How dry Longan, but you don’t want it to dry?
Longan dryer is an energy-saving and environmentally friendly food drying equipment specially developed for the drying of fresh longan. The longan we often say is a plant belonging to the genus Longan in the Sapindaceae family. Evergreen trees are usually more than 10 meters high. It is widely cultivated from southwest to southeast of my country, with Guangdong being the most prosperous, followed by Fujian. Wild or semi-wild forests can still be found in parts of Yunnan and Guangxi. Longan is rich in glucose, sucrose, protein, and other substances. The iron content is also relatively high, which can increase heat energy and supplement nutrition.
Longan processing steps
1. Select the fruit
Longan varieties used for baking and drying require large fruit, thick flesh, slightly thicker or moderately thick husk, and high sugar content in the flesh. Longan fruits made from Wulongling, Youtanben, Red Shell, Gemini, Chuliang, Wuyuan, etc. require full maturity and timely picking.
2. Cut the stem
After the fruit is sent to the processing plant, use a flat tool to cut off the stalks one by one, and they must be trimmed neatly from the base.
3. Immersion
The cut-stemmed fruits are put into a bamboo basket and soaked in water for 5-10 minutes, cleaned to remove dirt on the husk and soften the husk, and then lifted to drain the water to prepare for shaking.
4. Shake the sand and wipe the skin
Pour the soaked longan fruit into a special shaker cage, add fine sand, and shake to remove the rough surface of the shell. The longan processed by shaking sand is easy to dry, and the dried longan is evenly dried, and the dry surface of the longan is also very smooth and beautiful.
Longan drying process
Drying is carried out 2 times, namely, initial drying and re-drying. The key to the technology is to control the temperature and uniformity, and the re-drying must be timely and uniform. Generally, the initial drying takes about 24 hours, and the temperature is controlled at 65°C to 70°C, so that the bottom longan husk can be heated and hardened quickly to avoid depression. After drying for 6 hours, perform the first toasting.
The fruits are taken out in the upper, middle, and lower layers respectively, and then the upper and lower layers are reversed, and the middle layer does not move. After 6 hours of drying, a second re-drying must be carried out, with the middle layer as the bottom layer, the upper layer as the middle layer, and the lower layer as the upper layer.
Afterward, the third and fourth baking will be carried out every 4 hours. The third time must be a two-tier swap, and the fourth time must be a two-tier swap before and after. If it is turned and bake only 3 times, it will be turned once every 6 hours, and the third and fourth times of turning and baking operations are combined, that is, the upper and lower layers are reversed on one side, and the front and back sections are reversed on the other. The excellent finished product after the initial drying is a hard shell, the dried pulp becomes yellowish-brown or russet with the oily finish; the core skin is easy to fall off and the nucleolus is pale white.
With the support of the longan dryer, dried longan can be stored for a long time and is suitable for all ages. Heat pump drying has made the development of food drying equipment even more successful!
To learn more drying techniques, please visit our HOW TO DRY knowledge base…
