If you are searching for a way to store strawberries, then it’s important to understand that frozen strawberries are good for consumption, and they can last longer than fresh strawberries because having them frozen is a great way to enjoy them throughout the year. Strawberries are soft, juicy red fruits which grow on mostly low plants with white flowers. They are highly regarded as excellent source of vitamin C, potassium, fiber, and folate, etc. and are well-endowed with nutrients which range from antioxidants to magnesium and by storing strawberries you can make strawberry smoothies all year long.
The process of bio-degradation in Strawberries starts fairly quickly. This is due in part to their soft outer flesh, and they also bruise very easily, then mold often takes hold of this fruit within just days of their picking. To prevent your strawberries from getting rotten and avoid preserved strawberry mush, learning how to freeze your Strawberries is a great way out.
There are lots of methods to freeze strawberries. The different methods are commonly referred to as “packs” because the Strawberries are often “packed” in containers with (or without) different types of fillers prior to the freezing. We will discuss the most common methods used to freeze strawberries.
It’s important to know that freezing strawberries is not a difficult task to do, but it can be challenging when you don’t know how to do that. If you want to preserve your strawberries so it retains its flavor and taste, so that you can use them from time to time, freezing will be a better option for this purpose. Find out below, how to freeze strawberries without any hassle.
Things You Will Need
Before you begin the process of freezing your strawberries, there are things you need to put in place in order to achieve a positive result at the end. Here are they:
- Fresh berries of any quantity of your choice
- A pan, a container, or a tray that can fit into your freezer without stress
- A strainer
- A sealer (also known as vacuum food sealer which can protect the berries against freezer burn).
- And any other equipment that you think can help during the procedure.
Procedures for Freezing Strawberries
- Get your berries of any quantity
It’s important to know that when you don’t have the berries you want to freeze ready, all your efforts for this purpose will be as funny as chasing the wind. Therefore, you are expected to make provision for your fresh strawberries before any other thing. It is the prerequisite for learning how to freeze fresh strawberries, do remember that summer is the best time to get fresh berries for freezing.
- Wash and sort the fresh strawberries
After you’ve made provision of your berries and are now ready for freezing, you need to wash them and also sort them using a bowl of cold water. Pick and remove any unwanted particle that you may consider odd in the fruit. Also, you are expected to remove any mushy berry that you may find.
- Drain and cut the leaves off the strawberries
After successfully washing the strawberries, you should then go ahead and drain them using a strainer or colander to remove as much water as possible. After that, cut the leaves of the berries and drain them so that water will be out from them completely.
- Put them in a sealer or a freezer bag
Get a freezer bag and put the strawberries inside and sealed with no room for air to penetrate. It is advisable to use a Ziplock bag for this, because it’s the best.
- Label the bags with date and content
To avoid confusion in days ahead when you want to use the strawberries, you need to label the freezer bags and write the date on it. This will make you to easily identify them within after many days.
- Put them into a good refrigerator
If you have a good refrigerator that is functioning very well, you need to put them inside so that they can be preserved until the day you need them.
Freezing Strawberries with a Syrup Pack
Alternatively you may want to freeze your berries using a syrup pack, here’s a simple way to freeze your strawberries with a syrup pack.
- 1 Prepare the syrup. The syrup pack required for this purpose is heavy syrup that is made up of 50% sugar dissolved in 50% percent water. To make this syrup dissolve your sugar in an equal volume of water, then stir the solution until it is clear; now place it in a refrigerator to chill.
- 2 As before prepare your berries, wash them, remove the green caps and pick out anyone that may be damaged or moldy.
- 3 Now pack the Strawberries you picked in the above step into a container, pour your syrup into the container holding the berries and make sure you leave an appropriate head-space at the top of the container so it doesn’t crack when frozen.
- 4 The final step is to seal-up the container tightly and place the containers in a deep freezer to freeze.
How to Freeze Strawberries with Dry Ice Method
This is another great way to freeze your berries; with this method your berries can stay good for 6 months. The extra preparation you need for this method is preparing the dry ice. Let’s go over the steps below.
- 1 Wash and prepare the berries for freezing.
- 2 Take the dry ice and crush into smaller pieces that will fit into the container you have chosen to store your berries in.
- 3 Now mix your Strawberries and the dry ice in a bowl.
- 4 Place a lid over the bowl, only leaving a tiny head-space for pressure to escape and prevent your cooler from cracking. Leave the berries in the bowl for about 25 minutes.
- 5 Now your berries are frozen, you can now remove them and place them in a zipper bag, remember to date the bag so you know how long the berries are good for, store the berries in a refrigerator
Conclusion
It’s good to know that learning how to freeze fresh strawberries is of great importance and can present a number of benefits. You will enjoy your frozen strawberries for a long period without any hassle. Therefore, we believe our article of learning how to freeze strawberries will be of great help you.