Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Eating and Drinking => Cooking, Storing and Preserving => Topic started by: rowlandwells on February 19, 2018, 17:23
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after our seasonal harvest of strawberries red and white currants and raspberries the bulk of them are put in the freezer for a later date
the Q. is why does the frozen fruit like strawberries and raspberries when defrosted loose its sweetness and need a spoon or two of sugar are we doing something wrong when freezing or is it because there frozen we wash and freeze in the bag rather than individually
any advise would be most appreciated
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It might be because a lot of the natural sweetness is defrosting into the juice. I freeze on trays for an hour or two and then bag up. It means you can pour out what you need and they defrost very fast. If they do stick together a bit, a gentle bash is all that is needed to separate them.
The faster you can freeze, the less damage to plant cells and the better the defrosted product.
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many thanks for that advise new shoot
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Some freezers have a 'when you fill up your freezer, let it freeze harder' button (I have no clue what the name is in English!). This comes in handy when freezing your fruit. Commonly the top drawer is the coldest: despite the dropping of cold air. In the summer I keep this shelf empty and spread small fruit on a baking sheet. Like NewShoot for an hour or two.
I used to freeze the fruit in jars, but this makes a big difference.
Freezing will always damage the cells, so you will stil lose juice and the fruit wil look a little dented on top of a cake.