How to keep the lemon at home in the fridge

Information on how to preserve the lemon, is relevant not only in the season of colds. This fragrant, delicious fruit is needed by man all year round. How to keep lemons at home in the fridge so that you can at any time enjoy a dish with lemon juice, drink tea with healing citrus or decorate a perfectly preserved lemon slice cocktail?

Together with sugar or honey it turns into a treat that is good to serve for tea or coffee, decorate fruit smoothies and pastries. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain its freshness and juiciness as long as possible.

About storing whole lemons in shops and at home

According to the rules of retail chains, lemons in stores are stored at a temperature corresponding to the degree of maturity of the fruit: bright yellow - at two to three degrees of heat, light-colored (yellow and green) - at four to five degrees, fruit dark green - with six to eight Degrees. In such conditions whole fruits of lemons without damage can lie from five to nine months. Choosing every exotic fruit and thinking how to keep the lemon for a long time, you need to pay close attention to its skin.

It should be free from damage, without stains. Around the stalk (the most vulnerable part of the fetus) is a dense rough peel with the same firm structure as that of the whole citrus. Any softness of the fruit shortens the shelf life of the fruit. Even bright yellow, quite mature lemons are suitable only for use in food for three to seven days, that is right after the purchase. If you decide to buy more citrus for one reason or another, then the most appropriate in this case is to take slightly greenish, not ripe fruits with a dense texture and good quality.

Ways of storing lemons: term and further application

To decide how to keep lemons at home, you need to decide how they will be used further. It is known, for example, that most people do not eat citrus altogether, even if a family of several people is drinking tea at a table, so it must be kept in mind and at the same time not to spoil or dry it. To the lemon was always "at hand", it is placed in a special lemongrass, slice stacked on a stand.

In the same way, the exotic fruit can be laid on a saucer. Experienced advise, before you save the lemon in this way, treat the dishes in the place of adherence, pour a little sugar (which is useful for tea) or salt, rub the stand with vinegar, if you have to use citrus fruit for salads, sauces, and second courses. But the easiest way to avoid drying the delicious fruit is the following: the cut off "lid" of the lemon is not thrown away, but cover it with a slice and attach the toothpick to the center. This simple method helps to use lemon for at least a week, and also eliminates the drying of the peel and flesh of the fetus.

If you have to store lemons for a long time, you can choose any of the methods suitable for this purpose: place it in the lower compartment of the refrigerator, wrapped in cellophane (or parchment paper); Fill up slices with sugar (if you plan to use them only for dessert) or pour them with honey; Salted or pickled for spicy dishes. The longest time is to keep the lemon frozen.

At a temperature of +6 ... + 8 ° С

Lemon is a tropical fruit and can survive several days at room temperature, but not more than a week. Further, its delicious pulp will begin to dry very quickly or become covered with bluish mildew. How to keep lemons at home? For this, the lower compartment of the refrigerator and the cellophane film are usually used. After the citrus fruits are delivered home, it is better to remove the shop packaging, replacing it with a new packing bag. The myth that lemons store better in a cellophane wrapper wrapper is erroneous. The temperature drop in it, while you bring the citrus home, causes condensation to drop out, which can provoke spoilage of the skin and the entire fetus. From other ways of storing lemons, experienced housewives choose wrapping each fruit with parchment paper. Then the fruits are put in a box and covered with sand or flour, but so that they do not come in contact with each other. This container is usually put on a balcony or placed in a cellar so that the temperature is not lower than + 5-6 degrees.

How to keep lemons at home in the fridge

This technique for storing food is a real find for the long-term maintenance of lemons in its original form. If you choose moderately ripe fruits (not overgrown) without any signs of spoilage, they can be stored in the lower compartment for vegetables and fruits in a dry cellophane bag with a plastic clasp up to six to nine months. You can pour whole citrus with water, but after a day you need to change it and thoroughly wash the fruit.

In addition, it is possible to prepare lobules from lemons in sugar and honey. Plates of exotic fruit cut and stacked in a dry glass container on a "pillow" of sugar, pouring slices of lemon next layers. A filled jar of dessert can be left at room temperature or placed in a refrigerator, shaking the container from time to time, so that the sugar evenly melts. Then the settled delicacy is replenished with fresh pieces of citrus and is watched so that the top layer is made of sugar. Since the moment when the carbohydrate melts, the jar is kept only in the refrigerator.

The technology of how to preserve the lemon with honey, completely coincides with the dessert of sugar. But this time the product is more dietary and healthy.

Freezing

Contrary to the established myth that at too low temperatures, vitamin C is destroyed, it is frost that allows this powerful antioxidant to be stored for the longest time without loss of useful properties. Before you save lemons for a long time, you need to thoroughly wash them with a brush and pour boiling water for a couple of minutes. This will help remove the thin wax film, which covers the fruit before transport. It protects exotic fruits from spoilage while moving from the lemon tree to the consumer. After drying the peel, you can grind the lemons with it, because it is it is rich in most of the nutrients that characterize the value of the fruit. Deciding how to keep lemons at home in the refrigerator, you can start cooking.

If you freeze lemon juice, you can squeeze fresh juice, pour ice molds and put them in the freezer. After the cubes are ready, you need to put them in a plastic container with a lid or cellophane bag with a clasp. You can also freeze beautiful cubes, in which there will be not just juice, but juice with the pulp of lemon.

Grinded peel with a grater can also be frozen on a separate packing bag so that it does not fade, and then pour it into a container. It is perfect for sprinkling desserts and any dishes. In restaurants, sometimes freeze whole lemons , and then before serving tinder them on a grater, sprinkling dishes.

But how to preserve the lemon for a long time, to decorate the cocktail with a beautiful slice? To do this, cut beautiful pieces and lay them on a packing bag in rows, with small gaps (so that the fruit does not freeze). Then the rows of lobules are folded and the compact packing is sent to the freezer. After freezing, the lobules are carefully removed and placed in a container. The question of how to keep lemons for a long time in the form of lemon slices or small sectors (which are easily broken off if necessary) will be resolved.

Unique recipes: salted and pickled lemons

For spicy dishes, salads and savory snacks, marinated or salted lemons are perfect - a unique gift to the world's culinary arts from Moroccan cuisine. Carefully washed and dried from moisture citrus cut into pieces, except for one fruit from which the juice is squeezed. A sheet of laurel, a pinch of cinnamon and a coarse-grained salt are placed on the bottom of the glass container. Then add the plates of all the lemons and pour the juice. At the same time, all voids are filled with salt.

Such a preparation is used in salads and second courses, vitaminizes them, but as a rule, extra salt is not necessary to salt. For spicy dishes and salads, as well as lovers of tequila, marinated lemons will suit. For 6-7 fruits take 0.5 liters of water, a glass (250 g) of coarse or sea salt and 6-7 leaves of laurel. Average size lemons rinse, scald with boiling water, cool. Then crosswise cut 70% of the length of each fruit, inside put a good pinch of salt and bay leaf. Put the prepared fruits in a liter jar with a cut downward, fill with salt and pour warm boiled water. Spice lovers can be fantasized by adding cloves, sweet peas, cinnamon sticks, chili peppers (fresh or dried) to the marinade. Such an uncommon snack will please the guests after strong drinks, as well as give spicy notes to spicy sauces, stews or fish.