Buckwheat groats are a wonderfully tasty and at the same time healthy product from which you can make a stand-alone meal or an aromatic side dish that perfectly complements meat dishes. In any form of buckwheat - an indispensable product for people who want to eat properly and fully. Nobody doubts its useful qualities for a long time. It contains proteins, fats and carbohydrates in an ideal ratio for our body, and a high concentration of folic acid has a positive effect on blood formation and increases resistance to colds.
Some people use buckwheat porridge all the time, others quite rarely. In any case, a good housewife always has a supply of cereals in the kitchen. But you need to know how to properly store it, so that buckwheat has not lost its value.
How to choose the right cereal
To keep buckwheat for a long time and without additional problems, you should check the condition of the cereal even at the purchase stage. If the packaging is transparent, you can carefully examine the contents of the package.
- The dark color of the grain indicates that buckwheat is most likely grown in China. This can be verified by examining the information on the packaging. This product is of lower quality due to the high moisture content of the grain. Dark brown buckwheat gets after roasting, and during heat treatment of some nutrients disappears.
- Another selection criterion is the minimum of impurities in the form of litter, unprocessed grain and small pebbles. If the packaging is opaque, then the quality of the cereal will help you determine the variety of jadritsa, which must be specified by the manufacturer. Grain of the first grade is the highest quality, but the third grade contains up to 10% of foreign inclusions and requires mandatory sorting.
- When examining a package, see if the GOST number and grade of cereal is indicated on it. Please note that in accordance with the regulatory requirements of the varieties “Extra” and “Highest” does not exist, and their indication, most likely, speaks about the manufacturer’s bad faith.
- If possible, you should smell the cereal. A kernel that smells like mildew or mustiness is obviously spoiled and should not be bought. If you find an unpleasant smell, opening the packaging is already at home, the cereal must be returned back to the store, like any spoiled goods.
Storage periods buckwheat
Some believe that buckwheat can be stored for an unlimited amount of time. Of course, this statement is fundamentally wrong. The period in which buckwheat will retain nutritional value and taste, does not exceed 20 months. Keep in mind that such a long period of time, cereal can be stored only under all conditions.
When purchasing cereals in the store to create food stock, be sure to pay attention to the date of production and packaging of the product. If the information is not stamped on the package itself, but is put on a label attached to it, there is always a risk of its unreliability. It is better to leave such buckwheat in the supermarket, otherwise it may happen that the cereal will become inedible in a few weeks.
Proper storage conditions
In order for your cereal stock to be stored for a long time and without loss, it is important to remember that any cereal has one main enemy - high humidity. In the case of badly dried up Greek, mold fungi can appear, which very quickly turn all your stock into a rancid mass with a stagnant odor. In addition, at high humidity, favorable conditions are created for the growth and reproduction of insects, which will be eaten part of the cereal, and the rest will be irretrievably ruined. To prevent such troubles from arising, one should follow several rules when storing grebs.
- Optimum conditions for storage of buckwheat groats - humidity 60% at temperatures from + 5 ° C to + 15 ° C.
- Immediately after the purchase, it is necessary to transfer the Jadritsa to a more suitable storage container. It can be glass or plastic tightly closed container, as well as canvas bags.
- If you purchased a large amount of buckwheat and plan to keep it for a long time, then it should be dried in the oven before laying it out. This will contribute to the death of all living organisms that may be located in the core. The same effect can be achieved if you hold the cereal for a day in the freezer.
- For dry cereals, choose dry, warm and well protected from sunlight.
- Choosing where to keep buckwheat, do not forget that any cereal perfectly absorbs odors. Therefore, place the containers with the kernel away from products with a pronounced aroma. It is unlikely that your home will enjoy buckwheat porridge with the smell of coffee.
- Use small tricks when storing. For example, fabric bags before use can be boiled in a concentrated solution of sodium chloride and dried thoroughly. In a container where you keep buckwheat, you can put a few cloves of garlic or bay leaves, which will scare away the pests. Dry lemon peel or chestnuts will serve the same purpose. Excess moisture will successfully absorb the canvas bag of salt, hidden in the grits.
How to store boiled buckwheat
Already cooked buckwheat should be stored in the refrigerator. But the shelf life depends on how it is prepared.
- Groats, simply boiled on water, can perfectly spend even a week in the refrigerator.
- When the buckwheat is cooked with the addition of butter, it should not be stored for more than three days.
- But if you cooked buckwheat porridge for milk, then it is better to eat it immediately. In extreme cases, she can spend no more than a day in the refrigerator without harm to your health.
- Some housewives store boiled buckwheat in the freezer. In this form, it can spend there a couple of weeks, however, little will remain of its nutritional value.
