On ways to store cranberries at home

Harvest of cranberries harvested. The storage room was replenished with a new batch of fruit and jam. However, there is still a lot of useful berries. It is necessary to master a simple matter, to figure out how to store cranberries at home. Fresh product is full of vitamins and valuable microelements. The task is not to lose a single milligram of useful substances.

General information

When choosing a product in the store, it is worth to evaluate the appearance of fresh cranberries. Recently picked berries should be elastic, undamaged, saturated red. Completely ripe and hardy harvest for a long time to save will not succeed. Green cranberries will not bring joy to either taste or healing properties. Hence, the choice of berries should be approached responsibly and buy fruits of medium ripeness.

Interesting! A good cranberry springs like a ball, literally jumping over the surface of the table. This is the right choice.

Regardless of the preferred method of storage, cranberries must be sorted out. Leaves, branches, unripe fruits and other garbage is important to remove. Burred, crushed berries to postpone for fruit or jam, and whole ripe cranberries to wash for further processing.

Note! The berry contains benzoic acid - a natural preservative of products. This component prevents the appearance of bacteria or mold. Thanks to benzoic acid, cranberries do not need to be sterilized or use additional preservatives.

Fresh berry all year round

Storage in water

This method is used for harvesting berries on an industrial scale. However, it is easy to reproduce at home. So, in a glass, plastic or enamelware pour pure cranberries and pour it with cooled boiled water.

Long-term storage, of course, will lead to the saturation of the berries with liquid, make the product watery, however, this does not affect the beneficial properties of cranberries.

In winter, it produces a fragrant filling for baking, mousse or mors. In any case, the taste of fresh berries is fundamentally different from conservation for the better.

Note! This variant of storing cranberries is good because dishes can be put in a refrigerator, or on a loggia or in a cellar.

Freezing

To date, shock freezing is the only option for long-term storage of food without loss of nutrients.

This method will help to keep cranberries for winter in perfect condition. There are no special tricks. Berries are traditionally handled, removing crumpled, spoiled fruits. Wash gently under running water. Dry well on a towel or napkin. Fold in glass, plastic containers or plastic bags and sent to the freezer.

To ensure that the berries do not stick together, you can pre-lay them on a baking sheet, cutting board or container in one layer, send it to the freezer for an hour, and then pack it in a bag. Then with further use in the course will go not stuck together mass, but whole and unharmed fruits.

Note! It is desirable to store cranberries portion by piece. Getting frozen product, it is used without residue. Otherwise, there is a risk to spoil the taste and appearance of berries.

Cranberries with sugar

This way of harvesting berries for the winter is known for a long time. Mistresses annually grind raspberries, currants with sugar and clean in the refrigerator. Keeping cranberries in this form is no exception. It is necessary to rub an equal number of fresh berries and granulated sugar( for example, pass through a meat grinder, blender), fold the puree into a sterilized glass jar, close the lid tightly and put it in the cold.

This is an excellent tool in the fight against colds and reliable protection for weakened immunity.

Interesting! There are recipes according to which pure whole fruits are placed in sterilized containers in small portions, and sugar is poured between them. That is, the cranberry, covered with a white preservative, remains intact and undamaged.

Storage up to 3 weeks

If you do not need to conserve cranberries for a whole winter, you can proceed as follows. Unwrapped dry berries in a bowl or bag are sent to a cool dark place. In the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks with the product also nothing will happen. Probably, a small part of the damaged berries will deteriorate, but the big one will remain in its normal state.

Note! Culinary experts say that the shelf life of washed berries decreases.

How to choose a frozen product?

The market is replete with frozen cranberries of various packaging. Initially, it is recommended to take as many berries as would be used at a time. It is not necessary to store for future use. Having violated the tightness of the packaging, it will not be possible to store the product for a long time.

When buying cranberries in the store you need to feel the package well. All berries should be easily separated from each other. If at home in a bowl lies a scattering of ruby ​​beads in the frost, and not a pink ice tile, then the cranberries have once undergone a shock freeze in a vacuum. Otherwise, you can talk about the wrong technology processing, storage of goods in violation of the rules and its repeated defrosting.

How to keep defrosted cranberries?

How to be in a situation if only part of frozen berries were used to prepare the dish? Will you get the rest of the cranberry for at least a few days? Yes. The main thing is to not re-freeze it.

The first method says that the berries are simply added to a glass container, sealed and put in a refrigerator. The period is 2-3 days.



The second way is to soak the thawed berry in the water. Count on the duration of storage is not necessary, but about a week the cranberry will keep some of the nutrients and fresh taste. During this time, you have to figure out what to make of precious fruits.

Note! Temperature processing deprives desserts of vitamins and essential microelements. Pay attention to recipes that do not require the cooking of cranberries.

Drying

Dried apricot from cranberries is an excellent addition to cereals. A sweet tooth no side dishes to dried berries and do not need. Why dried apricots? Just cranberries on sugar are much sweeter and tastier than just dried in the oven.

Keep this kind of berry can be long enough. The main thing is not to allow foreign smells and moisture to the product.

To prepare dried apricots you need a syrup of sugar and water( in the proportion of 1 × 1).Cranberries pour boiling syrup, leave for 6-7 hours. Throw the berries in a colander. The sweet liquid is boiled again and poured onto cranberries.

After cooling( 7 hours), the berries are again separated from the syrup using a sieve, and then laid out on a baking sheet.

Drying the cranberries in the oven, you need to monitor the process. Correctly cooked dried apricots are quite elastic, but not sticky and not crunchy. Broken berries indicate the drying of raw materials. The next time the cranberry is found in the oven is better to shorten.

Of course, thus harvesting cranberries for the winter, it is not necessary to talk about the usefulness of the product. But trying an incredibly tasty dried apricots, sometimes forget about all other qualities of products. Why not?

Video to help how to freeze cranberries: