Unfortunately, those fresh cucumbers that are offered in stores in the winter are very different from those available in the summer season (less flavorful and of a different taste). Therefore, many housewives try to stock up on the product from the summer, and since it does not apply to vegetables with a long shelf life, it is necessary to resort to some tricks to preserve them. We will talk about them further.
How to choose cucumbers for the winter that you can store at home
Not all varieties of cucumbers can be stored for a long time. So, for example, salad varieties, no matter how you try, you will not be able to save for a long time. But salting, late varieties are able to lie before the winter holidays.
These include:
These varieties are able to produce fruits right up to frost. The later the fruits are picked, the longer they will lie. Before laying greenhouses for the winter, you need to carefully select it. They should be up to 80 mm long, medium thickness, with a dense skin with tubercles and uniform color. Watery fruits with thin skin will quickly deteriorate.Important! It is necessary to lay in storage only unwashed and dry fruits. If condensation has formed on them, first wipe and dry them on a towel, and then send them for storage.
The seed chamber should not be large and the seed large. The thorns on the tubercles are black or dark. It is advisable to select those cucumbers on which the stalk has survived. It protects the pulp from the premature decomposition process. If you buy vegetables at the market or in the store, then inspect them very carefully, since before they get to the counter they could travel for a long time.
At what temperature and under what conditions should cucumbers be stored?
Duration of storage of cucumbers depends on the ambient temperature:
- at + 10 ... + 15 ° С no more than 4 days;
- at + 5 ... + 8 ° С - a week;
- at 0 ... + 4 ° С - 28 days;
- at -14 ... -18 ° С - up to 9 months.
Regarding air humidity, the data varies. Some sources claim that moist air can provoke the development of putrefactive processes, and dry air can draw moisture out of the fetus and make it wrinkled, tasteless. According to GOST (storage of cucumbers sold in retail), vegetables grown in open ground should be stored at a relative humidity of 85–90%. According to the same GOST, the optimum temperature conditions for a greenhouse vegetable are + 10 ... + 14 ° С, and for an unpaved one - + 7 ... + 10 ° С.Did you know? Cucumber, as a garden culture, came to us from the foot of the Himalayas, where it still grows in the wild today.
The best ways to store cucumbers at home
It is not always possible to create the conditions described above and strictly adhere to them at home. There are some simple ways that will help keep cucumbers fresh for a long time.
In banks
Most often, pickles are stored in jars, but in a glass container, you can also save crops without the use of preservatives. You need to select small, dense, whole cucumbers, wipe them dry and fill them with a three-liter sterile jar. The fruits must not be folded at the very neck, but so that a third of the tank remains free from above.
A low candle is installed on the vegetables (its top should be flush with the neck of the jar or lower). The candle is lit and left for 10 minutes. This time is enough for the oxygen in the bank to burn out. Then the jar is covered with a lid. The candle will burn out and go out for another half a minute. Harvested in this way, the crop can be stored for 3-4 months in the refrigerator or basement.
In a barrel
This method was very popular among our ancestors, and now some rural residents resort to it. To use this storage method, you must have a body of water near your home. A wooden barrel is taken, scalded and dried thoroughly. The bottom is covered with horseradish leaves. Cucumbers are laid out on top.
Did you know? Smooth-skin cucumbers are popular in Europe, therefore Europeans christened the fruits with spikes “Russian cucumbers” or in a “Russian shirt”, since for our people these cucumbers are considered real.
They are located vertically and tail down. Another layer of horseradish leaves is laid out on top. The barrel is tightly closed by a lid and lowered to the bottom of the reservoir. In the darkness and airless space, at a constantly low temperature, cucumbers will be able to lie until the January holidays.
In the glacier cellar
Using a cellar to store food supplies is quite common. It can hold a temperature of + 8 ° C, so here you can store cucumbers in boxes covered with newspapers. Duration of storage 10-14 days.
If the cellar is equipped with a glacier, most often a hole filled with ice, then the crop can be stored in another way. Similarly, as in the previous case with the barrel, the container is filled with cucumbers, but without horseradish. Instead, vegetables are poured with spring water. The container tightly closes and falls into the glacier.
In a head of cabbage
To use this method, you need to start preparation from planting a crop. Cucumbers and cabbage are planted nearby. When the cabbages begin to form, a cucumber is placed in them, without picking from the bush. Cabbage leaves tightly wrapped the green fruit, isolating it from light and air. When harvesting cabbage, cabbages are dug up from the ground and stacked in the basement, roots up.
Important! The method of storage in cabbage has one serious drawback - the probability of the onset of rotting of a head of cabbage, and, consequently, of a cucumber, is very high. As a result, you can lose the yield of both crops. Yes, and in this way you can not harvest a lot of green fruits.
For seeds
Some hostesses prefer to harvest seed on their own. To get good seeds of cucumbers you need to properly preserve the fruit. To do this, he is left in the garden until complete ripening and yellowing. To prevent the fruit from starting to rot, you can put a wooden board under it. It is better to leave the vegetable on the bush at the end of the season, as new ones will not be tied until the previous ones are collected. On seeds it is better to let female fruits.
They have a square section (four ribs). Some recommend leaving the cucumber right up to the frost. Temperature jumps harden the seed. Outside the garden at home, it is extremely difficult to bring the fetus to the desired state. You can, of course, try putting it next to fruits that produce ethylene in a relatively warm room. But the likelihood is very low that the fetus will ripen, not rot.
What is the best way to store cucumbers: in the refrigerator or at room temperature?
Many people think cucumbers are best kept in the refrigerator. Others, on the contrary, prefer storing the crop at room conditions, believing that in the refrigerator they change their taste and lose their beneficial properties. Everyone has the right to choose a storage location at his discretion, we only note that without special tricks in room conditions, the crop will remain for three days. The refrigerator can be stored longer.
How many days it will depend on some points:
- up to 5 days on a vegetable shelf in an unbound plastic bag;
- up to 10 days unwashed fruits wrapped in a damp cloth and folded in a bag or any other container;
- for more than a month, cucumbers folded “nose” down are stored in a vegetable tray or pan and filled with water. Water changes every other day.
Useful Cucumber Conservation Tips
Some useful tips for preserving cucumbers:
- Only store whole, dry and unwashed fruits anywhere.
- If you do not want to use the refrigerator, but there is no basement or balcony, you can dip the fruits in egg white and place them in the coolest place in the living room.
- Better stored crop from a ground plant than from a greenhouse.
All the described methods are simple and straightforward, so even a novice hostess can use them. And if all the rules of preparing the crop for storage are observed, then you can enjoy the vegetable for quite a long time.
