葡萄干曾经在社会中享有一个青睐的地方，这证明了它们在古代体育赛事中被分配为奖品。但是它们在我们目前的食物景观中占据了一个奇怪的地方。它们是小吃还是成分？美味的零食还是午餐盒抛弃？千禧一代在杀死他们吗？今年早些时候，Sun-Maid倾向于基于怀旧的营销，本质上问我们：嘿，还记得葡萄干吗？
Americans seem more enthusiastic about grapes, which come in colorful bunches beautiful enough to sit in the center of our tables like the subject of a still-life painting, and appealing enough to be the preferred snack of supine, decadent emperors. And, it bears stating, raisins are just dried grapes. It’s a fact I must have first learned at a young and impressionable age, because I vividly recall leaving a bowlful of wet, white grapes to bask in the sun on our backyard patio with hopes they would turn to raisins, yet finding only disappointment an hour or two later when I returned to find hot, wet, white grapes, which I promptly ate.
When I recounted the episode years later with high school friends, they laughed at me. People seemed to find the whole enterprise the height of folly, as if I was telling my friends to wait 30 minutes after eating to swim. My raisin experiment remained a joke for many more years.
The particulars of raisin-making, and why I initially failed at it, would elude me until intrepid reporting led me to uncover the steps on a专门针对11岁及以下儿童的科学实验的网页。现在掌握了秘密，我有资格分配这种古老的科学智慧，所以让我们摆脱困境。
Grapes have a high sugar content; nearly three-quarters of a grape’s total weight can come from sugars. They also contain natural acids. This makes them ideal candidates for sun-drying in favorable weather, defined by theNational Center For Home Food Preservationas a stretch of days with temps at or above 85 degrees Fahrenheit, which you may know as summer. Humidity is also in play, with a preferred dew point below 60. Environmental requirements go a long way toward explaining why California’s hot, dry San Joaquin Valley is home to 100% of U.S. raisin production.
But raisins can be made wherever these conditions exist. Moisture held by grapes will vaporize when left in the sun, causing the skins to shrivel, and left behind, sugars crystallize inside the shrinking skins, completing the transformation of watery, bulbous grapes into plump, dimpled raisins.
听起来很容易，对吧？从理论上讲，是的。实际上，不。“儿童实验”标签使我相信只需烘烤托盘，封面和一些莫西（Moxie）即可在短短三天内完成此技巧。最初的三个小时的巡回演出成为了一个为期一周的奥德赛。我不是11岁以下的Gregor Mendel Jr.，但我可以肯定地说，葡萄需要三天以上的时间才能将其转化为葡萄干。坦率地坦率地侦查导致了一个新意识到的恐怖64 daysbefore she deemed the wrinkly nuggets that sat before her to be raisins.
My method
Using an assortment of red, black and green grapes, I kicked off my Great Raisining by rinsing the fruits and covering them with aluminum foil atop a baking sheet, taking heed of the command to let no grapes touch.
在一天之内，我意识到箔片与入侵的虫子没有匹配，因此我将盖子换成了一些备用枕套。这解决了一个问题，但是三天后，葡萄仍然肯定保留了水分，并且才开始爆发。
值得庆幸的是，我偶然发现了一个真正的突破。伊萨克·牛顿（Issac Newton）拥有他的伪经苹果；我的尤里卡（Eureka）时刻来自发现我的汽车内部很热。因此，我将托盘移到本田CR-V的后部，然后再烘烤三天。
一个星期已经过去了。尽管这种最新的修补剂加速了脱水，但似乎只有少数几个葡萄达到了实际的葡萄干点。将葡萄干包裹在我的CRV舱口中，直到夏天告别的那一刻将是可取的，但是我已经在截止日期之前，在葡萄上丢了10美元，我想兑现这张自由职业支票。我决定拒绝大自然并将自己的灵魂卖给电力，在烤箱中放置最低的葡萄托盘，以最低的温度在一夜之间。做到了。
(Even if I hadn’t cheated with the overnight shortcut, an oven or freezer is still necessary to safely complete the raisin drying process. The National Center For Home Food Preservation recommends freezing homemade raisins for 48 hours or baking them for 30 minutes to destroy any insect bits that might be present).
The results
The final product tasted less stiff and sugary than store-bought raisins packed in cardboard containers, not to mention they were two to three times the size. The texture and flavor was a dead ringer for fruit leathers. The distinct raisin taste held notes of the fruits former life as a grape. They were perfect in oatmeal cookies, packing a sweetness equal parts fruit sugars and the realization of a childhood dream no longer deferred.
我学到的是
- Yes, there were some issues with mold.我将问题归因于我冲洗后不正确干燥所有葡萄。天气也可能不足以烘烤白葡萄，而白葡萄的糖含量比黑色和红色品种略低。我从商店购买的白色葡萄也不是最好的，已经超过了它们的山峰，并在斑点上显得棕色。
- 根据国家家庭食品保存中心的说法，将水果留在外面并不是最佳选择。凉爽的夜晚使葡萄干能够使湿润陷入困境，并避免了他们不可避免的干燥命运。
- The aluminum tray also was not optimal, as it has a tendency to discolor and corrode and may have caused some of the casualties during the drying process. The National Center For Home Food Preservation recommends enclosing grapes between two screens made of stainless steel, Teflon-coated fiberglass and plastic.
- 黄金葡萄干只是常规的白葡萄，已用二氧化硫处理以保留其颜色。
值得？
Admittedly, drying your own raisins approachesDIY mustard territory。And the setup, while minimal, does require materials that probably aren’t worth investing in just for the sake of hot-boxing grapes.
That said, the saving grace is the passive element and the payoff. If you’re not pressed for time and are lucky enough to live in the right climate and have extra space, say a potting shed or a three-seasons room, then go nuts. In a couple of weeks, you’ll be rewarded with large, succulent dried fruit with a gummy flesh that easily surpass the smaller, harder, sugary store varieties.
Otherwise, the oven/dehydrator trick is your best bet if homemade raisins are crucial to whatever scheme you’re hatching at the moment.