How to store pomegranate at home, how long it can be stored whole and cut, can it be stored in the refrigerator

Selection and preparation of fruits

In order for fruit to be stored at home for as long as possible, you need to carefully select the fruit.

The optimal time to buy for future use is from November to January. It is during this period that the largest selection of imported fruits is available.

The pomegranate must be ripe. A fruit picked early is not always able to ripen, which means its taste will be far from expected. External factors of fruit ripeness:

there should be no greenish areas in the inflorescence area, the crown itself looks dry;
the peel is slightly dried out with a slight gloss and looks as if it is hugging the grains;
When pressing on the surface, a slight crunching sound is heard.

The color of the skin of different varieties of pomegranate varies from greenish-yellow to burgundy. The color of the grains is varied: from almost transparent, like glass, to dark ruby.

The selected fruits should have no signs of rot, damage to the skin, brown or brown spots, or crushed sides.

If the pomegranate is soft, most likely it is frozen, rotten from the inside or damaged during transportation.

For storage, choose fruits with a diameter of 8-10 cm, dense, juicy and heavy - up to 500 g each.

This is interesting:
How to eat pomegranate (with or without seeds)
Growing indoor pomegranates "Baby", "Nana"
How to grow indoor pomegranate: care features

Freezing

Storing pomegranate in the freezer is the longest possible method. Freezing allows you to preserve the product for longer than a year without significant loss of beneficial qualities. However, some vitamins still break down.

First, you should carefully remove the grains from the fruit, select the ripest and most unspoiled ones, and place them in portions in freezer bags. There are other ways to store peeled pomegranate at home, but freezing is easier and more effective than others.

What to store in

Pomegranate seeds are very juicy, and the thick peel prevents moisture evaporation. To further slow down the dehydration process, there are the following methods:

Pour clay diluted to the consistency of sour cream into the crown (place of the inflorescence). After waiting for the solution to dry, send it for storage. The crust will gradually dry out, but the grains will remain juicy. This method allows you to increase the storage period of fruits in a refrigerator or cellar to 4-5 months, whereas without clay the shelf life is limited to 2 months.
Wrap each fruit in paper. It will not only slow down the process of moisture evaporation, but also prevent rotting. Change the paper as it gets wet to prevent rotting or mold.

Selection of ripe fruits

When purchasing a pomegranate, pay attention to the following parameters:

Weight. Ripe fruits are quite weighty - this indicates that there are no voids inside.
Peel: color and texture. Pay special attention to the color of the peel; depending on the variety, it varies from soft pink to rich burgundy. However, the color of ripe specimens is always uniform and even. The rind is thin and slightly rough to the touch; a glossy surface indicates that the fruits were harvested ahead of time.
General appearance. Inspect the pomegranate for signs of mold. Pay attention to the dark spots, they indicate that the fruit has begun to rot. The tasty pomegranate has a dense structure.
Condition of the tail . The “crown” crowning the ripe fruit is always dry and fully open.

Storage methods

Depending on the purpose of further use, the product is stored in different forms.

Entirely

If you like to eat fresh fruit grains, store them whole in the refrigerator, loggia, pantry or basement.

You can also freeze the whole fruit, and after defrosting, use it for cooking or squeeze the juice out of it.

In the form of grains

If you plan to use the grains in the next 1-2 days for eating, adding to salads, baking, or decorating dishes, prepare them in advance and store them in the refrigerator.

If the pomegranate is spoiled and had to be peeled, you can store the berries for a longer period in the freezer.

In the form of juice

Pomegranate juice itself is very tasty. It serves as the basis for preparing mousses, jellies, sauces and other dishes. Store both freshly squeezed and sterilized juice. Storage methods and periods vary.

How to choose the right pomegranate for storage

Fruits brought from Africa, Latin America and the Mediterranean travel a long way before reaching store shelves. Try to buy pomegranates that grow not so far away, for example, in the Caucasus or in neighboring countries. They must meet the following requirements:

smooth peel without visible damage: cracks, punctures, dents;
uniform color: dark spots indicate the presence of rot;
fairly thin, slightly dried, hard skin is a sign of maturity;

absence of soft areas on the surface;
no foreign odor.

Karabakh and Ganja pomegranates, which have a sour taste, are better stored. Sweet varieties grown in Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and Central Asia are stored less.

Remove fruit for storage after careful inspection. Fruits with even minimal signs of spoilage are not suitable. A barely noticeable moldy area is enough for not only this pomegranate to deteriorate in the future, but also the fruits nearby, for example, harvested cranberries.

At home, it is recommended to store pomegranates in the refrigerator at a temperature of 4-6 °C for about 2 months. They keep for a week at room temperature. Eat the peeled pomegranate within a few hours or put it in the freezer.

Features of storing peeled and unpeeled fruits

At room temperature and in the refrigerator, whole fruits are stored better and longer than peeled grains . The peel is removed immediately before use.

For storage in the refrigerator or on the balcony, it is best to choose large fruits so that they lose moisture more slowly. If the pomegranates are different sizes, store the large ones separately from the medium ones, and use the small ones as quickly as possible or freeze them.

In the freezer, the fruit, both as a whole and in disassembled form, is stored for the same long time. Whole fruits are washed only if necessary. It is enough to wipe them dry with a towel. It is better to freeze small or medium-sized specimens so that the freezing process goes faster and more evenly.

To save space, place already-hulled grains in the freezer. It is not recommended to wash them. For convenience, immediately place them in portioned bags or containers.

Important! Thaw pomegranates slowly, preferably on the top shelf of the refrigerator. This way the fruit will retain its beneficial properties and will not leak. Repeated freezing is unacceptable.

How to store grenades in an apartment

There are several methods on how to preserve healthy southern fruits for 3-5 months at home.

How to store pomegranate in the refrigerator

At home, it is more convenient to put pomegranates in the refrigerator in the lower compartments for vegetables and fruits. To protect the fruits from accidental compression or impact, they are placed in a container with hard walls. Avoid the use of plastic bags. Condensation forms on their airtight walls, which can trigger the onset of rotting processes. When pomegranates are stored in the refrigerator, make sure it is full and follow the recommendations of the household appliance manufacturer for use so as not to increase the humidity. Otherwise, the fruits will spoil faster.

As a precaution, each pomegranate is wrapped in clean wrapping paper or arranged in sheets. Excess moisture will be absorbed by the porous material. The wrappers may need to be changed during long-term storage. You can use parchment paper. The optimal storage period for unpeeled pomegranates with whole peel in the home refrigerator is 50-70 days.

Comment! The humidity in the room where pomegranates are stored should not rise above 85% or fall below 75%.

How to store pomegranate in the freezer

Slightly spoiled fruit from those purchased or from those stored for long-term storage can be well preserved in the freezer. The taste properties will change slightly, but overall enough nutrients will be retained. At home, it is advisable to use chambers with a quick freezing function. Pomegranates are prepared for freezing as follows:

peel;
grains are selected from segments;
placed in portioned bags made of durable polyethylene or ready-made small-volume food containers.

Manufacturers of household freezers recommend keeping fruit under similar storage conditions for no more than a year.

How to store pomegranate fruits at home

A cool place with moderate humidity, 75-80%, is suitable for preserving fruits from 2-2.5 months at a temperature of 7-10 °C to 5-9 months at + 1 °C. At room temperature, pomegranate does not store well; after a week it dries out, since the humidity in apartment conditions is low. The supply of fruit is placed in a cellar or a closed balcony if the thermometer there does not fall below zero. Each pomegranate is wrapped in paper and laid out on the bottom of the container in one layer. You can throw light but dense burlap or cardboard on top if the fruits will lie in a bright room. The sun's rays hitting the peel will dry out the grains and reduce the juiciness. It is recommended to regularly check and sort through the fruits in order to notice in time those that are beginning to deteriorate.

Storing pomegranates in clay shells

There is an interesting folk experience on how to preserve southern fruits longer in a living space. Only whole fruits are selected, without cracks or damage to the rind, with a dry brown crown. A creamy mash is prepared from clay and water:

dip the pomegranate into clay;
spread on a cloth or wooden surface until the clay dries;
a day later, the procedure is repeated, making sure that the entire peel is covered with a clay shell, and the fruit is dried again;
At the same time, the crown formed by the sepals is also poured with the mixture.

Pomegranates packed in clay retain their taste for up to 5 months. Store fruit in a box in a dry place.

Recycled storage

Pomegranates are not only consumed fresh. Juices, wines, syrups, jams, sauces, marshmallows are prepared from it, and added to seasonings.

Drying

To create a popular seasoning in India, grains are dried in the sun for a week, which are then roasted and ground. Often the spice is supplemented with dry ground pomegranate peels. This seasoning is called anardana. It is added to any vegetable and legume dishes, and kebab is also marinated in it.

Important! Pomegranate peel contains more nutrients than grains. In India and Central Asia, sauces, spices, tinctures are made from dry peel powder and are actively used in folk medicine.

Freezing

You can freeze the whole fruit, its grains or squeezed juice. To do this, simply place a whole pomegranate or peeled grains in a zip-lock bag and remove excess air from there. And the juice is frozen in disposable ice cube trays and taken out as needed to prepare sauce, compote, ice cream, jelly or marshmallows.

Reference. Vacuuming promotes better preservation of products and prevents the appearance of “snow” when frozen. The air is removed from the zip bag with its contents by gradually lowering it into water. She squeezes out the remaining bubbles, after which she carefully closes the zip and dry the surface of the bag.

Canning

Long-term storage products are jams, preserves, syrups, sauces and compotes. While receiving gastronomic pleasure, you simultaneously saturate your body with vitamins, minerals and amino acids, which the fruit is rich in even after heat treatment.

Attention! If you happen to have a sour pomegranate, using the evaporation method you can get a rich, viscous and aromatic narsharab sauce - an ideal seasoning for meat and fish dishes.

Useful properties of pomegranate

This fruit is often used in alternative medicine recipes and diets. It has the following properties:

helps strengthen blood vessels and improve the functioning of the heart muscle;
stabilizes blood composition and hemoglobin concentration;
prevents the development of dysentery and tuberculosis;
strengthens the body's protective functions;
protects against viruses and colds;
has a positive effect on the endocrine and cardiovascular systems;
normalizes blood pressure;
has a moderate anti-inflammatory effect.

In addition, pomegranate fruits remove toxins, waste and radioactive substances from the body.

The properties of this fruit for women are that it minimizes discomfort during painful menstruation and improves hormonal levels during menopause. Microelements and vitamins contained in pomegranate improve the condition of hair and skin.

The benefits of this product also apply to men. Thus, vitamin B12, which is in its composition, normalizes blood circulation and has a positive effect on potency. In addition, pomegranate strengthens the heart, increases physical endurance and prevents the development of heart attacks and strokes.

In children, pomegranate helps increase hemoglobin and strengthen the immune system. However, it is not advisable to give it to a child under 1 year old, otherwise allergic manifestations may occur.

Pomegranate fruits are also used to combat extra pounds, because... they accelerate metabolic processes in the body and dull hunger.

Shelf life

The period during which the fruit retains its beneficial qualities and rich taste depends on temperature, humidity and ventilation. In the absence of dampness, temperature becomes the deciding factor.

How long can pomegranate be stored at different temperatures:

from -15 to -24°C – up to 1 year;
from +1 to +2°C – from 5 to 9 months (for sweet and sour varieties, respectively);
from +4 to +8°C – up to 2 months;
from +18 to +25°C – 7-14 days.

How long can hulled grains be stored?

from -15 to -24°C – up to 1 year;
from +4 to +8°C – up to 4 days;
from +18 to +25°C – 1 day.

Freshly squeezed juice is stored at temperatures from +4 to +8°C for up to 3 days.

Sterilized juice, compote, jam, syrup or boiled sauce:

from +4 to +8°C – up to 1 year;
from +18 to +25°C – up to 6 months.

Dried pomegranate is stored at temperatures from +18 to +25°C for up to 1 year in a dark, dry place in an airtight container or thick paper bags.

Important! If you store whole fruits in the refrigerator, on the balcony or in the cellar, inspect them regularly. If there are signs of spoilage, peel the fruit, remove damaged and rotten parts, process or freeze.

LiveInternetLiveInternet

I have long wanted to share a method for cleaning Pomegranate and freezing it. Now is just the season of pomegranates and the appropriate holiday period, when this fruit is in demand both in cooking and for decorations. Pomegranate / Two ways to peel and store it / freezing / How to choose a pomegranate by appearance - The peel should be hard, dense and slightly dry, 1-2 mm thick. The chamois of the fruit should be felt through it; the “tail” of the pomegranate should not be green. If the crust is smooth, the pomegranate was picked ahead of time. If it is soft, it means it was beaten on the road, rotted or frozen. By color - Ripe pomegranate has shiny skin. The fruits can vary in shades and color saturation - pomegranates can be bright red or more faded - pink. The main thing is that the color of the peel is even. By smell - A ripe pomegranate should have no smell. wikipedia 1. Method Wear an apron and plastic gloves, since the fruit is very juicy, there are splashes and the juice leaves marks and stains your hands. - Cut off the top cap of the pomegranate. When you cut it, you will see 5 or 6 sections of fruit. Using the tip of a sharp knife, make an incision along the skin along each section. — Separate each section of the fruit, placing them on a plate so that all the released juice remains in the plate. You can then use a spoon and it will be easier to remove the grains from the sections. The next stage is to separate the grains from the white film and skin. — Pour all the juice collected in the plate through the filter so that films and debris from cleaning do not get into it. The juice can be used for any dish you love: in salads, marinades, sauces, desserts, syrups as a vinaigrette for dishes... 2. Cleaning method in water - Take cold water in a large salad bowl. Cut off the top cap of the fruit and make cuts in sections. - Dip the pomegranate into the water and, using both hands, drown the fruit in the water, divide it into sections. The juice will not splash and your hands will be clean. - Separate the pomegranate seeds from each section, doing everything in the water without removing your hands. — What’s convenient is that all the films and skins of the fruit float up, and the pomegranate seeds settle to the bottom. - Remove all debris from the surface of the water, drain the water and you will be left with peeled pomegranate seeds. Allow them to drain off excess water properly. Storage and preservation of Pomegranate /freezing/ - Pomegranate is a fruit that can be perfectly preserved. Since the season of this fruit is short, it can be frozen and used for different dishes throughout the year. — Pour the peeled pomegranate seeds (dry, pat dry with a paper towel) into a sealed bag, in one layer and freeze. When the chamois are frozen, you can shake the grains in the bag and place them in a smaller, more compact bag. We use it like any frozen fruit and berries. Method for freezing berries for the winter. Bon appetit.

Useful tips

The following tips will help keep pomegranates fresh longer:

Wrap the fruit in parchment to preserve its juiciness and prevent rotting from moisture accumulation.
Place the pomegranates in the box in one layer. This will provide ventilation, uniform humidity and make it easier to access them to monitor their condition.
Avoid sudden temperature changes or drops to 0°C.
Check your supplies regularly to identify fruits that have begun to spoil and remove them promptly.
Store fruits of different sizes separately.

Storage conditions

How to store pomegranates in an apartment so that they remain juicy and do not rot? To do this, you need a temperature within +1C -+10C. It is important to choose a dry, dark place for them, where sudden temperature changes do not occur. Mango storage conditions can be found in this article.