How to properly store peeled potatoes
When it comes time to get ready for the holidays, the first course on the table is mashed potatoes and boiled potatoes in their uniforms. Potatoes are the most delicious and demanded dish on any table. Preparing for the holidays, many housewives are thinking about how to store peeled potatoes.
Storing peeled potatoes
Why does the potato darken
To be able to preserve peeled root crops, you need to understand what processes take place in the tubers. Potato tubers contain the enzyme tyrosinase and tyrosine, an essential amino acid. These components and some others are designed to, by capturing complex compounds, transform them into simple ones, thereby providing normal plant nutrition.
By themselves, tyrosinase molecules are colorless, but, reacting with oxygen, they acquire a bluish-brown hue. If the potatoes did not have this component, then the fruits would stop darkening under the influence of air. The more nitrogenous fertilizer was applied during the growing season, the higher the tyrosinase level will be.
When oversaturated with nitrogenous fertilizers, the tubers on the cut will darken in just a few minutes. If you want to check how much quality vegetable they offer you on the market, ask the seller for a knife and cut the potato. Root crops grown organically can retain their original color for 0.5 hour.
The easiest way to store
How to store peeled potatoes? The easiest option is to store the potato tubers after peeling in cold water. At the same time, do not cut it into small pieces, otherwise it will lose its quality characteristics, although the taste will remain.
If you leave the vegetable for at least 1-2 hours in the open air, it will become covered with a dense crust and take on an unattractive appearance. This is due to the fact that it contains a lot of starch and enzymes, which come out and thicken to form a dark coating. You can store peeled potatoes in water for no more than 2-3 hours, otherwise all soluble vitamins will be destroyed, and carbohydrates, minerals and organic acids will go into the water. To preserve nutrients to the maximum, you need:
- wash the peeled tubers thoroughly;
- fold into a container;
- pour cold water so that the roots are completely covered with it;
- to preserve the color, you can add a little lemon juice or citric acid to the water.
If you plan to store peeled potatoes in water overnight, put the pot in the refrigerator. In a warm room, in the morning, the tubers will be covered with mucus, and bubbles form on the water surface. According to sanpin, perishable foods such as potatoes are kept at 2 to 6 ℃ for no more than 72 hours.
If bubbles appear on the surface of the water the next morning, you need to sniff the water and inspect all the tubers. Most likely, they turned sour and are now unsuitable for food.When potatoes have an unpleasant odor after storage, the structure of the pulp has changed, it is better not to eat it.
Long-term storage
Vacuum packing will keep vegetables fresh for a long time
How to keep peeled potatoes for a day? Another option is when peeled potatoes are doused with boiling water. In this case, the decomposition of the nutrients of the upper layers of the potato tuber is purposefully achieved. In this form, tubers can be stored for a long time. Often housewives prepare boiled potatoes in their uniforms before big holidays for salads to make their work easier. A vegetable cooked in a jacket can be stored from 2 to 10 days, it all depends on the amount of nitrates added to the soil during cultivation (you can determine their content in the tubers when you buy it in the way described above).
If you are thinking about how to save peeled potatoes for a day with minimal loss of quality indicators, then this method is not suitable. It is much better to put all the tubers in a plastic bag, pump out the air and hide in the freezer. Vegetables do not need to be thawed before cooking, but should be immediately placed in boiling water. It is preferable to store potatoes as a whole, this way it is possible to save more nutrients. But, it is often very problematic to cook it whole, because the roots of the temperature drop begin to crack and fall apart.
If the vegetable is to be sautéed or used in soup, you can pre-cut it and then put it in a bag. Storing peeled potatoes in vacuum sealed deep-frozen is considered to be the most effective. But, this method is advisable only in large factories or in canteens. At home, it will be unreasonably expensive. Algorithm for preparing sliced potatoes for long-term storage:
- peel off;
- a thin layer needs to be removed from young potatoes, the peel is removed from the old one along with part of the tuber itself;
- wash each root vegetable;
- dry with a paper towel;
- slice;
- pack tightly in cling film;
- put in the freezer.
Storage of potatoes in production
In the conditions of large factories for the production of chips and other dried raw materials, it is necessary to store raw peeled potatoes in huge quantities. Here the vegetable is stored in freezers at a temperature of -30 ℃. In such conditions, the product can be stored indefinitely. A thin layer of peel is removed from vegetables, and washed, unpeeled potatoes are sometimes used for chips. After all the stages of preparation, the root vegetables are cut into cubes of the required size and laid out in packages.
Then air is sucked out of the bags and placed in freezers. With shock freezing, root crops are not only stored for a long time, but also retain all their useful vitamins and minerals. Also, in large food industries, it is practiced to store potatoes in bags filled with inert gas. It helps to preserve the freshness of root crops for 2-3 months, unfrozen.
What to store with
When storing a vegetable, it is important to take into account the food neighborhood. This factor will also affect the shelf life of peeled potatoes, even in the freezer. In close proximity to smoked fish, after being stored in water, the peeled potatoes will be saturated with smell, and your dish will be hopelessly spoiled.
The smell will persist even after heat treatment. The best neighbors for potatoes are eggplants and bell peppers. Even in the freezer, it is not recommended to store meat and fish products next to vegetable cuts.
Final part
Many housewives find themselves in a situation where they need to prepare to receive guests, and still need to have time to do their hair, make-up, manicure and buy a dress. Women in such situations begin frantically to make preparations a few days before the event.Of course, all the ingredients for salads are boiled first, and then they start peeling potatoes. In cold water outdoors, the product can be stored for no more than 3 hours.
If you put the roots in cold water in the refrigerator, they will be perfectly preserved until the next morning. If you need to keep root vegetables in the refrigerator for a day or several days, then it is better to freeze them. Depending on which dish the root vegetable will be used in, it is left whole and cut into small pieces. They are folded into bags and sent to the freezer. The temperature in the freezer should not be higher than -18 ℃.
The root crop will be better preserved, in which the content of nitrogenous compounds is less. With constant nitrogen feeding, potatoes on the cut darken in just a couple of minutes, organically grown tubers and without water retain their pulp color for 0.5 hour. In addition, there are varieties that are better preserved. Another important factor affecting the safety of a vegetable is the food proximity in the refrigerator. Do not store peeled raw potatoes next to fish and meat.