Comment on How do you go about preserving fruits & vegetables?
Nefara@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Not sure if you’re thinking of long or short term, but I’ve found that if I want to have, say, 2lbs of stawberries last me until I can eat them that a vinegar rinse in the sink will stave off the mold. It also has the benefit of killing off some common bacteria like e coli and staphylococcus aureus if you let it sit for long enough. Whenever I get fresh fruit that I’m not going to eat that day or the next, I’ll clean it by dumping it in a colander and spraying it thoroughly with a spritz bottle full of food grade white vinegar and letting it sit for at least 5min, sometimes a half hour. Then I rinse it with water, let it dry a bit and then put it in the fridge. Strawberries will last over a week generally, and they usually go soft or ferment before they go moldy.
giriinthejungle@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Do you use diluted or out-of-the-bottle vinegar and does the fruit taste weird afterwards? I need to temporarily become a bit of germophobe and this sounds like a good way to take care of fresh produce.
Nefara@lemmy.world 9 months ago
I use it straight out of the bottle, the ~5% or so concentration you get at the grocery store. Just to be clear, NOT “cleaning vinegar” which would probably eat through your colander. The only time I’ve tasted a difference after using the vinegar was when I didn’t rinse it well enough and got that tart pickle taste on a grape or two (wasn’t that bad actually). Since it’s food grade, even if you miss a bit it’s NBD, which is not the same case for some other produce washes. Definitely give it a try, even my husband who hates vinegar hasn’t complained.