[Bug] dry fruit mash doesn't stack properly and behaves weirdly

[CatNolara]

So I finally crafted a fruit press and started juicing the apples and pears I collected only to find out that sometimes the dry fruit mash doesn't want to stack. Then I have some partial stacks of like 10 or 20 in my inventory, clogging everything up. Trying to join the stacks doesn't work, they refuse to be joined.

Also, I saw that the handbook entry for dry fruit mash says that you can juice it to get juice (even though it's supposed to be dry?). So I tried it, and weirdly enough one piece of dry mash gets placed into the juice press, but without lowering the amount in the stack in your slot. Clicking on the press with an empty hand again and you can take out the supernumerous piece of mash. Infinite dry fruit mash glitch

Maybe doing that is what caused it to not be properly stackable anymore. Tried reloading my save and it still doesn't let me combine the stacks.

[surio]

They are in different stages of getting dried, hence they might not stack. Once they become dried fruit completely, they end up stacking against their respective fruits such as "dried cranberry".

There is the other problem too that if you place a fruit in press it does allow you to take it out before you use the press. But it transforms the fruit into a mash once you place it. The mechanic is quite finicky as you mention.

[Silent Shadow]

Even if you ensure all the mashes are dry before removing them they still may not want to stack, and unlike most spoiling items, you cannot combine dry mash and average out their remaining shelf life. Wet mash can be pressed so long as there is at least 16 fruit in it.

[CatNolara]

I made sure to squeeze every bit of juice out of the mash, so that can't be it. Maybe it has to be something with the shelf life, although they were produced pretty close to another. Also sometimes they did manage to stack, but often not.

[Nisaba]

I have experienced this exact issue and it's quite annoying.