How to store cranberries?

Any useful fruit, berry or herb has the greatest healing qualities fresh. Therefore, any processing of valuable gifts of nature leads to the fact that the medicinal qualities of the products are lost.

Of course, the housewives will ask the question: "And how to store cranberries correctly?", So that it remains useful even with long storage.

So, here are ways to store cranberries, which can preserve all of its medicinal properties and taste. But first you need to familiarize yourself with the general rule for all methods of cooking cranberries for storage.

In the case of cranberries, everything is exactly this way. And its valuable qualities should be tried to save as long as possible through proper storage. This applies, in the first place, fresh berries, rather than frozen product. Frozen cranberries have already been purchased in this form, and it needs to be stored in the freezer and nothing else.

The merits of cranberries include the presence in its composition of benzoic acid, which acts as a natural preservative. A positive property of benzoic acid is its ability to inhibit the development of microorganisms that spoil the product. Therefore, cranberries can be stored for a long time without any processing and preservation. For the long freshness of the berries, no other remedy is needed to destroy the bacteria: neither salt, nor vinegar, nor any other components.

By the way, benzoic acid is not found by scientists in other useful berries, such as blueberries and strawberries. It is distinguished by the presence of such a "preservative" only cranberries, which, like cranberries, can be stored for a long time, creating the appropriate conditions for this.

The berries are separated from the leaves and various rubbish, move to weed out the bad or crushed. Of the lost form, but good berries can be prepared mors. Unripe cranberries are not suitable as raw materials for cooking and other products, nor as a basis for drinks. Therefore, it is necessary to get rid of such berries. Whole and ripe berries can be stored in one of the four mentioned ways, and before the next harvest of this useful plant.

Method of storage № 1 - cranberries in fresh form

• Ripened whole berries can be stored fresh without any treatment for several months. To do this, they must be placed in a cool, darkened and well-ventilated place. Cranberries do not tolerate musty air with a lot of carbon dioxide, so it starts to deteriorate quickly.
• Cranberries are filled in wooden boxes of small sizes or in bags of thin polyethylene and left for storage in the specified place.
• Before that, it does not need to be washed, just enough to sort out to separate the immature, crushed or spoiled berries from the ripe. You can also get rid of twigs and leaves that are mixed with berries.
• The long-term storage of cranberries is naturally facilitated by the presence of benzoic acid in the berry. It acts as a natural preservative and helps to get rid of the bacteria that contribute to the damage of the berry.

Method of storage № 2 - recipe for wet cranberries

• In order to properly store cranberries, you need to prepare glass jars, in which the berry will be stored. If the hostess has a large amount of cranberries, it can be kept in large enameled pots. Pots should be whole, without chipped pieces of enamel. Banks, or pans should be washed, dried and left for a while alone.
• The next stage - you need to bring to the boil the right amount of water, boil for a couple of minutes, and then remove from heat and cool.
• Preparation of cranberries: berries are washed in cold water, decomposed into cooked containers and filled with cold boiled water. The pot or pan is closed with a lid and left in a cool place - a refrigerator, a basement or a cool balcony. All cranberries are ready for storage, and you can not worry about anything.
• Cranberries have antiseptic properties, so it "does not threaten" to deteriorate. The maximum that can happen to it is a certain loss of taste and the acquisition of wateriness due to the fact that the berry has "gained" water. But the useful qualities of cranberries are in no way affected, so you can safely eat it for your pleasure until the next harvest.
• Wet cranberries are good for making such drinks as jelly and fruit drinks, as a filling for home-made pies. And, of course, it, like fresh cranberries, you can and should eat in raw form, storing vitamins.

Storage method No. 3 - frozen berry

This is the easiest and most affordable way to store cranberries. Before you put the berry in the minus temperature, it must be prepared for such a long-term storage.

• Cranberries are washed and dried using a sieve.
• Then, the clean and dried berries are laid out in plastic bags for storage and put in a freezer. It is necessary to tell the housewives that cranberries in one package should be as much as can be consumed at a time. Frozen re-cranberries are unfit for consumption.
• Use cranberries from the freezer can be the same as fresh berries. Compotes, jelly and fruit drinks will be useful drinks that are simply prepared. Of course, it is worth pampering yourself and just thawed berry with the addition of honey - it's tasty and useful. But the cranberry in the preparation of various dishes should not be boiled, this heat treatment kills vitamins, and the berry loses its healing properties. It is recommended only to warm the berry and then, quite a bit.

Method number 4 - cranberries, pereteraya with sugar

Of course, this method of storage has long been used by the hostesses, which is to prepare useful berries for the winter. But it is worth to warn the reader that sugar, giving cranberries a sweet and pleasant aftertaste, kills most vitamins. If you compare the cranberries with the sugar, which was extracted from the treasured jar with some shop sweetness, the red berry naturally wins against the background of the latter. Such quantity of preservatives, aromatizers and other "chemistry" you will not meet in the cranberries rolled in a jar. Well, just sugar. Sweetheads, on the contrary, will receive a moderately useful product that will diversify their sweet menu and replenish the supply of useful substances in the body.

• How to cook cranberries for this method of storage? It needs to be washed, dried on a sieve and mixed with sugar. And then rewind in a combine, a meat grinder or with a blender. Sugar is taken from the calculation one to one in relation to the weight of cranberries. After that, the mixture is spread over sterilized jars and covered with plastic lids. This dainty is stored in the refrigerator.
• Cranberries with sugar are good as a means of increasing immunity for colds and viral diseases of the upper respiratory tract. It can be used both as a filling for different pies and as a sweet addition to hot tea.