Quick freezing of vegetables, fruits, berries

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Fast freezingEvery housewife knows: if a potato accidentally freezes, then after thawing it is no longer suitable for food. The tubers become flabby, juice flows out of them, the pulp turns from white to dark. The same unpleasant consequences are obtained when cabbage, onions, beets freeze. Fresh apples, after freezing and thawing, quickly turn brown, flabby, and even with your hand you can squeeze a lot of juice.
And grocery stores sell frozen ready-made vegetable sets for soups and borscht, all kinds of frozen fruits and berries. All these products are tasty and aromatic; dishes made from them are difficult to distinguish from ordinary dishes prepared from fresh vegetables and fruits.

Frozen and frozen vegetables are not the same thing.

What's the matter? Why does the cold in some cases lead to food spoilage, while in others it preserves their quality perfectly?

It turns out that it all depends on how to freeze and then store frozen fruits and vegetables.

The most common ways to preserve food, that is, canning, are refrigeration, freezing, drying, pickling, fermentation and heating of products in hermetically sealed cans. The last method - heat sterilization - ensures the complete destruction of all harmful microorganisms. In the narrow sense of the word, sterilization is usually meant by canning, and products sterilized in cans are called canned food.

Canned food occupies an important place in our diet, their production and consumption are growing every year. But recently, canned food has a competitor - quick-frozen foods.

Which is better - sterilized canned food or frozen food? This question cannot be answered unequivocally.

Fast freezingBy using heat preservation, almost all types of food can be preserved with little loss of their nutritional value. Of course, when canning, the taste, aroma, and color of products change somewhat, but in the same way as with ordinary culinary processing at home or in a dining room. Vitamins are partially lost during sterilization, mainly vitamin C, but still a significant amount is retained.

In general, all canned food is close in quality to products
cooked, fried or otherwise cooked at home or in catering establishments. The main advantage of canned food is its long-lasting ability. storage under normal conditions.

Freezing allows better than any other method to preserve the natural properties of products - their taste, aroma, color, appearance. But that's not the point.

The content of all the main nutrients in food does not change when properly frozen, vitamins are almost not destroyed. In contrast to sterilized frozen products, in all quality indicators, they are close to fresh, natural products. This distinguishes freezing from other methods of preparing food for future use.

But frozen foods also have a drawback: they can only be stored frozen, at low temperatures (minus 12-1B degrees). Not only thawing, but even sub-zero temperatures, close to zero, reduce their quality and lead to spoilage.

Therefore, both canned and quick-frozen foods are needed. So far, however, the overwhelming majority of frozen foods are meat and fish products. There are not enough frozen vegetables and fruits. But their number is growing every year.

What Happens With Natural Freezing ...

In vegetables and fruits, even after they are harvested, respiration processes, sometimes ripening, continue to occur.The enzymes that are present in every cell continue, albeit with some disruption, to regulate numerous biochemical processes... If the temperature is lowered, for example, to zero, all these processes slow down.

As soon as the tissues freeze, the cells lose their vital functions. Ice crystals are formed from their juice. Natural freezing is usually slow, and ice crystals grow larger than the cells themselves. The thinnest cell walls are torn apart. The result is a shapeless mass of flabby consistency. Much juice spontaneously flows out of thawed tissues, and the nutritional value of fruits and vegetables decreases. The oxidative enzymes remaining in the tissues in the presence of atmospheric oxygen begin to quickly affect some of the constituent parts of vegetables and fruits, and they darken and take on an unpleasant appearance.

... and that with artificial freezing

When quick-frozen vegetables and fruits are prepared, they are first of all thoroughly washed, inedible parts are removed - seed nests of apples, seeds peaches, apricots etc. Many large fruits and vegetables are cut into halves, slices, mugs, columns. This is done not only to ensure fast and uniform freezing, but also for the convenience of consumers.

The next important process is blanching, that is, short-term (no more than 2.5-5 minutes) scalding with hot water or steam. The main purpose of blanching is to destroy the active enzymes that cause browning.

Blanching is followed by the most important process - freezing... The lower the freezing temperature, the more cold is supplied to the product per unit of time, the more "crystallization centers" are formed in the cells at the same time and the finer the ice crystals. The freezing speed largely determines the high quality of the product.

In the food industry, high-performance, continuously operating fast freezers of artificial cold are used. They provide a temperature not higher than minus 35 degrees, and new installations - even lower.

When such quick-frozen products are thawed, only a relatively small part of the cells is destroyed, the juice is lost in an insignificant amount, and the quality of vegetables and fruits remains high. Further depends on proper storage - it is necessary to maintain approximately the same minus temperature.

Immediately after freezing, the products are placed in refrigerating chambers; transported in refrigerated wagons or auto bodies, and in grocery stores they are kept in refrigerated counters. And at home, if the food is not immediately put into business, you need to put them in the freezer of the refrigerator or take them out into the cold in winter.

Unlimited assortment

Most vegetables, berries, and fruits can be quickly frozen. The industry has already mastered a fairly wide range of such products - green peas, green beans, cauliflower, beets, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, spicy herbs, sorrel, spinach. Sets of southern vegetables - gyuvech, as well as frozen fruits: peaches, plums, apricots, persimmons - have become popular. Fewer yet quick-frozen strawberries, cherries, cherries, grapes, apples, tangerines, melons.

All products are sold in cardboard boxes with sealed polyethylene or cellophane liners. Fruit frozen in sugar syrup, packaged in glass or tin cans and hermetically sealed.

Some frozen fruits, such as plums, persimmon, as well as tomatoes can be stored in bulk, in large boxes and sold by weight.

Vegetables, without defrosting, are poured into a saucepan with boiling salted water and cooked until tender. They can be served as an independent dish, seasoned with sour cream, butter, or as garnish... Fruits and berries are thawed without removing from a transparent bag, and eaten in their natural form or compotes are prepared from them.

Frozen vegetables and fruits bought by weight, without factory packaging, must, of course, be thoroughly rinsed with cold water.

In recent years, the food industry has embarked on the production of fully cooked frozen ready-to-eat first and second courses. Before eating them, you just need to warm them up or boil them. How convenient it is!

The factory prepares any vegetable, meat and vegetable, meat or a fish dish the way it is done at home or in
dining room. Then they are placed in boxes made of moisture-proof material, sealed and frozen in the same way as individual vegetables or fruits. Ready meals can be stored in individual packaging or in small "blocks" of several portions for many months, transported in refrigerated vehicles over long distances.

In a factory kitchen, in a dining room or at home, it will take only a few minutes to warm up and cook any such dish. Soups, without defrosting, are dipped in a saucepan with hot water and wait until the mass melts and boils. The second dishes are heated directly in the frying pan.

The products of canneries contain quick-frozen borscht, cabbage soup, meat and vegetable soup, kharcho, green cabbage soup, pickle with kidneys; from the second courses - pancakes with meat, pancakes with curd, meat stew, beef stroganoff, cutlets and much more.

We especially recommend the recently commercially available frozen semi-fried potatoes, sometimes called side dishes. It is cut into small columns and fried until half cooked. Without defrosting, pour the potatoes into a hot pan with vegetable oil or any animal fat and mix slightly. After 4-5 minutes, you get tender, fried potatoes, suitable as a side dish for meat or fish and as an independent dish.

Director of the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of the Canning Industry, Candidate of Technical Sciences A.F. Namestnikov,

"Health", 1970


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