color, after which you can transfer it to a plate and lower another fruit into a container with syrup.



Wait for the liquid to drain from the figs, after which you can put it on the pallets of the electric dryer, which will be needed in order to properly wither the fruit. They should be laid out on a pallet with the skin down, so that if the juice remains in the fruit, it does not leak out.



It is necessary to dry the figs in an electric dryer until dried for two to three hours. You can test its doneness by pressing your finger on the flesh of the fruit: if it is elastic enough, the surface is not sticky and the juice does not flow out when pressed, then the dried fig is ready. You can store treats in jars or containers throughout the winter in a cool place.



Bon appetit!

It is easier and faster to cook dried figs using the oven. Rinse it thoroughly, cut off all damaged parts. Wipe the figs with paper towels. Further processing can be divided into several stages:

• Heat the oven to 60 degrees. It is impossible to exceed this indicator, since at a higher temperature the figs will not be dried, but baked.
• Cut figs into halves.
• Prepare a baking sheet with vent holes. For these purposes, the lattice is also perfect. Arrange fruit pieces on a baking sheet.
• Place the baking sheet with the figs in the oven. Open the door slightly to allow excess moisture to escape.
• Periodically, the pieces will need to be turned over. So they should be dried for at least 8 hours.

You can tell if a fig is ready by its appearance. Its upper part should look leathery and dense. After cutting the piece, no juice should stand out.

Arrange the finished treat in containers and close the lid. You need to store it in the refrigerator. The shelf life of such a product can reach two years.

How to dry figs in the sun?

A longer way to cook figs is to dry them outdoors. To do this, you must follow the following sequence of actions:

1. Arrange the washed and chopped figs on a baking sheet or metal grill. The bottom of the baking sheet is best pre-covered with clean gauze. Putting fruit is necessary with the cut point up.
2. Cover the figs with a layer of gauze on top. This will prevent insects from eating fruit. At the edges, secure the cheesecloth to the baking sheet with tape.
3. Place the container with figs in a sunny place. Keep the fruit in direct sunlight.

Such drying will take from two to three days. Every morning, pieces of fruit will need to be turned over. This way they dry evenly. If the figs are still sticky after three days, dry them out in the oven.

Choose the appropriate way to dry figs and please your loved ones with a delicious and extremely healthy delicacy.