Recently, more and more experienced housewives have called for the freezing of vegetables and fruits that the land gives us in the summer. After all, it is fast, easy and does not require additional investments. But whether all the beneficial properties are preserved by vegetables after defrosting and whether this method has the right to life, let's understand in more detail.

Is it possible to freeze cucumbers for the winter?

The answer is simple - you can freeze any fruit. However, with this procedure, it is necessary to take into account the characteristics of the fetus and their consistency. Cucumbers are most often frozen for the preparation of salads, vinaigrettes, okroshka, appetizers and other dishes. In addition, the vegetable is frozen and for cosmetic purposes.

Important! You can defrost a product only before use. With a single defrost and further storage in the freezer again, ice accumulates and displaces the juices along with vitamins. such a product is unsuitable for use, since it does not carry any benefit in itself.

Freezing is carried out using a freezer. An important point is to maintain an uninterrupted freezing cycle. This is especially true for vegetables containing a large amount of water. After placing the cucumber in the freezer, its juice is converted into thousands of small ice cubes, which preserve the vitamins and useful properties of the fresh vegetable.

What varieties to choose for freezing

For freezing, cucumbers with a thick elastic peel are best suited, it can be such pickled and salad varieties as:

• Courage
• Arena;
• Pasamonte;
• Murom;
• Sugar
• Era;
• Funny boys;
• Parisian Gherkin;
• Nosovsky;
• Gorgeous and others.

When choosing a vegetable for freezing for the winter, first of all, pay attention to the peel, it should be dense and without damage, with no rot, stains, cracks, diseases and yellowness. An important factor when choosing a variety is also the size of the seeds.

For freezing, experienced housewives are advised to choose a vegetable with small seeds. The flesh of the cucumber, which will need to lie autumn and winter in the freezer, must be firm and elastic. Do not choose to freeze overgrown, sluggish and too large fruits with soft flesh. Firstly, the laden vegetable has already lost its vitamins, and secondly, it simply will not lie for so long and after defrosting it will lose its shape and properties. Therefore, the vegetables are frozen fresh.

Cucumber preparation

After selecting the best copies, it is important to correctly carry out the preparation for freezing so that the vegetables retain their taste as much as possible. It is recommended to wash the fruits in running cool water. So that they are saturated with moisture and keep the juice until winter, they should be soaked for 1–1.5 hours before freezing. After that, the vegetables are laid out for natural drying, it will take at least 30 minutes.

If there is no time to wait, you can dry each cucumber with a paper towel. The edges are cut off on both sides, the vegetable is tested for bitterness, and if the hostess tastes, the process of cutting cucumbers begins, depending on the types of its further use.

Methods for freezing cucumbers at home

Freezing methods differ in the type of cutting the product in which it will be stored, which directly depends on the purpose of its use in winter. It can be frozen for use in salads, okroshka, vinaigrettes. Or a grated preparation for the preparation of Tarator soup or for cosmetic use. Freezing is also possible in whole, slices and circles. A separate topic is the preparation of cucumber juice. The method of freezing for all methods is similar. Let's consider it in more detail.

Whole

Freezing whole vegetables is a controversial topic. Many housewives love to use this method, as it has several advantages:

• speed (does not require any additional actions);
• universality (in the future, the hostess will be able to cut a whole vegetable in any way and apply for different purposes).

  

However, a whole frozen product will require much more time to defrost. The peel of such a cucumber will lose its properties, become soft and lethargic, therefore it is advised to freeze peeled vegetables. The flesh, on the contrary, will gain excessive hardness and the cutting process will be more difficult.

For this method, we perform the following actions:

1. After soaking and drying the cucumbers, we cut off the sides.
2. Peel the cucumbers.
3. We lay out in plastic bags and put in the freezer.

Did you know? The world leader in the export of cucumbers is China. This country produces 80% of the total supply, which is more than 60 million tons annually.

Ringlets

Cucumbers are frozen with rings to be used as decoration for dishes or for salads requiring this type of slicing, as well as for cosmetic use. It is one of the most common ways.

The process of harvesting fruits by this method is as follows:

1. After preparing the cucumbers, cut them into thin rings.
2. In order to prevent the sliced ​​parts from sticking together during further freezing, it is necessary to carry out its preliminary stage. To do this, we lay out the parts on a plate or other flat container, cover with cling film and put in the freezer for the night.
3. The next day we take out the cucumbers and pour them into a plastic bag, removing excess air from it. We leave it in the chamber for long-term storage.

Video: Ways to freeze cucumbers for the winter

Slices

Slices or cubes freeze vegetables for the further preparation of salads, okroshka, vinaigrettes, cold appetizers. Most often, housewives harvest cucumbers for storage in the freezer in this way.

The preparation process is similar to the previous one:

1. We cut the fruit into cubes or slices (for this, first cut into rings, and then cut them into 2-4 parts).
2. We distribute the cubes throughout the plate and put in the freezer for the night.
3. The next day we take it out, put it in a bag and freeze it again.

Grated through a grater

This method is most often used for the use of cucumber for cosmetic purposes, since after thawing, the grated vegetable takes the form of a uniform glued mass and is a dubious product for culinary use. In order not to defrost the whole portion each time, it will be convenient to freeze the grated cucumber along with the juice in separate containers or ice molds.

The process of harvesting fruits for freezing in this way is as follows:

1. We wash the cucumbers and cut off the sides.
2. Grate the vegetables on a coarse grater and put them together with the juice in tins.
3. We leave it in the freezer until it freezes and use it for the necessary purposes.

Did you know? 95% of the vegetable consists of water, which indicates a unique moisture property. In addition, the composition of the cucumber includes folic acid, vitamins of groups B, C, A, E, which affect the disappearance of age spots, rashes and blackheads, as well as tocopherol and biotin, which have anti-aging abilities.

Freezing Cucumber Juice

Cucumber juice can be used to make cucumber ice cream in combination with juices of other fruits and vegetables. Also, such juice is a unique cosmetic product. It is frozen and used to rub into the skin or to prepare lotions, tonics, serums for washing.

Fans of natural cosmetics will especially love this method:

1. We wash fresh cucumbers and remove the peel.
2. In order to obtain juice, we pass the fruit through a meat grinder or blender and squeeze the juice with gauze. Or cut the fruit into pieces and put it in a juicer.
3. Pour the extracted juice into molds for ice and put in the freezer.

Washing the face with one ice every morning will provide the skin with hydration, cleansing, removal of age spots and black spots. Also, such a "natural mask" has a rejuvenating effect.

Freezing Pickles

In addition to fresh vegetables, pickles are also frozen. In the future, they can be used in various salads, vinaigrette and other dishes. Accordingly, the cutting methods are similar to the freezing scheme of fresh cucumbers - it all depends on the purpose of use.

The technique is simple and complies with the above instructions:

1. Cut the vegetables into the desired shape.
2. We lay out on a flat dish or a sliced ​​board and put in the freezer for storage for 6-8 hours.
3. After the specified time has elapsed, we take out the container and transfer the chopped vegetables into a plastic bag and store in a freezer.

You can also use the whole vegetable freeze method.

Storage time

Frozen cucumbers can be stored from 3 months to a year, depending on the temperature of the freezer, as well as on adhering to the above scheme with pre-freezing:

• –8 ...– 10 ° С - 3-5 months;
• –11 ...– 14 ° С - 5–7 months;
• –15 ...– 19 ° С - 8–9 months;
• –20 ...– 23 ° С - up to 12 months.

Important! If the preliminary freezing step was skipped, then the workpiece should be stored for no more than 6 months.

Basic rules for defrosting

So that the workpiece after defrosting does not turn into a homogeneous mass and does not lose taste, it is necessary to adhere to the basic rules. First, it is important to remember that defrosting must be slow. The use of boiling water can only harm the product and kill all the vitamins in it.

Therefore, for a high-quality process and preservation of all the useful properties of the vegetable, before cooking, a sufficient amount of time should be provided for defrosting (it will take 4-5 hours). It is also important to adhere to a gradual drop in temperature, this will not affect the appearance of the cucumbers and limit them from gluing.

The correct defrost pattern is as follows:

• moving the product from the freezer to the refrigerator compartment to the lowest shelf (since the temperature below is higher than on the upper shelves);
• refrigerated for 2-3 hours;
• “Freezing” at room temperature (this will take 2-3 hours for chopped foods and 3-4 hours for whole cucumbers).

What can I cook

Cucumber is one of the ingredients in hundreds of salads and cold dishes.

It could be:

• the well-known Olivier salad (where frozen and fresh, and salted vegetables can be used);
• pure cucumber salad (seasoned with sour cream and mustard);
• ham and carrot salad;
• Prague salad (where the remaining ingredients are boiled eggs, boiled chicken and boiled carrots);
• “Lazy Beauty” salad (where the main ingredient is grated cucumber seasoned with olive oil, garlic, sugar, salt and citric acid);
• everyone’s favorite vinaigrette (where you can also put fresh and salty frozen fruits), as well as many other options.

In addition, a fresh cucumber can serve as a decoration for any dishes or sandwiches. You can cook not only cold snacks of various variations, but also the first dishes.

It could be:

• okroshka (where, in addition to cucumber, diced sausages, boiled eggs, boiled potatoes, seasoned with a bowl of sour cream and kvass are cut into cubes);
• Tarator soup (this is the Bulgarian type of okroshka, in which the main ingredients are grated cucumbers and a large amount of garlic).

Useful Tips

At the end of the article, we summarize the main recommendations that should be remembered when freezing cucumbers, so as not to spoil the fruits and ensure their best preservation:

1. We choose only fresh vegetables in perfect condition for freezing.
2. We use varieties exclusively with dense skin.
3. We determine for the purpose of use and choose the form of slicing to save cutting time in the future and reduce the time of defrosting.
4. Be sure to adhere to the preliminary freezing stage, which will save cucumbers from gluing.
5. When defrosting, we observe a gradual increase in temperature. A quick defrost will kill all the nutrients of the vegetable.

Everyone who has not tried to freeze cucumbers before should definitely try this method of harvesting vegetables for the winter, because it is not only fast unlike other methods, but also allows you to save all the taste of fresh vegetables. If you follow all the rules described in the article, you will get a quality product that, after defrosting, is difficult to distinguish from a freshly picked juicy fruit.