How to store peeled walnuts at home: rules and terms
Since ancient times, the nut has been called the "tree of life", because its fruits can satisfy hunger, restore strength and even cure a person. Eating a handful of nuts a day, you can saturate the body with vitamins, organic acids, minerals, fiber, essential oils and unsaturated fats. But it is important not only to know how to harvest the fruit, but also how to store shelled or shelled walnuts at home.
Which walnuts are good for storage
When choosing nuts suitable for storage, you should, first of all, take into account the timing of the fruit harvest:
- Early fall of nuts indicates that the tree lacks nutrients for ripening, or the presence of pests.
- Fruits that have fallen as a result of strong winds are only suitable for consumption in the coming days.
- Young nuts, during subsequent storage, will lose the moisture that the kernels are saturated with and turn into fruits with a dry, tasteless core.
- You need to choose for storage only those nuts that fell off themselves during the period of strong "baldness" of the tree.
Walnut fruits are harvested from the third decade of August to the end of September.
How to choose a nut
Choosing the right specimens for a workpiece is very easy if you consider:
- Suitable for winter storage nuts of the same size, without dirt and dark skin, indicating last year's harvest.
- The shell should not have chips or cracks. Otherwise, the nuts will quickly spoil or become moldy.
- Before buying, it is advisable to open a few nuts and check the kernels for freshness. Bitter, dark nucleoli with a specific rancid odor are not suitable for subsequent harvesting. The taste of the beans should be sweet and pleasant.
- Shake a few nuts in your hands beforehand. Fresh nuts do not make a rolling sound of nucleoli, which indicates that the kernels are already overdried or the fruits were stored at elevated temperatures.
- At the same time, fruits suitable for storage should not be very light. Such nuts are often empty inside.
Suitable for long-term storage and walnuts are already out of shell. In addition, it is possible to significantly reduce the time for peeling raw materials, to review all the nucleoli for the presence of rotten, spoiled or sluggish specimens.
When purchasing such grains, you should consider:
- All nucleoli must be the same color. After all, only in this case you can be sure: all the fruits of one year, and are not mixed with the previous harvest.
- Do not choose ground kernels, as this is how sellers hide spoiled raw materials.
- Do not purchase raw materials on the streets, near transport forks, because the kernels absorb dust, dirt, debris from the roads.
- Be sure to taste the product. The characteristic bitterness and unpleasant aroma immediately indicate a poor-quality product.
How to prepare nuts for harvesting
If the nuts were collected in wet weather, they must be dried in well-ventilated areas. Then release the fruits from the shell and send to the oven for 60 minutes to roast. In this way, it is easy to protect the crop from moths and other pests.
Best option for home storage
When choosing options for storing fruits at home, one should start from the factor whether the nuts will be stored whole or in separate nucleoli. There are two ways to save a useful product for a long time.
Features of storing walnuts in the shell
In the shell, the fruits can be stored for a long time if nuts of good quality are prepared or bought. To keep the product for a long time, you need to consider a few simple storage features:
- Before harvesting for the winter, the raw materials must be sorted out and dried naturally or in the oven at the lowest temperature.
Dried nuts, scattered on cloth or paper, on the floor. Thus, the fruits will dry out in 5-6 days. In this case, the nuts must be periodically mixed. You can speed up drying by placing the fruits in the oven at a temperature of 40-50 degrees and leaving it in this position for 1 hour.
- Arrange the prepared nuts in glass or metal dishes and close the containers tightly with lids. In this way, it is easy to preserve the crop for up to six months.
- If the nuts will be used in the near future (2-6 months), it is enough to pack the dried fruits in cloth bags.
- Don't store blanks on the balcony because of the high humidity in the room.
- It is contraindicated for the product and storage at high temperatures, otherwise the nucleoli will dry out completely.
If you stock up on nuts in the fall, you can forget about the problems of the cardiovascular, skeletal systems, gastrointestinal tract for the whole year and reduce the risk of tumors.
Peeled nucleoli
You can also store nut kernels, observing a number of conditions:
- Crack prepared nuts.
- Sort out the kernels and dry in the oven, laying out on a baking sheet covered with parchment.
When calcining the nucleoli, do not allow the release of oil, otherwise the product will be bitter. In the same way, you can protect raw materials from subsequent decay.
- Cool the grains. Pack the harvest in glass or tin containers, close tightly with lids.
- Store blanks at room temperature for no more than 14 days.
Conditions for long-term preservation
You can extend the shelf life of peeled nut treats by observing long-term storage conditions:
- In the apartment, store the grains in a dark, cool and dry place, packaged in clean glass jars.
- Place prepared and dried nucleoli in a glass bowl, close with lids and put in the refrigerator compartment on the bottom shelf.
- Pack the harvest in plastic bags, seal tightly and transfer to the freezer.
To keep nuts in the shell for a long period, you need:
- Ignite the raw materials and place them in glass jars, wooden boxes, fabric bags.
- Place blanks at home, in rooms with low humidity and low temperature. Too much moisture will cause the fruit to rot. And temperatures above 21 degrees will lead to rancidity of the product.
- Store fruits in room conditions without sudden changes in temperature. Do not place fruits near "fragrant" vegetables and fruits, otherwise they will absorb third-party odors.
To keep the nuts for a long time, the room is fumigated with sulfur. In this way, you can also protect the product from mold and give the shell a light shade.
Observing the above conditions, you can keep he althy fruits for 6-12 months.
Tara for drying
When looking for a container in which to store nuts, you need to consider the following:
- tank must be dry, clean, free of damage and odors;
- it is better to pack blanks in glass or clay jars. Cover the container loosely with a lid;
- unshelled nuts keep well in simple cardboard boxes or wooden boxes;
- avoid storing raw materials in plastic bags, as the material does not allow air to pass through and promotes the development of pathogenic microflora, mold;
- a container with shelled nuts must be tightly closed with lids;
- plastic containers or zippered bags are suitable for freezing the product.
Choosing the right container for storage, you can significantly increase the shelf life of the product.
Temperature and humidity
It is important to observe, when storing raw materials, favorable conditions. The average storage temperature of the product can vary from -5 to +10 degrees. Humidity should be no more than 60%. It is also necessary to protect the product from direct sunlight.
Expiration dates
How many months or years to store nuts depends on a number of factors, for example, compliance with harvesting conditions, choice of storage room, container, temperature and humidity in the room. Chipped
Split blanks are stored:
- you can keep the core up to 21 days, provided that the blanks are packaged in sealed containers made of glass or tin in a dark, dry room;
- up to 6 months - in the refrigerator compartment, on the side or bottom shelf;
- 1 year - in the freezer compartment, spilling grains into ziplock bags, plastic cups with lids.
Unpeeled
The shelf life of the raw product is 12 months.
Ways to increase shelf life
It is not easy to store a large number of nuts for a long time. The harvest will quickly become worthless if conditions are not created favorable for conservation.
However, even with the observance of the temperature regime and constant control over the state of raw materials, it is very difficult to preserve the fruits throughout the year. In this case, it is better to use the alternative ways to store a he althy treat, given below.
Can I fry
By frying the kernels in a pan, you can easily increase the shelf life of the product.At the same time, you can fry the blanks both in the microwave and in the oven. After frying, the raw materials must be cooled and placed in sealed jars or fabric bags. Store the product in a dry and cool room. Once a month, check the nucleoli for mold and dry again.
To preserve the product for a long time, you can make a simple preparation from the nucleoli with the addition of honey. To do this, combine honey and nuts in a ratio of 1: 2. Insist the resulting mass for several days in a dark place and transfer to storage in the refrigerator. Store such a product for a year.
Roasting nuts in a frying pan improves their taste and shelf life of raw materials. But vitamin B is lost.
Freeze
Store nut kernels in the refrigerator for no more than 2-3 weeks. But in order to preserve a valuable delicacy for a long time, it is better to freeze the nucleoli by packing them in plastic bags or plastic containers.Thus, you can have a storehouse of vitamins and minerals on hand for a whole year.
Thawing a nut treat is very easy. It is enough to leave the nuts at room temperature for 15 minutes or place them on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator for 2-3 hours.
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