How to store blueberries in the refrigerator: how to freeze for the winter, how much you can save, videos and photos

I just love blueberries, in June you will not find a better berry. No acid, and dumplings made from it are simply delicious. But it's a pity that the season of this berry passes very quickly. The price in June is literally a penny, so I tried to save it for the winter in various ways, deducted from the Internet and on the advice of friends and acquaintances. I share the results of my experiments on how to store blueberries in the refrigerator.

5 categorical impossible

First, I immediately want to warn against actions that will turn blueberries into a tasteless porridge:

1. Berries must not be washed before freezing.. A special wax coating protects blueberries from rapid decay, and it is absolutely impossible to wash it off.
   If you use frozen blueberries for baking, then after removing them from the refrigerator, you do not need to completely defrost the berries. Just rinse for five minutes under running water, add sugar and send to the filling. The berries will not lose their juiciness, no matter how much blueberries are stored in the refrigerator.
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2. Only dry blueberries can be frozen. To do this, I laid out the berries in a thin layer on a baking sheet, laid with paper towels and periodically shaken them so that the layer dries evenly.
3. In the Zhytomyr region and Volyn, where there is a lot of this berry in the forests, they do not store it in the refrigerator, but dry it under a canopy so that direct sunlight does not fall on the berries. In urban environments, a conventional dryer for vegetables and fruits is also suitable. But if you dry, and not choose to store blueberries in the refrigerator, then you must wash the berries and dry them thoroughly on a towel before drying.

1. Grated with sugar, this berry is, of course, very tasty, but the benefits from it are half as much. I'll tell you about the grinding rules below.
2. It is categorically impossible to use metal dishes in any process, only glass or wood, possibly ceramics. Contact with metal surfaces completely destroys vitamin "C".

How long can blueberries be stored in the refrigerator? - Until the next harvest, it is simply inappropriate to keep the berries in the freezer further, because fresh fragrant blueberries have ripened.

3 ways to store blueberries

There are three ways to save blueberries - drying, freezing and grinding with granulated sugar. I studied all three methods and will tell you about each in detail.

A freezer is ideal, but not always convenient

How to freeze blueberries for the winter in the refrigerator and keep all the nutrients?

Sequencing:

• Pour the berries on a paper and linen towel and dry thoroughly from moisture.
• Be sure to remove all "suspicious" berries (crumpled, rotten).
• Not my berry, but immediately put the dry blueberries in bags, vacuum ones are suitable, rotting is completely excluded in them. The bags are also convenient in that you can spread out blueberries in a thin layer, and they do not take up much space in the freezer, unlike containers and boxes.
• How long can fresh blueberries be stored in the refrigerator, in the freezer? - Until you eat it, it ends very quickly, even before the cold weather. The only drawback is that when the electricity is turned off and defrosting, there is a risk that the berries will "flow". Such blueberries must be eaten right away - repeated freezing significantly impairs the quality of the berries.

In the summer, you can store the berries in the refrigerator for up to five days. After a week, all vitamins and minerals in the berry begin to gradually break down. We put the container with berries on the middle or bottom shelf - this is the most optimal temperature for storing vegetables, fruits and berries.

On the upper shelf, the atmosphere for berries is too cold, because of the sharp temperature drop, tissue “rupture” and the loss of nutrients in the berry occurs.

The humidity is too high in the drawer for fruit for blueberries, the instruction does not recommend keeping berries in which there is a lot of juice, quickly rot, rot and mold appear, since ventilation Hardly ever.

How long will fresh blueberries keep in the refrigerator? - Up to ten days, but nutritionists advise to immediately dry or freeze blueberries, as amino acids and vitamin "C" are destroyed on the third day of storage. But we don't know when the blueberries were picked, maybe they've been selling them for a week ...

Another way - ice with berries - is a great solution for festive cocktails.

• Put several washed and dried berries in an ice mold.
• Fill with cold boiled water.
• Freeze and place in a container.
• We store in the freezer.

The disadvantage of this method is that it takes up too much space, but for a holiday, the solution is effective and original. You can mix different berries and tint the water with cranberry juice.

Drying - we save all the nutrients

Modern fruit and vegetable dehydrators are simply an amazing way to store fruits and vegetables. In recent years, I prefer to dry berries and herbs, this eliminates the unpleasant washing of the refrigerator after each defrosting - the berries flow and turn into an unsightly porridge.

Electric drying is an analogue of food preparation in natural conditions. Products blown by a warm breeze do not lose vitamins and absolutely all useful substances are preserved. Before use, just hold the berries in water for half an hour and fresh blueberries to table ready.

To dry the berries, it is necessary to wash and dry them, since it implies a natural harvesting process.

Therefore, all mold processes must be eliminated:

• we wash the berries under running water;
• we sort out;
• We dry a little on a towel so that the electric dryer can do its job faster.

Store dry blueberries in tightly closed glass jars in a cool, dark place. Vacuum bags also do the job well; they completely prevent the appearance of "food" moths. DIY-dried blueberries are a complete analogue of expensive vitamins for eyes "Blueberry Forte", the complex of which includes dried and crushed berries.

Sugar - for sweet lovers

Blueberries, grated with sugar, can be stored in the refrigerator for about six months.

Some tips from grandmothers for proper cooking:

• We grind washed and dried berries only in glass or ceramic dishes with a wooden spoon. Unfortunately, neither a mixer nor a blender is suitable for these purposes, since they have metal parts;
• put the rubbed mass in dry and clean glass jars and cover with parchment paper. We tie it tightly with a thread or elastic band and store it on the lower shelf of the refrigerator;
• the proportion of sugar in a glass of blueberries is half a glass of sugar.

Cooking dry blueberry pastilles greatly facilitates storage and a refrigerator is not needed for such briquettes:

• grind berries with sugar in the proportion of 1 cup of berries - 2 cups of sugar;
• spread the mass on a baking sheet covered with baking paper;
• we dry the mass with the oven door ajar for two hours, the temperature is 180 degrees;
• cut the dried mass into plates, sprinkle with powdered sugar and put in dry glass jars;
• stored for a year or more in a cool dry place - an excellent healthy sweetness.

The only drawback of such blanks is a large amount of sugar.

For diabetics, there is another option:

• carefully grind washed and dried blueberries with a wooden or glass pestle, you can add nuts and vanillin to the mass;
• we spread the mass on parchment on a baking sheet and dry for 3 hours at the same temperature conditions.

Depending on the amount of moisture in the berry, the drying process can be slightly more or slightly less. But, on average, it takes two and a half hours. Such blueberry candies are not stored for a long time - they are eaten almost instantly.

Summary

The video presented in this article will introduce you to the process of storing blueberries without sugar. I have not tried to save it myself, can someone share their opinion about the video? And I'm waiting for new interesting recipes for cooking this delicious berry and I will talk in the comments if there are any suggestions or objections to my simple recipes for preparation.