Dogwood is one of the healthiest berries. It contains a lot of vitamins, pectins, organic acids, essential oils, tannins and phytoncides, and even more vitamin C than black currants. If you freeze fresh dogwood for the winter, this will help you avoid vitamin deficiency, flu and colds, because it strengthens the immune system. It is enough to follow the preparation rules - and you will always have a tasty and healthy treat at hand.
Is it possible to freeze dogwood for the winter?
Freezing is the best way to store berries for a long time.It allows you to preserve the main medicinal properties, as well as almost all useful components. At the same time, taste qualities are not only preserved over time, but even improve.
In winter, frozen dogwood is perfect for preparing various compotes, jelly, fruit drinks, jams and preserves. It is also often used as a seasoning for meat and fish dishes. A frozen mixture of ground berries with sugar is convenient to add to tea, porridge, or simply eat as a sweet, vitamin-rich dessert.
Product selection and preparation
For freezing, only ripe berries are required - they become bright red, taste sweet and sour, slightly tart and astringent. The collection is carried out in the fall, a film is spread under the bush and it is lightly shaken - the ripe dogwood falls freely. If you purchased unripe berries, you should spread them out in a thin layer and wait a few days. Then you need to immediately begin preparing for freezing:
- Sort through the berries, remove bruised and wormy ones, as well as sticks, leaves and other debris.
- Place in a colander and rinse thoroughly with running water.
- Place on a paper towel and let dry for 15 minutes.
Preparing the Freezer
Before freezing, you must also prepare the chamber. You should make room in it, and wash it if necessary. If your refrigerator has a pre-freezing function, you should turn it on a day before placing the berries. After another 24 hours, you need to turn it off and activate the storage mode. It is recommended to set the temperature in the range from -18 to -23 degrees.
How to freeze dogwood at home
You can freeze the berries directly with the seeds. However, you need to do it correctly in order to preserve the maximum of vitamins and other nutrients. Freezing should be quick, so it is better to place the dogwood in the chamber in small portions.
The prepared berries should be scattered on a tray in one layer and placed in the freezer for 15-20 minutes, setting the temperature to -12 degrees. Then you need to take it out and package it, but you need to do it quickly to prevent it from thawing. Containers and bags are suitable for storage - regular cellophane or special for freezing. After filling the container with berries, you need to release all the air from it and close it tightly.
You don’t have to package the dogwood, but freeze it and store it directly on a tray. However, less berries will fit this way, and the shelf life will be reduced by 2 times.
Another way to freeze dogwood involves using sugar. Simple recipe:
- Pre-washed and dried berries need to be rubbed through a sieve with small mesh - all the seeds and skin will remain in it.
- Add sugar to taste to the resulting mass and mix thoroughly.
- Transfer the mixture to a container or ice-freezing compartments, or roll into balls, wrapping them in cling film.
The berries, ground together with sugar, need to be frozen at a temperature of at least -12 degrees for 1.5-2 hours. Then they need to be taken out of the mold, put into bags and sent for long-term storage.
Storage rules
When storing, the following rules must be observed:
- The date the product was prepared should be written on each package. This will help maintain the shelf life.
- Frozen dogwood should not be placed next to meat, fish and other strong-smelling foods, otherwise it will absorb foreign odors.
- In bags, berries can be kept in the freezer for 9-12 months at a temperature of -18 degrees. Unpackaged dogwood, scattered on a pallet, can be stored for no more than six months.
- Dogwood, ground with sugar, should also be kept at -18 degrees. However, its shelf life is shorter - only 4 months.
How to defrost dogwood
The berries need to be defrosted gradually, avoiding sudden temperature changes. First, it should be moved to the lower section of the refrigerator. There it will thaw in a few hours, after which it must be used as soon as possible, since re-freezing is not allowed. Compotes and porridges can be prepared from frozen dogwood by adding it during cooking.
If you regularly eat dogwood, your appetite will improve, heartburn will go away, vascular walls will strengthen and your blood pressure will normalize. To always have this healthy berry on hand, you can freeze it - and you can prepare vitamin compotes and other dishes all year round.
