Often, melon sellers can hear the question of what will happen if the melon is frozen. The answer is simple: you will have a wonderful opportunity to enjoy this fragrant berry in the cold winter season and enjoy the memories of the warm summer. But before you start freezing the fetus, you should familiarize yourself with some rules. Which ones, read further in the article.

Melon selection and preparation

Today, there are many different recipes for getting frozen melon for the winter. The success of each of them directly depends on the correct choice of berries. Under the influence of low temperatures, the tissue structure of melon slices changes, and if the fruit contains a large amount of moisture, it is completely destroyed, therefore it is recommended to take a berry with a dense pulp for freezing.

If you choose a soft and watery melon after thawing, instead of melon slices, you get melon porridge.

Important! You can not freeze unsweetened berry, because after thawing it will be bitter.

The most suitable varieties for freezing are Krymka, Kantalupa, Persian, Kolkhoznitsa. Their crisp flesh resembles pumpkin flesh in its appearance, is colored in orange, and the peel is covered with cracks and as if divided into slices.Preparation consists in peeling the fetus, cutting it in half and selecting seeds. Then the berry must be cut into small cubes, preferably small (3-4 cm long, 1 cm thick). So it will not take up much space and will completely freeze.

How to freeze melon in a freezer

It is not worth waiting for a fresh effect from a frozen fruit. Its consistency will be changed, and adding thawed fruit to the fruit assortment will not work. Instead, thawed melon berry will be an excellent addition to fruit salads, smoothies, smoothies, cereals, ice cream, subject to all the rules of freezing.

Do not make the main mistake - do not put the whole fruit in the freezer. This will lead to the transformation of the internal juice of the fetus into ice crystals, which, in turn, will cause its destruction.

Did you know? In Central Asia, snake-like melons are cultivated. The unripe fruits of such a unique berry look more like a cucumber, but become ripe like melons as they ripen. Their taste is sweet, and the flesh is juicy.

Let's consider in more detail how to freeze a fragrant fruit for the winter.

Ingredients

There is only one ingredient for freezing - melon cut into rectangular or square pieces.

How to freeze a melon for the winter: video

Step-by-step instruction

After cleaning and cutting the fetus, you can start freezing by performing the following steps:

1. Melon pieces are recommended to be laid out in one layer on a kitchen board or tray (having laid a bag of polyethylene on them) and put in a freezer for preliminary quick freezing. It is not advisable to freeze the slices of the fruit, immediately pouring it into the container, since all the pieces will be knocked together, and it will be quite difficult to separate the required amount in winter.
2. When the sticks are frozen, they must be placed in a container or jar, and tightly closed so that your melon does not absorb the aromas of the products in the freezer.
3. Put the container with the berry in the freezer.

Did you know? The largest melon in the world was grown by an Austrian farmer in 2009. Her weight was 200 kg.

Depending on how you use the thawed fruit in winter, you can choose other ways of freezing, for example, in powdered sugar or syrup, fruit ice, melon puree or sorbet. In any form, melon aroma and taste will be preserved, only the consistency will change.

Terms and features of storage

The quality and shelf life of melon pieces in the freezer directly depends on the temperature conditions of freezing:

1. The shortest shelf life of frozen melon berries will be at a temperature of -6 ... -10ºС - only one to two weeks.
2. Provided that the temperature is set in the freezer -12 ... -15ºС, the shelf life of the aromatic fruit is increased to 4-6 weeks.
3. If the temperature in the freezer is below -18ºС, then you can store melon even for a year.

The ideal containers for storing such a delicate product are containers, the lids of which are tightly fixed, as well as special bags that are closed by a plastic fastener and able to withstand low temperatures.

Important! You can not freeze melon slices a second time after they have already been thawed.

If you are still not convinced that the melon is frozen, check out the useful properties of this sun berry, and all doubts will disappear. After all, with little effort, in winter you can not only enjoy melon desserts, cocktails and salads, but also stock up on vitamins necessary for the body.