Since ancient times, cranberries have been called “queen-berry” for its wonderful sweet-sour taste and amazing healing properties. Even now healers often use it in their recipes, and modern medicine has scientifically proved the benefit of this berry proven for centuries.
The composition of cranberries amazes with a variety of acids, vitamins and trace elements. It is their harmonious combination that gives the berry extraordinary abilities, with which you can strengthen the immune system, cleanse the body of carcinogens and other harmful substances, prevent the formation of sclerotic plaques on the walls of blood vessels. It copes with the prevention of beriberi and is indispensable for colds. It is very useful to have cranberries on your table all year round, and for this you need to take care of its storage ahead of time, using one or several of the existing methods at once.
Storing in kind
Cranberry has strong anti-bactericidal properties due to its natural preservative, benzoic acid. That is why the berry does not need additional processing in order to be stored for a long time. It is enough to create the necessary conditions for it, and the cranberry will retain all its useful qualities for a long time.
- From time immemorial, in the conditions of a village life, cranberries were kept scattered in a dry, dark and cool room, after sorting out and dried properly. A slightly unripe berry is better suited for this storage method.
- For a long time to store cranberries in a city apartment will help her fast freezing. Only berries, harvested in early autumn, must first be fully ripened. Cranberries, before putting them in the freezer, should be carefully selected, removing garbage, diseased and damaged fruits. Next, the berries are laid out in containers or plastic bags and subjected to rapid freezing. Crop can be stored frozen for several years, and thawed berries should be eaten immediately.
- Another old-fashioned method used by our ancestors is to soak cranberries. In ancient times, it was placed in wooden barrels, poured with well water and, covered with a nest, kept in the cold part of the house. Nowadays, you can take specially purified water. Oak barrels perfectly replace modern dishes from materials that are not able to oxidize (glass, stainless steel), which are better sterilized beforehand. Before soaking the cranberries, do not forget to carefully sort, rinse and rinse with cold boiled water. Store such blanks should be in the refrigerator.
Cold billet methods with sugar
For those who plan to use cranberries as a sweet and healthy delicacy, ways to prepare it using sugar, but without heating, are perfect.
- Maximum preserves all the healing properties of berries, sprinkled with granulated sugar. To do this, the cranberries are washed, dried and placed in layers in pre-sterilized glass jars, sprinkled with sugar-sand. The last layer should also be sugar. After filling, the jar is closed with a plastic lid, shaken gently several times so that the granulated sugar is evenly distributed among the berries, and removed to the refrigerator.
- Cranberry mashed potatoes will be a tasty and healthy dessert in winter. To do this, clean and dry berries are crushed. This can be done with a blender or meat grinder, but it is preferable to use wooden tolkushku. The first two options are undoubtedly faster. However, they have one important drawback - when in contact with the metal, some useful substances are destroyed. For each kilogram of berries add a kilogram or one and a half kilograms of sugar, mix thoroughly and leave for a day at room temperature until the sugar completely dissolves. Finished puree cleaned in a cool place.
Procurement methods using heat treatment
With such options, cranberries, unfortunately, lose some of their useful substances. But harvesting berries with the help of their heating is the only way out for those who have problems with cool storage places.
- Cooking cranberries in their own juice minimizes the loss of useful qualities, because during the process the temperature does not reach 100 ° C. The technology is simple: the berries are sorted, placed in an enamel or metal pan and slowly heated until the juice is extracted from them. In no case will the mass be boiled up. The berries, along with the resulting juice, are laid out in sterile jars, covered with lids and placed for 15 minutes in a water bath. Heated banks are rolled up, left for a day under the “fur coat”, and then removed for storage.
- Another similar way is that the berries are immediately placed in clean and dry jars in a water bath, where they release juice in the heating process. With this technology, banks need to immediately fill tight. As the cranberry volume decreases, one can from the other should be gradually replenished. When the level in the banks is stabilized, continue sterilization for another 15 minutes.
- If the previous variants of preparation require the subsequent further processing of cranberries, for example, in jelly, fruit drink, sauce or jelly, then the jam or jam is immediately ready for use.
To make jam you need to boil 1 kg of cranberries in 2 cups of water until the berries burst. Then add sugar (7 glasses) and cook until ready.
To preserve a kilogram of cranberries, preliminarily pour boiling water for a few minutes, then take 2 cups of water after blanching, add 1, 5 kg of sugar to it and boil the syrup. Berries are dipped in boiling syrup and boiled until a drop begins to retain its shape.
Take care of your health! Harvest cranberries in the fall, get nutrients all winter and improve the quality of life!
