Many housewives do not even think about how to store bananas at home, in order to preserve their attractive appearance for a long time, the original softness and freshness of taste. They just spread the tropical fruits in the fridge and drive the home to eat them faster, avoiding the spoiling of food. In fact, bananas, like any food product, have their own storage rules. Observing simple and accessible recommendations, you can enjoy delicacy for as long as possible.
Features of storing bananas depending on the degree of their maturity
Bananas that are sold in modern markets and in supermarkets can be divided into the following categories:
- Immature. Bunches with fruits of green color, which are difficult to separate into separate elements. The taste of these fruits are dense, not very sweet and give off a slight aroma of grass. These products can be kept as long as possible.
- Ripe. Fruits of uniform bright yellow color, which should be consumed immediately after purchase. Their lifespan is no more than two days, after which the bananas begin to become covered with black spots.
- Overridden. On such fruits, black marks are initially visible. The rind is soft, supple, lagging behind with the flesh. Contrary to popular belief, such products are unsuitable for food in the traditional understanding of the process. They are best used for preparing various desserts and complex dishes.
It is not so difficult to keep bananas correctly, given the degree of their maturity, there are only a few recommendations:
- Green fruits can not be kept in polyethylene, refrigerator, freezer. This prevents their timely and uniform ripening. It is better to put a bundle in a brown paper bag with a pair of apples and wait until they reach the ripe state. You can leave the fruits in the dish, then their ripening will occur a little slower, but evenly.
- Ripe bananas need to be divided into separate fruits first. If you put them next to avocados or pears, this will keep the fruit in the desired yellow state for as long as possible. To ensure that the products do not turn black too quickly, the stem of each fetus needs to be wrapped with plastic wrap. This will block the access of ethylene to the body of the fruit and prevent its rapid spoilage. In this case, store bananas best in a dark and cool place, but not in the refrigerator.
- Very ripe bananas at home "live" no more than a day. Here they are better to move to the refrigerator, then the skin will darken evenly, and under it will be a dense and yellow flesh.
Council
It is strictly forbidden to affect bananas with sources of artificial heat or direct sunlight. Under such influence, they pass the stage of ripeness and immediately deteriorate.
Perfect bananas are better not to buy at all, especially if their skin has not only brown, but also gray spots. These traces indicate a violation of storage or transportation conditions. They will not only quickly disappear, but can also cause problems with the stomach or intestines.
Families who constantly buy nutritious fruits and can not think of how to store bananas at home so that they are not covered with dark bedsores should think about purchasing a special stand. In this case, the bundle does not need to be separated, it is just that each fruit is individually wound by a film at the base of the leg, which is fixed with an adhesive tape.
How to store whole and chopped bananas, products separated from the skin
Often the question arises as to how to store bananas already cut for salad, serving on a table or adding to a dish. After all, it is not very pleasant to observe how the fruits of labor gradually turned black and they had to be thrown away, replacing them with fresh products. In this case, lemon juice or pineapple vinegar will help. You need to sprinkle a little of the open parts of the slices, this will allow them to hold out unchanged until two o'clock.
If you pre-peel the bananas from the peel and all the strings, place the flesh in hermetically sealed plastic containers and put into the freezer, you can store the flesh in its original form for up to six months. However, then it will be suitable already only as a fruit puree for desserts. Bananas in the skins in the freezer are not stored! It is almost impossible to remove evenly the skin from such a fruit.
There is another practical feature that plays an important role in the storage of bananas - if there are scratches on the fruits, imperceptible dents and cracks, then they will start to turn black in the first place, and it will begin to happen in a few hours after the purchase. In this case, no auxiliary techniques will not extend the shelf life of such fruits.