Home canning is one of the most common ways to eat in the winter delicious fruit-vegetables that ripen in the summer.
Methods of home blanks
Ways to make home blanks there are very different. Products can be frozen, heat-treated, marinated, dried, salted. Such effects on products kill the microorganisms contained in them and reduce the enzymatic activity of the products. That is why canned foods are stored for a long time and practically do not lose their taste qualities.
Vegetables, fruits, berries, mushrooms are products that are used for home-made products. Vegetables are often harvested for the winter in the form of a variety of salads and pickles. From berries, fruits, jam, jam, various compotes are prepared, as well as harvested in its own juice.
In house preparations, useful substances in products can be saved at 30-100%.With dry freezing of products, it is possible to store up to 90-100% of useful substances, since they do not undergo thermal treatment. In salting and quenching, 70-80% of vitamins are preserved, and at drying - 50-70%.The least amount of vitamins( up to 30%) is preserved in the thermal process of preserving - cooking jam, jam, jam, etc.
For the preparation of blanks for the winter, you need to select the right raw materials. Products should be without rotten areas, since in the opposite case, the workpiece will not be stored for long. The best products for domestic harvesting are unripe fruits.
Utensils for workpieces for the winter
For the preparation of various jams, jam, jam, it is necessary to use containers of materials that do not oxidize( for example, stainless steel).Then these blanks are placed in glass jars. But before packaging, the cans must be washed and sterilized properly.
You can sterilize cans in several ways. With the first method of sterilization, the jars should be washed and wiped dry, and then doused with boiling water and put the neck down on a container in which water is boiling. You need to sterilize for 10-15 minutes. The second method of sterilization is as follows: wash the banks thoroughly and put the neck down in the oven. Then the oven should be heated to 150 ° C and sterilize the cans placed in it for 15 minutes. You can sterilize the can in the microwave. Wash wet cans should be placed in a fully-charged oven and sterilized until they are completely dry.
Jars for packaging jam, jam must be necessarily dry and hot after sterilization. When the jam is placed in a jar, they must be sterilized again( about 15 minutes).And only then roll up the lids, which were previously sterilized in boiling water for at least 2 minutes.
Tricks of house preparations for the winter
For drying fruits, vegetables, large mushrooms are cut into thin slices, and berries and small-sized products are dried entirely. The products must be laid thinly on a baking sheet and dried in an oven( temperature not higher than 80 ° C) with an open door. Then put the dried products in tissue bags. Keep them in a dry and cool place.
Berries, corn, greens, sweet peppers, green peas, eggplants, carrots - products that are best suited for freezing. Immediately before freezing, the products should be thoroughly washed and well dried, and if necessary, cleaned or cut. Then put the products, which are spread out in a thin layer in the freezer, fast freezing. And only then pack the frozen food in sealed cans, boxes or sachets and send it to the freezer for storage( -18 ° C).With this method, products can persist for 8-12 months.
It is desirable to sign all home preparations( the name of the workpiece, the date of packaging), so that you can check their condition at the time of use.
Sometimes it happens that the banks with home preparations are "swollen" or "exploded".This happens as a result of non-compliance with the technology of conservation or with poor sterilization of containers for blanks. In food you can not use such preparations.