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Can you hang dry whole apples like how you can with Hoshigaki Persimmons?
I'm currently attempting to make Hoshigaki Persimmons but I'm also drying a bunch of apples. I can only dry 4 apples at a time with my airfryer's dehydrate setting which takes 10 hours. Meanwhile my Persimmons are getting pretty dry just hanging by the window. It would be much less energy and labor intensive if I could just let the apples hang by the window as well. Is this a thing that's possible or will the apples become moldy and stuff.
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no, they'll rot. you can hang dry them in slices though. peel and core the apple and then slice it into rings (like pineapple rings), soak in diluted citric acid or lemon juice for about 10 minutes, and then thread them onto some twine. hang the twine horizontally (like a clothesline) and leave a couple inches between each apple slice. they'll dry in a couple of days. here's a link to an article describing the process better and with pictures.
no, they will just sit there and eventually spoil. The apple skin stops it drying out.
You could experiment with peeling whole apples and trying to dry them but I've only ever seen or heard of dried sliced apple so don't think it will work.
Apple head dolls were/are made this way, so I imagine they'd dry all the way through! Otherwise they wouldn't be very good toys.
ETA: http://www.mtnlaurel.com/arts-and-crafts/1947-how-to-make-a-dried-apple-doll.html and https://oneida-nsn.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/DOLLS-DOLLS-DOLLS-DOLLS-9.13.pdf . It's possible the sculpting takes off enough of the apple mass to promote quicker drying? For OP, coring would also promote more even drying, I think
I know of a chef who does kiwis in the hoshigaki style. Definitely would need to peel them, but I say why not? All you risk is an apple :)
I like this idea. I think you would need to sanitize the outside of the whole apple. I think the stem portion would be difficult to fully clean (like a belly button). Then you would need a chamber to hang it that is clean with maybe uv light? and positive air pressure with filtered air going in. You would probably need to control humidity and keep it low. Apples are essentially engorged wood cells so driving out water without heat will be a challenge. Another way may be to suspend in something like silica packs. Also at some point the seeds may germinate and start growing a tree.
PV=NRT so if you have a vacuum chamber, you would heat it to the boiling point of water at higher relative pressure. This may ruin the texture though.
Persimmons are babied for months to get them dry like that.
Check out the candied whole oranges. That may be another option but apple seeds are poisonous.
I would think you would have to peel them first, but then again apples contain too much moisture, so they would rot before they dried. i.e. the outside would dry first and as the inside starts to dry, the moisture would move to the outside and thus spoiling the whole thing.