Fruit Appliances

Fruits are great sliced raw, poached into desserts and sides, squeezed into juice or baked into fruit leather. But, what happens when you have either harvested or purchased a large amount of fruit that is about to spoil soon? Several kitchen appliances are available to help you preserve your fruit to enjoy through the year.

 

You can slice fruit and dry it under the hot sun or use a dehydrator. Dehydrators are temperature controlled multi-tray appliances that allow you dry all the fruit you want in double quick time. Sunlight is free, dehydrators cost S$350.

Canning is a good way of preserving fruits and can also be used for all types of vegetable and meat. You can  use any broad based pan to create a steam bath or use a pressure canning machine S$300 to ensure great results consistently in a short space of time. Good if you have a lot of harvest to keep away for a rainy day.

Jamming has to be the best way of preserving fruit. You can use a jamming pot and there are some really pretty ones available in the market. Or use an electric jamming machine like above S$200. Put the ingredients in, cover the lid and push a button. No need to slave away at the stove.

Make your own fruit wine or beer. This requires experience and acumen to get right or the whole batch is ruined. You can buy home beer brewing kits to get started. Only instead of water, yeast and beer starter packets, pour in the pressed fruit juice. Fruits have natural yeasts to start the fermentation process, however, most enthusiasts do not advice it and kill off this yeast so they can add other types of yeast for a better brew. Trial and error will help you get the right formula. Also note that the fermentation process continues after the brew is concocted so you either need to kill the yeast then or only drink fresh brews. Bottling as is might cause an explosion as the fermentation gases build up inside it.