1903 The still-room by C. Roundell

The Still-Room

under the first tray which will be in four or five minutes ; the third tray is then filled in the usual manner, and placed under the second tray, and when the fourth tray is ready the first three trays are pushed forward in the flue, and the fourth tray takes the place of No. i, and so on until the top On the arrival of the first tray at the upper end of the flue, the contents are examined, and those that are sufficiently dried are removed, and the remainder turned over and returned down the lower and cooler flue. In many cases, one tray will hold the whole of the contents (which are nearly dried) of two or three trays, the empty ones being taken away to be again filled with fresh The degree of heat used for drying apples and the time occupied varies from two to four hours, according to the variety of the apple, but from two to two and a half hours is the usual time. Whole apples require a much longer time, eight to ten hours, according to size and variety. Plums are dried in the same manner, except that they are placed in the evaporator at once. They should be graded according to size, and be uni- formly ripe. During the process of evaporation plums ought to be removed from the evaporator once or twice for the purpose of cooling them and toughening the skin, and so prevent bursting, which they are liable to do, because the skin does not allow the moisture in the fruit to freely escape 68 flue is full. fruit. is from 175° to 240° F. ;