Chestnut processing steps
Firstly, wash the chestnuts with clean water, rinse off impurities, then classify the chestnuts according to their size and process them separately. The cooking recipe is composed of 80g star anise, 50g cinnamon, 15g cloves, 15g Chinese prickly ash, 20g licorice, 400g salt, 250g sugar, and 10kg water. The outer skin of chestnut fruit is leathery, thus it is generally difficult to absorb flavor when boiled or soaked. A simple vacuum infiltration method can be used. The seasoning materials is boiled for 30 minutes according to the recipe to make them become a seasoning liquid, and then put the chestnut fruit into the seasoning liquid to cook.
Chestnut drying process
After separating the astringent skin from the pulp, rinse the boiled chestnut fruit with water to remove the seasoning liquid adhering to the surface, and finally put the chestnut into the material tray and insert the material cart, then push it into the heat pump drying room. The chestnut has a high temperature tolerance. You can directly adjust the temperature to 75°C for drying, and set the time for 6 hours to continuously drain the moisture. When the water content of the chestnut drops to 30%, the astringent skin and the pulp are separated, and it is easy to peel off when eating. After drying, the pulp would not be broke, and the dryness and humidity are moderate.