Red currant: freezing for the winter

Perhaps the most popular among berry crops is red currant. It is considered a hypoallergenic product and has a pleasant sour taste. Even if you freeze red currants, a lot of substances useful to humans are preserved in its composition.

The juice of this berry perfectly quenches thirst, tones up, restores the strength of people weakened by the disease, and increases appetite. As a source of ascorbic acid and vitamin P, red currant is indicated for colds and as their prevention.

The benefits of frozen red currant

When frozen, the berry retains all its beneficial properties, as well as vitamin and mineral reserves, with virtually no loss of taste – that is why it is advisable to freeze red currants for harvesting for the winter. The advantages of freezing over heat treatment are obvious: although jam is tastier, there are not so many benefits for the body, since most of the vitamins are inevitably destroyed when heated.

Preparing red currants for freezing

What steps should the preparation of red currants for freezing consist of:

1. In order for the frozen berry to be usable after defrosting, at the very first and important stage, it is necessary to sort out and remove overripe, cracked or rotten berries, as well as leaves and insects that sometimes get into the harvested crop.
2. The next step is to wash the currants. The best way to do this is to put them in a colander and place them under cool running water.
3. Then you should lay out the red currant on a clean, dry cloth in order to remove excess moisture. Additionally, you can blot the berries on top with a soft cloth or paper towel.

How to freeze red currants for the winter in the freezer

Next, it is necessary to carry out preliminary cooling so that the currant does not suffer from subsequent intensive freezing. In addition, this procedure will allow it to retain juiciness and taste after defrosting.

So:

1. Dried red currants are put in an open container, it is advisable to use something like a colander.
2. Place in the refrigerator (not in the freezer!) for two hours.
3. Arranged in containers or plastic bags.
4. Freeze already thoroughly.

Dry freezing of whole berries

This is one of the most popular freezing methods, as it removes some of the hassle of drying currants and pre-cooling from the hostess. In order to properly freeze red currants in the freezer in a dry way, you should:

1. Wipe washed berries with a cloth.
2. Loosely on a flat surface, such as a tray, place in the freezer.
3. After some time (no more than an hour), the currants already caught by frost are laid out in bags or containers.
4. Return to freezer.

Freezing berries on twigs

For harvesting, it is desirable to use fresh, recently picked, berries.

The sequence of actions is similar to the previous method. Here also:

1. The washed branches are washed, dried.
2. Subjected to preliminary freezing.
3. This is followed by the layout of the berries in containers and a thorough freezing in the freezer.

This method, of course, can be shortened and do without drying: the currants are simply placed in a colander so that the water is glassed, and after a few hours, they are laid out in bags or jars and immediately frozen. But then you need to be prepared for the fact that after freezing, ice crusts may appear on the berries.

Red currant with sugar

This simple method of freezing berry raw materials is otherwise called “raw jam”. It, of course, cannot replace the usual one, but it is an almost natural crushed berry, only slightly sweetened. They don’t take much sugar – 1 kg (or less) per 2 kg of currants is enough.

Steps to get this product:

1. The washed raw materials are covered with sugar and mixed.
2. Let stand for several hours.
3. Then pass through a meat grinder.
4. The resulting mass is laid out in plastic containers (yogurt bottles can be used).
5. Placed in the freezer.

Berry puree

Usually this product is made using a blender or meat grinder. The resulting mass is passed through a sieve. Sugar can be added to such a preparation, but if freezing then follows, quite a bit: for 1 kg of berry mass, only 200 g of granulated sugar.

The procedure is as follows:

1. Pure selected currants are crushed with a blender.
2. In small portions, stirring, add sugar.
3. The mixture is allowed to stand for the sugar to dissolve.
4. Grind again.
5. Pass through a sieve.
6. The finished product is laid out and covered with lids.
7. The puree is placed in the freezer.

How to defrost berries

There are several ways. Here is one of them:

1. Currants are taken out of the freezer.
2. Spread a thin layer on a flat surface and let the berries lie down at room temperature on a clean, dry cloth or just on a dish.

Jars of frozen mashed potatoes are simply put on the table as needed.

For slow, but most gentle defrosting, a container with berry raw materials is simply placed in the refrigerator. It usually takes at least 1-5 hours to defrost 6 kg of workpiece.

Modern housewives, of course, prefer to put the container in the microwave oven, setting the “quick defrost” mode. It should be borne in mind that red currant is a small berry, so it is important that it does not start to heat up after melting.

Terms and conditions of storage

It is believed that any frozen fruits can be safely stored throughout the winter-spring season until the next harvest. In fact, much depends on whether high-quality ripe raw materials were taken for freezing, whether they were processed correctly, and whether premature defrosting occurred. The storage temperature is also very important.

On the contrary, having undergone the correct preliminary preparation, well-frozen at deep freezing (not higher than -18 ° C), red currant is able to retain its taste and useful properties for up to three years. But mashed potatoes with sugar – no more than a year.

Conclusion

Freezing red currants is quite simple. It can be stored for a long time and then easily thawed. The thawed berry is used to prepare a variety of drinks and dishes. But it is quite possible to simply feast on red currants – it perfectly retains all its beneficial properties.