A stunningly healthy berry, cranberries have the unique ability to retain all their properties when frozen. In addition, it is stored for a long time in the cold without freezing. But what if there is no cellar or basement, and the refrigerator is too small? How to store cranberries at home?
How to prepare cranberries for storage
Before processing the berry, you need to collect it and properly prepare for wintering. Harvesting can begin as early as September. At this time, the cranberries are dense, large. This is perfectly stored in the freezer or in a soaked form.
The second harvest of cranberries is held in November. The November berry is poured with juice, and it is better to either store it fresh on the shelf of the refrigerator, or grind it with sugar. The third time you can pick cranberries in the spring, on March or April days. Berries collected after natural wintering cannot be stored at all; they must be used immediately.
The berries collected for winter storage should be sorted out, discarded garbage, leaves. Remove unwanted cranberries (mashed, green, spoiled), leaving only healthy, clean berries for processing.
Storage conditions for fresh cranberries
To store cranberries without special processing, the following conditions are needed:
• a darkened room without direct sunlight;
• working ventilation (if the air in the room is stale, stationary, the crop will disappear);
• coolness (not lower than zero, but not higher than 5-8 degrees Celsius).
Cranberry storage containers must be not only clean, but also dry. Moisture can destroy the entire crop. If in the basement the berry feels best in wooden well-ventilated boxes, then at home it needs to be laid out in plastic containers and kept in the refrigerator.
In such conditions, without any harm, cranberries will remain fresh for three months. The berry may darken, but retain its beneficial properties and taste completely.
How to store frozen and soaked cranberries
Special processing will save the berry for a longer time. For example, frozen cranberries can be stored all winter. Some of the vitamins will be destroyed after deep freezing, but this will be a very slight loss. To prepare a delicious vitamin compote or meat sauce, frozen cranberries will do just fine.
How to store cranberries in the freezer? Wash with cold water, spread a thin layer on paper or woven napkins, so that all moisture is absorbed. Put the dried berries in the same thin layer on a baking sheet and send to the freezer. After two to three hours, take out the baking sheet, lay the frozen berries in portions in strong bags for freezing or in small plastic containers. It is impossible to freeze cranberries in large volumes, since it will not tolerate secondary freezing.
Another way to preserve maximum vitamins and beneficial properties is by soaking (or soaking). Moreover, the soaked cranberries are almost identical in composition to fresh cranberries, so the percentage of destroyed vitamins is minimal.
For urination, you need to take any non-oxidizing containers (glass jars, plastic bottles, enameled pans). Place washed berries in prepared clean containers and pour cooled boiling water to the top. Due to the presence of antiseptic substances, the berry will preserve itself. True, you need to keep the container in the cold: in the refrigerator or on the balcony. If there is a cellar or basement, you can lower the containers with soaked cranberries there.
Soaked and frozen cranberries are easily stored throughout the year.
How to store dried cranberries in winter
If you need to preserve the cranberry crop for a longer time or if there is no place in the refrigerator, freezer, you can prepare dried berries. How to store cranberries at home in this way?
For drying berries, special appliances or ordinary household ovens are used. In addition, cranberries can be dried naturally in the street. But autumn weather is unlikely to allow this: drying in the sun and outdoors requires at least 3-4 weeks of dry and warm Indian summers.
Therefore, it is easier to turn on the oven at 50-70 degrees, sprinkle a thin layer of cranberries on a baking sheet and keep the berry warm with the door open for several hours. Tidy the layer periodically so that the berries do not stick.
Pour dried cranberries into glass jars, canvas bags, or paper bags. They need to be stored in a dark, dry room. Properly dried cranberries do not deteriorate for at least three years.
Other ways to store cranberries
To preserve the cranberry crop, you can simply grind it with sugar. Get a fresh sweet berry. This storage method is very good, besides it allows you to get a ready-made tasty medicine that will help out more than once in the winter.
The washed cranberries need to be scrolled in a meat grinder or chopped with a blender and mixed with sugar in equal proportions. The finished product will be left in sterilized dried cans, put on nylon caps and put in the refrigerator. Until spring, the jar will stand up without any problems.
The last way to store healthy berries is preservation. Any housewife knows how to store cranberries in this way: you need to cook jam and send it to a cool place. Another thing is that after cooking, there will be practically no benefit in the berries. But you get a delicious treat.
Cranberry Storage Tips
For freezing, it is better to choose unripe cranberries. There is too much moisture in a ripe juicy berry. After defrosting, its taste will be quite low.
Well-dried berries can not be rubbed with your fingers into dust or broken when pressed. They retain sufficient elasticity, but do not become sticky. However, there should be practically no juice in cranberries, otherwise everything will grow moldy.
You can’t pour water from soaked cranberries, it has a lot of vitamins. Infusion can be drunk, do foot baths (they are good for sweating, help cure the fungus on the feet).
