Berries, like other fruits, require thorough washing before consumption. Immediately before washing, all the "extra" berries should be selected: crumpled, overripe, immature, decayed, damaged specimens. Berries can not be washed and kept in water for longer than necessary time. Otherwise, they remain without aromatics and sugar. The washed berries must be immediately processed and left untill the next day, as they begin to rot.
Rules for washing berries. It should be laid in a thin layer in a colander and abundantly watered with cold boiled water.
If raspberries was before washing with the larvae of the bug, then it should be held for 2 minutes in a 1% salt solution( 10 grams per 1 liter of water).Then the larvae are drained with water, and the berries are washed in one of the ways:
- The raspberry berries are placed in a colander or a special mesh and immersed for 1 minute in cold water several times. Water changes every time.
- The berries are washed for a few minutes under the "shower" from the tap. Then, to make the glasses water, raspberries are lowered into a sieve or colander for 10-15 minutes.
Cherries, cherries, currants and gooseberries. Small portions they should be lowered in a colander or sieve in a large container with water for a few minutes and slightly shake from side to side. After the next batch of berries, water must be changed. Then the berries need to be dried no more than 10-15 minutes in the same bowl.
Blueberries are washed just like cranberries, only use cool running water.
Berries strawberries in small portions lowered into a container of water and stir with hand. When all the contaminants settle on the bottom, the berries must be taken out on a sieve to dry. In case the strawberry berries are overgrown and soft, they should be placed in a colander and washed, lowering into a bucket of water.
Before washing strawberries it is necessary to remove all crumpled, immature, overripe and contaminated berries. Next, the strawberries are placed in a colander and 3-4 times immersed in a container of water. Then let the water drain. The main thing do not forget that you can not tear the green tail off the berries before washing( this also applies to raspberries).Otherwise, the berry will get water and will be tasteless.
Grapes should be washed under the "shower" from the tap. Let the water drain. If the clusters are tight, then they need to be divided with scissors, but not picking berries.
Dried fruits and nuts
In most cases, dried fruits from supermarkets were chemically treated, so it is advisable to wash them. As a preservative, sulfur is mainly used. Dried fruits smoked in sulfur fumes, and therefore they acquire a shine, which is unnatural for natural dried fruits, which are dried naturally. Before you give the child dried fruits from the store, you need to rinse them in cold running water, and then quickly pass a colander in boiling water. This method will help you get rid of preservatives a little. Natural dried fruits should be kept in hot water longer to remove sand and foreign impurities.
Walnuts must be thoroughly washed in warm water and scalded with boiling water so that there is no bitterness and kernels become tastier.