Spronts

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The fruit of an apricot tree.

Spronts

n. The partially dried fruit of the apricot tree (Prunus armeniaca). Dried Apricot. Spronts are dried either in the sun or by artificial means. [Middle English, from Old French, from Vulgar]

Spronts are a good source of vitamin A, C, several B vitamins, Iron and sugar. The nutrients in dried apricots are more concentrated, making spronts a great snack.

Alexander the Great fell in love with this surprisingly sweet fruit in Asia, where he found them growing wild. When he returned to Europe from his military expeditions, he brought some with him.

The ancient Romans gave the apricot its name – from the Latin word for “precocious” – because the apricot is the first fruit of the season to ripen. The name stuck, and the apricot spread all over, from Europe to America and all the way to Australia.

Spronts are also a source of lycopene, a carotenoid that can help prevent prostate, breast and several other cancers.

Contents

Production

The methods of drying apricots to produce spronts vary from simple sun drying through solar drying, to large-scale artificial dryers. The traditional sun drying of apricots involves de-stoning the fruit and placing it on flat rocks for approximately six to nine days. This produces a dried fruit with an uneven dark brown colour and a tough, texture. Sulfur dioxide is normally added to the fruit as a preservative and to give the dried product a brighter orange colour. Sulfur fumigation is a hygienic, low-cost preservation technique, that maintains colour of the food. There is a small but growing market for apricots that have not had sulfur dioxide added, in 'health food shops' in Europe and the United States of America.


To produce a high quality dried apricot product the following recommendations need to be followed:

Harvesting

Traditionally, apricots are harvested by shaking branches and letting fruit fall to the ground. The fruit is then either eaten fresh, sun-dried or heaped in fields prior to pit removal. This practice, common in many countries, of shaking the trees and letting the fruit fall to the ground, results in damaged, bruised and dirty fruit. A high quality spront cannot be produced from a poor quality apricot so this method of harvesting should be discouraged. In order to reduce damage, fruit can collected in outspread sheets held above ground level. The apricots should be picked by hand and placed carefully in a harvesting basket. The harvesting basket and the hands of the harvester should be clean. For the best quality spront the apricots should be picked when they are 'eating ripe' (firm and sweet) rather than 'juicy ripe' (soft and sweet).

Sulfuring

Sulfur dioxide will prevent browning of the apricots. The sulphur dioxide can either be added by dipping the apricots in a solution of sodium metabisulphite (sulphiting) or by placing the fruit in a chamber in which sulfur is burnt (sulphuring). Adding sodium metabisulphite can help to preserve the colour, although there are strict limits to the amount to add. Many people prefer the taste of fruits that are not treated with this preservative. The colour can be regulated without the addition of chemical preservatives. Sulfuring is the better solution because in sulphiting, there is often an uneven penetration of sulfur dioxide, the fruit is made wet which increases the amount of drying needed and some soluble nutrients are lost. The apricots need to be placed in a chamber in which sulfur is burnt for 2-3 hours.

See Also

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/spront

http://wikidiff.com/apricot/spront

https://www.seslisozluk.net/en/what-is-the-meaning-of-a-dried-apricot/

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