Cranberry is an extremely useful berry with a pleasant sour taste. It contains a lot of vitamin C, as well as minerals, iodine salts, pectin and tannins. Juices, jellies, jams, jams, compotes are prepared from this berry, and they are also mashed with sugar and honey and frozen fresh. Let’s consider how to store cranberries for the winter and not lose all the vitamins that are in it. Don’t worry if you picked an unripe berry, in the article we will tell you how to save such a cranberry and let it ripen at home. At the end, several recipes for sweet berry storage options are added.
How to store fresh cranberries
To collect berries, you should buy special tools that do not crush cranberries, leaving the fruits intact. Cranberries are harvested three times a year:
- in September;
- after the first frost;
- in early spring.
After proper collection, this berry does not spoil so quickly. How long you can store cranberries without a refrigerator at room temperature depends on the method of processing freshly picked berries:
- selected ripe unwashed berries – 3 days;
- washed ripe berries – 1 day.
For long-term storage, berries are sorted, thoroughly washed and dried. Crushed unripe, as well as overripe cranberries are used to prepare compote, fruit juice or jam, it is immediately processed. Berries that were collected after frost or in the spring are also immediately processed. They are carefully sorted, then dried or frozen.
Without freezing, the shelf life of fresh cranberries can be long if the air temperature is in the range from -2 to +2 °C and the humidity is 65-70%.
Cranberries contain benzoic acid, a natural preservative that prevents bacteria from multiplying. Therefore, it can remain fresh for a long time at a low temperature. This feature was known even by our ancestors, who without refrigerators kept it until spring.
For long-term storage in fresh form without processing, dry, clean berries are placed in a basket or box and taken to a room where the above temperature and humidity are maintained. You can store cranberries:
- on the balcony;
- in the cellar;
- in the basement
How to store unripe cranberries
Only those unripe berries that have a red color are suitable for storage. Green cranberries do not ripen when picked!
Storing cranberries at home is organized at room temperature. For storage, you should take a wicker basket or a cardboard box, cover the bottom and walls with a clean towel and carefully pour unripe berries. Put it in a warm place – you can put it in the room or in the kitchen.
At a house temperature of 18-20 °C and a humidity of 70%, the berries will become ripe in 1.5-2 weeks. After that, they need to be sorted.
To make cranberries ripen faster, you can put an apple in the container. This fruit releases ethylene, thanks to which an unripe berry can be “forced” to become ripe faster. Cut the apple in half and store it that way. Change the halves when they are dry to prevent them from rotting.
In the fridge
If there is free space, you can store fresh cranberries in the refrigerator, packing them in containers with lids. Only elastic berries without dents are suitable for long-term storage. It is very convenient to buy several small plastic containers with a tight lid of 250-300 ml and spread the berries in portions.
The storage period is up to 6 months at a temperature of 3-5 °C near the wall of the refrigerator. It is also possible to store collected garden or forest cranberries in the “freshness zone” at 0 °C for up to six months.
In the freezer
Cranberry perfectly tolerates freezing, as it completely preserves its color, taste and benefits. Carefully selected berries are washed, dried and placed in small containers or plastic bags in portions. Special reusable zip-lock bags can also be used for freezing. It is important that the berries are dry, as they can stick together during storage.
Frozen cranberries at a temperature of -10 to -18 °C have a shelf life of up to five years.
Such a long shelf life is explained by the fact that the berries contain tannins that prevent them from spoiling.
If you have a special flat shelf in the refrigerator for freezing berries, be sure to use it. The temperature during freezing should be minimal, from -18 °C and below. After 3 hours, the berries should be poured into a container or packaged. It should be frozen in one layer. For storage, you can set a temperature of -10 °C. When storing, you should provide a tight cover for the container so that the berries are not permeated with extraneous odors.
You can also grind the berries with sugar and freeze in the form of puree. To do this, it is packaged in plastic containers or bags with a fastener in portions, and stored at a temperature of -10 to -18 °C. The term, how long cranberries are stored in the freezer in this form, is 3 years.
Remember that cranberry berries cannot be thawed again.
In the water
Cold water is one of the oldest ways of storing berries. To do this, carefully selected ripe elastic berries are washed and placed in an enamel container, then poured with clean well water.
Cranberries should be properly stored in water at a temperature of about 0 °C for 6 months. To do this, the container must be placed on a balcony, in a cellar, in a basement or taken out to an unheated garage.
There is no need to change the water, the berries secrete preservatives that protect them from rotting. The only important condition is that the room must be clean, without fungus and mold.
How to store dried cranberries
Drying is an excellent way to store berries. This can be done in several ways, the most popular of which are fresh air, an oven and a household electric dryer.
Outdoors
Clean, dry, carefully selected berries are placed on a tray and dried for several weeks in the open air at a temperature of 25-30 °C in the shade. You can take them to the attic or put the tray on the balcony, covering it with cheesecloth.
It is necessary to carefully mix the berries from time to time, throw out those that have begun to spoil. The berry is ready when it becomes elastic, but does not fall apart when pressed.
In the oven
You can also dry cranberries in the oven at a temperature of 50 °C for 4-5 hours. To do this, they are dried with the door slightly open, until they become elastic, but no longer sticky.
You can pour over the berries for storage only after they have completely cooled.
In an electric dryer
If you have a special household dryer, you can cook cranberries in it. Berries are scattered on pallets in one layer so that they do not come into contact with each other. When drying in an electric dryer, it is necessary to change the pallets every hour to speed up the process. Depending on the model and power of the device, the drying process can take from 6 to 10 hours.
Dried cranberries should be cooled, then poured into a container for storage. It is worth noting in which dish it is better to store dried berries. It is poured into a glass or plastic container and stored in a dark, cool place at a temperature of 10-20 °C under a tightly closed lid. The storage period is 12 months.
If you want to store berries longer, you should put the containers in the freezer. The storage time of frozen dried cranberries is up to 2 years.
Cranberry in sugar
An effective way to preserve all the properties of cranberries is to prepare them in a jar with sugar without boiling.
- Layers of berries and sugar are poured into dry, clean, sterile glass jars. The top layer should be sugar. Tightly closed cans should be kept at a temperature of 0-5 °C in a cellar, basement, garage, on a balcony or in a refrigerator.
- There is also a delicious preparation of cranberries with honey for the winter. Washed, dry, fresh cranberries should be rubbed through a sieve or crushed with a blender, add honey in a 1:1 ratio. Put the berry mashed in this way into a jar and keep it in the refrigerator on the top shelf at a temperature of 5 °C.
- Another popular way to preserve berries for a long time is to prepare candied fruit. To do this, the berries are boiled in a thick syrup, turning off every 15 minutes so that they soak in the syrup and cool down. The process takes 3-4 hours until the berries become translucent. Then they are filtered and laid out on a baking sheet or other surface, in one layer. Prepared berries should be heated in an oven heated to 50 °C for 2 hours and cooled.
This method of preparation does not make the berries useful, as vitamin C is destroyed during heat treatment. Candied fruit should be stored in the refrigerator in a tightly closed container on the middle shelf or on the door at a temperature of 5 °C.
Other storage methods
Jams, compotes, jams and berries in their own juice are also prepared from cranberries.
All blanks are stored, like the rest of preservation, at a temperature from 5 to 25 °C:
- in the kitchen cupboard;
- in the pantry;
- in the cellar;
- on the balcony;
- in the basement;
- in the garage.
You can make thick jam from cranberries. It will become an excellent base for pies.