Dried apples

One US cup of dried apples weighs 86 grams. Going the other way, 100 grams is about 1.16 cups.

Also called dried apple pieces, dried diced apples, sulfured dried apples, dehydrated apple pieces, apple rings (diced).

Two sources agree within measurement precision. USDA FoodData Central publishes Apples, dried, sulfured, uncooked (SR Legacy) at 1 cup = 86 g, implying a density of 0.3635 g/mL. King Arthur's Ingredient Weight Chart lists 'Apples (dried, diced)' at 1 cup = 85 g, implying 0.3592 g/mL. The gap between them is 1.18 percent, well inside any reasonable tolerance, so this entry publishes USDA's figure of 86 g per cup and names both sources. The USDA cup mass was derived from the published portion ratio (209 kcal per cup divided by 243 kcal per 100 g = 86.0 g/cup), confirmed via multiple USDA-data mirrors and cross-checked against the 1 ounce portion.

Dried apples pack at unusually low density for the milled category. At 0.36 g/mL, they sit below almost every other food this site tracks. Almond flour publishes here at approximately 0.4 g/mL, whole wheat flour at approximately 0.5, and all-purpose flour at approximately 0.53 g/mL. Dried apples are substantially lighter than any of these, and dramatically lighter than other dried fruits on this site: dried apricot halves publish at 0.55 g/mL, dried figs at 0.63, currants at 0.61, and chopped dates at 0.64. The reason is the drying process combined with source water content. Apple flesh has an unusually high water content when fresh, roughly 85 percent water by weight, and removing that water leaves behind a light, porous, air-filled structure rather than a dense compact piece. Dried apricots, figs and dates dry from lower initial water content (around 70 to 80 percent) and retain more of their intrinsic density after moisture loss.

The comparison to apple sauce, published elsewhere on this site in the liquid category at close to 1 g/mL like other water-based purees, is instructive. Apple sauce retains all of the fruit's original water. Removing the water from apple flesh does not concentrate it into a dense piece: the piece expands and holds internal air during drying, then collapses only partially on cooling. This is why dehydrated apple slices look like puffy chips, and why a cup of dried apples weighs less than a third of what a cup of apple sauce weighs even though both are the same fruit.

Product variants: sulfured versus unsulfured dried apples differ in preservation method but pack at essentially the same density. Dried apple rings (whole slices with the core cut out) pack differently from diced pieces because rings can nest and stack rather than tumble; ring-based cup measurements are approximately 20 percent lower than diced measurements per third-party sources, though no authoritative second source lists rings separately. Freeze-dried apples are a distinct product with much lower density (approximately 0.15 to 0.20 g/mL) because freeze-drying preserves nearly all of the piece's internal air; freeze-dried apple entries will be added when authoritative sourcing supports them.

Dried apples are placed in the milled category alongside other chunked dried fruits (dried apricots, dried figs, chopped dates on this site). The category rule tracks physical packing behavior: irregular semi-rigid pieces pack by scoop with air gaps in the same way as whole grains and nuts, regardless of the specific density magnitude. The 10 percent category tolerance applies here, and the near-zero observed gap between sources sits comfortably inside it.

No standards body publishes a bulk density for dried apples. Codex Alimentarius has commodity standards for dried fruits covering moisture content and preservation methods but not physical density. Two independent authoritative sources agree within measurement precision, so this entry is held at medium confidence. A third independent source, such as a professional culinary reference or a producer's laboratory measurement, matching within tolerance would move it to high confidence.