Sulfuring
I ran across this in an old cook book and it reminded me about something my dad did with dried apples when I was a kid. It was called "Sulfuring".
It calls for placing dried
fruit on racks in a wooden barrel and lighting an ounce of sulfur in the
bottom and letting it burn and allowing the fumes to rise up and seep
into the fruit. The barrel would be left for a full day after the sulfur
burned, then the fruit was gathered and stored.
The purpose for this was
to keep pests out of it while it was stored, and when my dad did it, it worked.
I don't ever remember any bugs getting into
the apples when we would
eat the slices throughout the winter.
My mom would store the apple
slices in paper bags in the cabinets. so there was plenty of opportunity for
insects to get into them. We didn't store them in air tight containers like I do nowdays.
Some dried fruit is still
treated with sulfur, I can sometimes taste it in
dried fruit we get at the
grocery store. Its a taste that once you know what it is, you will not
forget it. Its not really an unpleasant taste but you will know it is there.
I checked with my Dad and he
said that he has still seen "Campden Tablets" available in some places.
They are "Pills" that you drop into water and they release the same
SO2(sulfur dioxide) that burning sulfur powder produces.
Caution must be used when
burning sulfur. It is very toxic and can kill if enough of it is
breathed. That may be why it is not common now.
Thanks, Dave, for sharing this interesting bit of history with us. If times got bad and air-tight containers coulnd't be found, this might once again be used more widely. The sulfur pills sound safer than burning sulfur powder! I wonder which they use at commercial dehydrating plants?
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