Gooseberry freeze: features and recipes

Berries - one of the most popular delicacies in the summer. They are rich in vitamins and are an excellent decoration for the most diverse desserts. In order for you to enjoy this delicacy all year round, they need to be frozen. Freezing is the best way to preserve food for a long period at home. In this article we will consider the freezing of berries on the example of gooseberry.

The clear advantage is that when using this method of storage your fruit will retain all the necessary vitamins. In the same jam or compote, the beneficial properties are almost 80% less than in frozen berries. On top of that, fruits will not lose their natural taste and smell. And modern freezers easily cope with the task.

If you freeze the gooseberries correctly, then even after several months of refrigerated storage, they will not lose their original appearance and calorie count. All the vitamins are preserved in the berries: B1, B2, vitamin C in the same amount as in the fruits that have just been plucked from the bushes.

At some points, products from the refrigerator are even better than fresh ones. For example, frozen gooseberries contain almost no harmful chemical elements such as lead or agents used during plant prevention and pest control.

You can also compare frozen berries with those sold in supermarkets in the winter. However, in this case, the berries from your refrigerator are ahead of greenhouse products in many ways.

To keep the gooseberry berries in their original form, you can store them in new plastic bags or plastic containers with a tight-fitting lid. Never store frozen fruit in bags that you once used for other purposes, as they are unlikely to be airtight, and most likely have already absorbed the smell of other products.

And also do not store frozen gooseberries in glass containers. Banks and similar dishes will crack while in the freezer, thereby spoiling the whole dessert for you.

Experienced housewives advise to store this product in small containers. And there are reasons for this. For example, in a large bowl your delicacy will freeze for a very long time. Small portions are much more practical to defrost, because you do not have to take out one large container from the refrigerator, and freeze the extra part again. Plastic containers with a capacity of 500 g are considered ideal for storing gooseberries.

The crop should be placed in the dishes, slightly tamping the product, so that all the unwanted air comes out of the container. However, do not overdo it, otherwise you will get gooseberry puree instead of whole berries. Try to choose transparent containers, it is much more convenient. If you have all the dishes opaque, you can sign with a marker. So you don’t have to open it every time, checking which particular delicacy you have. And the periodic penetration of air into the container will negatively affect the berries.

Gooseberry is not very popular compared to other berries. However, this berry is the best able to maintain a high immunity in the human body.

Below we take a closer look at how to choose a gooseberry in order to freeze it later.

1. In the modern world there are a huge number of varieties of this berry. Ripened fruits are light yellow, transparent, reddish and light green. There are varieties, the ripeness of which can be determined only by the characteristic points appearing on the skins of the berries.
2. The amount of nutrients contained in this berry, depends entirely on its color. The most useful are white or light green berries. Reddish culture is very sweet. And the darker the shade, the sweeter the gooseberry. Therefore, burgundy - the sweetest.

Only whole berries should be frozen. Unripe or damaged berries are not allowed.

1. Before harvesting, be sure to touch the fruits with your hands. Ripe gooseberry elastic. If the berries are pressed through, it means they are overwhelmed. And if it is too hard, then you should postpone the collection of fruits.
2. If you want to freeze the gooseberries longer than one winter, then when you collect the fruit, try to pick the berries together with the stem. This small detail allows you to save a very large amount of vitamins.
3. After you have dried the gooseberries, carefully check that there is no moisture at the base of the berry, next to the stem. So you will avoid rotting the product. If you do not have the opportunity to freeze it immediately after harvesting or buying it on the market, then put it in a place where there is no solar and electric light. This place should be well ventilated.
4. If you are going to freeze the berries a few days after harvesting, then in this case they are stored only in the refrigerator. But they should not be washed. Unwashed berries are stored in the refrigerator for one and a half - two months.

After you have gathered your culture, experts do not recommend to pull with the preparation.

• Ideally, gooseberry berries should be placed in the refrigerator for a couple of hours after harvest. However, this is possible only if you collect it from your garden. The sooner you prepare your fruit, the better the frozen delicacy will be.
• Before freezing the gooseberries, they must be washed and cleaned from the leaves. Take care of the cleaning, it is important that in the process you do not damage the fruit. Some housewives freeze the berries directly from the petals, and clean them after defrosting just before serving.

• Collect only fully ripened berries. If you freeze unripe fruits, after defrosting, they will not transfer any taste, even with the addition of large amounts of sugar. Useful properties and vitamins in such instances are also not preserved.
• If you decide to store gooseberries all winter only in dry form, then the berries must be very carefully selected. Not every variety is suitable for such freezing. Take those berries that have a very sweet inside and thick skin.
• Fruits with thin skin are better suited for sweet gooseberry puree. Such berries are well cooked with water-based syrup. When immersing berries in syrup and subsequent freezing, you can be sure that no fruit will be damaged.

• Harvesting should be done immediately after sunrise early in the morning, so that there is no dew on the fruit. So you will avoid excess moisture before storage.
• Next, you need to individually sort out the berries of the gooseberry, clean from debris, dirt, weed out the damaged or damaged specimens, remove the leaves.
• Rinse the gooseberries well. It is not recommended to wash in hot or warm water. Drain through a colander, spread out and wait for complete drying.
• Dry the berries again.

Below will be considered cooking recipes and storage nuances of this delicacy.

In order to prepare the mixture, select overripe berries. It is advisable to take those who have the thinnest skin. And whisk with a blender or mixer.

However, for these purposes it is better to use a wooden powder, and work by hand. The fact is that when the berries touch the metal leg of the mixer, they are oxidized, and they do not preserve vitamins.

One kilogram of gooseberry is filled with 350 grams of sugar and mixed thoroughly. Having a little having insisted, mashed potatoes are poured in a container and goes to freeze.

Prepare a large bowl in advance and place the washed, peeled and dried berries there.

A kilogram of gooseberry poured 400 grams of sugar.Only in this case should be mixed very carefully, slowly. In order not to damage the fruit. Make sure that every instance is filled with sugar. After that, you can send it to a plastic dish and put it in the freezer.

If you have collected fruits with thin skin, but do not want to mash them, you can freeze them in a special syrup. Dry the berries and place them in small plastic containers.

The syrup is made with your own hands: diluted with sugar and water in a ratio of 1: 2. After it becomes cool, it is poured into containers with gooseberry so that the topmost berry remains under the liquid. You should not fill the containers to the top, the distance to the top of the dish should remain about 1 cm. Hermetically close the container and leave in the freezer.

When you want to defrost a dessert, you just need to take the dishes out of the fridge and wait until the delicacy has completely melted.

Prepare a pair of trays. Cover them with food paper. Then spread the dried gooseberries and leave in the freezer for 2 hours. After it hardens, you can shift it to cellophane and send it to the freezer for long-term storage.

For this preparation you will need 1 kg of sugar, 1 kg of gooseberry and orange.

Orange should be cut into small slices and cleaned from the seed. Peel is not necessary to remove. Prepare the gooseberry and, peeling it, mince along with the orange. Cover all this mass with sugar and mix well. You can add grated lemon. Then you can lay out on containers and send it to the freezer.

According to reviews, this is the most delicious recipe.

Gooseberry is very beneficial for children and teenagers. These berries are able to protect the body from many viral diseases. They are considered a real salvation in the winter during beriberi.

See how to make a delicious gooseberry and orange dessert in the next video.