All too usually, I have been the one that buys two luggage of cranberries per week earlier than I would like them solely to seek out that fifty% of them are an terrible, slimy mess as soon as it’s time to prepare dinner. Alternatively, I’ve additionally been the one that waits till the final minute to seek out the cranberry shelf has been utterly decimated. The alternatives have all the time been: Store too early and the berries flip to mush, or too late and the cabinets have nary a cranberry in sight. Each of those choices leaves you berry-poor.
Nonetheless, if you happen to retailer your recent cranberries proper, you’ll be able to have excellent, unspoiled berries prepared for while you want them. Fill up on a couple of luggage proper now, and freeze them. Right here’s tips on how to do it correctly so that they keep good and recent.
Easy methods to retailer recent cranberries within the freezer
No matter the place you stand on the nice cranberry sauce debate, entire recent cranberries are a cold-weather gem. Use them in cookies, truffles, pies, or chill your drinks with them.
1. Type out the dangerous cranberries
After you’ve bought your bounty of (hopefully) prime notch, agency, unmarred cranberries, that you must test them over. Resist the urge to only chuck all the bag within the freezer. It’s essential to test them now as a result of as soon as they’re frozen you received’t simply be capable of inform in the event that they’ve gone rotten or not.
I arrange a sorting station with a pan to kind via, a small bowl for the busted berries, and a giant bowl for the keepers. Spill some cranberries out of the bag and into the pan. Choose up a handful and take out the dangerous berries. they go within the small bowl to get composted. Put the great ones into the large bowl. Repeat with your entire cranberries.
Credit score: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
How have you learnt if cranberries are dangerous?
Gently squeeze them and roll them round to take a look at all the sides. Any cranberries which are crushed, extraordinarily wrinkled, brown, or really feel like water balloons are on their approach out, if not utterly rotten already. A great cranberry is difficult with a decent, shiny pores and skin. Some flat spots are to be anticipated as a result of cranberries have inside seed chambers, so they don’t seem to be all the time completely spherical. They’ll vary in colour from mild pink and splotchy-white to darkish pink, almost black. Ones which have mushy brown areas are not any good.
2. Freeze them in a single layer
After you’ve sorted out the berries, lay them out on a clear sheet tray or cake pan in a single layer. Put the entire tray within the freezer for 20 to half-hour. This step permits the berries to freeze free from one another and protect their plump spherical form.
Credit score: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
3. Consolidate the cranberries
As soon as they’re frozen, pour the berries right into a container or freezer bag. Seal it up tight and retailer these tart orbs within the freezer till you want them. They’ll preserve properly within the freezer for eight months to a yr.
Credit score: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
While you’re prepared to make use of them, measure the frozen berries straight into your recipe. There’s no must thaw them; they can be utilized instantly from a frozen state. Pour them right into a pot to prepare dinner into the very best cranberry sauce, or drop a couple of into your champagne to maintain it chilled and festive.
