FW: [OT] Looking for a protocol for chinese style dried plums!

I work with a bunch of fruit breeders and the simple organic method is:
1) Make a solution of 2 parts lemon juice to 1 part water (citric
acid keeps the color)
2) Half the plums and remove the pit
3) Dip the plum halves in the juice then place in a dehydrator or
on a tray in the oven at a very low temp (200Fareheit) until the desired
texture.

You can also treat them with sulfur dioxide and dry them outside (SO2
keeps the bugs away)

Deanne Bell
USDA Agricultural Research Service
Exotic & Invasive Diseases and Pests
9611 South Riverbend Avenue
Parlier, CA 93648
voice (559) 596-2806
fax (559) 596-2921
[Only registered users see links. ]



-----Original Message-----
From: [Only registered users see links. ] [mailtowner-methods@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk]
On Behalf Of Wolfgang Schechinger
Sent: Friday, July 30, 2004 4:31 PM
To: [Only registered users see links. ]
Subject: [OT] Looking for a protocol for chinese style dried plums!

Dear Friends from Bionet,

this is quite OT unless someone wants to extract DNA or some interesting
zymos from a bucket full of plums... anyway, I hope this post will reach
lots of Asia people verywhere in the world.

Today, I started harvesting some plums... after four hours of climbing
around in a small tree, I had finished the first of 3 trees in our
garden.
And I ended up with 14 kg (!!!!!) of nice, not completely ripe fruit
sitting in my kitchen now(I had to compete with lots of wasps and
hornets
wanting them all for lunch...). And two trees still are waiting! (To be
harvested this week-end, too, the wasps and hornets already are waiting,
too, and they are VERY hungry and they use to bite in every fruit they
can
get, but normally, they won't finish one before tasting the next...!)

So what do do with all the plums? Of course, you envy to get a bag full
of
them by email or fax - Haha!? I simply could put most of them into the
-20,
but then they'll stay there forever, probably...

Thus, I thought of preparing these nice dried plums I used to buy in
every
shop in Taiwan! I mean those looking quite dry and shrinky, being in a
colour somewhere between greyish and dark brownpurple. They seem to be
covered with something like a white powder.

I already spent several hours seraching the net, but couldn't find any
protocol. Seems to be either an inherited method nobody thinks worth a
paper or it's maybe even TOP SECRET. So, PLEASE PLEASE, ask your
grandmas
(and your friends to ask their grandmas and their friends to ask their
grandmas...) immediately how to convert plums into delicious dry plums,
probably aka as prunes.

If you have any other ideas what to make of the plums, just tell me
please,
I am VERY curious! And include a protocol / refernce, if possible! As
the
plums might start fermentating soon.

Wolfgang

My next posts will be more molbio as usual, I promise!
Wolfgang Schechinger


---
---

Under the Sun? Everyone (Chinese and non-Chinese) has the Sun.

[Only registered users see links. ]

For those sour-sweet taiwan style dried prunes, my guess is it is
rehydrated in a boiling solution of salt and sugar for a couple of
minutes, and then dried again.

Chang

[Only registered users see links. ] ("Deanne Bell") wrote in message news:<01FC4B00273048408920795E2B5EBA260CD39B@serve r01.fresno.ars.usda.gov>...