Juicy and sweet cherries do not mind eating both adults and children. But like any seasonal berry, it fetuses from strength 3 weeks. In this regard, many housewives are trying to quickly cook cherries for the winter, so that in the cold season, do not deny yourself the pleasure of eating it in the form of jam, compotes or stuffing in pies.
Contents:
- Cherry use
- Preparation of berries for workpiece for the winter
- Freezing
- Drying
- Preserving, sweet cherry preserving
Useful properties of sweet cherry
Besides the remarkable taste qualities, the sweet cherry has many useful properties. This is a real storehouse of vitamins, which are so necessary for man. The use of this fragrant berry favorably affects the immunity, which is stimulated by the presence of vitamin C.
Red cherry well strengthens the walls of blood vessels and improves blood flow, which is simply necessary to prevent the occurrence of blood clots. It is also able to lower cholesterol and helps with anemia.
Cherry is also useful because it improves the functioning of the kidneys and organs of the gastrointestinal tract, it serves as a diuretic and helps to solve the problem of constipation. The cherry-tree is rich in oils and is widely used in the perfume industry.
How to prepare berries for harvesting
Only a few days are allowed to harvest the cherry, after full ripening the berry begins to decay. Also it is necessary to have time to collect it up to a rain, it promotes the fastest rotting.
If you harvest from your own tree, try to pick only berries, without petioles. The fact is that when you tear off the petioles, you damage the tree, and this will affect the number of ovaries in the coming year. Use the berries so picked up so you need to immediately, otherwise within a day you can throw half of the collected. But buy cherries better with cuttings, so you will have at least a couple of days to prepare.
Collected berries should be poured in cold water with the addition of a small amount of salt. A teaspoonful of 10 liters of water. Let stand for 2 hours. This will help rid the cherry from the presence of worms inside. After, drain the water and rinse again. Spread the crop on a soft cloth and wait until it dries completely.
After the cherry dries, it can be used in various blanks. Also, if it is required by the recipe, the berries should be carefully removed from the stone.
Frozen cherry
The simplest and most labor-consuming method is to freeze the sweet cherries in the freezer. To do this, the dried berry with a stone is packed in small quantities on plastic bags and put in the freezer. Prepared in this way, the fruits will retain all their useful qualities, and they will be stored until the next season, and even longer.
Frozen cherry can be used as a filling for sweet pies or vareniki. The downside of this method is a loss of taste. Being subjected to freezing, the cherry loses its taste qualities and becomes similar to grass. To fix this will help the addition of sugar or combination with other, more flavored fruits and berries.
You can also freeze the sweet cherry in another way. Sprinkle the berries from the bones with sugar, put them into plastic cups and send them into the cold. Such cherry will be much tastier.
Dried cherry
To save more taste of cherries harvested for the winter will help drying. This method is suitable for any variety of berries, from yellow to burgundy. Correctly dried, it will not lose its vitamins and trace elements.
Dried cherries with or without a stone. You can do this in the oven or outdoors, in direct sunlight. There are also special devices designed for making dried fruits. The main thing is the drying time, the longer it takes, the more cherries lose their useful properties.
Dried sweet cherries are added to any dish, cooked compotes or make broths. It will improve the taste of pies with frozen cherries. She can also simply eat.
Store the dried cherries in sterilized dry containers with a tight-fitting lid.
Preserving cherries for the winter
What could be better than hot tea with a fragrant cherry jam? This is one of the most delicious options for harvesting cherries for the winter.
For preparation only fresh and strong berry is used, which is either separated from the bone, or not, depending on the recipe. In jam with a stone there is a certain zest. After all, in the nucleolus are stored all the essential oils that give the syrup a certain flavor and taste.
As the berry is practically devoid of its own acid, when cooking jam it is acidified by the addition of lemon or citric acid. Also the sweet cherry very much likes sugar, therefore it put not less, than in a proportion one to one.
For a variety of recipes, currant berries are laid in cherry jam or complemented with walnut kernels, which are marvelously combined with yellow cherries. You can also improve the taste of jam from yellow berries with spices. For this purpose, cinnamon, cloves and saffron are suitable. With the last ingredient it is important not to overdo it, since its fragrance opens gradually.
Try one of the proposed options for harvesting cherries for the winter, and you can enjoy your favorite berries until next season!