Raisins--Final Report

I did dry the grapes. I must admit that there was an aroma of fermentation in the kitchen before I got around to it. But when I finally did it was easy and fun. I had enough to cover two and a half cookie sheets, which I put in the oven to dry. I turned on convection heat at 200 degrees for a couple of minutes every few hours and left them for two days. It was going along pretty good until I forgot to turn the oven off. They probably cooked for an hour before I smelled something strange in the kitchen and realized what I had done. Most of the grapes in the tray on the bottom shelf were dried to a carbonized crisp. Fortunately, the top trays were mostly unaffected. However, I lost sight of my goal and dried them too much so they are more than a little chewy. I ended up with about two cups of raisins. They are a bit tart, maybe because I didn’t rinse them after I took them out of their lemon juice antimicrobial bath. But they’re edible. And I will do it again next year. I hope I’ll have enough to share.