How to store tomatoes at home

How to store tomatoes at home? Everyone, without exception, knows that conservation is our everything! And few people realize that tomatoes can be stored without much effort until February. Just need to know a few secrets.

What tomatoes to choose

Ultra-early and early tomato varieties are not suitable for long-term storage. It is necessary to choose late-ripening or those on the packaging of which it is written in black and white that they are lying. In turn, you need to lay whole tomatoes without signs of disease or wilt, with intact skin. The soft ones are no good, they are already over-written or repulsed.

Tomatoes should be brown or milky ripeness. Fully ripened “golden apples” cannot be stored for a long time without special treatment.

Before storing the vegetables, it is better not to wash them. You can wipe each fruit with a cloth moistened with alcohol or good vodka. This will remove pathogens from the surface. There were tips to make each tomato an injection of alcohol, in the place of attachment of the stem. But there was no answer, how to remove the wound from the puncture with a needle, so that bacteria did not penetrate there.

Council If there was no alcohol on hand, you can wipe the tomatoes with a weak solution of potassium permanganate.

What are the methods of storage of tomatoes

Depending on the degree of maturity, you can save tomatoes in several ways:

• drying up
• drying
• basement method
• preservation without heat treatment
• in a refrigerator

All options are good, you can choose for yourself the most suitable.

Council It may happen that you need every way. For example, barrels of many tomatoes began to deteriorate in the basement tab. It is impossible to eat all the fruits, it is a pity to throw them away. Cutting the sore spots, delicious "remains" can be dried or preserved.

Sun-dried tomatoes

Whole fruits are baked in the oven at 40-60 ° С.Choose ripe tomatoes, wash them thoroughly, lay them out in a single layer on a greased baking sheet. Turn on the fire and leave the vegetables for 4-6 hours. Occasionally check that the fruit is not dry.

Then, after cooling, withered tomatoes are placed in a glass jar in layers with vegetable oil. You can throw your favorite spices to the bottom. Such tomatoes are stored up to 8 months.

Council For a good result, tomatoes are cut in half and always lightly salted.

Dried Tomatoes

Preparation of tomatoes is the same as for drying. Only drying takes about 10-15 hours, depending on the thickness of the fruit. You can dry tomatoes in the sun, but it is not less than 6-8 days. Or in an electric dryer, hours 8.

Store such fruits in glass jars with a tight lid. Shelf life up to a year. They say that dried vegetables taste as fresh.

Council Before drying tomatoes are not salted. It is better to add a pinch of sugar.

Basement storage

In principle, this is only a name. So you can store tomatoes in the basement, on the balcony, in the pantry, shed, under the bed. The main conditions: good ventilation, darkness, temperature 9-12 ° С, humidity not higher than 65-70%.

High-quality ventilation is needed to remove excess carbon dioxide and ethylene.Because of them, tomatoes ripen quickly, then begin to deteriorate.

Darkness is required to slow the metabolic processes in tomatoes. So they will lie longer, and begin to ripen when they are brought to the light. For these purposes, need a lower temperature.

Humidity should be observed as accurately as possible. Lower - tomatoes wilt, start to dry. Rise - malicious and putrefactive bacteria are activated, you can lose the entire crop.

They select brown tomatoes or the first stage of ripeness - milk. Do not wash, wipe with alcohol or a solution of potassium permanganate. Dried, wrapped each tomato separately in parchment paper. If there is black, generally excellent. Next, put the vegetables in cardboard or wooden boxes in two layers, no more. Instead of boxes, you can use wicker baskets. “Golden apples” are poured with dry straw, sawdust, peat, onion peel. Cleaned for storage.

Regularly air, once a week, inspect for damage. At the first signs of illness, a tomato is harvested so as not to infect other vegetables.

In Soviet times, at industrial enterprises, for the sake of greater safety, “golden apples” were covered with a thin layer of diluted gelatin. Now for this purpose they use food wax.It is not always possible to get it, but gelatin is sold almost everywhere. Why not experiment on several fruits?

Under all conditions, tomatoes can be safely stored until February, staying fresh.

Before direct use, the fruit is pulled out into the light and the temperature is raised to 18-20 ° C. For 5-7 days, tomatoes ripen fully.

Council Recently, special sheets for long-term storage of vegetables. They are two layers of fabric, between them a special powder. It absorbs ethylene, carbon dioxide and bacteria. Two such sheets are enough, top and bottom. Other shelters are not required.

Preservation

Tomatoes can be stored in glass jars, without water, vinegar and spices. You will need ripe tomatoes, mustard powder or alcohol. The fruits are sorted, but not washed. At the bottom of the banks pour alcohol, 2-3 tablespoons. Gently stack the tomatoes, not joining. They press the lid and twist the jar so that the alcohol is evenly distributed. Then it is carefully set on fire and instantly rolled up.

If dry mustard is chosen, then it is simply sprinkled with a thin layer of tomatoes in a jar. Next, roll the covers.

Tomatoes are stored for up to 5 months at a temperature of 2-4 ° C.

CouncilNo need to turn these banks upside down. Otherwise all the mustard is poured into one place. And it should be evenly distributed throughout the fruit.

Tomatoes in the fridge

Keeping tomatoes in the fridge is not a good idea. There is too low temperature and high humidity. About 3 weeks the fruit on the shelf can lie, but the taste will change irreversibly, and the aroma will evaporate completely. In order not to lose all the value of tomatoes, it is recommended to keep them in the refrigerator for no longer than a week.

Council It is not advisable to store tomatoes in plastic bags. Condensation and unpleasant smell are provided.

Useful subtleties

1. Collect tomatoes for bookmarking is necessary before the onset of frost. External signs of damage to fruits by cold may not be. And at the cellular level, irreversible processes will begin. Such vegetables will spoil almost immediately.
2. Store tomatoes preferably with stem. So they lie longer.
3. Large tomatoes ripen much faster than small ones. To speed up this process, a simple fresh apple is added to the fruit. It produces ethylene, which contributes to the proper fast ripening.
4. Before storing, it is necessary to carefully handle the boxes and boxes of the spray. Alcohol, a solution of potassium permanganate or chlorine disinfect the container well. Then you need to dry it thoroughly. And only then use for long-term storage of tomatoes.
5. It is not advisable to take the boxes with a slatted bottom. Vegetables can be washed on the twigs or break through the skin.
6. Put the fruit strictly stalk up. This is their natural position.
7. Green tomatoes are suitable only for timely ripening. For long-term storage they are not put. The taste is very special, very few people like it.
8. It is not recommended to keep tomatoes longer than the beginning of March. Seeds begin to germinate in them, the taste changes, the flesh becomes loose, an unpleasant amber appears, resembling soap. Everything has its time. Even on New Year's holidays, to taste fresh tomatoes of our own production is already a remarkable achievement.
9. Tomatoes in boxes or boxes are not covered with lids, so that they do not “suffocate” in their own carbon dioxide. Can't wait to cover the tanks? Take a loose cloth, thin paper or non-woven fabric.
10. Before harvesting the vegetables are sorted according to the degree of ripeness, size and varieties. Packed in boxes, guided by the same principle.
11. Tomatoes harvested from open ground are stored much better than greenhouse fruits and grown under shelter.

Of course, over time, the taste of tomatoes changes slightly, the flavor becomes weaker. But still, it is much better than those tomatoes that are sold in the winter in supermarkets and shops.

Video: how to keep tomatoes fresh for the winter