{"id":7320,"date":"2013-01-03T01:00:17","date_gmt":"2013-01-03T11:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/?p=7320"},"modified":"2013-01-03T01:00:24","modified_gmt":"2013-01-03T11:00:24","slug":"postcard-from-hawaii-dried-bananas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/?p=7320","title":{"rendered":"Postcard from Hawai’i – Dried Bananas"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are attempting to deal with our banana surplus issue.<\/p>\n

A bunch of bananas is too much fruit for us to use in the few days before they spoil. A single bunch can yield 50 to 60 bananas. We snack on bananas, we make smoothies<\/a>, we slice bananas onto our morning cereal, it is still too many bananas<\/a>. Our standard answer to avoid waste is to give away much of the fruit. Apple bananas are quite popular and quickly accepted when given away to neighbors an co-workers.<\/p>\n

\"Dehydrated<\/a>
A batch of bananas in the dehydrator<\/figcaption><\/figure>Still, it is a long time between bunches, feast and famine, and I would like to have bananas around more often. We have tried freezing, but are not entirely happy with the results, and our freezer space is limited.<\/p>\n

This time we are trying dried bananas using a recently purchased food dehydrator. A bit of an experiment, I have never done this before. I dimly remember my mother drying bananas when I was a kid, I do remember the results being pretty good.<\/p>\n

What is not so clear in my memory is the process needed to obtain good results. Time for Google! Reading a number of online articles about drying bananas and comparing the methods I find a few common hints. It seems bananas should be done slowly, at a little lower temperature, about 65°C. A pretreatment of lemon juice is highly recommended. Dry until tough but not crisp.<\/p>\n

\"More<\/a>
Another bunch of bananas ready for harvest<\/figcaption><\/figure>Lemons? None on hand. Our lime tree has no fruit at the moment, but I do have plenty of grapefruit. So I use grapefruit instead, squeezing a few to make a bath for the banana slices. The grapefruit adds a tart taste and does prevent browning, a successful substitution.<\/p>\n

Temperature? I have no idea what the low-medium-high settings on the new machine might actually mean. Get out a thermocouple to monitor. Hmm, been a while since I used it, the thermocouple amplifier is in need of a new battery and a calibration check… done. A kitchen offers both ice-water and boiling water, accurate calibration standards. It appears setting the dehydrator to medium is the right answer, giving about 63°C at the exhaust of the heater unit. High gives about 75°C, a little hot for bananas if the online sources are to be believed.<\/p>\n

If you check the image above you will see the thermocouple amplifier attached to a digital meter. The sharp eyed my also note the Kill-A-Watt power meter<\/a> on the cord. This is measuring the power used by the dehydrator. It looks like it takes 4-5kWh to dry a batch of fruit, a couple dollars worth of electricity, quite acceptable. Yes, I am a nerd.<\/p>\n

The results? Pretty good so far, just finishing up as I write this. I need about one or two hours more. Looking forward to having bananas to munch on for the coming month. The next bunch from the banana patch is at least a month out, perhaps two.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are attempting to deal with our banana surplus issue. A bunch of bananas is too much fruit for us to use in the few days before they spoil. A single bunch can yield 50 to 60 bananas. We snack on bananas, we make smoothies, we slice bananas onto our morning cereal, it is still … Continue reading “Postcard from Hawai’i – Dried Bananas”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[377],"tags":[576,795,794,796],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7320"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}