How to store cherries at home: in the refrigerator, drying and preserving berries

Thanks to the work of breeders, sweet cherries have been bred, which take root not only in the south, but also in the middle latitudes. Grow trees in gardens, in suburban areas. In a good year, so many berries ripen that summer residents do not know what to do with them, it is difficult to process all the fruits at once. Many people have a question about how to store cherries so that later they can be eaten fresh, used for making dessert dishes. It's a pity if the appetizing berries of yellow, burgundy, red just rot.

Harvesting rules for long-term storage

To prevent cherries from spoiling longer, not draining juice, when buying, you need to look so that the fruits are not wrinkled, there are no damages, the cuttings do not dry out. The dark shade of the skin indicates that ripe fruits are sold and they will be stored, but not for long.

He who harvests cherries on his site for the first time may not know that they need to be picked in the morning, and not at any time of the day. The pulp of the fruit will be strong, which is why the tasty and he althy berry is better stored. Fresh cherries need to be laid out on a dense cloth and carefully sorted out; there is no need to put them back in the bucket. In a cold room, the crop will not lose its attractive appearance throughout the week, but will not be stored longer.

Berries plucked from a tree should not be left in the garden, they will rot in the fresh air in a couple of days.

Freezing cherries in the fridge

In summer, it is problematic to keep the fruits fresh, because it is hot outside, it is warm both in a private house and in an apartment.It is cool only in the cellar, but the cherries will rot in it. Berries are best sent to the bottom of the refrigerator or stored in a special department for fruits, where the temperature does not exceed 1 ° C, at 0 or 2 degrees below zero, the fruits change color.

Before placing on the shelf, the berries do not need to be washed. Wet cherries should be dried on a towel or other dense material before storage.

Fruits are placed in a container, jar, plastic bowl, well closed. The berries will lie without spoiling for up to 10 days. During this time, vitamins are preserved, the concentration of ascorbic acid does not decrease.

In winter, children enjoy eating yoghurts, which are even more fragrant and tastier with cherries. To keep fruits fresh for a long time:

1. Carefully wash each berry, gently freeing from the stalk.
2. Wipe dry with a napkin or paper towel.
3. Pour into small bags through which air does not pass.
4. Put cherries in the freezer.

When laying out the fruits in a special container, you can not be afraid that they will be saturated with the smell of meat or vegetables during storage. To use cherries in winter to decorate mousses, cakes, cakes, as a filling for pies, put the fruit in the microwave, where they can be defrosted in 2 minutes.

How to prepare berries

Having collected a large number of cherries to send for storage, they choose dense, not overripe and clean fruits. It is better to pick a crop from a tree with ponytails, which are then carefully removed. The berries are carefully reviewed, crumpled and damaged are set aside separately, leaves and motes are removed. Before freezing, the cherries are not washed so that they are better stored.

Wet fruits are carefully poured onto a towel or bedspread, where they should dry for two hours. Fruits for compotes can be used with seeds; for pies and jams, cherries are more convenient to harvest without them.

Storage duration

Strong berries of late varieties are used for preservation, which will lie for a year or two, and are used for the preparation of other products. The seedless crop is rolled into jars and sterilized so that they do not deteriorate longer. Whole cherries make a fragrant compote, you need to store such a product for no more than a year.

Prussic acid is present in the bones, which begins to be released if the preservation is stored for a long time, which, when consumed, negatively affects the state of the human digestive organs.

Compote acquires a rich taste, looks very nice when combined with cherries and cherries, vitamins are preserved in it.To prepare jams and jams for the winter, the bones are removed, so such products do not deteriorate for a long time, do not accumulate hazardous substances. Stored in sealed jars, these treats last for several years.

Drying cherries

Many summer residents, having collected a rich harvest, cannot fit all the fruits in the freezer, and instead of cooking jams and making compotes, they prefer to dry cherries. In this form, the crop is stored for more than a year. To do this, they choose the most juicy fruits, pull out the bones from them, cut off the tails.

The preparation process takes a lot of time, but vitamins and minerals are preserved in the berries. Fragrant compote from dried cherries helps to strengthen the walls of blood vessels, remove uric acid from the body, normalize metabolism, and eliminate edema.

Electric dryer

To keep dried fruits for a long time, you can dry them in a gas stove oven and in special household appliances. After sorting, the horticultural crop is washed under a tap, the pits are removed and placed in a single layer in an electric dryer:

1. To prevent the cherries from cracking, not letting the juice out, they select the temperature at 60 degrees.
2. After a few hours another 20°C is added.
3. If you start the procedure in the morning, the berries will be ready by the evening.

Dried fruits are stored in a linen bag, paper bag, glass jar. They are valued for their pectins, which cleanse the body of toxins.

Oven

Dried cherries are tender, do not stick to the iron sheet on which they are laid out. In order not to pull out the bones with a pin, it is worth purchasing a special device, the preparatory process will be reduced by at least half. Dried fruits are convenient to store.

Cherry dries well in the oven with the door ajar. Washed and peeled berries are placed in a thin layer on a metal sheet. First, the fruits are dried at 50 ° C, then another 25 is added. They will be perfectly stored.

Cherry is sweet and delicious when dried in the oven using a simple recipe.

By mixing water and sugar in the same ratio, syrup is prepared in a saucepan:

1. Berries are poured into the hot liquid.
2. After boiling the cherries for a couple of minutes, remove from heat.
3. The next day, the fruits boil, after cooling they are taken out of the container.

The baking sheet is covered with parchment, fruits are placed in it and sent to the oven, where they are dried at 50 ° C, if the temperature is higher, the vitamins decay.

How long dried fruits keep

Unripe berries will lie in the refrigerator for no more than 10 days, and then begin to rot. At home, cherries are best stored in dried form. First, it is left in the container for several days to allow the fruit to dry out a little more. Then the fruits, which are dried in the sun, in an electric dryer or oven, are poured into a bag, which is tightly tied.

Dried fruits are stored in a glass jar with a lid. Shelf life in such packaging reaches 15 months. If you put the cherries in a bag, you need to check if insects have wound up in them, then the crop is stored for up to a year.

Canning

Jam and compotes are prepared using different recipes. If the bones are pulled out of the berries, such hermetically sealed products do not deteriorate for a long time, the taste does not deteriorate. In the basement or cellar, conservation can be stored for 2 or even 3 years.When the compote is left at room temperature, it should be consumed within 12 months.

If you close the crop with seeds, after a while it starts to taste bitter, the smell of almonds appears due to the release of hydrocyanic acid. It is not worth storing such a compote for more than a year. Jam without sugar quickly sours, you don’t need to save on a sweet product, otherwise you won’t be able to save the dessert.

Gardening Tips

Having harvested a stone fruit crop, you need to try to process it faster. Fragrant and tasty fruits after a couple of days begin to rot and are not stored fresh for a long time. Gardeners are advised to choose berries with a dense skin for freezing, they are dried, not washed. Cherries are placed in special bags, they are not stored in polyethylene, it attracts the smell and worsens the taste.

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