Everyone knows that cakes, sweets and pastries spoil your teeth and figure. But without sweets at all, the meal becomes boring and almost ascetic.
There is no need to be sad: instead of confectionery, dried apricots will come to the rescue. This is a real treasure for adults and children: dried apricots are affordable, you can eat them in any quantity with tea or just make compote from them. Dried apricots are rich in vitamins, and they contain incomparably fewer kilocalories than artificial sweets. To make dried fruits enjoyable and beneficial, you need to know how to choose and how to store dried apricots at home in your apartment. The level of humidity, lighting, and the quality of the lid on the jar can seriously affect the shelf life of the fruit.
How to choose dried apricots
Before you reveal the secrets of how to properly store dried apricots at home, it is important to choose them. It would seem that what’s wrong with this - there are whole mountains of this stuff in supermarkets, you can go and buy as much as you like. Moreover, these are not apples that dishonest sellers rub with wax, the fruits also do not need preservatives, so is it possible to spoil dried fruits?
Not so simple. To get a kilogram of dried apricots, there should be three or even four times more fresh ones. The fruits are dried in the sun, packaged in bags and supplied to stores. They retain the vitamins and nutrients inherent in fresh fruits, losing only water. This is a concentrated product, so a few “apricots” will be enough for a tea party; it is better not to use it in very large quantities.
But we will talk about the benefits a little later. Indeed, apart from the sun and a dry surface, apricots do not need anything else to turn into dried apricots. Buyers know this and few people read the information on the back of the bag. But in vain: very often you can find uninvited guests there - glycerin, vegetable fat, as well as the frightening E-220 and E-524. However, the second one (caustic soda) is rarely used for dried apricots; it is mainly used to treat prunes to make them softer. Mostly sulfur dioxide is found, which is hidden behind the E-220 code. This substance is used to speed up the drying of apricots, improve the appearance of dried apricots and protect them from insects.
It would seem that there are only advantages, if you do not take into account the extreme toxicity of E-220. Yes, in a packaged product its concentration is negligible, but if such dried fruits are eaten regularly, the presence of the toxic substance will become noticeable.
Another thing is worse: all dried apricots sold in supermarkets are prepared with sulfur dioxide. The usual bright orange color is enough. Natural dried apricots, without the use of improvers, have a duller shade and do not shine.
So, when buying, you should be wary of greasiness, too bright color, stickiness and heavy odor from the fruit. All this is very common in large grocery stores. If the dried apricots are orange, soft, sticky and smooth, it is not a natural product. Real dried apricots are quite hard, need to be soaked, have a brownish matte tint, and are not greasy. The berries should taste moderately sweet, with a natural fruity aroma.
When squeezed in a fist, dried apricots should not stick together!
There is only one way out: you should go to the market or one of the popular stores of oriental goods and spices to buy dried apricots. Whenever possible, you should purchase organic dried apricots. This product is more expensive, but it retains aroma, natural sweetness, flavor nuances, and most importantly, benefits better than others.
The prunes are covered with a white coating, can I eat them?
This dried fruit is very popular in cooking for preparing desserts, salads, meat dishes, and many people prefer it as a healthy snack between meals. But the quality of sold prunes often leaves much to be desired, and the apparent beauty of the fruit may hide stale berries, pesticides, preservatives, bacteria and much more.
How to choose prunes
Soft or hard
Anyone who often buys prunes knows that we sell lush and soft dried fruits that you really want to eat, and there are hard and wrinkled ones that even soaking does not bring back to normal.
The hardness of prunes depends primarily on their moisture content. High-quality prunes should be moderately dry, moderately hard, and evenly elastic.
In order for prunes to be stored for a long time, their humidity should not exceed 25%.
High-quality prunes should not stick together when pressed, and the berries should come apart easily.
But the soft prunes, loved by most people, are often too moist, and additional preservatives are required for their storage.
, the minimum is sulfur dioxide and benzoic acid. It can also be soft if the manufacturer intentionally added moisture to it or simply did not dry it enough, the resulting mass is greater, the price is higher, and we essentially overpay for water.
It is important to remember that wet prunes are a breeding ground for bacteria.
And although prunes themselves are an antibacterial product, since they contain substances that can kill salmonella and E. coli, only in a humid environment these nasty things begin to actively multiply, and you can get poisoned.
Gray hair on prunes
Sometimes you can see prunes covered with a white coating. At best, this is escaping sugar, but most often it is bacterial mold spoilage, when dull gray hair appears without shine.
Prunes are one of the few foods that grow deadly mold that produces botulinum.
(the strongest carcinogen and genotoxic poison), therefore such prunes are inedible, they can be simply deadly. Botulinum is heat-resistant, no amount of steaming with boiling water will help, it does not decompose, and cooking will not help either. At a minimum, you can get food poisoning or allergies, and if you constantly eat prunes with matte gray hair, this can lead to the accumulation of oncogenes, increasing the risk of developing cancer.
Package
Try not to take loose prunes, choose packaged ones and check their tightness. Look at the expiration date - 6-9 months. There should be no droplets of condensation inside the package. Appearance – nondescript (should not be beautiful), matte, without gloss, color – dark black, there should be no brown coffee tint of the berries (which means chemicals have been added).
If you find at least 1 berry with a white coating in the package, do not take it; if you notice it at home, throw away the entire package.
If you see mold, this is already a disaster, since at the initial stage it is simply not visible (which is why we ourselves constantly eat quite a large amount of mold). Therefore, if you have already seen it with your own eyes, throw everything away without hesitation and without regretting the money spent, health is more valuable.
Benefit
Everyone already knows about the benefits of prunes, especially with regard to the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract. Therefore, there are 3 more useful properties of it:
1. Reduces the risk of caries
– most often people with a sweet tooth suffer from it, and dried fruits, in addition to fructose and glucose, contain salts of organic acids that suppress pathogenic microflora, and therefore inhibit the development of caries
2. Slows down skin aging
– contains 8 thousand antioxidant units, which means it neutralizes free radicals that destroy skin collagen
3. Protects against heart attack
– contains potassium, an essential element for the functioning of the heart; if it is deficient, the heart rhythm is disturbed, which can cause the formation of blood clots, which in turn can lead to heart attacks and strokes. In addition, potassium has a diuretic effect, removing excess fluid from the body, which eases the load on the heart.
The norm recommended by doctors is 2-3 pieces 3 times a day or 5-6 soaked berries for dessert with tea or coffee.
Review of manufacturers of dried pitted prunes
Natur Foods
- safe, does not even contain residual amounts of pesticides, disadvantages - fruits stick together when compressed, there is much more moisture than provided by the standard, there is 25% more fat, and 25% less carbohydrates than declared, it contains the declared preservative potassium sorbate, has a glossy surface, which may talk about processing the product with vegetable oil or glycerin for attractiveness, this is allowed, but must be indicated on the label, which the manufacturer did not do
Best before date
There would seem to be no particular difficulties in how to properly store dried apricots, if not for pests. Dried apricots are unpretentious in storage, but their shelf life is limited. It depends on the storage conditions and location.
So, dried fruits are best stored in the freezer - for a whole year and a half. Just in the refrigerator, on the shelf - ten months. At room temperature in a dry, dark place, dried apricots also feel good, but they will be stored for a maximum of six months. Moreover, provided that the container is regularly inspected and sorted out. In an open place, storage will be even shorter - no more than a month.
Storage without refrigeration
Usually dried fruits are kept at hand: in the kitchen (in a cabinet or pencil case). At room temperature, prunes can be stored in different ways:
- in containers with loose lids,
- paper bags or canvas bags.
You can store prunes without refrigeration for up to 6 months if they are in a glass or ceramic container in a dark place.
It is advisable to keep dried fruits in sterile containers to minimize the influence of bacterial flora on the product. And, of course, the container for storing prunes must be absolutely dry.
You should check the status of your supplies regularly so that one day you don’t have to throw them away.
In cases where it is impossible to guarantee the protection of dried fruits from moisture (destruction by insects), sealed glass containers should be used for their storage. Of course, this will require frequent ventilation of the prunes. At the same time, the fruit will need to be inspected to identify those that have begun to deteriorate.
If you decide to store the fruits in plastic containers that cannot withstand sterilization with hot steam, you can rinse them with boiling water or treat them with a cloth soaked in medical alcohol.
White plaque, what is it?
The white coating on dried apricots varies. Sometimes this is bleed-through sugar - it can be easily distinguished by barely noticeable whitish stripes that can be cleaned off with a fingernail. It is often noticeable already on the market counter. It can also be colonies of mold - it can be distinguished simply by its specific appearance (usually it has a gray or greenish tint) and smell. However, mold is not always visible on surfaces; its colonies can be located between the cotyledons. A spoiled product always gives off a musty, pungent odor. The worst thing is that fruits are not protected from such troubles anywhere, even on the refrigerator shelf. This happens due to leaky containers and non-compliance with storage conditions.
If mold appears on at least one fruit, the entire package should be thrown away. It affected the entire contents of the package; it was simply not immediately visible everywhere with the naked eye. Further storage of spoiled fruit is pointless.
How to properly store dried apricots at home
Dried apricots are not difficult to store, but it is better to store them in a dark, dry, well-ventilated place - for example, on a shelf in a closet. It is important to choose the right container and “neighbors” - dried apricots do not like being together with other fruits. Especially with meat or fish.
Preparation before storage
When planning how to store dried apricots for later use, you should think about packaging. Glass or plastic containers with an airtight lid are suitable for storing fruits. The vacuum extends the shelf life of the contents and does not allow foreign odors to pass through. To protect against parasites, you can place an orange peel, a sprig of mint, or lavender in a jar - they will extend the shelf life of dried fruits and give the contents an additional fresh aromatic note.
Storage at room temperature
For successful storage of dried fruits, certain conditions should be provided:
- Temperature - plus ten to fifteen degrees Celsius;
- Relative humidity - up to 70%;
- Insulation from heating devices and sources of humidity;
- No access to direct sunlight.
It should be borne in mind that fruits are not stored in open areas for a long time, otherwise they will soon be attacked by insects - this is the main enemy for dried fruits in apartments. Therefore, when planning to store dried apricots at home, you should immediately prepare yourself for the fact that you will have to sort them regularly. If mold is detected, especially white-gray-greenish mold, the product is disposed of.
Cold storage
Dried apricots can be stored much longer—almost up to a year—in the refrigerator.
It is necessary to soak it in warm water for sixty minutes before pouring it into a container and placing it on the refrigerator shelf. The storage conditions for dried apricots in the refrigerator are similar to those in a regular cabinet; it is important that the container is airtight. But it should be remembered that dried apricots are an “individualist” in terms of storage. You cannot keep it in the same container with other dried fruits, especially with fresh fruits. This makes storing dried apricots short and virtually pointless: all the contents will begin to deteriorate.
Freezer storage
Dried apricots should only be frozen for long-term storage. In such conditions it can persist for up to one and a half years. You will also have to freeze dried apricots if, when sorting through the container, bugs were found. It is important that fruits are not adjacent to frozen fish or semi-finished meat products.
When storing dried apricots at home, you should never freeze the fruit if at least one copy was covered with mold - it is better to throw away the rest, since the mold has managed to capture the rest of the apricots.
Mistakes when storing dried fruits
The most common mistake that housewives make when storing dried fruits at home is the incorrect selection of containers.
- Very often, a plastic container, a fabric bag or a plastic bag is used for dried apricots. The optimal solution is a tightly sealed ceramic vessel, wooden barrel or glass jar. An exception is special resealable bags for freezing dried fruits with clips.
- A cellophane bag is the worst thing that can be recommended for storing dried apricots: it is not airtight and the berries in it are subject to temperature influence like nowhere else.
- Fabric bags are only suitable for apple chips, candied pineapple, dried kiwi and bananas.
Another common mistake in storage conditions for dried apricots is that they are forgotten about.
You can't do this. If the fruits are stored in a cabinet or, especially, in an open area, they must be sorted and inspected periodically. Unfortunately, mold fungi can attack food in the refrigerator, so they have to be checked and spoiled specimens removed before storing them further.
White plaque on prunes during storage
When the surface of dried fruits becomes covered with a white coating, this is an indicator of improper storage. This happens, for example, when the product is in a tightly closed plastic bag and does not have the opportunity to “breathe”.
The formation of mold, which looks like a white coating, also occurs on under-dried fruits in a closed container. Eating such dried fruits is dangerous to health, so they should be thrown away as soon as possible.
Recommendations for storing dried fruits
To keep dried fruits in your apartment longer, you should keep in mind a number of useful tips. Compliance with them will increase the shelf life of dried apricots and preserve its usefulness:
- If the purchased dried apricots raise doubts about the presence of paint, they are first soaked in warm water and then dried again.
- Only hermetically sealed containers are suitable for dried apricots. Storing it in a jar that does not close tightly will not bring any benefit; the contents will quickly deteriorate.
- Even in the refrigerator, dried apricots are taken out of the jar from time to time and sorted, checking for the presence of mold.
- If a fresh product was previously stored in a jar, it is thoroughly washed and dried, only then can dried fruits be poured into it.
It also happens that dried fruits simply do not fit in the refrigerator. Dried apricots will be perfectly preserved in the pantry or attic; another dark, dry nook will do. Also, containers with fruits can be hidden on the loggia. It is important to carefully observe the conditions preceding storage, sort the dried apricots, dry them if necessary and remove stickiness and fat.
Dried apricots will delight owners all year round. In order for its consumption to bring pleasant emotions and health benefits, it is important to follow simple rules when preparing containers and storage space - this will help preserve the fruits and avoid disappointment.
