How to freeze gooseberries for the winter in the refrigerator at home and is it possible

When it comes to summer berries, they immediately think of strawberries, raspberries, cherries and currants. But the gooseberry is somehow undeservedly relegated to the background. And very in vain. These fruits are just a storehouse of vitamins and other useful substances. And there are real legends about the unusual taste of gooseberry jam. But how to keep the berries fresh and as useful as possible for the winter? Next, consider how to properly freeze gooseberries so that they retain all the beneficial trace elements.

Can gooseberries be frozen?

These berries are ideal for this type of preparation. They include pectins, which increase turgor and prolong shelf life.

Popular varieties for freezing:

• Change;
• Slava Lepskaya;
• Malachite;
• Houghton;
• Korsun-Shevchenkovsky;
• English yellow;
• Eaglet;
• Kolobok;
• Change;
• Mysovsky 37;
• White triumph;
• Flamingo;
• Mukurines;
• Northern captain;
• African;
• Date;
• Consul;
• Hinnomaki Gelb and Strain;
• Russian;
• Spring;
• Spring;
• Defender;
• Invicta;
• Neslukhovsky;
• Anniversary.

Selection and preparation of berries for freezing

Gooseberry pleases with a wide variety of species. The berries are green, white, yellow, pink, or red (some dark varieties appear black). When freezing, the taste of the fruit must also be taken into account. Someone likes sour, and someone likes sweet. Yes, and the consumption of sugar will be different.

Preparatory work:

1. Berries from the bush are best picked early in the morning, before they become hot in the sun.
2. Be sure to remove leaves and ponytails.
3. Fruits should be thoroughly washed under cold running water.
4. Next, they must be thrown into a sieve or colander.
5. Excess water should drain.
6. Then you need to put it on a towel and let it dry.

Important! Unripe or overripe, crushed, spoiled fruits are not suitable for storage. Sweet berries with dense skin are better tolerated by freezing. It is believed that more vitamins in white and green fruits.

Ways to freeze gooseberries at home

This preparation has a high content of vitamin C (more than in apples, and almost as much as in raspberries). 100 g of fresh berries replenish 1/3 of the daily requirement of this vitamin. Frozen gooseberries are a source of vitamin B, A and PP. It compensates for the lack of chromium in the body (one of the best sources of this element). It has a lot of chlorophyll (very good for blood), serotonin (prevention of the formation of malignant tumors) and coumarins (useful for proper blood clotting).

Whole berries

For fruits with thin skins, this type of freezing is best. It would be correct to spread them on a dish in an even layer and put them in the freezer for a short time (for an hour or more). This is done so that the gooseberries harden and do not burst when deep frozen, and so that the berries do not stick together.

Then take them out, let them stand, put them in containers and return them to the freezer. If fruits with a thick skin are used, pre-freezing can be omitted. The most convenient one-time serving is 300-500 g. The container must be taken wide and with low sides. So the berries will freeze quickly and evenly. This is the easiest and fastest freezing of gooseberries without boiling.

Important! Gooseberries make delicious compotes, jellies, marmalades, jams, marshmallows. A special place is occupied by emerald and royal jam. Juice can be used to make delicious wine. Also, berries are added to salads, sauces are made from them, pickled both as an independent dish and with vegetables.

Freezing gooseberries sprinkled with sugar

Arrange dry clean berries in convenient containers, sprinkling with sugar. It is a simple natural preservative. If there are no plastic containers, tetra-pack packaging (for example, from milk or juice) will do. It has antiseptic properties and is lined with aluminum foil from the inside.

This type of freezing has two options. The first - gooseberries with sugar are immediately sent to the freezer. The second - the berries are first put in the refrigerator so that the sugar is soaked in juice. Then cover the container and put it in the freezer.

In sugar syrup

If you get an overripe gooseberry with a thin skin, you can also freeze it. Sugar syrup will help keep it. The prepared fruits should be laid out in small plastic vessels. Separately, prepare the syrup (1/2 kg of granulated sugar boil in a liter of water). When it has completely cooled down, pour over the berries. And you can safely freeze.

Pureed

Another delicious way to preserve thin-walled gooseberries. Completely dry berries must be crushed to a puree state. In order not to lose useful substances in the process, it is better not to use a meat grinder (or any other device with metal parts).It would be better to use a wooden pusher.

Cooking process:

1. Use your home scale to divide all purees into 1kg portions.
2. Add 300-400 g of granulated sugar to each. This rate is approximate. The sweeter the berry itself, the less sugar will be used up. And vice versa.
3. Pour the resulting mass into containers and put on a shelf in the refrigerator.
4. When the puree is cool enough, you can freeze it.

Shelf life of frozen gooseberries in the freezer

In order for the blanks to lie quietly for a year or even more (maximum - a year and 3 months), they should be provided with a temperature of -18 ˚C and below. The maximum negative temperature of a conventional household freezer is -30 ˚C. If you freeze the berries at a temperature of 0 … -8 ˚C, then it is better to eat them within 3 months.

Recommendations and tips

Gooseberries contain a lot of water. If all available berries are frozen in one package, then in winter you will get a monolithic block of ice instead of ideally shaped fruits. Care must be taken to ensure that the gooseberry containers are carefully closed. Never store berries near meat or fish.

It is better to mark containers or bags with gooseberries with stickers. Especially if many different types of fruit are being frozen.

It is not recommended to eat gooseberries for people with diseases of the stomach and pancreas (gastric and duodenal ulcers, colitis, enterocolitis and pancreatitis).

Summer is in every sense a hot time for housewives. After all, there are so many things to prepare for the winter. Do not spare time and effort on gooseberries. With it, you can cook a huge number of dishes, and not only sweet ones. In addition, with such a high content of useful substances in them, beriberi will not be terrible.

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