Surprisingly, gooseberries are not so paid attention as, for example, currants or raspberries. But gooseberry with its taste is not inferior to grapes. No wonder it is called the northern grapes.
In the gooseberry there are vitamins C, A, B, and also a lot of iron and phosphorus, therefore it is recommended to give this berry to children.
In the world there are up to 1500 varieties of gooseberry. There are sour and sweet berries, large and small, round and oval. There are varieties, the berries of which grow to the size of an egg!
Therefore, for each variety of gooseberry suits its own way of harvesting it for the winter.
But many housewives are interested in the question: is it possible to freeze the gooseberries for the winter? Will it turn into a “porridge” when defrosting and lose its taste?
Preparing gooseberries for freezing
Ripe berries are suitable for freezing without signs of disease by spherotekoy (powdery mildew). Unfrozen berries should not be frozen because of their low taste.
For dry frosts, gooseberry varieties with thick rind and sweet flesh are best suited.
From thin-skinned gooseberry can be mashed with sugar and freeze in this form. To thin-skinned gooseberry lost shape, it can be frozen in syrup.
It is best to collect gooseberries for freezing in dry weather in the morning, while the berries are still not heated from the sun.
Gooseberries sorted, removed leaves and twigs, as well as unripe and spoiled fruit.
The tails of the berries are cut.
Then the gooseberry is washed in cold running water, placed in a colander or strainer to get water from the berries, and then laid out on towels to dry.
How to freeze sugarless gooseberries with whole berries
Dried gooseberries loosely spread in a single layer on a tray covered with paper or plastic film.
The tray is placed in the freezer so that the berries are frozen. It will take from one to several hours (depending on the capacity of the freezer).
The gooseberry berries, hard as beads, are poured into plastic bags, making portions of about 300-500 grams so that frozen berries do not have to be thawed several times, because this greatly affects the quality of the products.
If the gooseberry is thick and has a thick skin, and is also well-dried, then you can not put it in the freezer for the initial freezing, but immediately pack it, without tamping, in plastic containers and put it in the freezer. Capacity for freezing gooseberry is better to take small and low. In such a container berries quickly frozen, without losing the original form.
How to freeze gooseberries with sugar
Dry prepared gooseberry berries are put in small plastic containers or cut tetrapacks and sprinkled with sugar. The gooseberry containers are immediately put in the freezer and frozen. But it is possible to put the gooseberry with sugar in the refrigerator for a while, wait until the sugar gives the juice and only then put it in the freezer, after closing the container well.
How to freeze gooseberry puree with sugar
If the gooseberry is perepsel or has a thin skin, then it is best to cook mashed potatoes out of it. To do this, washed berries of the gooseberry without tails are crushed. It is desirable for this to use not a meat grinder, but tolkushku, so that the berries do not come into contact with metal parts and do not lose most of the vitamins because of this.
Then, each kilogram of gooseberry puree is mixed with 300-400 g of sugar (depending on the degree of acid of the berries), mixed, packaged in small portions of containers, not poured to the top, and slightly cooled in the refrigerator. Then the container is covered with lids and put into the freezer.
In the same way, you can make mashed potatoes without adding sugar.
How to freeze gooseberries in syrup
If the gooseberry has a very thin skin, and the berries themselves are slightly perepseli, then they can be frozen in sugar syrup.
To do this, prepared berries of gooseberry laid out in portion containers.
Separately, boil the syrup at the rate of 500 grams of sugar per 1 liter of water, cool, and then pour the berries, without pouring about 1-2 cm to the top.
Containers are closed with lids and stored in the freezer for storage.
Such a berry is thawed, as well as gooseberry puree at room temperature or in a refrigerator. If the recipe needs whole gooseberry berries, for example, for the filling, they are used without defrosting.
Frozen gooseberries are stored for two to six months, depending on the degree of freezing.
