How to freeze berries for the winter?

Plus frozen berries are that in them more useful substances are stored, and the taste and aroma practically do not change. However, after defrosting, many berries (especially tender ones) lose their shape, but this does not affect taste. How to freeze berries?

For freezing, only quality berries with dense pulp, without damage, wormholes, etc. They may be slightly undersized (then the berries retain their shape better when frozen), but the strawberries and strawberries are frozen only ideally ripe.

The berries need to remove the stems, and from the cherry,cherries, etc. - also get bones. Then they should be washed under the shower or immersed in a colander. Before freezing berries, you need to drain water and wait until the berries dry.

The best thing freeze berries in one layer on a large plate, a pan, a tray or a special pallet. You need to lay berries at a certain distance, so that they do not stick together.

Frozen berries for storage pour into suitable containers: plastic bags (preferably - special bags for freezing with clips), cardboard boxes, plastic containers. The container for storing berries needs to be washed and thoroughly dried, so that the berries do not freeze to the walls.

When berries are frozen next to them in the freezer should not be frozen fish and other products with a pronounced odor, which will certainly absorb the berries. The same rule should be observed if you keep the frozen berries in a non-sealed container.

If it is not important for you that frozen berries were "berry to berry", you can immediately freeze berries in packets or in containers, in which they will be stored. Both berries and tare should be perfectly dry. Stack berries need to be tight enough to leave as little air as possible between them.

Please note that freeze berries need fast, otherwise they form ice crystals, whichtear the flesh. Therefore, it is better to use the super-frosting mode, if your freezer does not have it, you need to freeze it in one layer or in small portions.

Some berries (for example, strawberries) sometimes frozen in sugar syrupso that they stayed in shape better and did not darken. Peeled, sorted, washed and dried berries are put in a flat basin, pour sugar (1 kg of berries - 300 grams of sugar) and put in the fridge for 2-3 hours until juice appears.

Then they are transferred to plastic containers together with the syrup so that it fills the spaces between the berries, and cleaned in the freezer for a day, without closing. In a day you can close the containers and put them away for storage.

You can freeze berries with syrup and other means. Prepared berries, washed and driedplastic containers and sugar syrup, prepared from the calculation of 400 g of sugar per 1 liter of water, refrigerated for 2-3 hours. Then the berries are fairly tightly transferred into a container, poured with cold syrup and continue to act as in the previous case.

Freeze berries is better in portions. The portion size you will determine yourself,based on the available packaging and how exactly you plan to use frozen berries in the winter. But advise that the maximum size of a portion does not exceed 600-700 g.

At a temperature of -12 degrees, berries are stored for a month and a half, and at -18 - for a whole year, until the newest harvest. Cherries, cherries and plums, from which pits were extracted before freezing, are stored no more than 10 months.

How to defrost the berries for use? If you want to cook compote, berries can be generallyDo not thaw and put in a pan in the frozen form. In other cases, the berries should be allowed to unfreeze gradually, shifting them from the freezer to the refrigerator. You can not re-freeze berries that have been thawed.

Now you know, how to free berries for the winter, and therefore you can provide yourself with vitamins for the whole year!