An accidental discovery
Every Fall, Grandpa used his home-built food dehydrator to preserve part of the harvest from his carefully-tended orchard. He'd turn baskets of Italian plums into tasty pitted prunes, and bushels of apples into leathery slices, perfect snacks for us grandkids.
During the cold Winter months, Grandma would sometimes soak a big bowl of the dried apple slices in lemony water and bake up a batch of pies. What a treat that was!
Normally, Grandpa dried his apples just to the chewy leather stage, and called them done. But I remember one Fall when a batch got away from him. Instead of the normal drying time of 8 hours or so, this one was forgotten and ran all night (a full 24 hours). When he discovered it the next day, that load of thin-sliced apples had been dried to the point of brittleness.
Grandpa's first reaction was horror! A whole batch ruined (almost 25 pounds of apples, fresh weight). Gramps used several words I had never heard before.
Not one to throw away anything that might still be useful, he popped a slice into his mouth and bit down.
CRUNCH!!!
"Hey! That's not bad", he smiled, and handed some over to us kids.
"Wow, Grandpa. You should make apple chips like this all the time. These are way better than the usual ones."
And to this day, I still love those brittle slices. They've got the sweet, tart taste of apple, and the satisfying crunch of the snack chips I love so much.
Now I make 'Grandpa's Crunchy Apple Chips' for my own grandkids, and they think they're great! Two thumbs up!
A little further down this page I'll tell you just how Grandpa prepared a batch of his Crunchy Apple Chips.
Meanwhile, check out the cool Apple stuff below, and add us to your lensroll, digg us, or bookmark this page.
See you soon.
the new Grandpa
Here are some handy tools for making your own crunchy apple chips
Back To Basics Apple and Potato Peeler
Grandpa used to slice all of his apples by hand. This handy tool will really speed things up. A suction cup bottom holds it in place on your counter. And you can set it to peel the apples while you slice them or, if you want, you can leave the peels on.
Amazon Price: $23.45 (as of 07/12/2009) 
Progressive International Apple Peeler and Corer
This one's a little simpler than the one above. It works the same way as far as peeling and slicing, but it clamps onto the edge of a table.
Amazon Price: $19.79 (as of 07/12/2009)
Nesco FD-75PR 700-Watt Food Dehydrator
Grandpa's dehydrator was a big home-built thing, with light bulbs and fans inside. This modern unit is a lot more efficient... and much easier to clean.
Amazon Price: $66.73 (as of 07/12/2009)
Nesco American Harvest LT-2SG Add-A-Tray for FD-75PR Dehydrator
Extra trays for the unit above.
Amazon Price: $12.49 (as of 07/12/2009)
Nesco American Harvest FD-1010 Gardenmaster Food Dehydrator
Here's a bigger dehydrator, in case you want to get really serious about this.
Amazon Price: $119.37 (as of 07/12/2009)
Here's how Grandpa made his apple chips so crunchy
"You have to cut the slices really thin. No more than a quarter of an inch thick. An eighth of an inch is even better."
"And you have to slice them nice and even. Make them the same thickness all the way across, or they won't dry right. One end will be crispy and the other end will still be soft."
"And leave the peels on," he insisted. "Because that's where all the vitamins are... and half the flavor."
Grandpa had one of those old cast iron apple slicers that you could clamp onto a table. You'd stick a washed apple onto a sort of fork that turned around when you turned the crank. As the threaded fork moved forward, carrying the rotating apple with it, one blade would peel off the skin, while another blade cut the apple into one long spiral slice.
The slicing blade had a curved part on its tip that cut out the apple's core as the apple passed by. It was a pretty neat little machine.
But Grandpa only used his apple slicer on some of the apples he dried. Most of the time he sliced apples by hand.
Grandpa would say, "That machine is perfect for slicing perfect apples. But most of what we grow is better than that."
As soon as the apples started to ripen in the late summer, Grandpa would walk around the orchard, picking up the fruit that had fallen on the ground.
Some were bruised. Some were damaged where birds had pecked at them. Some of them had a wormhole or two. Grandpa didn't believe in spraying poison on his trees. "God put food on this earth for all of his creatures" he told us. "Who am I to decide who gets to eat what."
All of these fallen, damaged, and irregular-shaped apples went into an old galvanized tub that sat under the spout of the garden pump.
Grandpa would let them float around in the water for a while, and then he'd wash them off and carry them into Grandma's canning kitchen, where he had laid out the trays from his home-built food dehydrator.
The dehydrator trays had wooden frames that were covered with fine screen so the air could flow through.
(continued below)
Here's some Great Apple Stuff from CafePress
How do you like them apples?
More of Grandpa's Crunchy Apple Chip Recipe
Grandpa then laid these thin apple crescents in neat rows on the dehydrator trays, taking care that none of the slices overlapped. When the trays were full, they went into the dehydrator, a big home-built box with light bulbs and a fan inside.
The incandescent bulbs supplied the heat for drying, while the fan made sure the warm air got moved around and over the juicy pieces of apple. The machine wasn't very pretty, but boy, could it dry fruit!
Grandpa's dehydrator would hold about 20 pounds of fruit in each load. And in less than a day, it would all be turned to leathery bits, ready to last through the winter.
To make crunchy apple chips took a little while longer, of course, but even those were ready overnight.
Nowadays you can buy a food dehydrator that's a lot more energy-efficient than Grandpa's ever was, but you won't make Apple Chips that taste any better.
So that's the real secret to making Crunchy Apple Chips. Slice the apples extra thin, and dry them for a longer time.
Grandma got tired of Grandpa getting all the attention!
Click here to find out how to make Grandma's Chewy Fruit Leather
Use your dehydrator to make fruit leather, too!
Nesco LSS-2 Nesco / American Harvest Fruit Roll Sheet
Make sure you get the right size fruit leather trays to fit your dehydrator. Once you get to Amazon, look around. They have other brands as well.
Amazon Price: (as of 07/12/2009)
Reader Feedback
kiwisoutback wrote...
Great story, interesting lens! I love everything apples.
Posted March 13, 2009
mulberry wrote...
sounds pretty interesting. I'm going to feature your lens on one that I am currently building about apples.
Posted February 11, 2009
Gordon_Hamilton wrote...
Sounds delicious. I'll definitely give this a try.
Posted December 09, 2008
garywgoldstein wrote...
looks delicious and tasty. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Posted September 29, 2008
Find some more great apple recipes here!
In Praise of Apples: A Harvest of History, Horticulture & Recipes
Amazon Price: (as of 07/12/2009)
Apple Pie Perfect: 100 Delicious and Decidedly Different Recipes for America's Favorite Pie
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 07/12/2009)
An Apple a Day; Vegetarian Cookery
Amazon Price: (as of 07/12/2009)
Pickles and Relishes: From Apples to Zucchinis, 150 recipes for preserving the harvest
Amazon Price: $8.76 (as of 07/12/2009)
Pennsylvania Apples: History and Culture With 40 Recipes and a Guide to Festivals and Farm Markets
Amazon Price: (as of 07/12/2009)
Before you can make apple chips, you have to pick the apples!
Save your harvest for later
Stocking Up: The Third Edition of America's Classic Preserving Guide
Amazon Price: $17.16 (as of 07/12/2009)
Preserving Summer's Bounty: A Quick and Easy Guide to Freezing, Canning, and Preserving, and Drying What You Grow
Amazon Price: $12.89 (as of 07/12/2009)
Putting Food By (Plume)
Amazon Price: $11.05 (as of 07/12/2009)
Dry It-You'll Like It
This book has plans for a home-made food dehydrator that looks a lot like the one Grandpa built.
Amazon Price: $10.00 (as of 07/12/2009)
Your apple chips will keep even longer if you store them in vacuum-sealed bags
Here are some vacuum sealers and accessories
FoodSaver V2840 Advanced Design Vacuum Food Sealer
Amazon Price: (as of 07/12/2009)
FoodSaver Continuous Roll Bag Material, 11 Inch by 18 Feet (2 Rolls)
Amazon Price: $24.99 (as of 07/12/2009)
FoodSaver Continuous Roll Bag Material, 8-Inch by 22-Foot (2 Rolls)
Amazon Price: $25.95 (as of 07/12/2009)
Seal-A-Meal VS230 Vacuum Food Sealer
Amazon Price: $61.08 (as of 07/12/2009)
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by FledglingStudio_com
I never considered myself a hippie during the 60's and 70's, though I now know that I was. College dropout, political radical, artist, back-to-the lan...
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