Air Dryer Cherries

[Boss .300 winmag]

Any tips/tricks on doing them?

[birdshooter1189]

Are you talking about a vacuum dryer? Or just a standard dehydrator?

A relative of mine did some last summer in a vacuum dryer.  We used a little serrated pearing knife to cut a ring around the cherry. Then twist the two halves to split open. Then use your thumb to remove the pit from the half that has it.  Then just lay out the cherry halves on the tray in the air dryer.

I think they took a couple hours to dry. Maybe more. I don't remember for sure. But when they were finished they were like dry crispy candies.

[Stein]

I do ours at 165 degrees for as long as it takes to get to the consistency you want.  Spray your trays with oil or you'll be hating life, even with spray they may still stick.

It's a pretty tedious operation when done at scale.  A good pitter that can do 5-6 at a time saves a bunch of effort.

Pick, rinse, pit, cut in half, arrange on tray, repeat.

[Boss .300 winmag]

Are you talking about a vacuum dryer? Or just a standard dehydrator?

A relative of mine did some last summer in a vacuum dryer.  We used a little serrated pearing knife to cut a ring around the cherry. Then twist the two halves to split open. Then use your thumb to remove the pit from the half that has it.  Then just lay out the cherry halves on the tray in the air dryer.

I think they took a couple hours to dry. Maybe more. I don't remember for sure. But when they were finished they were like dry crispy candies.

It’s a large LEM dehydrator, it’s been hours on the temp the LEM says, this morning I cranked it up on high, just won’t dry like apples and peaches do.🤯

[Boss .300 winmag]

I do ours at 165 degrees for as long as it takes to get to the consistency you want.  Spray your trays with oil or you'll be hating life, even with spray they may still stick.

It's a pretty tedious operation when done at scale.  A good pitter that can do 5-6 at a time saves a bunch of effort.

Pick, rinse, pit, cut in half, arrange on tray, repeat.

Oh I won’t be doing these again it’s a pain in the a$$.🤬

[Stein]

I run cherries for 22 hours.  Apples are 12 by comparison.

I literally just finished my final batch.  One thing I can say is don't dehydrate frozen cherries unless you want about a 1/2 gallon of liquid on the floor and an hour of cleaning out the dehydrator.  Luckily I ran it in the garage on my chest freezer so cleanup wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.