To Blanch Or Not To Blanch Freeze Dried Grapes Ep48

When using canned fruit cocktail in some of my previous recipes I noted that the grapes retained their shape and had a nice crunch. That got me to thinking. In the past when I freeze dried grapes they came out wrinkly and chewy. So I figured I would do this experiment.
In the first picture on the right I have fresh grapes with holes pierced. In the middle I have the same grapes but I blanched them in boiling water for 30 seconds and on the left (just for curiosity) i blanched and then water bath canned them for 12 minutes.
The results were the fresh pierced ones were wrinkled and chewy
The blanched only ones looked very nice but did foam a little
Then blanched and canned ones were browned in color
So the answer to my question is that from now on I will blanch my grapes and will try the same with cherries when they come in season.

[@downeastprimitiveskills7688]

What is your blanching process? Dunked in boiling water for..... 3 seconds or 2 minutes or just a pour over? Thanks I want to try grapes that aren't chewy, so far mine have been chewy, not bad but would like to see the difference. .

[@JohnInBibs]

I made another video that shows the step by step ua-cam.com/video/U3tOHkRcb34/v-deo.html

[@MisterEMystery]

Hey man, I just wanted to mention that the “foam” is the natural sugar in the grapes coming out the sides. You may already know this or figured it out, since this vid is 4 years old.
Another person suggested using pectin or something for the browning, Vitamin C powder (ascorbic acid) works very well from what I’ve seen. Again you might have seen this/know it.
Just wanted to let you know I ordered a kitchen aid mixer through your store a few minutes ago. I changed from red to a different color (silver). I hope this doesn’t EFF things up, and you still get credit!
I’ve seen your other grape videos and am looking forward to making “Easter eggs” whenever I find a nice batch of grapes in the stores (and I still have to buy the melter off your store). It sure is a slow process when retired (💰).
I watched you talk about freeze drying canned peaches that you took directly from the can and trayed up. I didn’t see what they looked like after freeze drying was done, but I suspect there was lots of foam. The syrup they’re canned in is very sugary. I confirmed this myself doing it 2 ways; A) directly out of the can and B) washing off the syrup first.
The ones directly out of the can were foam and attached to each other. The ones I rinsed off in a colander first were “perfect” (no foam).

[@JohnInBibs]

Thanks for supporting my channel!

[@wd1501]

What an exceptional vid --- I just did two loads of grapes where I sliced them and then piled them onto the tray --- And they came out chewy ---- Just too much work ---- I have several boxes of grapes to do - I am going to blanch them, freeze them and then FD them. Thank you for doing this experiment. I find your vids very informative.

[@SD_honeybees]

I love that you experimented!

[@donnagreen3158]

Will this work with the larger grapes? They're red, but they are quite large. Or, should they be smaller grapes? Machine will figure out how long?

[@JohnInBibs]

I made another video a while back that included red grapes, they worked out as well ua-cam.com/video/U3tOHkRcb34/v-deo.html

[@donnagreen3158]

@@JohnInBibs your red ones didn't look very large. These are quite large. That's why I was asking.

[@JohnInBibs]

sorry, I have not done "large" grapes.

[@gregvence7356]

Hi John. Happy New Year. Folks that I know that can fruit use fruit pectin or a little lemon or lime juice to prevent browning. (Still saving for my machine.) I keep wondering about freeze drying separate ingredients like grapes, peaches or whatever then combining afterward to pre-prep for a dish like fruit salad in this case... or to mix the dish and then Freeze Dry. (The first method is also like your meals in a jar.)
Thanks for this on on grapes and blanching. What about pre-cutting instead, like 1/2 grapes? It seems like all the sliced fruit videos are a success.

[@JohnInBibs]

Happy New Year to you and yours as well. In this experiment I was trying to duplicate the results I got from canned fruit cocktail. The grapes in the fruit cocktail were so crisp and didn't shrivel. When I cut the grapes in half for my other videos they did come out ok, but were kind of shriveled and chewy. For me the blanched ones are a far better texture

[@gregvence7356]

@@JohnInBibs Thanks for that clarification. 🙂